As winter settles across our beloved Texas, from the Piney Woods to the Chihuahuan Desert, from the High Plains to the Gulf Coast, millions of Texas families are gathering to celebrate Christmas. In homes across our great land, children are hanging stockings, parents are wrapping presents, and the warm glow of Christmas lights mirrors the warmth in Texan hearts during this sacred season.
I’m reminded of those first Texians who celebrated Christmas in 1836 – their first as citizens of a free and independent nation. They had faced impossible odds, shouldered immense sacrifice, and emerged victorious in their fight for self-government. Their Christmas gift was liberty, bought and paid for with courage, determination, and an unwavering belief in the right of self-determination. They knew, as we know today, that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
That first Christmas of independence was celebrated by a people who had risked everything to secure the blessings of liberty for themselves and their posterity. They didn’t have much in terms of material wealth, but they had something far more valuable – the freedom to chart their own course and govern themselves according to their own values and principles.
Today, we stand at another crossroads. The Federal Government continues its relentless expansion, spending money it doesn’t have, making promises it can’t keep, and crushing the spirit of liberty under the weight of 180,000 pages of federal regulations. The national debt clock ticks ever upward, now exceeding $20 trillion, while bureaucrats in Washington mortgage our children’s future for their own political gain.
Yet in Texas, our spirit remains unbroken. Our resolve grows stronger with each passing day. While Washington drowns in a sea of red ink and political discord, Texans continue to show the world what’s possible when people are free to govern themselves. Our economy remains strong, our culture distinct, and our future bright – not because of the Union, but in spite of it.
Look around you this Christmas season. You’ll see it in the faces of your neighbors helping neighbors, in our churches and community centers serving those in need, in our businesses creating opportunity, and in our families passing down our values to the next generation. This is Texas – not just a place on a map, but a way of life worth preserving and protecting.
The spirit that won our independence at San Jacinto lives on in the hearts of Texans today. It’s present in every parent who wants a better future for their children, every entrepreneur who risks everything to build something new, every farmer and rancher who works from sunrise to sunset, and every Texan who believes that the best government is the one closest to home.
This Christmas, as we reflect on the blessings of family, faith, and freedom, let us also remember that the greatest gift we can give to future generations of Texans is the same gift our forebears gave to us – the right of self-government. The question is no longer if Texas will reassert its independence, but when.
The coming year will bring new challenges and new opportunities. But just as those first citizens of the Republic of Texas faced their future with courage and conviction, so too must we face ours. The path to independence isn’t easy, but nothing worth achieving ever is. Together, we can restore the promise of liberty and self-government that made Texas great.
From the Miller family to yours, I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year. May God bless you, and may God bless Texas.
