Keep Religion Out of Texas Government

"When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have sworn to support, no longer has a substantial existence, and the whole nature of their government has been forcibly changed, without their consent, from a restricted federative republic, composed of sovereign states, to a consolidated central military despotism, in which every interest is disregarded but that of the army and the priesthood, both the eternal enemies of civil liberty, the everready minions of power, and the usual instruments of tyrants."

So reads the second sentence of the Texas Declaration of Independence, ratified unanimously on March 2, 1836 while the Alamo was under siege by Santa Ana's armies. They are the words of true Texans (and Texians and Tejanos). They are the true voice of Texas.

Being a native-born Texan, I've been ashamed of my home state ever since George W. Bush was elected Governor. Perry has added to the disaster that Texas has become.

When Perry announced support for the unethical and unconstitutional (both state and federal) amendment to deny gay Texans equality in marriage, he did so in front of a church. He played the Christian voters like a harp, just as George W. Bush has been doing.

"The instruments of tyrants" indeed.

With the adding of the words "under God" to the state Pledge of Allegiance, Perry has further played the religion card. Many people seem to believe that those words had always existed in the federal pledge, but they have not. That pledge had been written by northern Baptist minister Francis Bellamy on September 7, 1892. Bellamy strongly agreed with our nation's founders of the importance and necessity of separation of church and state.

In 1954, the words were unconstitutionally added to our nation's pledge, forever blurring the boundaries, and our nation's liberties continue to suffer from this

The question now is, do I stay or do I leave? The answer is written in the blood of the fallen defenders of the Alamo. I am a Texan, a Texan am I. I will stay, and fight, for I shall never forget the Alamo, nor the sacrifice which it represents in the name of liberty for all.

In the immortal words of William Barrett Travis, "Victory or Death!"

Texas Declaration of Independence