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Three Myths About Texas that Texans Still Love to Believe
Let’s set these straight and go get tacos
“Some folks look at me and see a certain swagger, which in Texas is called ‘walking.’” — George W. Bush
I may have mentioned before that I am a child of the Lone Star State, often in a rant about the governor, lieutenant governor, school boards…you get the idea. But no matter its problems (which are many), I love Texas. That does not mean, however, that I won’t debunk longstanding myths about the place, especially when they revise history.
When I say myths, I’m not talking about the ridiculous ones like that we all ride horses to work, all wear cowboy hats, and all eat barbecue for breakfast, lunch, and dinner (we only eat it for lunch; breakfast and dinner are reserved for Tex-Mex). The myths I’m tackling here are ones that are both historical and so pervasive that some are still taught in public schools.
The first myth is one that I ranted about in an article last year following a resolution proposed at the 2022 Texas Republican Convention: the mistaken belief that Texas is the one state in the Union that has the right to secede from the United States. Texas does not have such a right, and never has (no matter what the nuns taught me in Catholic school in the ’70s). The myth most likely sprang from…