Texas Independence Day

 Although I’m in Georgia, chili is on the menu today.

I’m celebrating the culture — a blending of cultures — rather than the history.

In 1836, the wealth of the English-speaking Texians who were clamoring for independence was invested in slaves. The economy of their colonies was based on treating some people as commodities. These commodities were priced, sold, shipped and insured. They were not treated as humans.

The desire for independence was a desire to extend the “way of life” that existed in the Southern United States westward. That was the language used to describe the desire to extend slavery into Mexico, a state that abolished it.

The history is shameful. The question is whether the culture that grew out of that catastrophe has some redemptive value.

I go back and forth. I love a lot of things about the state, including people, food and landscapes. I admire some Texas writers. I’ve spent a lifetime being appalled by Texas politics.

I have more hope than sense, as my grandfather would say. I claim the jury is still out.