The Academical Village All Things Political of Dr. David Garrison 
Texas as a State of Mind
"Texas is more than a state in the union. It is a state of mind." -- John Steinbeck




-- NASA


"Texas, our Texas, all hail the mighty state!"


"God Bless Texas!"  -- Bob Bullock

 

WHY IS THE STATE CALLED TEXAS?
Texas. What's in a name? Perhaps a whole linguistic misunderstanding. You may have heard the name comes from the Spanish name for the Tejas Indian tribe or kingdom. But none such ever existed. You may have heard the state's motto — Friendship — is an English translation of Tejas. Not exactly. But Tejas lives on in names ranging from an Intel computer chip that was never produced to an album by the rock band ZZ Top. The name of the Lone Star State originated, according to the Handbook of Texas, in the interactions of the early Spanish explorers and an Indian federation whose real name was the Hasinais, more commonly known today as the Caddos. -- Houston Chronicle - April 20, 2008

"Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called 'walking.'"  -- George W. Bush

The U. S. population is 295,160,302. The Texas population is about 22.5 million people.
Texas Wildflowers 2008                                 -- CBS11
 

Texas Quote of the Day

"With that kind of timeline, tensions are running high, and it's easy to point fingers out of desperation."
--Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick on the Senate's slowness in passing a school finance plan and the impending deadline for a House-Senate compromise during the 2005 special session of the legislature. Source:  San Antonio News-Express

"I am not a weak leadin', ethics ignorin', pointin' the finger at everyone blamin', special session callin', public school slashin', slush fund spendin', toll road buildin', special interest panderin', rainy day fund raidin', fee increasin', no property tax cuttin', promise breakin', do-nothin' Rick Perry phony conservative."
 --Carol Keeton Strayhorn, Comptroller of Public Accounts announcing her candidacy for the Republican nomination for Governor of Texas quoted in W. Gardner Selby, "That's One Tough-talkin' Perry Challenger," Austin American-Statesman, June 18, 2005. If elected, Strayhorn would become Texas' third female governor. Miriam "Ma" Ferguson won two-year terms in 1924 and 1932, and Ann Richards, a former Travis County commissioner and state treasurer, served one term before losing re-election to Bush in 1994.

"We are wasting our time with 'One, two, three, four, we can't shake it anymore."
-- Senfronia Thompson, Texas State Representative, protesting her colleagues' focus on passing a bill authorizing the education department to punish schools for allowing "overtly sexually suggestive" cheerleading routines at sports events, Time, May 16, 2005.

     "Last year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded Texas more than $7 million for being one of the most accurate states in the country at determining food stamp benefits. Sounds good. But that check should have been for nearly $1 billion.
     That's how much Texas missed out on by enrolling less than half of the more than 3 million people in the state who are eligible for food stamps through the state's Lone Star card. On this count, Texas wouldn't win any awards.  
     According to the Department of Agriculture, the percentage of eligible Texans receiving food stamps ranks well below the national average of 54 percent—and places the state 41st overall among the 50 states." -- Matthew Fellowes & Alan Berube, "Texans Are Missing Out on Food Stamp Benefits," Austin-American Statesman, June 17, 2005.

"Medicaid's $329 billion annual tab, driven up by rising health care costs and swelling participant rolls, has propelled the nation’s biggest health care program into the spotlight both in state capitols and in Washington, D.C. ...According to the Kaiser survey, the public opposes both federal and state cuts to the program. But there is less consensus on how to fix state budgets plagued by Medicaid bills that in 2004 for the first time eclipsed total state spending on elementary and secondary education to account for the largest single portion of state budgets." -- Kathleen Hunter, "Poll: 74% oppose state Medicaid cuts," Stateline.org, Wednesday, June 29, 2005.

"But Texas still ranks 45th in the nation in per-capita spending on public health, 46th in mental health spending and last in the number of children with health insurance."-- Michelle M. Martinez, "Health and human services spending tiptoes forward," Austin American-Statesman,  June 02, 2005 .

Texas Online

Texas as a State of Mind: A Collection of Writing & Commentary
"I can explain it for you, but I can't understand it for you." -- Anon.


The Window at Big Bend National Park


Texas Wildflower Season
"All through the long winter, I dream of my garden.
 On the first day of spring, I dig my fingers deep into the soft earth.
 I can feel its energy, and my spirits soar." --Helen Hayes
Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center
Austin, Texas

"But Texas still ranks 45th in the nation in per-capita spending on public health, 46th in mental health spending and last in the number of children with health insurance." -- Michelle M. Martinez, "Health and human services spending tiptoes forward: Not all cuts restored from 2003, and state is still among nation's worst," Austin American Statesman, June 2, 2005


"This is a reflection of the general underfunding of public affairs in Texas," said H. W. Brands, an author and professor of history at the University of Texas. "You could start with public schools. For the same reason that Massachusetts, to take an example at the polar extreme, has long prided itself on public education, it has done a better job on public historical education.

"Certainly of all the Western states, Texas has the deepest sense of history. California does a better job of telling its history to the broad public than Texas does despite the fact that Texans have a much greater emotional connection to their history than Californians do. The Texas political system has not demonstrated a willingness to spend money on public projects." -- H. W. Brands, Professor of History, University of Texas at Austin and Texas history author quoted in Ralph K. M. Haurwitz, "Despite Outsized Pride in Its History, State Neglects Iconic Places," Austin American-Statesman, December 31, 2004.

"Norway mistakes 'Hook 'em' for Satanic gesture," -- Houston Chronicle headline, January 22, 2005

"Republics are created by the virtue, public spirit, and intelligence of the citizens. They fall, when the wise are banished from the public councils, because they dare to be honest, and the profligate are rewarded, because they flatter the people, in order to betray them." --Joseph Story

The Alamo 
at
The Alamo Cam
KENS 5 & San Antonio Express News

  
--Texas Dept of Transportation

Guadalupe Mountains National Park Texas

Current Conditions at Big Bend National Park, Texas

Big Bend National Park Official NPS Website

The Alamo 
"I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism, and everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all dispatch. ...VICTORY OR DEATH."  -- William Barret Travis' Letter from the Alamo, 1836 Source: Texas State Library & Archives Commission

"As long as a tanker truck and newly painted to keep its sentiments fresh, it proclaims:   
  'Andrews Loves God, Country & Supports Free Enterprise.' "
Source: Peter T. Kilborn, "Texans See as Much to Lose as to Gain in War," New York Times, March 10, 2003

"Patriotism, faith and freedom to make and lose a buck, touchstones of the Bush presidency, form the bedrock of everyday life in the towns of the Permian Basin, still the biggest source of American oil." -- Peter T. Kilborn, "Texans See as Much to Lose as to Gain in War," New York Times, March 10, 2003

The Alamo 

"I dearly love the state of Texas, but I consider that a harmless perversion on my part, and discuss it only with consenting adults." -- Molly Ivins, Texas journalist & writer

"Anyone who writes about Texas politics, however, faces the problem known to religious ecstatics of trying to explain an experience in terms that don't sound delusional." -- Lawrence Wright, "From Texas, Coming Soon to a Statehouse Near You, New York Times, May 23, 2003

"In the meantime, while the country is laughing at the antics of Texas politics, it should reflect on the fact that the national political map is beginning to look a lot like that of Texas a few years ago, when the last Democratic officeholders joined the dinosaurs." -- Lawrence Wright, "From Texas, Coming Soon to a Statehouse Near You, New York Times, May 23, 2003

"The rest of the world is sweeping past us. The oil and gas of the Texas future is the well-educated mind. But we are still worried about whether Midland can beat Odessa at football." -- Mark White, Democrat, Governor of Texas (1982-1986) proposing the "No Pass, No Play" law (Simpson Contemporary Quotations)

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