On the homepage today, I have an “Austin Journal” — Austin as in Texas. And this leads, of course, to some general remarks about Texas. I’d like to make a few more here.
For a long time, Texas has been a bogey state — especially abroad, especially in Europe. Even people who are not anti-American make a special effort to hate Texas (or to say they do, to appear cool in the eyes of others).
In Europe — as in New York and elsewhere — I have heard any number of putdowns of Texas. I’m thinking of a flagrant one right now. I still burn a little from it (though I’m from Michigan). Almost none of the putdowners, I believe, have ever visited Texas. If they did, that should cure them.
I accept “Diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks.” Nothing is for everybody. I’ve even met some people who don’t like Beethoven or chocolate. Seriously. But it seems to me you have to work pretty hard to hate Texas. And yet, people are willing to put in the work.
Honestly, I doubt you can be anti-Texan without being anti-American. Because Texas, even if some people who live there like to think of the state as a separate country, or republic, is very American. Super-American. I’m trying to avoid the cliché “on steroids,” but it’s hard.
One more thing before I get out of here: In my column, my journal, I mention George Will and his view of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off: greatest movie of all time. I have now found — i.e., Googled — the relevant column. He wrote it 30 years ago, next year. I wonder whether his view is unchanged.
P.S. I haven’t seen the movie since it was new, but I remember thinking it was marred by the ending — when it got philosophical, “deep,” and arty. But I still adored it. #GoodTimes #Rosebud