Texas pride

[BlueXJ]

When you're from Texas, people who you meet ask you
questions like, "Do you have any cows?"
It's nice to be able to say yes.
They ask you, "Do you have horses?"
Yup.
Bet you got a bunch of guns, eh?
Of course.
They all want to know if you've been to Southfork.
They watched Dallas. Have you ever looked at a map of
the world? Why sure you have. Look at Texas for me
just for a second. That picture, with the Panhandle
and the Gulf Coast, and the Red River and the Rio
Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will
be. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at
it, they know what it is. It's Texas. Pick any kid
off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of
Texas in the dirt, and he'll know what it is.What
happens if I show you a picture of any other state?
You'll get it maybe after a second, but who else
would? Even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings
in you?

In every man, woman and child on this little rock the
Good Lord put us on, there is somewhere in them a
person who wishes just once he could be a real live
Texan and get up on a horse or ride in a pickup. Did
you ever hear anyone in a restaurant go, "Wow... so
you're from Ok-la-homa. Cool. Tell me about it"?
There is some bit of Texas in everyone. Do you know
why? Because Texas is Texas.

Texas is the Alamo. Texas is 183 men standing in a
church, facing thousands of Mexican soldiers, fighting
for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save
themselves but stayed. We send our kids to schools
named William B. Travis and Bowie, and do you know
why? Because those men saw a line in the sand, and
they decided to be heroes. John
Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is Texas.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San
Jacinto. Texas is Texas Independence Day and
Juneteenth. Texas is huge forests of piney woods like
the Davy Crockett National Forest. Texas is
breathtaking mountains in Big Bend. Texas is shiny
skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas. Texas is oak and
cedar trees, cactus, Bluebonnets and Indian Paintbrush
in the beautiful Texas Hill Country. Texas is world
record bass from places like Lake Fork. Texas is
Mexican food like nowhere in the world, even Mexico.
Texas is larger-than-life legends like Earl Campbell
and Nolan Ryan, Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey,
Lyndon Johnson, George Bush, and George W. Bush,
Willie Nelson and Buddy Holly. Texas is great
companies like Dell Computer and Compaq. Texas is huge
herds of cattle and miles of crops. Texas is skies
blackened with doves and leases full of deer. Texas is
the best Bar-b-que anywhere. Texas is a place where
cities shut down for the Cowboys on Monday Night
Football and the streets are deserted during church.

Texas is beaches, deserts, lakes and rivers, mountains
and prairies.

By federal law, Texas is the only state in the U.S.
that can fly its flag at the same height as the U.S.
flag. Think about that for a second. You fly the Stars
and Stripes at 20 feet in Maryland, or California, or
Maine, and your state flag goes at 17. You fly the
Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in
Longview, Texas, at 20 feet, and the Lone Star flies
at 20 feet. Our capitol is the only one in the country
that is taller than the capitol building in D.C. We
signed those in as part of the deal when we came
on. Texas was its own country. The Republic of Texas.
Every time I think of all these things I tear up.
All of them make you proud to be a Texan.

[Dirt Dogg Rydas]

Thanks bluexj That was a really good post

[ol"blue]

Yeah, that was good Blue. I'm glad, no proud, to call you a Texan, as well as a friend.:coffee:

[Audio222]

Our capitol is the only one in the country
that is taller than the capitol building in D.C. We
signed those in as part of the deal when we came
on. Texas was its own country. The Republic of Texas.
Every time I think of all these things I tear up.
All of them make you proud to be a Texan.

Sorry some things are smaller in Texas, and bigger in Louisiana.


As the tallest state capitol (Baton Rouge, Louisiana) in the United States, the building is 450 feet high with 34 floors. Twenty-five hundred rail cars were needed to bring in the limestone used on the exterior and the interior marbles which came from distant places, including Vermont and Italy. The cost to complete the building was a modest $5 million.
(http://www.crt.state.la.us/tourism/Capitol/Capitol.htm)


The Republic of West Florida was before The Republic of Texas. The state name was Florida, this was before the Florida as we know it today. The Texas flag was modeled after the Bonnie Blue Flag of The Republic of West Florida (State of Florida).



On September 23, after meetings beginning in June, rebels overcame the Spanish garrison at Baton Rouge and unfurled the flag of the new republic: a single white star on a blue field. This flag was made by Melissa Johnson, wife of Major Isaac Johnson, the commander of the West Florida Dragoons. It would later become known as the "Bonnie Blue Flag".


The boundaries of the Republic of West Florida (the Florida Parishes in Louisiana) included all territory south of the 31st parallel, west of the Perdido River, and east of the Mississippi River, but north of Lake Pontchartrain. The southern boundary was the Gulf of Mexico. It included Baldwin and Mobile counties in what is now Alabama; the Mississippi counties of Hancock, Pearl River, Harrison, Stone, Jackson, and George, as well as the southernmost portions of Lamar, Forrest, Perry, and Wayne counties; and the Louisiana parishes of East Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana, Livingston, St. Helena, Tangipahoa, St. Tammany and Washington. Despite its name, none of present-day Florida lay within its borders. The capital of the Republic of West Florida was St. Francisville, on a bluff along the Mississippi River.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_West_Florida#Short-lived_Republic


Our capitol is the tallest one in the country
and is taller than the capitol building in Texas or any
other State. The Florida Parishes was its own country.
The Republic West Florida, State of Florida, the first
to use the Lone Star flag as a state flag, the Bonnie Blue.
Every time I think of all these things I tear up.
All of them make you proud to be a Louisianian.

[2000XJ]

That was a great read Blue :)

[Melissa]

Thanks Blue!