Some thoughts about Texas, Republic or State, whatever
Ever since last Sunday's Enterprise carried an article about Radio Free Texas, I've been thinking back on the whole Republic of Texas thing (the 1995 version, not the 1836 original).
The last I had heard about the RT group was that they were working toward getting a internet radio station started, calling it Radio Free Texas, making it sound like it was going to be a All-Texas-Independence, All-the-time talk format. I thought there was already plenty of that type of junk on the shortwave, just without the Texas exclusiveness. (Remember that "hate radio" Clinton spoke of? He wasn't talking about Rush Limbaugh, no matter how much Rush crowed about it later. It was stuff on the shortwave radio, a small minority of idjits like "Pastor Peter J. Peters" and his "Christian Identity" fuckheads. CI is a bunch of white supremecists who think they've found their backing in the Bible; like I said, fuckheads.) According the the newspaper article, RFT is a all-Texas-music, all-the-time (so far from listening, it's mainly country, no mainstream artists, tho, which is good in its way, we're kinda tired of the "Nashville pop"). It's run by the "former president" of the RT group. I'm thinking he got tired of the political bullshit and took the ownership of the station with him. It wouldn't surprise me, I got burned out on the politics and greediness of the RT group and some of its members, back when I was interested in that. The Wikipedia article about it sums it up fairly well, altho my own recollections may flesh that out some.
I was a member on the email discussion group, where there was a lot of back and forth about how to get things done, primarily their goal of making Texas truly independent again. That goal started getting sidetracked in Spring of '96, when one faction split off (led by Jesse Enloe), claiming (of course) that they were the core group, even tho they called an unscheduled meeting one weekend and declared the others not there as derelict in their duties and voted in new folks, all Enloe's men. That started a big dust up on the discussion group; personally, I favored the group led by Archie Lowe, they didn't seem to be in it to make a quick buck, which was my impression of the Enloe group. Things seemed to smooth over, sorta, until the Fall when Rick McLaren was removed by Lowe for acting outside the powers of his office, since McLaren was the "Ambassador" and the founding member, but he continued to speak as the Provisional Government's representative, which was the President's duty, in this case, it was supposed to be Lowe's job. Lowe told McLaren to resign, McLaren shot back with the crazy idea that he was entire government and Lowe and anyone who disagreed with him had resigned themselves. With that, McLaren took his ball and went home, back to his Fort Davis "compound", surrounded by his homies, or as I called them, his "cult of personality". It wasn't too long before McLaren snapped and thought the fellow down the road was a spy for the Feds, and kidnapped the man and his wife, which lead to a standoff with the police and Texas Rangers. Dumbass.
After that, I suppose the group settled down to real activists, the folks who really wanted an independent Texas. They moved the office "headquarters" to Overton in eastern Texas, and I assume they are still working quietly toward their goal. I wish them luck, but I have too much of everyday life to keep up with to get invovled in that again.
The syncronicity of it makes me wonder,tho; the RFT article in the local paper and the Roswell, Texas graphic novel being serially published online. Certainly I've entertained the idea of an independent Texas more than once, but I don't see how the way the interem Republic of Texas group wants to run it can be effective. There's too many State, Fed, and Local government agencies and their officers that would have everything to lose if a libertarian-minded RT government took power. Altho I can see that folks like their roads smooth and garbage picked up, so these basic government services could be quickly taken up by the newly privatized agencies, and they can prove their worth in the free market instead of having a civil service job with lifetime benefits. But I'm sidetracking myself again... Would I like an independent Texas? Yes. Do I think it's realistic at this time, or even in the near future? Regretably, no. There's too many unforeseen consequences, I don't think the RT guys have fully thought thru yet. That doesn't mean I think the current state of government is perfect, and couldn't use some tweaking.
The last I had heard about the RT group was that they were working toward getting a internet radio station started, calling it Radio Free Texas, making it sound like it was going to be a All-Texas-Independence, All-the-time talk format. I thought there was already plenty of that type of junk on the shortwave, just without the Texas exclusiveness. (Remember that "hate radio" Clinton spoke of? He wasn't talking about Rush Limbaugh, no matter how much Rush crowed about it later. It was stuff on the shortwave radio, a small minority of idjits like "Pastor Peter J. Peters" and his "Christian Identity" fuckheads. CI is a bunch of white supremecists who think they've found their backing in the Bible; like I said, fuckheads.) According the the newspaper article, RFT is a all-Texas-music, all-the-time (so far from listening, it's mainly country, no mainstream artists, tho, which is good in its way, we're kinda tired of the "Nashville pop"). It's run by the "former president" of the RT group. I'm thinking he got tired of the political bullshit and took the ownership of the station with him. It wouldn't surprise me, I got burned out on the politics and greediness of the RT group and some of its members, back when I was interested in that. The Wikipedia article about it sums it up fairly well, altho my own recollections may flesh that out some.
I was a member on the email discussion group, where there was a lot of back and forth about how to get things done, primarily their goal of making Texas truly independent again. That goal started getting sidetracked in Spring of '96, when one faction split off (led by Jesse Enloe), claiming (of course) that they were the core group, even tho they called an unscheduled meeting one weekend and declared the others not there as derelict in their duties and voted in new folks, all Enloe's men. That started a big dust up on the discussion group; personally, I favored the group led by Archie Lowe, they didn't seem to be in it to make a quick buck, which was my impression of the Enloe group. Things seemed to smooth over, sorta, until the Fall when Rick McLaren was removed by Lowe for acting outside the powers of his office, since McLaren was the "Ambassador" and the founding member, but he continued to speak as the Provisional Government's representative, which was the President's duty, in this case, it was supposed to be Lowe's job. Lowe told McLaren to resign, McLaren shot back with the crazy idea that he was entire government and Lowe and anyone who disagreed with him had resigned themselves. With that, McLaren took his ball and went home, back to his Fort Davis "compound", surrounded by his homies, or as I called them, his "cult of personality". It wasn't too long before McLaren snapped and thought the fellow down the road was a spy for the Feds, and kidnapped the man and his wife, which lead to a standoff with the police and Texas Rangers. Dumbass.
After that, I suppose the group settled down to real activists, the folks who really wanted an independent Texas. They moved the office "headquarters" to Overton in eastern Texas, and I assume they are still working quietly toward their goal. I wish them luck, but I have too much of everyday life to keep up with to get invovled in that again.
The syncronicity of it makes me wonder,tho; the RFT article in the local paper and the Roswell, Texas graphic novel being serially published online. Certainly I've entertained the idea of an independent Texas more than once, but I don't see how the way the interem Republic of Texas group wants to run it can be effective. There's too many State, Fed, and Local government agencies and their officers that would have everything to lose if a libertarian-minded RT government took power. Altho I can see that folks like their roads smooth and garbage picked up, so these basic government services could be quickly taken up by the newly privatized agencies, and they can prove their worth in the free market instead of having a civil service job with lifetime benefits. But I'm sidetracking myself again... Would I like an independent Texas? Yes. Do I think it's realistic at this time, or even in the near future? Regretably, no. There's too many unforeseen consequences, I don't think the RT guys have fully thought thru yet. That doesn't mean I think the current state of government is perfect, and couldn't use some tweaking.
posted by Mattexian at 10:17 AM
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