“Don’t Mess with Texas”…..well go ahead, no one really cares.

’Cause God blessed Texas with His own hand
Brought down angels from the Promised Land
He gave them a place where they could dance
If you wanna see Heaven, brother, here’s your chance
I’ve been sent to spread the message
‘God blessed Texas’ -Song “God Bless Texas”-Little Texas

Bumper stickers started getting slapped on vehicles in late 1985. The slogan was the brainchild of a couple of “Good-ole Boys” from GSD&M, Mike Blair and Tim McClure after the Texas Department of Transportation asked them for help. See the State of Texas was throwing away 20 million dollars a year trying to get a handle on the liter issue across Texas highways. Next year Texas native Stevie Ray Vaughn was asked to sing “Eyes of Texas” at the 50th Annual Cotton Bowl Classic in Dallas. He ended the song with the line, “Don’t Mess with Texas”. After that many other musicians, celebrities and athletes toted the message to, “Don’t Mess with Texas”.

My wife and I were traveling around Texas, and we started talking about the horrendous amount of trash seen on many of the state roadways. She isn’t from Texas (She is from Buffalo, New York area) and asked me why it looks so “trashy” on many of the roads. We then started to look around at more and more roads and highways, and Texas has so much trash just tossed out the window of cars and trucks it makes you angry to see it. Then I remember the TV ads of “Don’t Mess with Texas” that pounded the airways back in the 1980s and ’90s. Willie, McConaughey, George Foreman, King George Strait, Warren Moon, and even the macho Chuck Norris spent their time on the campaign to keep Texas clean. Well…..It didn’t work.

There are so many signs on the highways that say, “This location is adopted by …..fill in the blank” organization. Could be a local VFW. Another could be a local High School. I have even seen some with a local motorcycle club. My question as I sit here is, “Why do we need this program at all”? I mean; “People stop throwing trash out the window and keep your Texas clean and beautiful”. Texas has this huge attitude that everything is “Bigger and Better” in Texas. We have the stuck-out chest pride of, “Well if you’re not from Texas get here as soon as you can.” Hell, even Tennessee’s own Davey Crockett said, “You can all go to hell I’m going to Texas”. Why would you dirty up the place we all adore?

Texas has been known not just nationwide, but even worldwide as having enormous pride. Big Cowboy hats and western boot mentality. “Remember the Alamo”, “We can Secede”, and the Dallas Cowboys are “America’s team”. But pride in what? Definitely not in taking care of our state and its beauty. The landscape of flatlands of West Texas, the curves of the Hill Country, the beaches of South Texas, and the Piney Woods of East Texas; show us the diversity of our state. Such beauty we get to view, but at the same time beauty, we take for granted. It is ugly to drive down a Texas road and look to your left or right. Trash everywhere. Where is the pride?

The wife was riding top down enjoying the beauty of an early spring day this weekend and came home and told me what she saw. She was saddened. She had seen young kids dressed in orange, picking up trash along a major highway. Dangerous of course, but we must pick up the crap people throw out the window. These kids are doing “Your” job by putting the trash in a bag and throwing it away. What is so difficult about taking your fast-food bags back to your house and putting it in the trash?

Sure, it is a crime to liter, but the police have to see you do it before you will be penalized. Just like speeding, we get away with it when the police aren’t around; and then complain when we get pulled over for speeding. We were breaking the law and got a ticket? “Bad cop….no donut for you”. Well, if the trashy, Texas-loving schmucks would just keep their windows up and trash inside then your kids wouldn’t have to be out there picking up literally, “Your trash”. Not my trash, not their trash-but your trash.

My daughter was a member of the Whitehouse, Texas “First Ladies”. They were about 40 girls on the drill team that were High School students. Part of being a member comes with doing things in the community. Great things for the “locals”. One of the things they had to do was get up early one morning every year and go put on the “Orange Jacket” and walk beside the road and pick up someone else’s trash. They did it because they care. You did it because you didn’t care. These young ladies are outtherer risking their lives being hit by cars and trucks because of the laziness and the lackadaisical attitude of not just a few, but of many. Have you seen the roadside? It can’t just be a few or a small percentage….it has to be more than not.

Texas tried to get a hold of the issue in the late 20th century and save almost 20 million dollars the state was spending on our liter problem. For over a decade the problem was spotlighted by Texas celebrities, but it didn’t spill over to the next generation. Now we spend over 40 million a year on the liter problem and all these “Adopt-A-Highway” organizations combine to save the state another 3 million dollars a year. I’m no math major but that 40 million could go to education or the terrible roads we have in most of the state. But, no it has to go for the idiots throwing out bags, bottles, cans, and cigarette butts all across our great state. It is sad….but who really cares huh?

The problem could be solved very easily and quickly with a couple of changes. First, stop throwing anything out of the windows. Second, turn in anyone you see throwing stuff out of their vehicles. We live in the most technological times in history. Everyone has a cell phone. When you see a “Litter Bug” get the license plate and make the call. “Snitches get stitches”…yeah, yeah. Do us all a favor and stand up for the great State of Texas. We are allowing the vandalization of our state. We need to care. We should care…..As the Fabulous Thunderbirds screamed out to us all, “Are you tough enough”? God Bless Texas……not the dirty, trashy one but the one we all should want. “Don’t Mess With Texas” needs to be a personal anthem to the hand that is about to roll that window down….

The Coach John Brent