Proud to be a Texan? Of course you are! What's not to like? We've got mountains, beaches, football, Willie Nelson, and the Kilgore Rangerettes. It's natural to be sentimental about your home, of course, and it's hard to beat an affectionate portrayal, such as this one by former coach Bum Phillips.
Then there are all those pesky statistics. As John Adams once noted, "Facts are stubborn things."
"Texas on the Brink" is published annually by the Texas Legislative Study Group, now chaired by Rep. Garnet Coleman (D-Houston). For many years the driving force behind the report was (now former) Sen. Eliot Shapleigh (D-El Paso). Basically it assembles data in a host of policy areas such as health care, taxes, and education, ranking Texas to other states. It's harder to remain proud after looking through the whole thing, which can be done very quickly. There is plenty of documentation provided at the end, for any who might be skeptical.
Leaving aside the logical and semantic difficulty of an annual report with "brink" in the title (More brinky than last year!), it should be required reading by those who reflexively tout the superiority of the Lone Star State. Here's the link. Maybe some day we'll all be proud for the right reasons.
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