“..all hail the mighty state….so wonderful, so great..”
April 22, 2009 (Wednesday)
Haven’t heard this song in quite a while (learned it in public school): “Oh beautiful, beautiful Texas, where the beautiful bluebonnets grow, We’re proud of our forefathers who died at the Alamo. You can live on the plains or the mountains, Or down where the sea breezes blow, But you’re still in beautiful Texas, The most beautiful state that I know.”
You may have heard that Texas has the right to secede from the United States. Well, Texas and ten other states did secede from the Union, in 1860-1861, and that caused a war between the northern and southern states. Until the war was fought, there may have been very good legal arguments put forth, giving each state the right to dissolve its ties with the Federal Government, but the war put an end to those arguments. Theoretically, secession is still a possibility for any state, including Texas, with the approval of the state’s legislature and the Congress of the United States. I say, “theoretically,” because it seems to me that the actual possibility of the Congress approving such a move is non-existent.
There is a common belief that Texas can divide itself into five states, but that also is contingent upon the approval of the United States Congress, which would be required to approve not only the division of states but also the combining of states into new states.
Don’t get your hopes up that Texas will secede, if that is what you want. And don’t hold your breath until Texas divides itself into five states. Texas may have been granted that right when it was annexed by the Union in 1845, but Article IV, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution makes it clear that Congressional approval is required.
Today a South Texas fishing guide will take his boat into the bay and joining him will be a Panhandle rancher, a West Texas oilman, a Central Texas educator, an East Texas farmer and a North Texas banker. Not a plain old “Texan” in the lot. There may also be a Rio Grande Valley businessman on the boat, along with a few Southeast Texans. As a matter of fact, if there’s a King Ranch worker fishing that day, a nation within a state is represented. We’re already “divided” by region but united as Texans. Most of us wouldn’t want it any other way. Billions of people all over the world know Texas when they see it on a map. By the way, we won’t secede either, because Texans love their country as well as their state. We may dislike some federal policies, but we’re here to stay in the U.S.A.