Lampasas County, Texas, 1875
“Where are you goin’ Daddy?”
“I’m goin’ to a meeting, Sissy.”
“That meeting like the one you go to late at night?”
“How you know about that, girl?”
“Oh, Daddy, I lay in bed awake when the dogs carry on, and I hear
you leavin’.”
“How you know it’s me then?”
“Oh, Daddy you think Mama’s goin’ sneakin’ out? Or Bubba and
“Charley? You sayin’ that?”
“No, honey they wouldn’t sneak out. Your Mama’s too good a woman
and your brothers know I’d tan their hides and hang ‘em in the smokehouse with
the other hams.”
“Oh, Daddy, go on.”
“I’m goin’. And honey, I won’t be goin’ to those late meetings any
more. They got too silly for me. Anyway, this meeting’s way more important. We
farmers are going to ban together into one great Union.”
“But we’re Rebels, Daddy.”
“ ‘Course we are. No, all us white farmers are goin’ to fight the
big boys who don’t work, but sit around all day thinkin’ a ways to steal our
money.”
“You mean the banks, Daddy?”
“That’s good Sissy. Yes, banks, railroads, combinations, and those
ranchers with their gun-totin’ killers they pretend are cowboys.”
“I know, Daddy. I’m more scared a them than I am your n…ers.”
“Sissy, I’ve done changed my mind about them boys and I’m through
usin’ that word and you are too.”
“Why, Daddy?”
“There’s no use in stirrin’ up the hornet’s nest, Sissy. We lost
the damn war. Old Sam Houston warned us and we didn’t listen. Now the
Republicans and their government paid boot-lickers are the enemy.”
“I heard you say the other night you’d vote for a yaller dog
before you’d vote for a Republican.”
“That’s right, honey. They don’t work. They just use our taxes to
pay for the army and railroads and banks. They let the ranchers use thousands
of acres of land that ain’t theirs. And the damn ranchers own the water. Water
put on this earth by God Himself! And they think they can own in and kill us
for bein’ thirsty. I’d like to take their big war hero General Grant and stick
him down here in Texas on a dry land farm.”
“He’d try to grow tobacco for his cigars. Cigars make people
sick.”
“I hope they make him sick, Sissy. I surely do.”
And Daddy went out into the clean air of Texas, the beating heart
of Texas where people work for their money and stand by their beliefs. And, by
God, did not their beliefs make eternal sense? That night he and his neighbors
formed the Texas Alliance, the first of the Southern Alliances, the precursors
of the National Farmers’ and Laborers’ Union of America. In 1889 a convention in St. Louis formed
that one great Union which, in turn, evolved into the Populist Party.
...
The present day, Austin, Texas
“What are you readin’, Daddy?”
“Why, Sissy, I’m reading the Cross of Gold Speech.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s a famous speech in American history, Sissy. We studied it in
high school back in my day, but it’s probably illegal to teach it now in
Texas.”
“Are you kidding?”
“Only a little. You don’t know it, probably, but Texas has
outlawed a lot of history. At least the teaching of that history. It’s like
they passed laws against ideas the damn Republicans don’t believe in. It’s not
just like that; that’s exactly what they did. They passed laws against the
teaching of the truth!”
“Really?”
“Oh, yes. The truth. Just like in China or the old Soviet Union or
Cambodia. Texas is not the same place I grew up in. It’s not a free country
anymore.”
“My teacher says Texas should be a country again. Could we drop
out of the United States?”
“It feels like we already have. But, seriously, no Texas would be
crazy to try it. This country fought a Civil War the last time. And Texas lost
that war just like Sam Houston warned we would.”
Sam Houston was against the Civil War?”
“Oh yeah. Your granddaddy taught me that.”
“The one who named his daughter Sissy?”
“Yep, you know. That’s why we call you Sissy.”
“You loved your granddaddy.”
“You better believe it. Why I grew up thinking all old Texans were
like him. There’s so many things he believed in that have changed since George
W. was governor. The old Texas died is what it feels like. You know, Granddaddy
was against carrying guns around. He didn’t like gun racks in pickups and he’d
never believe that a Democrat, a woman, a mother, no less wants to bring back
the Wild West days and let people walk around with guns.”
“You mean Wendy Davis?”
“Yep. She is for something that your granddaddy once bragged was a
sign of Texas’ growin’ up – that a man could walk anywhere in the state without
facing down some gun-toting thug.”
“But I thought she was the great hope of Democrats winning back
the state.”
“Honey, if that’s what Democrats want to do, I’m through voting
for Democrats.”
“Who would you vote for?”
“Hell, I guess I’ll have to write in names, probably Jim
Hightower.”
He’s funny.”
“Yeah, and he’s right on, too. No, it’s another thing your
granddaddy wouldn’t believe. That I could not bring myself to vote for a
Democrat. He was a yellow-dog Democrat.”
“What’s that?”
“Someone who would vote for a yellow dog before even thinking
about voting for a damn Republican.”
“That’s pretty funny.”
“Thing of the past. There ain’t a dimes bit of difference between
a damn Republican and a Democrat on the issues that matter most.
Present Day, Austin, Texas
****
“Dad? Yes, Sissy.”
“This is Emily, the friend I told you about.”
“Oh, yes. Emily, are you enjoying UT? Political Science major,
right?”
“Yes Sir. I like UT a lot. It’s such a welcoming place. There’s so
much more diversity than I expected to find down here.”
“Yes, you’re a Yankee from Hudson River country, I hear.”
“Yes Sir. From Beacon, New York.”
“Pete Seeger country.”
“Oh yes, he was my neighbor. You know about Pete then?”
“He’s no less than my number one American hero. He stood up to the
most insidious threat our nation has faced – the McCarthy-era House Un-American
Activities. Committee.”
“Have you read what he said to them? I read the transcript again
for a paper.”
“Oh yeah. I remember he told them that to ask him about his
politics or his religion was wrong. He wouldn’t tell them who was present when
he gave concerts, and he refused to verify that he may have sung at Communist
Party meetings. Instead he offered to sing the same songs then and there.”
“That’s sure the gist of it.”
“I grew up listening to my Dad sing union songs.”
“She sure did. Sissy could sing along with “Hold the Fort” and “We
Shall Not Be Moved” while she was still in kindergarten.”
“I got in trouble in Junior High singing class for telling the
teacher about Woody Guthrie after we sang “This Land Is Your Land.”
“Ha. She sure did. Her mom and I faced down our own little Un-American
Activities Committee on Parent-Teacher Conference Night.”
“I didn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance for two years in Junior
High.”
“Really?”
“Oh she sure didn’t. Another conference. I pointed out that she
had always said it before her teacher questioned her family’s patriotism. And,
I informed them that I wouldn’t stand for anyone forcing her to say it either.
Her teacher’s ignorance temporarily robbed her of the feeling she used to get
from saying the pledge. If a Junior High can’t inspire love of country and
instead try to bully her into saying the Pledge, they can go to hell.”
“Dad.”
“Well.”
“Ha Ha. You guys are sure not what I think of as Texans.”
“Dad, Emily has to write a paper about William Jennings Bryan.”
“Ah, the ‘cross of gold.’
“Yes, and of course the Scope’s “Monkey Trial.” I watched “Inherit
the Wind” last night.”
“Oh great. Well forget that tired old man. That’s a sad epilogue
for Bryan. His grand moment was the fight of the common man against moneyed
monopolies. But, it’s interesting note that a part of Bryan’s religious makeup
was that making money simply by using money instead of work was a sin. Hence
the cross of gold analogy.”
“So is the analogy literal?”
“Yes, it’s literal, inerrant truth, just like the Bible.”
“That’s what Bryan believed. God made the cosmos in seven days.”
“Period.”
“So, who is on the cross?”
“The working man, but the focus was on farmers. They were in hock
to the banks. Money was tight and it was backed by gold. Silver was being
discovered in the West, some big deposits. So, if the government forced silver
into the money supply interest rates would go down. Farmers could sell more and
get out of debt. So to not loosen up the money supply was crucifying the common
man on a cross of gold.”
“Okay. I have some reading to do.”
“Yeah, let’s forgive Mr. Bryan for his ignorance on evolution and welcome
him back to the good fight.”
“The government messes with money supply and policy all the time.”
“Yes,
Emily. And the money filters up from you and me and trickles down through banks
and large corporations. We need a new William Jennings Bryan.”
