Tuesday, November 13, 2012
We can understand some angry temperament after the electionof President Barack Obama over Mitt Romney. But all this ranting about Texas secedingfrom the union is nonsensical. It is akin to a spoiled child who, when he cannotget his way, pitches a temper tantrum. Such a child, we recognize, needs a time-outto cool off and come to their senses.
Texas needs some time for self-reflection and soul-searching,lest we make ourselves a bigger laughing stock than our governor has made us. We,Texans, are more than just a crop of 25,000 signatures on a petition to secedefrom the union. This minority of dissenters cannot usurp the voice of themajority unless we let it. This is what happened with the writing of Ordinanceof Secession in 1861 and the annulment of the Texas allegiance to the Union.The change in the state’s constitution was never being put before the populous forapproval.
At the time secession, only one-fourth of the propertyholders in Texas owed slaves. This minority of pro-slavery advocates usurped statepower and forcefully evicted Governor Sam Houston from office for his refusalto take an oath to the Confederacy.
Thus, Texas became a Confederate state through secession, notby popular consent, but by minority usurpation. Lest history repeats itself,someone must speak for the majority and set the records straight.
TheUnited States of America came to the rescue of Texas during the Republic’s War forindependence against Mexico. The nation absorbed the state’s $10 million debtand made it a part of the Union in 1845. And, even after Texas broke away to jointhe ill-fated Confederacy, the state was allowed to return to the Union fold onMarch 30, 1870, on nothing more than a promise to preserve the Union and writea new constitution that recognized the rights of African-American freedmen.
When we pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Statesof America, we proclaim that we are One Nation, under God, Indivisible, withLiberty and Justice for All. But there are some who would send a mixed message toour children after losing an election for the presidency in 2012:
“Whyshould Vermont and Texas live under the same government? Let each go her ownway,” says Peter Morrison, treasurer of the Hardin County Republican Party.
Evenmore, a judge from Lubbock predicted over the summer that the president'sreelection could even lead to a civil war. TheCincinnati Tea Party proclaimed the nation dead after the election.
Werethese not the same sentiments of the slave states when Abraham Lincoln won theelection of 1860?
The irony in all this is the fact thatGovernor Sam Houston opposed secession, wherein Governor Rick Perry talks outof both sides of his mouth. He was the first to raise the specter of secession.Now he is opposed to it… maybe. Nobody knows what Perry will do. If he opts forpeace and reconciliation, then he has must realize that he has already kindled afire in 20states which will be hard to quench by only a few peacemakers.
What will become of all the defenseindustry contractors in the state of Texas? What will become of all the federalemployees in the state? What will become of the federal highways passing throughthe state? What will become of all the federal dollars to colleges anduniversities in the state for research? What will become of federal Title 1funds to public schools? If Texas expulsed everything associated with theUnited State of America, it will become another Mexico, begging for trade andcommerce from the other 49 states.
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