Why I Mess With Texas

Many of my friends (well, only a few) are Texans. I have some great relatives who live in Texas. Still, in the midst of a crisis of undocumented immigrant children, the Governor of Texas offers this photo-op in response:

Now, I don't think Gov. Perry is actually shooting immigrant children fleeing unbearable economic, political, and criminal disasters in their home countries in Central America and Mexico. But why would he choose this type of a macho photo-op? It reminds me of this one:

Progressive Scouting

Feminism lives at Philmont Scout Ranch, Cimarron, New Mexico

No one would ever say "Liberal" Scouting. The Boy Scouts of America is a solidly conservative organization based on middle-class values transported from Victorian England (Lord Baden Powell, ¿no?) I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that. In fact, most of it is quite good. My purpose here is to point out some important, if sometimes glacially slow, movement that Scouting has made in a good, progressive direction, IMHO.

"¡Muerte a los Tejanos!"

My favorite thing about Kit Carson. That was the battle cry of the New Mexican Volunteer Regiment he organized in the Civil War. Let us remember there were Spanish-speaking people in the American Southwest long before there were any African-American or European "Texans." Like 200 years or so. The Tejano guys came by invitation of a new Mexican Republic and then they proceeded to break all the rules, most egregiously, slavery. One of the first things the Republic of Mexico did was free the slaves. The Texans were a bit more difficult to convince.

Wendy Davis: Democratic Hero

Jimmy Stewart in filibuster as "Mr. Smith"
(public domain from trailer via Wikipedia)

U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) has recently staged a couple of old-fashioned filibusters and proposed others in the populist style of Jimmy Stewart in “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.” However, it was a Texas State Senator who won the respect and love of Democrats throughout the country Tuesday night when her filibuster delayed the vote on a restrictive abortion bill.

Abortion is a very challenging issue of the culture wars. While MormonDems bloggers support the LDS teaching that abortion is a serious moral issue, we also support the Church’s provision for rare but sometimes necessary exceptions. These include rape, incest, “serious jeopardy” to the “life or health of the mother” and when “the fetus has serious defects that will not allow the baby to survive beyond birth.” These exceptions should only be considered after discussions with the woman’s family, her doctor, and bishop or branch president. As this is a challenging personal and religious issue, the law should allow those consultations and decisions with the least amount of intrusion. It should be recognized that the Church takes no position with regard to any particular abortion legislation. You can find the Church’s official statement at this link.

Messing with Texas

My daughter just went to a conference to San Antonio. I suggested to her that she mess with Texas a little if she got a tour at the Alamo. The ideas were to ask about the Slaves and what was the Mexican government's view of Slavery? Or at least to ask where the basement was.

She reported after the trip that she did not do the messing I was attempting to encourage. Instead, she brought me something from the gift shop:

Remember the Slave Masters! er, the ALAMO!

The headlines screamed, "ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS INVADE TEXAS TO IMPOSE SLAVERY!"

Actually, it would have been Mexico City in Spanish in 1836. It reminds me of the time, quite a few years ago when it was safer to stroll the streets of Ciudad Juarez, I was in the museum reading the interpretive signs on the exhibits about the settlement of "Tejas" by someone named Esteban Austin. As I was reading and thinking in Spanish (no English translation) my head was pronouncing it "ow-STEEN." And I stopped. And still in my head I said, "Wait a minute! That's Stephen Austin!" It was interesting to see a little of the history of Mexico from a different perspective.