Eyes of Texas

“The eyes of Texas are upon you, all the live long day. The eyes of Texas are upon you. You cannot get away. Do not think you can escape them. At night or early in the morn. The eyes of Texas are upon you. ‘Till Gabriel blows his horn.” Univ. of Texas fight song.

The UT fight song, sung to the tune of “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad,” is one of many ditties I’ve heard throughout my life without thinking much about the lyrics. I never had much interest in Texas football. I’m not a fan ofTexas either.

My antipathy toward the Lone Star State began during the Viet Nam War when I associated it with Lyndon Johnson who thought he could ride in, guns blazing, and drive off them low down, lily livered, yellow bellied commie varmints once and for all. At that point, Texas lost the luster it had held in my childhood when, like all little boys of the time, being a cowboy or a gunslinger were right up there with being a fireman in my career plan.

Johnson wasn’t all bad, and neither is Texas. My problem with Texas is the ultra-conservative, White Christian extremist stereotype it conjures up in my mind. This is why I have always rooted for any team playing against the Dallas Cowboys. How much do I dislike the Cowboys? If Putin had one, I’d even root for Russia’s team against Dallas.

I have never visited Texas and never will. It, along with other such deep red states (and numerous Third Word countries) was consigned to my “chuck it” list long ago.

Recently, though, the song popped into my head as I was reading about the latest Texan anti-abortion move that is gaining momentum, most recently in Llano, Texas. It involves empowering private citizens to sue anyone who uses the roads going through and around Llano for the purpose of transporting a person out of state to get an abortion. It so happens just about all roads between New Mexico and Texas run through Llano.

Imagine all those Texan eyes that have nothing better to do than to watch for cars carrying women who may be headed to New Mexico for an abortion. In the Lone Star State vigilantism is alive and well. Today’s “most wanted” list does not feature desperados who rob banks, rustle cattle, steal horses and shoot up town (shooting up town is perfectly OK these days.) Posters will go up all over Texas with photos of the murderous women and their accomplices who trample on the “rights” of “unborn people” by seeking medical care that’s still legal in the few oases of reason scattered amid the great desert of extremism known as “America’s Heart(less)land.”

The rights of these baby murdering outlaws are of no consequence. In fact what used to be assumed to be the quintessential American right, the right to get in your gas guzzler and travel anywhere the length and breadth of this great land any time you please, is of no importance to them either. In Texas “this land was made for me and not for you.” I suspect many of those who are enlisting the vigilantes don’t care whether the women and their evil accomplices will be brought in dead or alive as long as the fetus can be saved.

‘Till Gabriel blows his horn, indeed.

The proponents of the law cite the Mann Act that makes it a federal felony to transport a woman across state lines for “immoral purposes.” Fortunately I didn’t know about it before I transported women from out-of-state schools to my college weekends.

With all the horrors going on in the world and around the country these days, isn’t it just like the denizens of deep red states such as Texas to fixate on casting judgement and doling out punishment to those who are, in their narrow medieval world view, committing unforgivable sins of the flesh? None other than the Pope himself recently criticized American Catholic leaders for having less interest in the real problems facing their parishioners than on “matters below the waist.” We know of course that many in the priesthood have focused their attention on that aspect of their flock, particularly the young ones, more than Jesus would have approved of.

The preoccupation with other people’s sexual matters, characteristic of the puritanical folk who flocked to the West after having settled in the new world to escape “religious persecution,” makes one who is schooled in the psychological theories of projection and reaction formation suspicious of the health of their libidos. Europeans were more than happy to see the backs of Calvinists and other extremist religious sects. These holier than thou types were a thorn in their sides long before they came here where, free of persecution, they commenced to persecute the indigenous people, Black slaves and their descendants and, now, their own neighbors.

Oh that we might see them depart once again for some other land taking their orange hero (fittingly the UT football jerseys are bright orange) and his MAGA party along with them. How about Guatemala or some such place? We could trade them for honest, hard working immigrants who would appreciate the freedoms of their adopted home and be assets to the nation.

If, for what reason I cannot fathom, you plan on traveling through Texas any time soon, be sure to get a pregnancy test first. The eyes of Texas will be upon you. Do not think you can escape them at night or early in the morn. And not just in Texas. All over the land, the rights of all of us are in the crosshairs of such folks as these Texan bounty hunters.