#39 / 2004 Tour 2: Texas question

WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO TEXAS?

#39

Today we will drive out of Texas through El Paso to Las Cruces. We entered near Port Arthur on the eastern side, following Highway 90 out of Louisiana. And I just can’t help but wonder what has happened to Texas. During the last election we heard so much about George Bush’s great contributions to his state. But for the life of me I can’t see it.

All these small Texas towns look deserted. They are the kind of small cities you want to raise kids in, visit Grandma and Grandma in – picturesque and quaint. But they are all about 30 to 50 to 80 per cent empty. The skeletons of gas stations, beauty parlors, cafes, muffler shops, grocery stores all lie bleached out silver in the Texas sun. Where did all those people go? To Houston, Dallas, further?

I just can’t see the benefit of the loss of all this small town family life. I KNOW if you drive from one end of Tennessee to another you will not encounter this type of devastated country life.

I don’t know what happened, I’m sure the collapse of farm life came a lot sooner than George W. Bush as governor, but there isn’t a spark of effort left in these little towns. You don’t see any new construction of any kind, no investment, no attempt to save them from their ultimate demise. Even the pizza parlors are out of business.

I feel so sorry for these people. I see long trains roll across the plains out here with exotic boxcar titles from China, Holland, Germany, Singapore, all around the world. Someone, somewhere, sometime decided the products produced out here from the hardworking people on family lands was not worthy enough, and everyone has suffered.