It's More Than Pride Now

Travis Lagarce is the TNM County Organizer for Montgomery County. You can email him at montgomery@texasnationalist.comIn the 1940s, an author by the name of John Gunther set out to find the essence of America. He traveled extensively through every state in the union, conducting interviews and observing the character, politics, race relations, landscape and general peculiarities of our diverse nation. During his trek across Texas he recollects a father's words to his son during an instance when a child asks a stranger where he's from, the father's reply, "Never do that, son. If a man's from Texas, he'll tell you. If he's not, why embarrass him by asking?" As humorous as it may sound it does stand to say one thing about Texans, we are proud of where we're from and the land we call home. It's sewn into the deepest threads of our hearts from the time we were children.

Growing up in Texas, my parents raised me to be proud of where I was from, raised to be proud to be from Texas. Being born in the "greatest state in the World", as I often heard it phrased from different members of my family, was something to hold your head high about, something to make known to everyone you meet and something to defend at the drop of a hat should someone say a single bad thing about it. I'm sure many of you were brought up with the same mentality, but even if you weren't by your parents or family, Texas pride is something absorbed by anyone who attended public school anywhere in this land; from starting every morning with the pledge to the American flag, followed immediately by the pledge to the Texas flag, to sitting in history class and reading an entire chapter or two dedicated to Texas History in U.S. and even World History books. Many of us were even fortunate to be in school when entire classes about the history of Texas were added to the curriculum, learning about the great defenders at The Alamo and men like Sam Houston, William B Travis, Stephen F Austin and dozens of others. Outside of the classroom, all you have to do is look around and you'll see hats, shirts, bumper stickers and whatever else somebody can find a way to print on, proclaiming things like "Texas is God's Country", "Texas: Love it or Leave it", "Native Texan", "I wasn't born here but I got here as fast as I could" and probably the most famous of them all, "Don't Mess With Texas".

The fact of the matter is that if you grew up in Texas you have some level of pride about that and nobody can ever take that away. Well, when I was younger I used to want Texas independence because of how proud I was of my home. It was such a strong feeling inside me that I felt as if we shouldn't have to answer to any other government or, God forbid, be referred to as "just another state". Pride led me to know that no other state is in the same ball park as us, much less on the same field!

As the past few years have gone by, my pride remains for the land that birthed me but it's no longer the driving force for me demanding that Texas stand as a nation again. As I look at the news and see, day by day, what is going on within the walls of the US government I now know that independence isn't something that we should have but it's something that we NEED to have. It is to a point that it is detrimental to our survival. Illegal taxing, rights that are pretty much non-existent, a Constitution that has become nothing more than "decoration" and a government that is made up of members of corporate society worried only about fighting for their own agenda... Welcome to America, right?

Seeing the land and people I love being taken advantage of is hurtful and angering. Texas is nothing more than the whipping boy to a government that is broke, greedy and deceitful. We're part of a nation that is more in debt that the entire economic output of China, the UK and Australia combined, a nation that has lost its morals and feels only contempt for its neighbor. As a whole, Texas sends about $300 billion a year to Washington D.C., a number that would give Texas, as a nation, the 8th highest governmental revenue in the entire World. These are funds that could be used to secure our border, enhance the education system, protect our agricultural industry and help provide a better living for elderly currently on Social Security.

During my time in the Marine Corps, I was taught and trained that our bloodshed and service were for the greater good of the country, taught that all men were created equal and we were the protectors of the US Government and they were the protectors of the Constitution. Well, that is obviously not the case. In reality we were the pawns of the Government who were the protectors of their own well-being. Remember the life lessons we all were taught as children, "Treat others the way you want to be treated", "Lead by example", "Respect your elders", "A man is only as good as his word" and so many others? These are basically Texas codes of conduct and because of the example being set by our government officials and the so-called leaders of our nation, these are being lost through the generations.

It has to stop! There is only one way to protect the place we're all so proud to call home and that is to separate ourselves from the evil entity that is dragging us down! It's not about pride anymore, it's become so much more than that. If we want to thrive again and see the values and beliefs of those who came before us live again, we MUST secede and develop a government of our own that stands firm to Article 1, Section 2 of the Texas Constitution:

"All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit. The faith of the people of Texas stands pledged to the preservation of a republican form of government, and, subject to this limitation only, they have at all times the inalienable right to alter, reform or abolish their government in such manner as they may think expedient."

We MUST implement a government that can be held accountable and that will continue to make us proud to say, "I'm from Texas!"