Good morning,

I end the week reflecting on an uncomfortable truth: Liberty is fragile, and it can only grow in the soil of self-governance tended to daily by zealous patriots.

But first, here is the Texas Minute for Friday, Feb. 17, 2023.

– Michael Quinn Sullivan 

Abbott Announces 2023 Priorities ...

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced his seven priorities for the current legislative session in his State of the State address last night. Sydnie Henry reports that among Abbott's priorities are property tax relief, school choice, school safety, border security, and bail reform. 
      
• “Many children today are not being educated like you and I were,” said Abbott. “Our schools are for education, not indoctrination." To that end, he wants to "empower parents" with Education Savings Accounts.
      
• Pointing to the “revolving door bail” in Harris County, Abbott said state lawmakers must make sure judges who let dangerous criminals free are held accountable. He is saying lawmakers should be "doing more" to secure the border.
      
• “We must call fentanyl deaths what they are—poisonings—and prosecute them as murderers.” – Greg Abbott
     
• Notably, the governor also called for an end to all COVID-19 restrictions. 

  Abbott recommended a requirement be added to law that the Legislature convene if another pandemic is ever declared.

... Extends COVID Emergency Another 30 Days

• While even the White House has said they will soon end the national COVID state of emergency, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has extended his orders for another 30 days. This latest extension makes it 1,070 days that Texas has been in a state of emergency over the virus.
     
• “I intend to keep these executive orders and suspensions in place until the Legislature can enact laws this session to prohibit local governments from imposing restrictions like mask mandates and vaccine mandates,” Abbott’s declaration reads, adding that his renewal “in no way infringes on the rights or liberties of any law-abiding Texans.”
       

• Abbott is one of just two Republican governors nationwide to continue to keep a state of emergency for COVID, joining Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp.

     
• State Rep. Brian Harrison (R–Waxahachie) has called on Abbott to end these orders. The lawmaker says this should be the “last time” Abbott extends the COVID order. 

A.G. Fights Federal Parole Program for Illegal Aliens

• Texas is suing the federal government for the Biden administration’s institution of a parole program that allows thousands of illegal aliens to be released into the U.S. Sydnie Henry has the details.
       

• The office of Attorney General Ken Paxton explained the lawsuit was filed because “the steep costs of admitting hundreds of thousands of aliens—millions of dollars in spending on healthcare, law enforcement, and education—would be a massive burden to Texas.”

Finance Professor Suing UT Over First Amendment Violations

• A finance professor from the University of Texas at Austin is suing the institution’s officials for violating his First Amendment rights. Richard Lowery, Ph.D. claims that because he spoke out on controversial issues, university officials threatened his job, pay, institute affiliation, research opportunities, and academic freedom.
   
• As Soli Rice reports, Lowery has been a long critic of leftist programs like "diversity, equity, and inclusion." He has spoken out against the university's approaches to issues such as “critical race theory indoctrination, affirmative action, academic freedom, competence-based performance measures, and the future of capitalism.”

Is Texas A&M More 'Woke' Than UT?

• In a special edition of the Luke Macias Show, researcher Scott Yenor exposes his findings of just how far left Texas A&M University has gone in recent years. Yenor tells Macias that A&M has more employees focused on so-called "DEI" initiatives than their sister institution in Austin.
      
• Listen to the interview on Texas Scorecard or your favorite podcasting platform.
     
• The governing oversight at A&M, UT, and all of the state's colleges and universities resides with the boards of regents – all of which have been appointed by Gov. Abbott and confirmed by the Texas Senate. Indeed, all regents for the state's colleges and universities have been appointed by Republican governors for the last 28 years. They should be doing better.

📺 WATCH: Arrested Teachers And Border-crossers

• On today's edition of The Headline with Brandon Waltens, you'll learn about the spate of teachers being arrested for crimes against children... and what the influx of Chinese nationals coming illegally across the southern border could mean.
   
• Join Brandon Waltens and his guests Erin Anderson and Chris Russo right now on the Texas Scorecard's website, Roku, or Apple TV apps. You can also find it on Scorecard's Rumble and YouTube channels.

Friday Reflection: Liberty Is Fragile

Liberty does not happen by accident. While we have an inalienable right to liberty, demonstrates securing it – and then holding on to it – are different matters entirely.

It would be nice to think “liberty” is the norm and “tyranny” is the exception. It would be nice, but it would not be true.

In the late 1940s, a businessman named Henning Prentis noticed a pattern in history. It is a pattern that leads from bondage to liberty and back to bondage.

The so-called "Prentis Cycle" was developed in a series of speeches and essays. It goes like this: 

"From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to courage; from courage to freedom; from freedom to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency ; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to fear; from fear to dependency; and from dependency back to bondage once more."

We like freedom and abundance, but in our selfishness and complacency we reject faith. We convince ourselves we have nothing to fear from the tyrant to whom we shackle ourselves under the promise of his protection. Anyone courageous enough to speak out is mocked and attacked.

Where are we today? Still in “abundance”? Shifted to “selfishness”? Moving past “fear”?

If we are to reclaim and retain liberty, we must renew our faith and shore up our courage. We must shake our friends out of their complacency and apathy.

Liberty can only grow in the soil of self-governance tended to daily by zealous patriots.

It isn’t someone else’s job. It is my job, and your job. It is a job for which we must actively train up our children. The cause of liberty never ends.

Quote-Unquote

"Freedom is a fragile thing and is never more than one generation away from extinction. It is not ours by inheritance; it must be fought for and defended constantly by each generation, for it comes only once to a people. Those who have known freedom and then lost it have never known it again."

– Ronald Reagan​