Herman: Boys State kick-starts Texas secession movement.
Ken Herman says these young revolutionaries wanted to make history, which was mostly their point anyway; boys will be boys.
AUSTIN — Looks like some boys who fancy themselves as future leaders of the state of Texas actually think it would be even fancier to be future leaders of the nation of Texas.
In a move that’s drawn attention around the U.S., the 1,100 rising high school seniors who proudly wear the Boys State T-shirt voted overwhelmingly at the Capitol on June 15 for Texas secession.
Here’s how the Boys State blog captured the historic moment in an entry called “March to Secession”:
“One bill in particular was highly favored by both chambers, the bill for secession. The senators and representatives of the Texas Boys State government passed the bill and created a constitution and a declaration of independence. This is the first time in Texas Boys State history that the government body decided to secede from the United States. The gallery of each chamber were cheering and celebrating because they have now made history by becoming a nation.”
Here’s the rub. Boys State is an American Legion program, dating back to 1940 in Texas. The top objective for Boys State: “To develop civic leadership and pride in American citizenship.”
Michael Simon, internal affairs director for the American Legion Department of Texas, said: “Basically, the way we look at it is the Boys State program is a learn-by-doing thing, and we don’t tell the boys how to think. We don’t tell the boys how to vote or even what bills to propose. The boys came up with it on their own, and they moved forward with it.”
The American Legion takes no position on Texas secession. But some of its members apparently do. I asked Simon if headquarters has been fielding phone calls from members unhappy about the Boys State secession measure.
“Oh, yes,” he said emphatically.
Boys State is a time-honored tradition in many states, getting high schoolers schooled in the ways of government. Boys State programs around the nation have produced leaders of various professions and political stripes, including Neil Armstrong, Bill Clinton, Tom Brokaw, Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh.
The current future leaders in Texas Boys State are getting attention for their secessionist sentiment, from Washington to Wise County up in North Texas. The Washington Post headlined it: “In a first, Texas Boys State votes to secede from Union.”
I expect this to be followed by a Post editorial endorsing the new nation notion.
The Wise County Messenger headline was “Texas secedes (but only at Boys State).” Has a certain air of disappointment about it, doesn’t it?
Richard Greene’s dispatch in the Wise County paper included this from Ty Watson, the Boys State participant from Decatur who presented the secession bill: “Someone drew up the legislation and the speaker of the house asked me to present it. I read the Declaration of Independence. It was nerve-racking.”
Yes, fomenting revolution can be a bit rattling, especially at a Boys State meeting that forever shall be known as the secession session.
Watson also told the Wise County paper that the measure didn’t seem to sit well with some: “The Legionnaires were not real happy, because they served in the U.S. military.”
Secession obviously would be tricky, fraught with questions about economics and defense and whether the Texas Longhorns still would be eligible for bowl games.
Nevertheless, the declaration of independence approved by the boys says it is Texans’ right, “nay their obligation, to break the chains and throw down the regulations that bind them.”
“As it stood, the United States merely served to regulate Texans and no more,” the declaration says.
On Tuesday, Texas Nationalist Movement President Daniel Miller issued an attaboys statement for the Boys State boys: “As future leaders of Texas, you had the courage to tackle a subject that too many adults in Texas government will not. After a healthy debate, each of you weighed the pros and cons and made a firm, unashamed decision to choose a future of promise over the politics of fear.”
Yes, they did. And as the Boys State blog noted, they also had a talent show.
The Boys State grown-ups were damage controlling this week. Spokesman Daren Brabham wants you to know the sessions included lots of American patriotism. But boys will be boys.
“Inevitably,” he told me, “this gathering of teenage boys produces a mix of some silly or edgy ideas, some serious hard-liner propositions and some reasonable moderate compromises.”
Grant Marconi, 17, of Houston, who served as president pro tem of the Boys State Senate, told me the vote was more about making history as the first Boys State to vote for secession than a statement on the actual wisdom of the idea.
“In the real world,” Marconi said, “I would vote against seceding from the union.”
I counseled Marconi to delay joining the real world as long as possible. Many of us already there have periodic thoughts of seceding from it.
And don’t worry. This Texas secession thing isn’t going anywhere. But it must be noted I said the same thing when young Tommy Jefferson and some of his buddies won approval for a similar secession sentiment at a Boys Colony meeting in 1760.