Texas flag deserves a pledge, too

Citizen groups push for lawmakers to record more votes

October 14, 2004

By Camille Wheeler, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Leander's impetus for doing so was a year-old state law that requires public school students to begin their days by observing a minute of silence and pledging allegiance to both the U.S. and Texas flags, Mayor John Cowman said.

The Georgetown and Austin school boards also recite the state pledge before starting meetings.

Cowman learned the Texas pledge from his daughters, now in kindergarten and the fourth grade.

"Wait, wait, wait, what is this?" he remembers asking them. "What is that you just said?"

Intrigued, Cowman launched a Google search. He read the pledge, liked it and decided the Council should start reciting it at public meetings.

"I said, 'My gosh, let's follow what our children do,' " he said.

It hasn't been an easy process, though.

"The pledge to the United States flag is beautiful," Cowman said. "The Texas flag one doesn't flow as easily; it took my Council four months to get in step with one another on how to get in sync."

The Council now leads everybody through the Texas pledge, and some audience members hold pamphlets with the pledge's words.

State law stipulates that if both are recited, the state pledge must always follow the U.S. pledge of allegiance.

The state pledge may be spoken at any public or private meeting or state historical event at which the pledge of allegiance to the U.S. flag is recited.

"We may all be upset about an issue, but there's one moment with both pledges and the prayer that we all come together," Cowman said.

I, meanwhile, remain mortified that not only didn't I know the state pledge, I'd never heard of it.

So I felt a little better after talking with Round Rock residents Dave and Gay Clawson, 62 and 61.

"I've lived here 40 years, and I've never heard of it," Dave said. His wife is a native Texan but said it was news to her, too.

State Rep. Dan Branch, R-Dallas, wants all Texans to know the words, even though the Legislature doesn't recite the state pledge when it's in session.

Branch, who co-authored the law last year with Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said he'll try to make the pledge part of the Legislature's routine when it reconvenes next year.

"If anyone ought to be saying it, it should be the state Legislature," Branch said.

Currently, the Legislature opens with prayer.

Meanwhile, from Brownsville to Wichita Falls, the 4 million students reciting the pledge every day are carrying Branch's message.

"The buzz is out there," Branch said, adding that he's also hearing it recited at civic meetings, such as YMCA banquets or Boy Scout meetings.

Branch said he and Wentworth were concerned when they learned that some school officials weren't requiring students to recite the U.S. and Texas pledges, even though both flags were flying outside.

"I just thought it was a good thing for kids growing up in Texas to feel some native pride about their state," Branch said. "It's a fun thing for kids to come home and teach it to their parents, just like they teach them how to use computers."

Branch said he learned the 71-year-old state pledge a couple of decades ago at Republican Women Club meetings, where it always was recited.

"It was a danger to show up as a candidate or potential candidate and not know it," he said. "I've seen some officials get red-faced when they were asked to recite it."
As for me, I pledge to keep learning all things Texas, such as that the state dinosaur is the Brachiosaur sauropod Pleurocoelus, a four-legged vegetarian that roamed Texas about 100 million years ago.
cwheeler@statesman.com