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Ken Herman|Austin American-Statesman

The Dallas Cowboys, arrogantly self-appointed as Americas Team, have won only two playoff games this century. The once-vaunted Texas Longhorns now churn through football coaches as if there were term limits. Texan presidential candidates now cant even get the nomination of their own parties.

And now, the state with Texas swagger, the state of Giant and the real-life stories that inspired that Hollywood fable of oil and wealth and independence, the state that thinks of itself as the biggest and best, is dealing with the very cold slap in the face that its been a state living in a state of delusion.

So much oil. So much natural gas. So many other sources of energy. So much statewide suffering when all that power was for naught when winter blew through.

More than one non-Texan seems to be taking some measure of delight in twisting around our Dont Mess With Texas anti-littering slogan to point out that right now Texas is a mess.

Was this the week when TEXAS! was humbled into texas? Even the most arrogant of Texans that would be Sen. Ted Cruz was humbled into retreat. When reminded of his tweets mocking California power outages, Cruz tweeted: "I got no defense. A blizzard strikes Texas & our state shuts down. Not good. Stay safe!" (This was before he headed to Cancun.)

Secede? Heck, weve shown we cant even get our own power into our own homes.

Howd we get here? Maybe the leaders weve elected have been spending a bit too much time and rhetoric worrying about perceived issues such as who should use which bathroom when they should have been keeping an eye on keeping the lights on.

Were suffering and staggering through the consequences of a generation of Republican leaders including many whove prioritized the pandering of vote-seeking culture wars over the solid principles that once were GOP core issues.

The consequences include the previously imponderable, such as an Austin City Council members email with advice I never thought Id see from an Austin City Council member. Alison Alters guidance echoed that offered in song by the late, great Frank Zappa in 1974: Watch out where the huskies go. And dont you eat that yellow snow.

Alters less poetic, but timely, recent advice:

We know some residents do not have any water. Boiling snow or ice will make it microbiologically safe for consumption, but only if it hasnt been contaminated (think sludge or snow off the street). Use the absolute cleanest snow you can find.

Instructions on how to survive by boiling snow. Austin, Texas. February, 2021.

During this crisis, the anti-Washington hubris of many Texans gave way to welcomed help from the feds, including, so far, 729,000 liters of water, more than 50,000 blankets, and generators and fuel for hospitals and water facilities. Many Texans will be counting on more federal help in the days, weeks and months to come. Lives have been shattered. Lives have been ended.

The image of the Texas miracle has been frozen for now by a few days of very non-Texas weather. But the truth is, much as its been with COVID, the cold has exposed a quality-of-living gap too long ignored as a result of the your-own-bootstraps mentality repulsively repeated by a Texas elected official during the Big Freeze of 21.

Tim Boyd, mayor of the West Texas town of Colorado City, (pronounced colarayda, not like the state) turned to Facebook to showcase his heartless ignorance (and spelling deficiencies) in a post he acknowledged would hurt some feelings.

No one owes you are your family anything, nor is it the local government's responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Boyd posted on Feb. 16.

Only the strong will survive and the week shall parish, he warned. "Sink or swim it's your choice! The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I'm sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout. If you dont have electricity you step up and come up with a game plan to keep your family warm and safe. If you have no water you deal without and think outside the box to survive and supply water to your family.

But wait, theres more.

If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising! Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish. Folks God has given us the tools to support ourselves in times like this. This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent for handouts.

Not satisfied that hed delivered his message, his dishonor continued:

Am I sorry that you have been dealing without electricity and water, yes! But Ill be damned if Im going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves! We have lost sight of those in need and those that take advantage of the system and meshed them in to one group!! Bottom line quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your ass and take care of your own family!

Why people who dont believe in government go into government is beyond me. This particular person realized he was ill-suited for government service and resigned after this post. But I fear that his brand of plain-spoken nonsense lies not far beneath the surface for many of our leaders who are politically savvy enough to keep it beneath the surface.

Attitudes like that allow many non-Texans to caricature what it means to be Texan. I recently was reminded of this assessment of Texas and Texans by a Brit who did a stint as a newspaper editor in Richmond, Texas near Houston.

Upon returning to Great Britain, Nicholas Maillard reported Texas was "filled with habitual liars, drunkards, blasphemers, and slanderers; sanguinary gamesters and cold-blooded assassins; with idleness and sluggish indolence, two vices for which the Texans are already proverbial; with pride, engendered by ignorance and supported by fraud.

Maillards description is blatantly ridiculous because at least two of those are inaccurate. And Im unaware if any gamesters I know are, or ever have been, sanguinary.

Maillard arrived in Texas on Jan. 30, 1840 and headed home that August (which means his assessment of Texans came despite never meeting Cruz). His critical review of Texans came in his 1842 book: The History of the Republic of Texas, from the Discovery of the Country to the Present Time and the Cause of Her Separation from the Republic of Mexico. It could have been subtitled Texas Sucks.

He was wrong. Nothing is as bad as he portrayed Texas. And, as we chillingly found out during the Big Freeze of 21, nothing is as great as Texas thought it was. There is, weve found, room for improvement.

Maybe we need this challenging reminder. Im sure our leaders do. Unfortunately, Gov. Greg Abbott initially instinctively retreated to finger pointing by going on Fox News Channel and somehow blaming this on the Green New Deal, something that, at this point, is just an idea in some politicians' heads

A few days later, with a politicians dexterity, Abbott simultaneously took responsibility and placed blame.

Im taking responsibility, he told reporters, for the current status of ERCOT.

Yes, the tragically misnomered Electric Reliability Council of Texas is overdue for overhaul. But the current state of generation of electricity in Texas is the product of a generation of GOP leadership. It would have been refreshing to have heard Abbott say to Texans: We failed you.

Because, despite what a now-former West Texas mayor told his folks, thats the truth.

Were still Texas. But maybe this is a good time for some introspection and ballot-box action about what it means to be Texas. If we learn from this, more power to us.

Continued here:
Herman: The humbled state of the state of Texas - Austin American-Statesman