By Vincent L. Hall
The Dallas Morning News headline that waylaid me wasn’t funny at all. It read: “Defeated Republican calls Texas state government ‘the most corrupt ever! He calls Gov. Greg Abbott a liar and blames two billionaires who, he says, control the state.”
It was a revelation from an unexpected source that threw me. Suddenly, all I could think about was Pastor Joel Osteen of Houston.
So, let me introduce this thesis the way Osteen jump-starts a sermon. “I like to start off with something funny.”
It works so well for him that I decided to try the artful mechanism.
Like Joel’s jokes, you have probably heard it, but humor me anyway. Laugh with me, because the state of the State of Texas is bad enough to make God cry. (Remember John 11:35 Jesus wept?)
“Three preachers were driving down the road when they missed a turn and went into the ditch. As they pulled themselves together, a drunk pulled up and asked if they were all right.
“Oh, yes, Jesus is with us,” one replied.
The drunk thought that over for a minute. He looked around and said, “Well, you’d better let him get in with me; you’re going to kill him!”
God is still alive, but the national Republican Party is trying its best to kill him, and Texas leads the nation in attempts.
Listen to the News’ opening. “After his stunning defeat in the recent Republican primary, State Rep. Glenn Rogers, R-Graford unloaded on the corruption of Texas government that reaches, he says, to “the highest level.”
In a post-election column, he submitted to newspapers in his House district, Rogers, headlined it with an obscure quote from Davy Crockett — “I’ll wear no man’s collar.”
History will prove Gov. Abbott is a liar,” wrote the man who represents Palo Pinto, Parker, and Stephens counties.
He continued, “Our current state government is the most corrupt ever and is bought by a few radical billionaires seeking to destroy public education” and also “create a theocracy.”
Bebe Moore Campbell wrote a bestselling book in 1995 entitled “Your Blues ain’t like Mine.” A “divine” extrapolation of her thesis could imply that “Your God ain’t like Mine.”
Sadly, Texas Republicans and Trump acolytes talking about God today, but it doesn’t sound like the God I know.
Far too many of our parents are oblivious to the influx of money and a barrage of lies and innuendos targeting the public school system as we know it. Rogers exposed the fact that it was being bankrolled by two Texas billionaires, but that’s not all of it.
The whole idea of “school choice and vouchers” are veiled but virulent attempts at a “hostile takeover.” There are trillions of dollars in profit to be made by wresting power from the public-school districts as we know them today.
The bloated, bigoted, and bottomless 1%ers have little shame and even less interest in educating your children.
One of the question-and-answer exchanges should attract your attention and engage your curiosity.
Q: You wrote that aside from privatizing public schools, the billionaires want to turn America into a theocracy.
A: Rogers: Lord knows we need God today with all the problems we have. But we don’t need these radical Christian nationalists’ beliefs that are really dangerous to democracy and religious freedom.
You could make the conjecture that the Christian nationals want to return to the homogenous, segregated schools of the old South, and that is partly true. You could also argue that they want to erase all the signs and sins of “White” history, and that is reasonable.
The big-business billionaires who showed their hand during the Trump administration are no less determined to “privatize” education and cash in on the wind-fall.
Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos didn’t just stop leading the charge for these bloodsuckers when she left office. This group of educational carpetbaggers and “White Jesus” pimps are still at it.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Glenn Rogers for pointing toward the filth that Texas Republicans try to keep swept under the capitol rug.
I’m not sure who their God is, but they are going to kill our God if we don’t stop them. Y’all better Quit Playin’! Not even Joel Osteen can find a joke for this crowd!
A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.
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