Bush Values Ain't From Texas Sandy Tubb Texas is a joke among lots of folks. People love to hate the Dallas Cowboys, they see Texans as swaggerin' braggin' jerks, and some are, but they're a minority. Have you ever noticed how it's usually the smallest group of people that give the rest of us a lousy reputation? People make fun of the way we talk. Anyone who sounds the way a Texan does has to be just a dumb ol' redneck right? Wrong! I've lived outside of Texas and there are plenty of dumb rednecks just about anywhere you go. They don't have to speak Texan to be a dumb redneck either. We've got one occupying the White House right now called Dubya known also by others as the Shrub. I'm writing this because I want to set the record straight: G.W. Bush, president select oops I mean elect is not, I repeat not a Texan. His mannerisms and accent are strictly for the media. Believe me, you have to have been born in Texas and first learned to say the word "daddy" to have a bona fide Texas accent. I have one, but then as I said I was born and raised in Texas. I lived full time in Texas unlike the occupant of the White House. I about choked the first time I heard the President select talk about having learned his values here in Texas. If that were true G.W. Bush would be a Democrat, because when he was supposedly growing up here in Texas, the state voted Democrat and had ever since the end of the Civil War. I don't know what happened but ever since the Bush family and other eastern rich kids came here to play in the oil fields the voting demographics of the state slowly changed. In fact I hardly recognize Texas anymore. Let me tell you what Texas was when I was growing up here in the 50's, as I want to set the record straight about what Texas values are, or at least were at one time before special eastern oil interests bought Austin. Used to be liberty for a Texan was just about the most sacred and important possession a person could have. Liberty was to have your vote counted. Liberty to believe in God according to the dictates of your individual conscience, not according coalitions of fundamental Christians using funds from the Moonies to purchase political power pushing an agenda to ultimately tear down the wall separating church and state. I often wonder how these fundamentalists will enjoy state sponsored religion once they get that wall torn down. It all makes me feel really sad as a Texan to see what is happening in Texas, as well as the rest of the country as we are being divided along lines that shouldn't matter. It shouldn't matter if one is a democrat or republican, liberal or conservative, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Atheist because with the Constitution we all have equal protection under the law or at least we did till we were sold out in the name of special interests. The Texas values I was raised with were about honoring liberty, being neighborly and friendly, helping out others when they were down on their luck, being honest and telling the truth even if you got into trouble, and last but not least, the greatest love there is comes in laying down your life for another. The lesson of laying down your life for another was learned in Texas history as I learned the story of the Alamo where fewer than 200 men faced an army of over 4000 troops of Mexico's army. The men in the Alamo hoped there would be reinforcements to help them hold off the Mexican army but word came there wouldn't be any help. They had the option to leave if they chose. They decided to stay and try to hold out for as long as possible knowing they would die there. Most of them are buried underneath the Alamo today. Every time I enter the Alamo I feel the love of those Texicans (there were Hispanics who fought there also) whose deaths bought and paid for Texas with blood. All the oil money on earth will never equal that, never. Here's what real Texans know about the lessons of liberty. Real Texans know liberty can't be purchased with wealth or an army to enforce your will on others. Real Texans know that you might buy the political office, but you will never have the real power - only an illusion that shimmers like a mirage in heat of the Texas sun.