Love It: In Small Town, the Fight Continues for Texas Sovereignty

[Coastie for Truth]

Interesting space filler in yesterday's New York Times, "In Small Town, the Fight Continues for Texas Sovereignty" - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/national/13overton.html?

<snip><

OVERTON, Tex. - The road to the capitol winds through a landscape of pine trees, rusting pump jacks and a few tidy churches in this East Texas town. Literature in the lobby describes how citizens can apply for passports or enlist in the interim defense forces.

The building is the headquarters of the Republic of Texas, a sometimes militant organization whose members repudiate the authority of Austin and Washington and believe Texas should be a sovereign nation. The group gained notoriety eight years ago when some members took a couple hostage in the Davis Mountains of West Texas, and endured a weeklong siege by more than 100 police officers, after which a follower who fled into the mountains was killed. The leader of the faction involved in the standoff is still in prison.
...
Much of the group's ideology is associated with nostalgia for the nine years when Texas was an independent country after seceding from Mexico in 1836. The blue Burnet flag from that time, with a large gold star in its center, flies over the capitol.

Group members believe that Texas's referendum in 1845 in favor of joining the United States was illegal, as were the settlements of land claims that Texas then had against neighboring Mexican and American territories in the West. They also advocate the creation of an alternative monetary system using minted silver and gold coins. One coin made of one gram of silver has a large Texas star in its center and the word "Overton" emblazoned around it.

><snip>

Let 'em go -- and take Bush and Cheney with them. Good riddance. There's the door -- don't let it hit you in the arse.
:toast: :bounce: :toast:

[phantom power]

1. Let's see how long Texan oil companies last without US Fed subsidies

[Coastie for Truth]

2. Out here on the Blue Left Coast - I fantasize about

the "Confederated Republic of Pacifica" made up of California, Western Oregon, Western Washington, and British Columbia--

Legal medicinal Pot
Gay Marriage is recognized
Stem cell research is legal
no pre-emptive wars of choice
and we really respect the Bill of Rights
etc

:hi:

[mistertrickster]

3. Yes, I support this 100 percent. Let those arrogant rascals keep their

effing state to themselves.

Just think--no more f*cking Texans as president.

Who do I send money to?

[Skittles]

5. Bush is NOT A TEXAN

he is as phony a Texan as he is a cowboy and a "president"

[montieg]

4. At the risk of bein blowtorched,

as a 60's model vietnam protestor and still 'radic-lib' (if you don't know what that is I might question your credentials) living in west Texas, I respectfully request all the prejudiced (judgement based on preconceptions)posters here to take a breath. I recall a western from the 50's where a man's wife was killed by an Indian. He went out to take revenge on all Indians until his friend asked him what he would have done if she had been killed by a white man.
No one Texan speaks for all any more than any one New Yorker speaks for all. We fight the ignorance here every day, and all evidence to the contrary notwitstanding, we will win. And, by the way, this was a damn sight better state before all those Repubs started moving here from the north in the 70's.

[mistertrickster]

6. Well of course you're right technically. In a state as big as Texas,

one is going to find every stripe of individual. However would you say that the Amish are pacifist?

My point is that one CAN draw generalizations based on the actions of those who claim to represent the group. And what do we see from the people who call themselves the true Texans: a loud talking, rich arrogant white cowboy wanna be driving a gold Cadillac while wearing cowboy boots, a ten gallon hat, a big ole shiny belt buckle.

And this is somebody who's never actually been on the back of a horse.

Everytime we get a big name rad-con in town, these Tex-ass-holes come up and try to impress us locals. Oh we're impressed alright. Impressed at how wealth in no way relates to intellegience.

If you think I'm stereotyping, ask yourself why so many Texans love the stereotype they have created so much.

[montieg]

7. Well, I guess you and I meet different

Texans. If you 'draw generalizations based on the actions of those who claim to represent the group' you have artificially set up a straw man which you can kick over. Of course, you can do that, but it does not further discourse and, in fact, diminishes "the true Texans." I live in west central Texas, own a small ranch, raise sheep and mules, work as an educator, drink coffee at the local greasy spoon, and don't know a single, solitary soul who drives a gold Cadillac. Those Tex-ass-holes you see wouldn't last till the water gets hot out here. If you ever pass through Santa Anna, ask someone to find montieg for you. I'll buy you a beer.