Friday, April 7, 2017

Hill Country

We finally made a trip into the Hill Country Thursday.  We dropped the wife's car at the dealer for a recall on her air bags and then headed out.  Unfortunately the wildflowers were underwhelming this year.  I didn't take a single photo.  We did get to eat some good BBQ in Llano, no it wasn't at Cooper's.  It was nearly 2:00 PM and I didn't want to stand in the line that was out the door.  I know they are famous but I don't wait in line when I am that hungry, so we passed them by and found a hidden gem.  It was a good trip despite the lack of wildflowers.

There is a young lad I try to 'mentor' a little at times.  He gave me a phone call the other night with question about his assignment for history.  For some reason he has a belief that I am an expert in Texas History.  I am just a proud Texan and love our history, but no expert.  The State School Board in Texas mandates that Texas History be taught in Texas Schools.  Since he is homeschooled I don't know if that is required.  His question to me was:  Give 3 reasons why Texas joined the Confederacy?
He needed the answer for the next day.  He also needed to give a reason or explanation of each.  Not something that can be answered easily over the phone.  But I did my best.  

I know what the schools teach these days and it has become even more PC that slavery be taught as the sole and only cause for the War Between the States.  But it is much much more complicated than that.  There was no ONE defining issue that caused this war to come about or why Texas joined the Confederacy.  All wars are much more complicated than a one word answer.  I can pretty well guess what the answers are that the teacher wanted.  But she most likely didn't expect to get the answers I gave him.  

I explained the Morrill Tariff and it's affect on Southern States and the National budget, basically it's effects on the economics of Texas being big cotton producer and it being the largest money maker in the State.  This was well before oil and beef.  I also gave a brief answer about States Rights and how the North was leaning more and more to big government.  There was a reason why the United States was a Confederation in the early years just after the Revolution.  The South wanted more autonomy to do it the way they saw fit and the North wanted to tell them how to do it.  Sound familiar?  The other answer was freedom.  The same freedom the founding fathers fought for.  

This was all I had time to give him over the phone, I know there is much much more and all of the ones I mentioned could be expanded on greatly.  But I wasn't going to fall into that PC answer, the one I suspect his teacher from Rhode Island was expecting.  I doubt she has even heard of the Morrill Tariff.  I could be wrong, but I have never met anyone that has.  I am curious to find out how his answers went over.


1 comment:

Old NFO said...

I have to admit I didn't remember it either... Had to go look it up! Sigh...