As much as Sam Houston personifies Texas, you might think he was born and raised there, fought at the Alamo, and inspired manly-man Texans like Beto O’Rourke.
Wrong on all counts.
Born over the mountains in Virginia, Sam Houston was raised a Tennessean. More accurately, he pretty much raised himself in Tennessee. And did some growing up too in Arkansas among the Cherokee, to whom he ran away as a teenager to escape his despotic older brothers. Arkansas sits just over the Mississippi from Tennessee much like Mexico sits just over the Rio Grande from the U.S.
Houston’s personal history is far too rich for this short space to do justice. Some highlights: He served under Andrew Jackson in the War of 1812. He was an adopted son of a Cherokee chief, had a Cherokee wife, and acted as a Cherokee agent during their diaspora, infuriating John Calhoun in the process. He was elected to Congress from Tennessee. And in 1827 he was elected Governor of Tennessee, only to resign two years later due to a scandalous divorce from the white wife he married while in office. She was from a prominent family in Gallatin. Who didn’t see that coming?
After the contretemps with that Sumner County influencer, Houston went back to the Indians for a while, then showed up in Texas. There, he joined the fight for independence from Mexico but was not the famous Tennessean at the Alamo. (That was another colorful and strong-willed Tennessean: David Crockett.) Instead Houston led the Texans to military victory and became president of the new Republic of Texas and upon its statehood, its governor. And then, a U.S. senator!
And you think you did something because you made it through rush and completed a 10K? Well, you did at that. But there are few human beings before or since as accomplished as Sam Houston. If you are one of the rare book readers left, find a copy of “The Raven” to get the rest Sam Houston’s story. It’s a page-turner.
As for the right-here right-now, we Tennesseans are about to elect a new governor. It might be good to reflect a bit of what kind of governor we got in Sam Houston, and what kind of governor the next one could be.
Sam Houston was an iconic Tennessean. Although he resigned (and also later resigned as governor of Texas, angry that Texas voted to join the Confederacy), Sam Houston was no quitter. He was a fighter. He never quit anything to get away from a fight, but to get on to a bigger fight. Tennessee achieved glory from its earliest days because of larger-than-life men like Sam Houston, and Texas would be nothing but North Mexico today had it not been for the many Tennesseans like Sam Houston who made it happen. Before his governorship was upended in Tennessee, he pushed through infrastructure improvements and worked to lower rent for homesteaders – pressing issues of the day, not so different from this day.
The oddsmakers say that Tennessee’s next governor will be Marsha Blackburn. She’s made all the right moves to get the office. She’s made a good living being a reliable conservative voice for decades on Fox News and other media venues as a Congressman and later in the Senate. Her problem to this point is that in Congress, she’s been too much a talker and not enough of a fighter.
Taking hold of Tennessee’s state government now, Marsha Blackburn, or whoever might win from the cheap seats, has a chance to make Tennessee great again. That is, if the governor will not just warm the seat, but will fight like Sam Houston.
Here’s how we’ll know:
Make election integrity issue #1. A republic like the United States cannot survive without free, fair, and honest elections. The next governor should lead the nation by creating legislation requiring same-day, paper-ballot, citizen-only elections. With the confidence such a move will bring, Tennesseans will do an even better job of electing state legislators who pass no-nonsense corrections to errant trends – like making sure shameless boys don’t compete in girls’ sports and lurk around in their bathrooms.
Put Tennessee first. This republic, the longest lasting in the history of the world, was created by strong states who set their own course and made their own laws. They came together for their common defense from the threat of global (at that time, British) tyranny. Tennessee was the leader in the first wave of new states after the Colonies and it should still lead today.
So, for example on issue #1, it should not just rely on the integrity of its own elections, but should encourage like-minded states to create parallel legislation. If other states persist in lax voter standards and corrupt elections, it harms Tennesseans because they do not get equitable representation in Congress and fair standing in federal elections. Tennessee should vigorously fight that injustice in the courts.
Clip the Feds’ wings. Whatever the actual goals of each side in the conflict, the War Between the States of the 1860s did settle one question: race-based slavery was outlawed. But the country has never recovered from the lengths Lincoln went to win that war. The federal government has far outstripped its commission. Federal bureaucracy and fiefdoms have proliferated, all at the expense of states’ sovereignty, and thus of the citizens’.
Tennessee should lead the way in defying unlawful and wanton federal directives, funding manipulation, and abuse of the Constitution. Opposition to the overreach can take many forms from rejecting federal highway and education funding that comes with strings attached to forcing the Feds to apply to our Legislature for a license for any and every operation within Tennessee’s borders, whether park maintenance, law enforcement, or agricultural regulations.
Don’t just promote, but insist on the straight and narrow. AI, Darwinism, and atheism are allowed in the public schools, so certainly God belongs there, too. Legislate it. Set broad guidelines for schools – like non-discrimination, say, and a mandated Memorial Day-Labor Day school year, and the return to neigborhood schools directed by parents and taxpayers, and the Ten Commandments in every school lobby. Then allow each school system to make its own dress codes, hire its own principals and teachers, and set its own curriculum. And yes, to paraphrase Gen. Patton, to pray every damn day if they want to.
If some so-and-so’s object to prayer before football games, or cell phone bans, or wearing decent clothes to school, fine, allow them to opt their children out. But first and foremost, in the schools themselves, teach children the three R’s and the path to success in life in a structured, reliable, Godly environment. The whole state will benefit and the taxpayers will feel that they have gotten their money’s worth. And parents won’t feel like they have to flee the schools to make sure their children are getting proper formation.
And how about accepting the obvious: Perversion belongs in nightclubs or privately between consenting adults. Keep it away from kids, from the public square, and from the family structure. Teach kids the straight and narrow and if they veer too far off it later, that’s on them.
Fight Mr. Big. Stop the state from kissing the hindquarters of big corporations that promise the Moon. We don’t need more people and we don’t need more of their kinds of jobs. If the state is going to give a tax break, a grant, or a subsidy, give it to small, locally-owned businesses and by all means, family farms. And where the Feds have completely dropped the ball on anti-trust enforcement, pick that ball up and run with it: Force atrocious companies like Microsoft and Amazon and Google and the like – monopolies in disguise – to get licenses to operate here just as if they were one more utility. Then stop them from raping and pillaging the Tennessee consumer and small businesses, or else send them packing. And by the way, stop the subscription madness and the notion to eliminate cash. That’s a big way to cramp the big boys’ style and protect individual rights.
Speaking of which, restore property rights. The pursuit of happiness – at least economically – is all about private property. The growth of a citizen from pimple-faced kid to middle class adult can be traced directly to ownership of real estate and other material assets. Legislation is pending that would remove or reduce the state’s take from property tax, but the real problem is that most counties rely on property tax for the lion’s share of their budgets. Fine. Counties should be able to levy whatever tax their constituents want. But don’t treat the property owners like renters. Enact legislation which will make property tax a lump sum that will be charged at purchase time and can be paid in full from day one, or financed through one’s mortgage according to consumer choice. No one’s property should be subject to theft by the state for not paying an annual and ever-growing property tax.
Gate the whole community. Rich folks whether Democrat or Republican love to move up to gated communities, or if they’re rich enough, to surround their plantation with a fence and a gate worthy of Dachau. Who can blame them? They want to keep the miscreants out. Why shouldn’t every Tennessee citizen deserve such security? If the Feds won’t enforce the border and remove the illegals, Tennessee should provide daily free bus transportation to Washington and the doors on those buses should lock from the outside. Then maybe teenagers will learn how to work during those long summers we’re going to give them and the undereducated can start a lawncare or construction business without having to compete with illegals living like sardines in trailers and undercutting their pay. Not to mention all the bad habits some illegals bring, from pedophilia and sex trafficking to gangs and cartels.
Make Tennessee Healthy Again. Revitalize and in fact revolutionize the health care industry by ignoring the Feds and making health insurance once again a wide open market like it used to be. And make sure that the lockdown, masking, and vaxxing madness that was perpetuated during Covid never happens here again. One way would be to institute steep fines and the risk of losing their business license for any company or institution operating in Tennessee which attempts to force any sort of medical procedure on its Tennessee employees.
Put the kebosh on the surveillance state and the Mafia state. Of course, on private property, it’s the owner’s choice. But on Tennessee roads and in public spaces, no way. Forbid the cameras. State Troopers can do a fine job without them. They have done so for years. These hideous data centers are not about AI; they are about storing surveillance. Screw ’em. Otherwise we are building the walls of our own prisons brick by brick.
Rumor has it that this year all new cars will have mandatory facial surveillance of he driver with no opt-out. Ban the sales of such vehicles in Tennessee. And while you’re at it, ban scooters on the streets. And party buses.
And for God’s sake, stop Tennessee from doing Tony Soprano’s job. Can the lottery. It’s making a few people a lot of money with state sanction and perverting the funding of higher education. Return betting to the back-alley bookies where it belongs. Gambling addiction sports the highest rate of suicide of all the social evils.
And… Don’t get sucked in by “medical marijuana.” Instead, celebrate sobriety and lead the nation in requiring responsible citizenship, cleaning up the streets, stopping the squatters, and institutionalizing those who will not or cannot support themselves. The potheads can go to Colorado. Here in Tennessee we have plenty of things to make us stupid enough already, not the least of which comes from Pulaski, and we know it’s best enjoyed sippin’, not inhalin’.
Reform and Re-Charter Nonprofits. How in the heck is it that Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital could sexually butcher mixed up kids and get away with it? Who has been fired for that? Has their nonprofit charter been challenged because of it? C’mon, Tennessee. It’s time to put the magnifying glass on EVERY nonprofit operating in the state, including churches, whether based here or not. Get executive salaries in line. Make sure their mission is of benefit to the community. And make sure their boards are responsible. In fact, it might be smart to set up standards for DIVERSITY on nonprofit boards: How about requiring that some average folks are on every legally constituted board or commission? If these operations are not going to pay taxes like the rest of us, we ought to have a say about how they operate and what they do.
Set a principled example for Congress. Tennessee law requires that new legislation be taken in “regular order” – in other words, only one issue can be voted on at a time. This is the single most effective check on corruption. The prevailing habit of Congress in passing omnibus legislation to which pork and other unrelated legislation is attached to gain votes and skirt public review must be stopped if the Feds are ever going to reflect the will of the people again without the taint of corruption. Tennessee can and should set the standard for Congress to reform itself. That’s a tall order, but if not us, who?
These are just a few ideas to get started.
There’s no foreseen need for the next governor to resign after two years and head to Texas. But if this country is going to be fixed – and is there really anyone out there who doesn’t recognize that it is in dire need of fixing? – it can start right here, right now in Tennessee if we get the right kind of governor. One that kicks kiesters, not cans down the road.
To our next governor, Marsha, or by long odds one of the others: If you want to do a good job for your home state, it is time to summon your inner Sam Houston. But stick around for a full term and make Tennessee a leader again, not just one more me-too state.
For a two-page PDF statement of where Way Out Charlotte Pike is coming from, please CLICK HERE.
john.arra@wayoutcharlottepike.com