By DR. LARRY MOSES

No one asked me but… Last week I let my old friend Thomas Jefferson write my column for me. I was in Texas visiting family.

I hope you took the time to read or re-read the Declaration of Independence. It never hurts to review the documents that are at the foundation of this great country.

That being said, let me fill you in on my trip to Texas.

In the last month and a half, I have traveled over 7,000 highway miles. I have gone as far north and east as Michigan and as far south as mid-Texas.

Those of you who are familiar with Texas know mid-Texas is nearly five hundred miles from the eastern or western borders of the state. The entire area of New England, including Maine, would fit into the state of Texas. If any state in the Union could exist outside the protection of the United States, it would be Texas.

However, I would sorely miss Texas.

While in Texas, I spent time with my brother-in-law who is a farrier. Bill shoes horses to support his hobby of competing in carriage events as well as feeding his family. He has represented the United States in the last two world events.

Now don’t get me wrong; I don’t help him shoe. He works and I sit in an air-conditioned office supplied by the owners of the horse establishments he frequents.

While at one of these ranches, I got in a discussion with the owner who championed the cause of Texas Secession. This discussion was brought on when I mentioned a bumper sticker reading SECESSION.

One might think that issue was settled in 1865, when Texas joined the Confederacy and lost its bid at the ultimate in state’s rights declaration. However, you would be wrong. The Texan pointed out to me that Texas was the only state that joined the union from the status of an independent nation. (Yes, I already knew that.) He, like many Texans, believes there is a clause in the original petition for statehood that would allow them to secede from the Union if they so desire.

Unfortunately, for them, this is not the case. Nowhere in the original or present State Constitution is the right to withdraw stated. However, there is little doubt that this state could thrive as an independent nation.

Jean and I celebrated our forty-ninth wedding anniversary in Texas watching a grand nephew, Sam, play shortstop for his eight-year old All-Star Little League team, the Rice Raiders.

That is a typical anniversary for us. Since our boys started playing over forty years ago, we have spent the vast majority of our anniversaries at ball games. We also went to College Station, home of the Texas Aggies, which is material for a column in itself, to see my nephew’s daughter, Sloan, play softball. That may have been the worst weather day of the whole trip. The temperature was well over a hundred degrees with humidity to match. We did not stay for the second game.

Sam is no bigger than a minute, but he played a great defensive shortstop and hit the heck out of the ball. Sam and his ten-year old sister are typical Texans. Maddie is a beautiful young lady who got her deer this year, as did Sam. I saw a bumper sticker in Texas that read: “My junior high school daughter can out shoot your son.”

Their maternal grandfather is a rice farmer from Garwood, Texas. Families like these make one realize that no matter what one reads in the paper or hears on the news, there is still hope for America. It was a pleasure to sit at the ball games and share conversations with that side of the family.

Texas is such a diverse state it seems to have it all. Great Bend National Park is very similar to Southern Nevada. If you prefer, the beach there is the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The hill country of Texas is much like Utah, and then there are the Central Prairie lands that once supported a buffalo population of over 16 million animals. It has recently been the scene of extensive fires. If you like the big city life there is always Houston. However, the best part of Texas was sitting around the fire pit on Bill’s 28-acre horse facility.

Where but in Texas could a Jewish cowboy name Kinky Friedman make a serious run for the governorship. Kinky is the author of a number of books, a songwriter, and friend of men like Willie Nelson.

If you want to get a real feel for Texas, you should pick up his book “Kinky Friedman’s Guide to Texas Etiquette”. In the book, he lists some of the strange laws of Texas including: “When two trains meet each other at a railroad crossing, each shall come to a complete stop, and neither shall proceed until the other is gone. It is illegal to take more than three sips of beer at a time while standing. It is illegal to milk another person’s cow. Criminals must give their victims twenty-four hour notice, either orally or in writing, and explain the nature of the crime to be committed.”

The entire ENCYLOPEDIA BRITANNICA was once banned in Texas because it contained a formula for making beer at home.

As much as I like Texas, I don’t believe I would trade it for Nevada. While in Michigan, I was wet all the time because of the rain. Texas has been in a drought but I was wet all the time in Texas because of the humidity. I was sweating just sitting and reading while Bill worked. It was almost more than I could bear when he asked me to toss him a bottle of water.

I came to believe that if all the Texans were to just stand around and sweat they would have enough moisture to water every hay field in Texas.

It was great to get home where at least it is a dry heat.

Thought of the week… Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”

– Sam Houston