“There is just so much hurt, disappointment, and oppression one can take. The line between reason and madness grows thinner.” - Rosa Parks, Civil Rights Campaigner As I write, two very close friends are on a northbound plane. They are leaving in Texas children and grandchildren, friends and a lifetime of memories so they might begin anew near the northeastern coast. Moving is not without duress and emotional swings at any age, but the couple are 70-ish, healthy and determined. Their new home will be adjacent to the Atlantic and in farm country with comfortable summers and the type of winters they have not experienced.
MyTexan heart breaks every time I read or hear about the slaughter that continues -- the disregard for humanity, life, equity, beauty of the land. It's rather disgusting, the sheer wanton mindless tear-down of Texas.
Dec 2, 2023·edited Dec 2, 2023Liked by Jim Bob Moore
I'm not a native born Texan, having moved here in '63 with my parents from Long Island, N.Y., a big cultural change definitely, but after awhile I fell in love with Texas...but the changes in Texas that you allude to has been beyond disappointing...if my wife & I were younger(and a bit more well off)we'd be gone...Texas is no longer habitable for decent people...
Yours is an increasingly common sentiment, Frank. I moved here as a young guy in '75 and thought it was just such an exciting place to explore and experience. The politics weren't great but they certainly were nowhere as craven as today. Now I've got family here, a lifetime of friends, and a low-interest mortgage that make it tough to leave. But it still may happen. Just can't take it.
I love and care about the couple who cashed In and went to Co Springs and their fabulous daughter. Bittersweet story. And I miss the hell out of them all.
The pity is that every time an enlightened refugee escapes Texas, we lose a blue vote. It makes it that much harder for those of us who won't or can't leave.
This is a serious loss, however, I respect the decision, especially when people have reached a point in the latter part of their lives and want to spend those precious days doing something other than fighting bad politics and living in a repressive atmosphere.
Thanks JB for another thought provoking article. How Texans will stop this slide (fall) into fascism is beyond me. Perhaps the answer IS to run, run away! Why anyone would want to move to Texas in it's current political state escapes me. I suppose it's just ignorance. Let's see how many stick around. Maybe they will bring some California to Texas. Would that be a bad thing?
After years of self study and careful consideration, the only way for me to understand and make sense of this is through the lense of determinism , and that freewill is an illusion. Not easy to find a sense of joy sometimes 😕 .
Another marvelous essay, Jim Bob. It always leaves me wondering, who are these people? Do they know what they are voting for when they choose leaders like Greg Abbott or Dan Patrick? If not, what do they think they're voting for?
We both know Texas was never a liberal paradise, but it used to be ruled by people who wanted to leave the State better off than they found it. That's gone now.
As a native-born Texan (Bryan) dragged around the world by my Air Force birth family, a former junior high & high school student in darkest West Texas (Abilene) in the ancient times, a 2x graduate of UT-Austin in the glorious & hopeful '60s, and a fan of many of the beautiful places you mention, I am sad to read these details but not surprised. New Mexico is awesome though. The last time I drove west from Amarillo, the sea change I felt re-entering the Land of Enchantment was positively spiritual. Long ago I felt that way re-entering the Lone Star State. Time passes, everything changes. Thank you for writing so compassionately and thoroughly on the subject.
Thanks, John, for the kind words and always supporting my writing. I agree with you on the magic of New Mexico. Been looking hard at Las Cruces. Very affordable real estate, a university, Mesilla, the Organ Mountains, and the desert environs I've always loved.
I have a good internet friend who lives in Las Cruces and by the looks of it seems to be a really perfect area to live. He regularly drives to Alpine and Marfa for a bit of Texas, occasionally into Austin. My only issues with moving west are the growing water issues because it will only get worse.
Water will be an increasingly problematic issue no matter where we live in the Southwest, I fear. I think more businesses and people will decamp the SW for the Midwest, where water is everywhere. I read yesterday that there is enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and South America with one foot of water. That's a supply that should never run out even after the apocalypse.
Have never been there but all of that sounds good. I follow folks on Twitter who post photos every day from walks out in the desert. I could see it. Same thing with Silver City on the western side of southern NM. I love the north but each year feel the cold a little more. A friend recommended Mesilla to me years ago. So much in NM I haven't seen.
On the motorcycle trip with buddies in Sept. we stayed in Mesilla and Silver City. Both really nice spots, though Mesilla has more creature comforts being Las Cruces adjacent. Silver City, of course, has the giant strip mine east of town that is a distraction but the surrounding hills are alive with the stuff that interests guys like us. Riding the motorcycle through the Mogollon Ranges in the Gila National Forest was pretty spectacular, too. As for Taos, I know I couldn't take the cold. Lingers a bit too much, arrives a bit too early.
Taos is a hollow expensive shell without a core now though the mountains and llanos are stupendous. Big state, though. I want to do more exploring in the south.
I don't know that quote. I am familiar with the one by Civil War General Phillip Sheridan who said, "If I owned Texas and hell I'd rent out Texas and live in hell."
Crockett’s famous quote upon his political misfortune: You may all go to Hell and I will go to Texas. Probably inauthentic. I like Sheridan’s better anyway.
We moved to Texas from Indiana 8.5 years ago. We wanted something different, and boy, did we get something different. We loved the state for so many of the reasons listed here. Although Houston was home, we made it around most of the state, including two trips to the Big Bend region. But the politics were just too much, and we eventually felt like we had no choice but to return to Indiana, a state that is technically redder than Texas but feels much safer with our close proximity to Michigan and Illinois. It saddens me, because it is a beautiful state with so much to offer, and all outsiders see is bad news.
Wonderful essay! After visiting Florida for vacations as a kid, I could not wait to figure out how to get there to live. My husband and I managed it after we graduated college and stayed for nearly a decade before Texas called us back. Now, I don't know which state is worse because I think I would probably be more upset living in Florida today than I am in Texas at this point, though perhaps the balm of ample public lands would soothe the constant DeSantis issues. The thing is, I can't see myself ever living outside of the south/Texas. For all its faults, there's something special here.
Dealing with the state park stuff this year made me realized how entrenched so much of the state is trapped in a myth that doesn't or never really existed. And I never truly knew this state growing up, either. I fell for any of the tropes as one does as a kid. Now I see it with different eyes and wonder at how much better it could be if we actually tried.
PS: It's Big Thicket National Preserve, not Forest! :)
I can't speak to the redemption of Texas. I've lived all my adult life here and the politics have almost always been venal with no consideration of victims, whether they be people, businesses, or the environment. Our government just does not seem to care and the people of this state keep electing angry white men and Christo-fascists. I think change is a long danged ways off. And sorry about getting Big Thicket's name wrong! Only camped there once and it was in 1982!
I'll do that! I usually just travel through E. Texas but stop sometimes in a little town or two on my way to Louisiana or points north and east. But some time tromping around in those woods would be curative for the soul, I'm sure.
MyTexan heart breaks every time I read or hear about the slaughter that continues -- the disregard for humanity, life, equity, beauty of the land. It's rather disgusting, the sheer wanton mindless tear-down of Texas.
It is actions like this from the Fascist House that are chasing good Texas Americans to leave: https://www.texastribune.org/2023/12/02/texas-gop-antisemitism-resolution/
I'm not a native born Texan, having moved here in '63 with my parents from Long Island, N.Y., a big cultural change definitely, but after awhile I fell in love with Texas...but the changes in Texas that you allude to has been beyond disappointing...if my wife & I were younger(and a bit more well off)we'd be gone...Texas is no longer habitable for decent people...
Yours is an increasingly common sentiment, Frank. I moved here as a young guy in '75 and thought it was just such an exciting place to explore and experience. The politics weren't great but they certainly were nowhere as craven as today. Now I've got family here, a lifetime of friends, and a low-interest mortgage that make it tough to leave. But it still may happen. Just can't take it.
I love and care about the couple who cashed In and went to Co Springs and their fabulous daughter. Bittersweet story. And I miss the hell out of them all.
We shall see about my wife and my future.
And thanks again Jim
I'm in the same place, my friend. And who knows what the morrow may bring? But if Ted Cruz gets reelected next year and I'm still here?
The pity is that every time an enlightened refugee escapes Texas, we lose a blue vote. It makes it that much harder for those of us who won't or can't leave.
This is a serious loss, however, I respect the decision, especially when people have reached a point in the latter part of their lives and want to spend those precious days doing something other than fighting bad politics and living in a repressive atmosphere.
Thanks JB for another thought provoking article. How Texans will stop this slide (fall) into fascism is beyond me. Perhaps the answer IS to run, run away! Why anyone would want to move to Texas in it's current political state escapes me. I suppose it's just ignorance. Let's see how many stick around. Maybe they will bring some California to Texas. Would that be a bad thing?
After years of self study and careful consideration, the only way for me to understand and make sense of this is through the lense of determinism , and that freewill is an illusion. Not easy to find a sense of joy sometimes 😕 .
Another marvelous essay, Jim Bob. It always leaves me wondering, who are these people? Do they know what they are voting for when they choose leaders like Greg Abbott or Dan Patrick? If not, what do they think they're voting for?
We both know Texas was never a liberal paradise, but it used to be ruled by people who wanted to leave the State better off than they found it. That's gone now.
As a native-born Texan (Bryan) dragged around the world by my Air Force birth family, a former junior high & high school student in darkest West Texas (Abilene) in the ancient times, a 2x graduate of UT-Austin in the glorious & hopeful '60s, and a fan of many of the beautiful places you mention, I am sad to read these details but not surprised. New Mexico is awesome though. The last time I drove west from Amarillo, the sea change I felt re-entering the Land of Enchantment was positively spiritual. Long ago I felt that way re-entering the Lone Star State. Time passes, everything changes. Thank you for writing so compassionately and thoroughly on the subject.
Thanks, John, for the kind words and always supporting my writing. I agree with you on the magic of New Mexico. Been looking hard at Las Cruces. Very affordable real estate, a university, Mesilla, the Organ Mountains, and the desert environs I've always loved.
I have a good internet friend who lives in Las Cruces and by the looks of it seems to be a really perfect area to live. He regularly drives to Alpine and Marfa for a bit of Texas, occasionally into Austin. My only issues with moving west are the growing water issues because it will only get worse.
Water will be an increasingly problematic issue no matter where we live in the Southwest, I fear. I think more businesses and people will decamp the SW for the Midwest, where water is everywhere. I read yesterday that there is enough water in Lake Superior to cover all of North and South America with one foot of water. That's a supply that should never run out even after the apocalypse.
Have never been there but all of that sounds good. I follow folks on Twitter who post photos every day from walks out in the desert. I could see it. Same thing with Silver City on the western side of southern NM. I love the north but each year feel the cold a little more. A friend recommended Mesilla to me years ago. So much in NM I haven't seen.
On the motorcycle trip with buddies in Sept. we stayed in Mesilla and Silver City. Both really nice spots, though Mesilla has more creature comforts being Las Cruces adjacent. Silver City, of course, has the giant strip mine east of town that is a distraction but the surrounding hills are alive with the stuff that interests guys like us. Riding the motorcycle through the Mogollon Ranges in the Gila National Forest was pretty spectacular, too. As for Taos, I know I couldn't take the cold. Lingers a bit too much, arrives a bit too early.
Taos is a hollow expensive shell without a core now though the mountains and llanos are stupendous. Big state, though. I want to do more exploring in the south.
We need to change the famous quote thusly, “We are in Hell, so I’m going to leave Texas.”
I don't know that quote. I am familiar with the one by Civil War General Phillip Sheridan who said, "If I owned Texas and hell I'd rent out Texas and live in hell."
Crockett’s famous quote upon his political misfortune: You may all go to Hell and I will go to Texas. Probably inauthentic. I like Sheridan’s better anyway.
I remember that one, of course. But it's not what I got from what you wrote, though I often am addled early in the a.m.
We moved to Texas from Indiana 8.5 years ago. We wanted something different, and boy, did we get something different. We loved the state for so many of the reasons listed here. Although Houston was home, we made it around most of the state, including two trips to the Big Bend region. But the politics were just too much, and we eventually felt like we had no choice but to return to Indiana, a state that is technically redder than Texas but feels much safer with our close proximity to Michigan and Illinois. It saddens me, because it is a beautiful state with so much to offer, and all outsiders see is bad news.
Wonderful essay! After visiting Florida for vacations as a kid, I could not wait to figure out how to get there to live. My husband and I managed it after we graduated college and stayed for nearly a decade before Texas called us back. Now, I don't know which state is worse because I think I would probably be more upset living in Florida today than I am in Texas at this point, though perhaps the balm of ample public lands would soothe the constant DeSantis issues. The thing is, I can't see myself ever living outside of the south/Texas. For all its faults, there's something special here.
Dealing with the state park stuff this year made me realized how entrenched so much of the state is trapped in a myth that doesn't or never really existed. And I never truly knew this state growing up, either. I fell for any of the tropes as one does as a kid. Now I see it with different eyes and wonder at how much better it could be if we actually tried.
PS: It's Big Thicket National Preserve, not Forest! :)
I can't speak to the redemption of Texas. I've lived all my adult life here and the politics have almost always been venal with no consideration of victims, whether they be people, businesses, or the environment. Our government just does not seem to care and the people of this state keep electing angry white men and Christo-fascists. I think change is a long danged ways off. And sorry about getting Big Thicket's name wrong! Only camped there once and it was in 1982!
well, if you ever find yourself back in SE Texas, let me know and I'll take you to some really cool places in the Thicket!
I'll do that! I usually just travel through E. Texas but stop sometimes in a little town or two on my way to Louisiana or points north and east. But some time tromping around in those woods would be curative for the soul, I'm sure.