What Makes Texas Texas

[ABX]

People in this rapidly changing state believe their way of life is under
attack, and they are making a kind of last stand by simply being Texan.

Gov. Greg Abbott’s campaign sent me an email one morning, showing the governor aiming a pump-action shotgun in my direction. This was a view of an elected official I had never seen — the get-your-hands-up view. If I contributed $25 to his campaign, I would be entered in a contest to win a shotgun. The subject line of the email read: “Shotgun!” It was a typical morning in Texas.

The prize was special, though. It was not a rare antique. It was, the email noted three times, a Texas-made shotgun.

Those are some of the most potent words in the state’s vocabulary: Texas-made......

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/us/what-makes-texas-texas.html

[austingirl]

As they say, I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as soon as I could. My first visit was in the early 90s when my family went to San Antonio and a dude ranch in Bandera. I immediately fell in love with Texas and her people. I went looking at ranches in Bandera County. We moved to Austin in 1994, moved to Boston in 1997, but I kept my house and vowed to return.

I live in Medina now on 13 acres in a community of like-minded individuals, right down the road from a ranch I wanted to buy way back when.

I am supportive of Texas secession. We were once a Republic and could do it again with our remarkable resources and our people.

[Joe Wooten]

As they say, I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as soon as I could. My first visit was in the early 90s when my family went to San Antonio and a dude ranch in Bandera. I immediately fell in love with Texas and her people. I went looking at ranches in Bandera County. We moved to Austin in 1994, moved to Boston in 1997, but I kept my house and vowed to return.

I live in Medina now on 13 acres in a community of like-minded individuals, right down the road from a ranch I wanted to buy way back when.

I am supportive of Texas secession. We were once a Republic and could do it again with our remarkable resources and our people.

How are you guys liking 6 man football? I noticed Medina went back to 6 man a couple of years ago. MY old hometown of Garden City went back to 6 man in 2004 after 47 years in 8 and then 11 man.

[austingirl]

Sorry I don't follow football so I can't answer.

[SuperSyn]

The local TV station was interviewing some people that had just dropped off a contribution at the Marine's Toys for Tots drive prior to Christmas. They asked a young boy, about 10 or so, what they had dropped off. He answered: "Just some guns and Bibles and stuff." That is what makes Texas Texas.

[GrouchoTex]

What makes Texas "Texas"

Everything between the Sabine and the Rio Grande

 ^-^

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Texas is unique for the two exceptions given the country of Texas when it agreed to enter the Union, that no other states possesses.

1. It had the right to secede at any time.  Some will argue this is no longer a right when Texas joined the Confederacy and then returned to the Union.  Whether it is or not, it shows the wariness of the state in giving up freedoms.

2. It preserved state lands when it joined.  This was handled differently than other states as these lands became federal.  The consequence of this is still in effect today:  very little lands in Texas are in federal hands, and the state is blessed with state lands that are rich in resources, and huge amounts of lands in private hands, also which also have rich resources.  These resources are in federal hands in places like the Rockies, by and large. 

Both of these reflect the individual character of a Texan.

[Ghost Bear]

I fear that what makes Texas "Texas" is slowly being eroded as more people from failing states are moving here. Look at what has happened to the states surrounding California and Massachusetts for instance, as leftists moved in and began applying the same policies that caused them to leave their original state in the first place.

Ironically, I myself am a refugee from a failed state, Michigan. I moved to Texas in Dec. 1989 and found it to be a much more free place than the state that I left. I hope we can keep it that way.

[Bigun]

I'm a Texan born and bred and the answer is F R E E D O M ! ! !

[GrouchoTex]

As Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel says"Remember, Texas isn' just a State, but a state of mind".
The south in general seems to be more hospitable than other regions, but Texans will also be frank.
We'll say "I really don't care how they did things in ______, but with a smile!
I am proud to be a Texan, no doubt. Some people from TOS liked to tell me we're stupid, backwards, racist, etc. Texas is none of the above. We tease people from other places, but I love hearing, "I wasn't born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could".
Yes, life is life, and every place can have some bad apples,but I have to tell you:
In my county (Fort Bend) we have one of the highest percentages of minority home ownership in the whole country.
Racist? No, not so much!
We are all working to better our families and ourselves and, of course, our Lone Star State.
I do fear the "Californication" of it all, but even they will come around, I think.
Now that I have proven I am a Texan by talking to much, I will leave you with this:
"You can always tell a Texan, but you can't tell him much".
God bless the Lone Star State.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Whoops, I failed to include the third reason Texas is unique among the states.

Texas town OKs $63M for a high school football stadium
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/05/10/texas-town-oks-63m-for-high-school-football-stadium.html?intcmp=hpbt4


Another city, another referendum for taxpayers to spend tens of millions of dollars on a football stadium -- except this one is for high schoolers.

McKinney, Texas, is building a $62.8 million dollar, 12,000-seat stadium for its high school gridders to do battle in, an extravagance 63 percent of voters were apparently just fine with. The stadium would be the most expensive ever built for prep pigskin, barely edging out a $62.5 million, 12,000-seat facility under construction in Katy and a $60 million stadium that opened in Allen in 2014.

“We’re visionaries,” McKinney Independent School District Superintendent Rick McDaniel told the Dallas Morning News after local voters passed a $220 million bond issue to fund the stadium and other district improvements. “And we believe we have a vision for McKinney ISD that will propel us forward for a long time.”

The stadium will seat 12,000, and is slated to open in 2017. (MISD)

As with pro sports venues that can cost upwards of $1 billion, much of the sales pitch for the high school stadium was about its value as a catalyst for development. Local officials believe it will bring restaurants and retail shops to the town, some 37 miles north of Dallas.

Not everyone was thrilled at the expenditure, with Grassroots McKinney campaigning against it.

“We’re disappointed,” Mike Giles, one of the group's leaders told the newspaper. “But the people have spoken.”

The stadium, which will be the home field for all three of McKinney's high schools, is slated to host its first kickoff in 2017, the same season the stadium under construction in Katy is set to open.

[Wingnut]

[SquirrelCutter]

Different things make Texas what it is, to me.

The music, the people, the history and legacy. The weather, in some ways. The skies.

Mostly, the ATTITUDE! That is something other people may never understand, but it makes us who we are.

Wait, the titty bars:

[Bigun]

Texas has Never Learned Submission to any Oppression, Come from What Source it May!

Gen'rl Sam Houston!

[Night Hides Not]

Man made lakes. Texas has only one natural lake of any size, East Caddo Lake. The rest are man made.