Good morning,

When there is a fight to defend liberty, how many of us run toward it?

Before I get to that, here is today's Texas Minute.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Friday, February 26, 2021
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• Last week’s severe winter weather left millions without electricity, heat, and drinkable water. Now, they rightly want answers about who may have dropped the ball when it came to being prepared for such a scenario. Yet as Jeramy Kitchen reports, the opening day of committee hearings in both the Texas House of Representatives and Senate didn’t bring many answers.
     
• The meetings were composed of invited testimony only. The invitees ranged from the CEO of Electric Reliability Council of Texas and the chair of the Public Utility Commission, to the heads of power generating companies.
    
• Curt Morgan, the CEO of nuclear power generator Vistra, said ERCOT “acted with a lack of urgency to appreciate the weather event.” But ERCOT’s CEO – Bill Magness – largely avoided taking any blame, instead saying ERCOT’s actions were largely taken to avoid a catastrophic failure of the power grid that would have left customers without power for weeks.
     
• Surprisingly few lawmakers have taken the opportunity to ask in-depth, investigative questions that would produce substantial answers. 

• Allow me to be blunt. The hearings can be summed up as: ‘everyone is preening, everyone is getting a pass, and no one (except ERCOT, but not really) is to blame.’
   

• If boredom could be harnessed as an energy source, Texans would be well-powered today.

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis lifted all COVID-19 restrictions in his state back in September. Now, reports Brandon Waltens, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott says his mandates could be ending “pretty soon.”
   
• I’d hold off on the confetti just yet, since we’re 49 weeks into his “15 days to slow the spread.”
   

• You’ll remember that on March 13, 2020, Gov. Greg Abbott declared a state of emergency over the Chinese coronavirus. Since then, he has signed a slew of unilateral executive orders in response to the virus, shutting down some businesses and instituting capacity restrictions on others, as well as a statewide mask mandate. Now, he is teasing the coming announcement of his timetable to end his mandates...
   

• “We’re working right now on evaluating when we’re going to be able to remove all statewide orders, and we will be making announcements about that pretty soon.” – Greg Abbott
     
• Maybe he just has a different definition of “soon” than everyone else?

• Texans are wondering why the legislative session seems to be moving so slowly. So far legislators have used the backdrop of a pandemic and the wake of the recent severe winter weather to justify their historically slow-roll of the legislative session. 
   
• Our capitol correspondent Jeramy Kitchen explores how it all compares to past legislative sessions.
         
• At 11 a.m. today, Brandon Waltens and Jeramy Kitchen will be on The Headline to discuss this issue and news from the week in greater detail.

• Citizen activists say bills filed in the Legislature would give government more control over your children and your health. Robert Montoya reports on a series of measures filed by Democrats Gene Wu, Nathan Johnson, and Liz Campos (and Republican David Cook) that activists believe are targeting parental and medical rights.
      
• On the other hand, Republican House members Gary Gates (Richmond) and Matt Schaefer (Tyler) have been praised for authoring legislation empowering parents.

• As a homelessness disaster rages on the streets of Austin, Jacob Asmussen reports a legal fight between citizens and city hall over the critical issue is heading to Texas’ Supreme Court.
   
• The group Save Austin Now wants citizens to vote on a ban against “urban camping.” They successfully garnered a place on the May city ballot, but Save Austin Now’s organizers contend the left-wing city council is trying to engineer a defeat with confusing ballot language.
   
• (A comparison of Save Austin Now’s petition and the city’s ballot language can be found on our website.)

• Almost a dozen candidates are already in the running to fill Texas’ 6th Congressional District seat, left empty by the late U.S. Rep. Ron Wright (R–Arlington), with several days left to file for a spot on the May special election ballot. But as Erin Anderson reports from the district, Mr. Wright’s widow Susan is the presumed front-runner in the race.

Friday Reflection

One day into the siege of the Alamo, on February 24, 1836, William Barret Travis wrote a desperate letter seeking aid from his fellow Texians and all Americans in the world. You see, rather than offer an easy and dishonorable surrender to the far superior forces surrounding them, Travis and his men were determined to use their last breath in the fight for cause of liberty.

Their plea, of course, went unanswered. I find myself wondering what I would have done back then? More importantly, of course, is to ask what will we do today? When liberty is threatened, do we embrace our creature comforts, or run to the action?

Will we, as the beneficiaries of their sacrifice, answer the call to the fight for liberty? Here are Travis’ words written that day from the Alamo.

To the People of Texas & All Americans in the World:

Fellow citizens & compatriots—I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna—I have sustained a continual Bombardment & cannonade for 24 hours & have not lost a man. 

The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken—I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls. 

I shall never surrender or retreat. 

Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch—The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily & will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. 

If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible & die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country—Victory or Death.

William Barret Travis