I didn’t even know that there was a pledge of allegiance to the flag of Texas. Now don’t get me wrong – I am a Texan. That is my fundamental basic cultural identity. I never did get accustomed to being lumped in with “Americans” when I was in other countries: I always wanted to correct them and tell them I was a Texan (said with a French, Spanish, Arabic or whatever accent).
I’m not even a Texan. I’m a West Texan. Period.
So my chest swells at the mention of the Alamo or the big statue of Sam Houston. I am my father’s daughter. He taught me that there is no reason to go anywhere else because Texas has everything you would ever need–mountains, seaside, plains, desert, woods. So that’s that.
However, several months ago, the GentlemanFriend and I were at a dinner in Schulenburg with about 200 other folks. We all stood and bowed our heads for a prayer, sang “America the Beautiful”, put our hands on our hearts or saluted and recited the “Pledge of Allegiance” and started to sit down, when we were asked to say the “Pledge of Allegiance to the Texas flag”. I looked around as I mumbled, “I pledge mumble mumble” and noticed that the GentlemanFriend also was mumbling. Later, we both confessed that we had never heard of that before.
The next morning, I woke up thinking about it. If I pledge allegiance to Texas and our governor gets in a shooting match with the governor of Idaho, does this mean I’m bound to give up potatoes??? or do I really want to pledge allegiance to the Panhandle? It has never been my favorite part of my beloved state. And I’m not real fond of North Texas. I’m kind of okay with East Texas and the Gulf Coast, but the truth is I could only give my full and deepest allegiance to West Texas.
So here I stand, hand on heart, mumbling and musing.