Good morning!

Tyrants want us to forget just how extraordinary it is to be an American. I close out the week thinking about why... and what to do about it.

This is the Texas Minute for Friday, June 28, 2024.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

BUT FIRST... Special thanks to Sydnie Henry for covering for me this week while I finished the first phase of our next documentary. We'll finish the interviews next week, send it into post-production, and then have a release date for you. What's it about? "Red Power."

Illegal Aliens Continue to Breach Military Installations

• A facet of the Biden administration’s open-border policies that has gone under-reported has been breaches of military installations. Will Biagini has the details.
    
• The Texas Public Policy Foundation notes several different instances of illegal aliens breaching military bases. In one instance earlier this year, four illegal aliens entered Laughlin Air Force Base while attempting to escape a high-speed chase from state law enforcement officers. Laughlin has been breached twice more this year, one time prompting the base to go into lockdown. 
      
• “It’s time for decisive action and unwavering transparency. The security of our nation and the safety of our citizens depend on it. We must acknowledge the clear and present danger posed by illegal immigration and take the necessary steps to protect our country from the heightened threat of terrorism.” – Zach Reyna and Selene Rodriguez

Texas Congressman Plots Path to National Takeover of Texas Grid

• U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, a self-proclaimed socialist from Austin, is calling on Texas to give up control of its grid. Daniel Greer describes how Casar wants to tie Texas to the Western Grid in the name of  "combating the climate crisis."
        

• Texas' grid is independent of the rest of the nation. Casar’s plan would connect Texas to the Western Grid, which includes New Mexico, Arizona, and California.
      

• Casar would give California "veto power" over Texas' energy decisions. It is worth noting that California's leftwing push for unreliable energy sources—like wind and solar—has caused its residents to shoulder much higher prices while suffering regular outages under everyday demands. 

Charges Dropped Against UT-Austin Anti-Israel Agitators

• Travis County Attorney Delia Garza has announced charges will be dropped against 79 individuals who had been arrested for criminal trespass during anti-Israel protests on the UT-Austin campus this spring. As Adam Cahn reports, the group consisted primarily of outside agitators unaffiliated with the university.
    

• The arrests in question had originally occurred on April 29 after the “protestors” tried to erect a tent encampment on UT's Main Mall in violation of a 2021 state law.
      

• After Garza's decision was announced, university officials issued a statement expressing disappointment. “Free speech is welcome on our campus. Violating laws or rules is not.”

Former Valentine ISD Employee Arrested for Financial Fraud Scheme

• A former employee of Valentine Independent School District has been accused of using taxpayer-funded credit cards to pay for cell phone bills, oil changes, drug store purchases, and even lodging. Luca Cacciatore has the background.  
       
• Ernesto Villarreal is also accused of accessing payroll information to direct employees’ and former employees’ payroll payments into his personal bank account. If convicted, he could face up to eighty years in prison.
       
• Valentine ISD first discovered roughly $165,000 in unauthorized transactions and multiple instances of falsified documents while performing an annual audit in the fall of 2022. Villarreal resigned later that year but was not indicted until earlier this month.

Faith-based Organization Speaks Out Against Sexually Explicit Books in Fort Worth ISD

• After Fort Worth Independent School District returned sexually explicit books to its library shelves, Emily Mederios reports that a local faith-based activist group is voicing concerns.
    
• The district is again making sexually explicit books available to minors.
      
• For Liberty & Justice describes its mission as to “mobilize the church, wake up the city, and take a stand for liberty and justice.”
      
• “We are letting them know this is not ok. This is very, very, bad, very dangerous to our students here in Fort Worth, and this will permeate, I believe, Tarrant County going into Dallas County and spilling over into the state of Texas,” said Joshua Moore, one of the group's members.
      
• FWISD has its supporters. Sabrina Ball said that parents' concern about the sexually explicit books was “culture war nonsense.”

Weekend Listening...

• On his podcast, Chris Salcedo argues why... America Can No Longer Afford Democrats.
    
• And at Texas Tomorrow, Charles Blain asks... Will Stafford Remain A City Without Property Taxes?

Friday Reflection
America is Exceptional

We live in an age with countless voices united against American exceptionalism. We are under an anti-American barrage every day from leftist politicians, actors, media personalities, college professors, and coffee shop baristas.

Here is why: The only way for them to install a tyrant who will implement leftist dogma is to convince us to forget just how extraordinary it is to be an American.

Their campaign began by selling the lie that there is nothing special about being an American, that we are just like everyone else. But the fact is, America has been anything but common from the start.

British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher understood that. She once said, “Europe was created by history. America was created by philosophy.”

But it was not just any philosophy, but one grounded in the simple truth – even if imperfectly applied—that all men are created equal and have the right to govern themselves.

In the early 1840s, a young historian named Mellen Chamberlain sought out one of the last surviving participants from the Battle of Concord to ask him about that experience. The minuteman’s name was Levi Preston, who was 91 at the time.

(The interview is found in Chamberlain’s work, John Adams, the Statesman of the American Revolution.)

Chamberlain asked Preston why he had fought the British. The answers weren’t what the historian expected, for Preston did not speak of the oppressive British rule, the stamp tax, the tea tax, or the writings of philosopher John Locke.

“Well, then,” asked Chamberlain, “why did you fight?”

Preston’s answer still takes my breath away: “Young man, what we meant in going for those redcoats was this: We always had governed ourselves, and we always meant to. They didn't mean we should.”

It was this concept of self-government, so natural to Levi Preston and his contemporaries, that changed the world. It is at the practical root of American exceptionalism. It’s why our nation has thrived, even as other older and more established nations withered and even died.

It is why tyrants abroad and would-be tyrants here at home run down America, denigrate our history, and seek to draw us away from our founding principles.

America is exceptional because we, the people, govern ourselves. Levi Preston and his generation had the moral courage to do what they knew to be right: reject an offer of tyranny so that self-government and liberty could thrive.

We do not elect almighty leaders, but public servants. We cannot tolerate unlimited government or make allowance for the divine right of politicians.

We must govern ourselves, thank you very much.

Yet modern events show that self-government is fragile; it only exists to the extent we continue to jealously guard it and actively participate in it. If self-government is to continue, if liberty is to flourish, if we are to remain independent, we must be informed, engaged and active citizens.

Every day, we must intentionally join Levi Preston in the fight for the right to govern ourselves.

Quote-Unquote

"To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race."

– Calvin Coolidge