Texas

[mellowtigger]

Surprise, surprise. Some more crazy folk down in Texas are making headlines. Granted, this group is imported rather than native, but it is still reminiscent of the Branch Davidians and other less well known groups. I suppose I could take this opportunity to explain something...

There is an undercurrent to thoughts of people raised in Texas that I don't see in more recent transplants. The only single word I can think of that comes closest to describing it is "nationalism". I haven't seen this sentiment in natives of any other state either. (The closest, though, is neighboring state Louisiana.) Unlike most states, you see, Texas really was its own sovereign nation. And, as every kid knows who's gone to the Six Flags Over Texas amusement park (all 6 flags wave at the entrance to the park), it's been subject to 5 other national flags besides its own.  7th grade history class is even limited solely to state history, not national or world history.

I consider myself Texan first and American second. It's why, back during the 2000 Census, I marked my "race" as "other:" and wrote in Texan. Other states just don't have this kind of thinking amongst their citizens. So whenever I saw tv newscasters talking about those crazy folk who want to secede, I just assumed that the newscasters were themselves imported Texans and so didn't "get it" that even the locals who want to remain a state can still understand the secessionist concept.

It's not the same thing as the southern Dixie mindset, trying to relive a moment of past glory (and exploitation).  It's more like a notion amongst European nations, that "we've lived through crap, and we can stand on our own feet if we need to, thank you very much, so get your act together or we will do it on our own".  Texas has its share of problems (water consumption, civil liberties, religious rhetoric, language barriers, etc), but I don't consider these secessionist ideas to be among them.

Comments

[furr-a-bruin.livejournal.com]

Well - there have long been various forms of secessionist rumblings in the Pacific Northwest - the issue is that they're all so scattered.

There are various movements like the State of Jefferson (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Jefferson) concept, that don't want to create a separate, sovereign nation - but want to re-arrange the states in the area to some degree.

And then there's the Cascadia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cascadia_(independence_movement)) movement that essentially wants the Columbia River watershed and some related territory to become an independent nation.

And of course, I've already mentioned Ecotopia - the novel being drawn on as supporting material for a number of these movements, as is the Garreau volume.

I should also mention - with distaste - that until the Aryan Nations was broken up, they had an idea of taking over some portion of the area with their racial ends in mind. Most of the PNW secessionist movements tend to be "tree-hugger green" or populist in nature - not racist.

The problem is generally that there's a surprising amount of sentiment for the concept of a political re-alignment in the Pacific Northwest, but vast disagreement on what form it "should" take... which of course means it's not even remotely likely to happen unless some event were to crystallize opinion in one particular direction.

One thing I don't quite understand is why there are songs like "Sweet Home Alabama" and others of a similar nature about the South ... when to my mind the PNW is much more worthy of laudatory song. ;)

[mellowtigger]

Ah! Redrawing the lines is also familiar. While Texas never had authority to secede, it did have authority to redraw its own territory. That authorization expired sometime in the 1970s, I think. A territory as large as Texas had never been tried before, so nobody knew for sure if it would work as a state. It had the authority to redraw itself into 5 different states if necessary. It was a discussion we had in high school sometime, where we would draw the state lines if we were going take that option.

Yes, I'll look for that book.