In Debbie Riddle We Trust: Altering The Texas Pledge

HB 1034, the bill by State Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) to alter the Pledge to the Texas Flag by adding the words “state under God” will be considered by the Texas House today.

Oh, yes. We’ve got a juvenile prison system in a state of disaster, a department of transportation out of control with its “gap” estimates, and more…and the House will debate whether or not to make the pledge more Jesus friendly.

Why, oh, why? Where, oh where, are our priorities as a state? Worse yet, where in the hell is the outrage over this? Not necessarily because of the addition of “under God,” but because we’re altering a piece of Texas history that has stood unaltered for about 70 years. (We’ve blogged on this several times).  Not one single, solitary soul testified against the bill in committee, though someone from the Free Market Foundation was there in support of it (how this bill promotes a free market economy is beyond me).

And, damned near half the House seems to have signed onto the bill:

Allen, Alma | Anderson | Bailey | Bohac | Bonnen | Brown, Betty | Brown, Fred | Callegari | Castro | Chavez | Chisum | Christian | Coleman | Cook, Byron | Cook, Robby | Corte, Frank | Crabb | Creighton | Darby | Davis, John | Delisi | Deshotel | Driver | Dutton | Eissler | Elkins | England | Escobar | Farias | Flores | Frost | Gallego | Giddings | Gonzalez Toureilles | Goolsby | Guillen | Hancock | Hardcastle | Harless | Harper-Brown | Hartnett | Heflin | Hill | Homer | Hopson | Howard, Charlie | Hughes | Isett, Carl | Jackson, Jim | Keffer, Jim | King, Phil | King, Susan | Kolkhorst | Latham | Laubenberg | Lucio III | Madden | McClendon | McReynolds | Merritt | Miller | Murphy | Noriega, Rick | O’Day | Olivo | Orr | Otto | Parker | Patrick | Paxton | Phillips | Pickett | Pitts | Quintanilla | Raymond | Ritter | Rodriguez | Smith, Todd | Smith, Wayne | Smithee | Solomons | Swinford | Talton | Taylor | Thompson | Truitt | Turner | West, George “Buddy” | Woolley | Zedler

The question of religion aside, isn’t this bill just a horrible waste of time and state resources when we have better things to worry about? Why change something that is essentially an historic ‘artifact’ of sorts?

Of course, I totally understand why so many people have signed onto this bill (and expect it to pass with maybe a max of 10 people in dissent). It’s because this is yet another bill Republicans want to use to drive home Christian-right wedge issues.

Sigh.

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