Photo Of Ohio River From Eden Park Overlook In Cincinnati

Here is a photo of the Ohio River I took from the Eden Park overlook in Cincinnati. I took this picture last July.

Here is information about Eden Park. 

I was thinking about our great inland rivers this morning because I have started to read Mark Twain–A Life by Ron Powers.

The Ohio River and Twain’s Mississippi River connect in Cairo, Illinois.

We are all connected as well.   

Photo Of Big Shadows Over Corpus Christi Bay

This is a photo of buildings making big shadows on Corpus Christi Bay. I took this picture last month.

You don’t need to see the buildings to be fairly certain there are buildings near by.

Please click here for my post earlier this week about Sojourner Truth’s comment that she “sells the shdow to support the substance.” 

Here is a map of Corpus Christi Bay.

Here is information about the ecology of Corpus Christi Bay.

Here is information on visiting Corpus Christi, Texas. 

Photo Of A Vast Open Expanse That Helps Define Texas—We Can Define Texas As We Wish

For some people Texas is wide prairies ( Of course, the tallgrass prairies of Texas are now mostly all gone.) and the vast lands of West Texas.  Maybe for some, Texas is defined by Big Bend National Park.

In my view, Texas is defined in good part by the Gulf Coast. Here is a picture of the Gulf of Mexico at Galveston. Take a look at all those ships in the picture. Most of those ships will enter the Houston Ship Channel.

We can define Texas, or any other place, as we wish. It’s up to you.

Many conventionally accepted definitions of Texas have little to do with the multiethnic, urban state Texas has become. This is one reason some are upset by the increasing number of Hispanics and other immigrants in Texas. 

I don’t know what Texas will be like in the future, but I do know that the traditional definitions of rugged individualism and cowboys and oil and all that stuff have not served the average person of Texas very well. Texas is often a poor and underdeveloped place.

It’s time for new ways to see and imagine Texas.   

Chisholm Trail Info & Photo Of Chisholm Trail Room In Austin’s Driskill Hotel

Here is a photo of the Chisholm Trail room at the Driskill Hotel in Austin.  

You walk in to this meeting room and a big painting of the Chisholm Trail is on all four walls. 

The Chisholm Trail was used between 1867 and 1884 to get cattle out of Texas and up to access to transport and markets in Kansas.

It can also be known as the Chisum Trail.

Here is a history of the Chisholm Trail.

Here is information about Jesse Chisholm who, at the least, played a large part in establishing the trail.     

Here is a biography of former Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm of New York. Ms. Chisholm was the first black woman to serve in Congress.

Here is a link to the Chisholm Trail Heritage Center in Duncan, Oklahoma.

Here is a link to a story about the harm done to Native Americans in Oklahoma by white settlement. 

Here is a link to the Fort Worth Stockyards. This is a fun place to visit for both kids and adults.  After Galveston, Fort Worth has been my favorite Texas city to visit in my nine years in Texas.

Here is a brief biography of former House Speaker Jim Wright of Fort Worth.

And, since you are at a liberal blog, here is the link to the good liberal magazine The American Prospect.

Photo Of Texas State Capitol I Took From Austin Skyscraper

Here is a photo of the Texas State Capitol building I recently took from the 22nd floor of the Chase Building in Austin.  At least I think it was the 22nd floor.

Though I’ve lived in Texas nine years now, I don’t feel an emotional attachment to our State Capitol building. I feel our State Capitol building has been on the whole a location of misdeeds and wrongdoing.

In frankness, though I am first and foremost a political blogger, I do not find much of what takes place in the Capitol building to be of interest. This does not mean I ignore our State Capitol. It simply means I limit my intake of Texas political news because there are only so many ways you can read that people are being cheated. 

Still, I do believe a better day in Texas and in all places is possible. You have to believe better things are possible or you’re finished as a person anybody would want to get to know and have as a friend.

Some people think a better day in Texas will come when ongoing demographic changes in Texas return the legislative chambers of the Capitol back to Democrats.

I think the better day will come when the people of Texas finally decide they want to act upon their more decent impulses and cast aside the aggression and economic Darwinism that have long defined Texas.    

Photo Of Huge Kentucky Fried Chicken Bucket & Link To Fast Food Nation

Here is a picture of a big Kentucky Fried Chicken bucket/sign I took in Cincinnati this last summer.

Here is a link to how bad it is to eat Kentucky Fried Chicken posted on a website connected to the Lebanese military.

Here is a link to a review of the book Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser.