Quote Originally Posted by birdgirl73
There are Texans, and I'm proud to be one of them, who've traveled widely around the world and who work hard not to say disparaging things about France or Canada or other places that we've been lucky enough to visit and enjoy. At the moment, I'm finding it much more difficult not to disparage the culturally insensitive attitudes of some of my fellow Texans. . . .
Don't worry Birdgirl...I do not share all of the opinions I that I "shed" light upon. From my perspective...which may be rather limited having only lived 19 years...you cannot deny that people are EXTREMLY proud of our great state...I would press you to find another state who has a well organized independence movement like Texas does...while it is not an overwhelming force, it is widely recognized. I have known a couple people who have gone as far as renouncing their American citizenship in favor of the interim Republic of Texas which currently exists. While I would not go as far as denouncing ties to America, if a revolution occurred my allegiance would be to my country...TEXAS.

And you don't think all the folks up north should be or are sometimes referred to as Yankees? Consider it's definition as provided by the American Heritage Dictionary:

1. A native or inhabitant of New England.
2. A native or inhabitant of a northern U.S. state, especially a Union soldier during the Civil War.
3. A native or inhabitant of the United States.

Americans outside of Texas fit two of these definitions really well...especially if you consider my previous Independent Texas comments. I have heard Yankee thrown around in reference to folks outside of Texas many times. I am a student at A&M and can recall very well an instance in which my tenured history professor referred to "everyone north of the Woodlands" as Yankees...which is even broader than I had previously mentioned.

Do you remember the recent election when Kinky Friedman called the refugees "thugs and crackheads," it was pretty controversial but many people did concede that a large rise in crime could be accurately attributed to the addition of refugees from Louisiana and to a smaller degree Mississippi. Even former first lady Barbara Bush was quoted as saying:
Quote Originally Posted by Barbara Bush
"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle)--this is working very well for them."
I am sympathetic towards them, I was in Galveston when Rita was due to hit...I was evacuated and treated very hospitable along the way.

As for the French...is there something wrong with telling them that their socialist system is broken? Is there something wrong with fearing that the severe economic effects of their government might spread to America...or even worse TEXAS? I know that you appreciate their rich culture but you must admit that their growing 9% unemployment rate is dangerous to the entire world. And you also must take note of there stageringly low productivity standards which are seemingly unimaginable from mine and many of my fellow Texans' points of view. While we are working hard to send our tax dollars to every country on the planet France is on vacation...likely spending the Iraqi oil for food money they illegally obtained.

Oh damn...I spilled beer on my keyboard. What is the harm in this discussion...I don't know if I will ever get much of a chance to go international as you have, I see this as an opportunity to see other people's point of view...I'm sure your interested to see how the rest of the world might view us Americans.