“Everything is bigger in Texas” or so the saying goes. My argument is simple. Bigger is not always better. A prime example of this case is the Texas State Constitution. If you have any interest in reading it is available in all its poorly grammaticized and holey glory on a public website here and yes I spelled holey like that for a reason. The Texas constitution has had 643 amendments proposed, of which 467 were approved by voters and 176 were rejected. This makes our constitution one of the longest in the entirety of the U.S. The only exception… is Alabama. The length of this document is forgivable if only the contents could be deciphered or even remotely understood by the common man, but alas, this is not the case. Texas decided to rewrite the constitution on February 15, 1876 shortly after the civil war ended and the southerners who were not given the ability to control anything politically were finally given power back. The entirety of Texas southern officials decided they needed to stick it to those “Dang Yankees” by writing a constitution that set them apart from the so called “oppression” that doubtless they felt they were under. As a result this hastily written document has remained our constitution and all we have done as a state is add amendments. Gaping holes have been left in the constitution from when it was written. Inexcusable grammatical errors have remained to this day and if you search through the pages you will find more errors than a middle school student trying to write a college level physics paper. What baffles me to no end, however, is why we do not sit down as a state, staple our pants to the seat, and rewrite this mumbo jumbo of words? I will not deny it would take effort and time but is it not worth being able to proudly say “I am from Texas! I love my state AND my constitution!”? There are some who believe the document should be kept the way it is. More often than not this is because people have found loopholes galore in the tangled mess of words and are reaping the benefits. I say that we stop these actions. The people and officials of Texas should take the initiative and be able to be proud of every aspect of Texas Including its founding documents that makes us a great state.
In the article The Big State Complex written by my colleague, they discuss the magnitude and overwhelming errors made in the Texas Constitution. They make the point that the Constitution should be evaluated and revised to clean up, instead of left in this sloppy and poorly written format.
ReplyDeleteI do agree with my colleague in that the Constitution is definitely way too long containing many unnecessary bills that have no right there. I like the comparison to the other states Constitutions to really give a perspective to the reader on how large the Constitution is, stating no other state has a larger Constitution with "The only exception...is Alabama." I believe in Texas that when the undereducated people hear that we have an absurdly large Constitution, they think of it as a good thing and something to be proud of, just like my colleagues quote "Everything's bigger in Texas." With the majority of the voters not having a clue what they are voting for one the bills, they free willingly vote "yes" on so many new bills just raising the total to an even more tremendous amount constantly.
As much as I do agree that the Constitution is due for a tune up, I don't believe it will happen. With the effort required to make theses revisions, I cannot seeing anybody stepping up and taking the initiative. With the counterargument that the Constitution has gotten us this far, I think it is here to stay.