Texas: The Lone Tzar State
Ask the average non-Texan what the state’s official slogan or motto is and you’ll likely here the words “The Lone Star State” . . . and they’d be wrong. Actually, in 1930, the state legislature made “Friendship” its official motto, According to state historians and southwestern etymologists. "Texas" or "Tejas" is a Spanish pronunciation of a name for the native Indian Caddo tribe and their land. The Caddo's (or Tejas') name for allies or friendship is taysha. The Spanish in this way, adopted a derivation of taysha as a descriptive name for the friendly tribes in what is today Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma. In this way the Texas motto "friendship" may be intended to symbolize a hopeful fertile fusion of Western and Native American culture.
(It should be noted that Howard Hughes [1905-1976] one of Texas’ most famous and eccentric native sons, named his film production company “The Caddo Company.” Under that name, Hughes produced such classic films as “Scarface,” “Hell’s Angels” “The Front Page,” and “Two Arabian Knights,” which won the first - and only - Academy Award for Best Comedy in 1927).
As a kid growing up in the ‘50s, the two things I knew about Texas were Davy Crocket (starring Fess Parker) and Gene Autry singing Deep in the Heart of Texas (which he also wrote). I was also aware that Lyndon Johnson was a senator who went by the initials L.B.J., and had quite a drawl. What I did not realize was that "The Friendship State” was also the home to some of the weirdest, most right-wing nuts imaginable. In terms of politics, Texas was about as Deep South as one could get; Democrat to the core. Until LBJ became an accidental president in 1963 and then rammed through both the Civil Rights Act (1964) and Medicare (1965), about the only progressive who ever came out of the state was the late Senator Ralph Yarborough. Since then Texas has developed some progressive pockets, sending the likes of Barbara Jordan, Sheila Jackson Lee, Al Green and Juaquin Castro to the House of Representatives and electing Ann Richards Governor of the state.
Today, Texas has the reputation for electing some of the farthest right, most autocratic members of the “loony tunes brigade” such as Senator Ted “Cancun” Cruz, Rep. Louie Gohmert and current Governor Greg Abbott. Texas, like many states, has some of the strangest laws on the books:
In Texas, it is illegal to milk another person’s cow;
Criminals must give their victims 24-hour notice before committing a crime, either orally or in writing;
It's against the law to sell Limburger cheese on Sundays in Houston;
It's illegal to emit obnoxious odors while on an elevator in Port Arthur;
Any person who sits on a sidewalk in Galveston may be fined up to $500.
(OK, you can also find crazy laws in just about any city or state if you know where to look . . .)
Between Governor Abbott, Lt. Governor Dan Patrick, Attorney General Ken Paxton and the state legislature, Texas has become the nation’s leader in oppressive, partisan political action - a “Lone Tzar State” if you will. Not only do the folks of this state fry everything they eat and pack guns in public places, their leaders have enacted laws and executive actions which:
Makes abortion all but illegal for anyone (except those with the financial means to travel out of state);
Have gerrymandered the state’s Congressional Districts to make the election of minority candidates (read: black, brown and non-Christian) near impossible;
Drastically changed election laws thereby aiding GOP incumbents and decreasing minority representation;
Outlawed virtually any and every mask mandate in the state;
Passed Texas law HB3979, which seeks to restrict discussion of race and history in schools. Ostensibly, this law was enacted in order to make the teaching of Critical Race Theory (which in matter of fact isn’t part of any school district’s curriculum), thereby scoring points with their ultra-conservative, largely fundamentalist political base. The law, among other things, mandates that social studies teachers can't "require" or include in their courses, the concept that "one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex" or the concept that "an individual, by virtue of the individual's race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously." (please do note how poorly written this section is!)
The act, which Governor Abbot signed into law on September 1, 2021, notes that "a teacher may not be compelled to discuss a particular current event or widely debated and currently controversial issue of public policy or social affairs." Teachers, according to the bill, can't require or give extra credit for a student's political activism. The craziest part of the bill makes it mandatory that if a teacher does engage in such a discussion, the teacher is required to "explore such issues from diverse and contending perspectives without giving deference to any one perspective." It would seem that no one in the Lone Tzar State paid attention to where this bill might lead — like teaching an “opposing view” with regards to the Holocaust.
How’s that you say?
Just the other day NBC News revealed a leaked audio clip in which a top administrator with Southlake Texas’s Carroll Independent School District advised teachers that if they have books on the Holocaust in the classroom, they should also include “opposing” viewpoints on it. The school district’s executive director of curriculum and instruction was quoted as saying “Just try to remember the concepts of [House Bill] 3979 […] And make sure that if you have a book on the Holocaust, that you have one that has an opposing, that has other perspectives.”
“How do you oppose the Holocaust?” one teacher can be overheard saying in response.
“Believe me. That’s come up,” Peddy responded.
The release of the audio recording resulted in widespread controversy. The school district released a statement saying the comments in the recording “were in no way to convey that the Holocaust was anything less than a terrible event in history. Additionally, we recognize there are not two sides of the Holocaust.”
Holocaust denial is spreading with every passing year. According to Deborah Lipstadt, author of the seminal 1993 work Denying the Holocaust and President Biden’s nominee to become the United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combatting anti-Semitism, "When you learn the history of the Holocaust, you are not simply learning about the past. These lessons remain relevant today in order to understand not only anti-Semitism but also all the other 'isms' of society. There is real danger to letting them fade."
It seems that with every passing week, Texas and its lone Tzar Governor are enacting bills and issuing executive orders which capture the imaginations of autocratic wannabes around the country. These acts and pronouncements - whether they deal with what they insist are “election integrity,” or gerrymandering, the outlawing of mandates and restrictions, or the banning of critical thinking within our schools, all stand a good chance of falling prey to what the seminal sociologist Robert K. Merton (Meyer Robert Schkolnick) referred to as the “law of unintended consequences.” I rather doubt Tzar Greg had given enough thought in signing HB3979 to realize that it could actually lead to putting a positive spin on der Führer. Then again, the purpose of the law was the rewriting of American history . . . at least in terms of race relations. Talk about unintended consequences!
Other unintended consequences - and not just in the Lone Tzar State, but across the entire country - deal with the twin issues of “Stopping the Steal” and the enforcement of anti-masking, anti-vaxxing legislation. Both issues are meant to stimulate stronger support from core Trumpeters; both can, in reality, lead to the diminution of their numbers at the ballot box - either because they don’t trust those who count votes so why even show up, and/or there are fewer anti-vaxxers out there because they have died.
I can live with the former; they (the anti-mask, anti-vax crowd) I regret to say, cannot live with the latter.
Copyright©2021 Kurt F. Stone