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Texas IS Different...
When you're from Texas, people you meet ask you questions like, "Do
you have any cows?" "Do you have horses?" "Bet you got a bunch of guns,
eh?" They all want to know if you've been to Southfork. They
watched Dallas. They say, "Wow...so you're from Texas? Cool,
tell me about it!"
Do you know why? Because there's no place like Texas. Texas is the Alamo.
Texas is 183 men standing in a church, facing thousands of Mexican
nationals, fighting for freedom, who had the chance to walk out and save
themselves, but stayed instead to fight and die for the cause of freedom.
We send our kids to schools named William B. Travis and James Bowie and
Crockett and do you know why? Because those men saw a line in the sand and
they decided to cross it and
be heroes. John Wayne paid to do the movie himself. That is the Spirit of
Texas.
Have you ever looked at a map of the world? Look at Texas with me just for
a second. That picture, with the Panhandle and the Gulf Coast, and the Red
River and the Rio Grande is as much a part of you as anything ever will
be. As soon as anyone anywhere in the world looks at it they know
what it is. It's Texas.
Pick any kid off the street in Japan and draw him a picture of Texas in
the dirt and he'll know what it is. What happens if I show you a picture
of any other state? You'll get it maybe after a second, but who else
would? Even if you do, does it ever stir any feelings in you? In every
man, woman and child on this little rock the Good Lord put us on, there is
a person who wishes just once he could be a real live Texan and get up on
a horse or ride in a pickup. There is a bit of Texas in everyone.
Texas is Sam Houston capturing Santa Ana at San Jacinto. Texas is Juneteenth and Texas Independence Day. Texas is huge forests of Piney
Woods like the Davy Crockett National Forest. Texas is breathtaking
mountains in Big Bend. Texas is shiny skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas.
Texas is world record bass from places like Lake Fork. Texas is Mexican
food like nowhere in the world, even Mexico. Texas is the Fort Worth
Stockyards and the Bass Hall. Texas is larger-than-life legends like
Willie Nelson, Bob Wills and Buddy Holly, Earl Campbell and Nolan Ryan,
Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey, Sam Rayburn, Ross Perot & Bob Bullock.
Texas is great companies like Dell Computer and Compaq. Texas is huge
herds of cattle and miles of crops like cotton, peas, maize. Texas is
skies blackened with doves, and fields full of deer. Texas is a place
where cities shut down for the Cowboys on Monday Night Football, and NIOSA
River Parade in San Antonio. Texas is ocean beaches, deserts, lakes and
rivers, mountains and
prairies, and modern cities. If it isn't in Texas, you don't need it. No
one does anything bigger or better than it's done in Texas.
By federal law, Texas is the only state in the U.S. that can fly its flag
at the same height as the U.S. flag. Think about that for a second. You
fly the Stars and Stripes at 20 feet in Maryland, or California, or Maine,
and your state flag, whatever it is, goes at 17. You fly the Stars and
Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview at 20 feet, the Lone Star
flies at the same height - 20 feet. Do you know why? Because we place
being a Texan as high as being an American down here. Our capitol is the
only one in the country that is taller than the capitol building in
Washington, D.C. We included these things in as part of the deal when we
came on. That's the best part right there.
When we came on -
Texas was its own country. The Republic of Texas. It makes you proud
to be a Texan!!

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