THE GREAT STATE OF TEXAS!



When you're from Texas, people that 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 the Southfork Ranch.
They watched "Dallas." 

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 it 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 might get it maybe after a second or two,
but who else would? And even if you do, does it ever
stir any feelings in you? 

Inside every man, woman and child on this planet,
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 some bit of Texas in everyone. Did
you ever hear anyone in a bar go, "Wow...so you're
from Iowa? 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. 

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
the Big Bend. Texas is the unparalleled beauty of bluebonnet fields
in the

Hill Country and along the highways. Texas is the beautiful, warm
beaches of the Gulf Coast of South Texas and Texas is the shiny
skyscrapers in Houston and Dallas. 

Texas is world record bass from places like Lake
Fork. Texas is Mexican food like nowhere else, not
even Mexico. Texas is the Fort Worth Stockyards, Bass
Hall, Cowboy Stadium, Reliant Stadium and the Astrodome. Texas is larger-than-life legends like Willie Nelson,  
Buddy Holly, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Kris Kristofferson, Tom
Landry, Darrell Royal, ZZ Top, Eric Dickerson, Earl Campbell, Nolan
Ryan, Lance Armstrong, Denton Cooley and Michael DeBakey, Sam Rayburn, George Bush,
Lyndon B. Johnson, George W. Bush and many others.

Texas is great companies like American Airlines, Dell Computers, Texas Instruments and
Compaq. Texas is NASA. Texas is huge herds of cattle and miles of
crops.  Texas is skies blackened with doves, and fields full of
deer.

Texas is a place where cities shut down to watch the
local High School Football game on Friday nights and
for the Dallas Cowboys or the Houston Texans on Monday Night
Football, and Night in Old San Antonio River Parade.
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 it's 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, California,
Maine and your state flag, whatever it is, goes at 17 feet. You fly the
Stars and Stripes in front of Pine Tree High in Longview, Texas at 20 feet, the Lone
Star flies at the same height - 20 feet.

Do you know why?