Good morning!

My son-in-law is being commissioned as an officer in the U.S. Army today, so I end the week offering thoughts on how we think about our military.

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Friday, May 19, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Senate Committee Strengthens House Border Security Measures

• As the border crisis continues, the Texas Senate Committee on Border Security strengthened proposed border security legislation from the Texas House. But as Sydnie Henry reports, advocates say the legislation still doesn’t go far enough to empower state authorities to repel invading illegals.
      
• After House Speaker Dade Phelan (R–Beaumont) sided with Democrats to kill a landmark border security bill, which was later attached in a severely weakened form to another measure as an amendment, citizens called on the Texas Senate to strengthen it.
      
• State Sen. Brian Birdwell (R–Granbury), chairman of the Senate Committee on Border Security and the Senate sponsor of the legislation, has obliged.
      
• Under Birdwell's reconstituted measure, border security needs are funded, including providing border region courts with the necessary resources for dealing with border-related offenses and compensating property owners for damages caused by illegal crossings. It also creates a state border security force under the Texas Rangers at the Texas Department of Public Safety.
        
• The full Senate will consider the measure in the coming days.

Legislation Creating Interstate Border Security Compact Heads To Governor

• A proposal to create a multi-state border security compact is heading to Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk, reports Darrell Frost. The legislation authorizes the governor to collaborate with other states on measures to increase border security by sharing intelligence and combining resources to combat illegal activity, specifically by constructing a physical or virtual barrier at the southern border.

ACLU-Texas Threatens to Sue Over Child Gender Mutilation Ban

• After the Texas House and Senate approved a measure to ban child gender mutilation treatments, the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and other leftist groups announced plans to file a lawsuit against the legislation. Katy Marshall has the details.

       
• The ACLU of Texas, the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and the Transgender Law Center are threatening legal action, claiming the procedures are medically necessary.
      
• Disputing that claim is State Rep. Tom Oliverson (R-Cypress), a medical doctor. “We don’t treat mental health disorders with surgery. We treat mental health disorders with mental health treatments.”
      
• Gov. Greg Abbott has promised to sign the legislation when it reaches his desk.
      
• “In the state of Texas, if you’re under the age of 18, you can’t get a tattoo, you can’t buy cigarettes, and so many other things, but people think that they should be able to make a decision to permanently alter their sex organs. That’s just outrageous,” said Abbott. “In Texas, we believe that cutting off a child’s sex organs is child abuse, and it’s gonna be treated that way by law.”

Documents Reveal State Rep. Frazier Violated Dallas Police Rules

• Freshman Republican State Rep. Frederick Frazier, a Dallas police officer who lives in McKinney, is facing more fallout over campaign sign shenanigans perpetrated during last year’s primary elections that resulted in pending criminal charges against him. Erin Anderson has the story.

      
• Frazier is accused of claiming to be a code compliance officer and vandalizing signs promoting his GOP primary opponent, Paul Chabot. Frazier denies the charges.
      
• The Dallas Police Department placed Frazier on administrative leave in June after he was indicted on two felony counts of impersonating a public servant. Those criminal charges led to an internal investigation of Frazier’s actions.
      
• According to newly obtained documents from the Dallas Police Department’s Internal Affairs Division, investigators found evidence that Frazier committed three violations of Dallas PD’s code of conduct related to the campaign incident. The documents also cite video evidence showing Frazier at multiple locations where he is accused of committing the crimes.

Limitation On Professor Tenure Delayed in Texas House

• Legislation addressing tenure in Texas’ public universities was delayed in the Texas House on Thursday, putting its future in jeopardy.
    
• Senate Bill 18 would standardize procedures for awarding and removing tenure at Texas public colleges. When it passed out of the Senate, the legislation would have prohibited the practice of awarding tenure at public universities. The House Committee on Higher Education substantially altered the measure.
      
• May 23 is the last day for the House to consider legislation that originated in the Senate. 

COMMENTARY: Tenure Proposal Could Hurt Conservative Faculty

• In a new commentary, Adam Kolasinski – an associate professor of Finance at Texas A&M – argues that because the administrations of Texas' universities are thoroughly in the hands of the “woke” left, conservative instructors could be at risk. 
      
• "The House’s version of SB 18 grants university leaders broad authority to summarily dismiss tenured professors for causes that are vague, such as 'unprofessional conduct' and 'moral turpitude.' Nowhere in the bill are these terms defined, and the common English definitions are so broad that they open the door for administrators to use them as pretexts to fire tenured faculty for political reasons." – Adam Kolasinski

📺 WATCH: Could Texas Shut Down Drag Show Groomers? 

• On this week's edition of The Headline with Brandon Waltens... Kelly Neidert with Protect Texas Kids talks about her efforts to protest drag shows targeting children. Plus, Tim Hardin of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility gives an update on the fight for meaningful property tax relief.
      
• You can watch The Headline on the Apple TV or Roku apps, on an iOS or Android phone, or on the Texas Scorecard YouTube channel.

Now Available: 'Reflections on Life & Liberty'

• The book comes in three formats: hardcover, paperback, and digital download. For now, "Reflections on Life & Liberty" is only available at Amazon.

Friday Reflection:
May Their Lives Be Peaceful And Boring

As you read this, I’m at Fort Moore (formerly Benning), Georgia, where my son-in-law is about to be commissioned as an officer in the United States Army. He will raise his hand and swear before God to defend our Constitution.

As Americans, we spend so much time venerating “the troops” that we forget soldiers are not mythological heroes in an action story told for our inspiration or entertainment. They and their families are very real people.

As a nation, we have struck a bargain with some 1.2 million active-duty soldiers, sailors, airmen, and marines, as well as another half-million guardsmen. We tell them that if they will stand on the wall, ready to do rough things, we will take care of them and their families.

The modern oaths for officers and enlisted personnel are each about 70 words in length. Both are the same in tone and purpose as those administered in the earliest days of our Republic. For more than two centuries, they have honorably upheld their end of the deal.

We, on the other hand, have largely failed them. The Veterans Administration too often operates somewhere on the dishonorable spectrum between a disgrace and a disaster. Military families already struggle with poverty, alcoholism, and divorce because of the stress and trauma generally imposed by life and death in the armed forces, and we then add additional layers for good measure.

It is not that our soldiers and their families crave tokens of gratitude, it is that we aren’t doing enough to practically help with the physical and psychological toll of the service we have extracted from them.

Sure, we’ll slap a “support the troops” sticker on our truck’s bumper, but we won’t hold politicians accountable for mismanaging the care and support of those troops abroad or their families at home.

We act like we’re doing “the troops” a favor when we send them to fight wars designed to enrich the politicians and appeal to the sensibilities of armchair warriors. Just because old men dream of glory, young men should not have to bleed in foreign fields.

While war might find us, we should not be so eagerly looking for it.

Perhaps, instead, our forces should only be deployed when the threats to our nation are real and imminent, rather than vacuous or imagined. Our might should be exercised to defend our Constitution, not for the profit of politicians or the military-industrial complex.

The answer is not a law or a program, but a governing mindset. Not just the mindset of our elected servants, but in each of us as the Republic’s citizen-leaders. We must stop seeing the military as props in political theater but as a precious and limited resource.

Even as my daughter and her husband embark on this adventure, prepared to sacrifice for our Republic, it is my prayer we as a people do our utmost to make their lives peaceful and boring.