| Kommentar | What the TGDP doesn't say is whether anyone is making much effort to reintroduce the language among the grandchildren or greatgrandchildren before the grandparents all die off. I don't live very close to any of the historic German-speaking enclaves, and my fraction of German heritage actually emigrated via several other states before arriving here. Where my parents live, there seems to be a pretty good German program in the public schools that they're now even talking about extending to some lower grades, but German was evidently dropped quite a while ago at the local college.
Czech language and culture, perhaps in contrast, seem to have been on the upswing in the state since the fall of the Iron Curtain, with people doing folk dancing, belonging to fraternal organizations (SPJST), making kolaches (West!) and so on, and some now actually traveling to the Czech Republic to do genealogy research, contact distant cousins, etc. I'm not sure how the areas of concentrated German and Czech immigration in the state compare in size or influence, but my impression is that the Czech side remained stronger because there wasn't the same pressure during the world wars to deny any ties to German culture. I've even heard of people of German or mixed heritage who chose to identify as Czech in wartime or the postwar periods to avoid problems.
Lara, if you ever ended up researching an issue like this, you could come see for yourself. (-:
OT re Texas politics
The regents' thing is indeed a silly flap, but it touches on several other issues that reflect the pathological politics and rhetoric of recent decades. The current governor, Rick Perry, who will probably now be remembered mainly for his deeply embarrassing bid for national office, has relatively little direct political power, but a great deal of appointment power, and he has worked hard to stack state boards, agencies, committees, courts, and so on with cultural conservatives.
Including, specifically, some on the board of regents who set off this current flap, apparently in an effort to limit the influence of traditional academic programs now regarded as too left-wing and not business-oriented enough. Not only things like black and Hispanic studies, which have long been a sore point with conservatives, have come under attack, but now even natural sciences and the liberal and fine arts (including languages!), which increasingly have to fight to maintain funding in the face of the drive for technology and business programs seen as more practical and profitable in the short term.
Perry's being from A&M is not insignificant. A&M is now a nationally reputable and politically relatively neutral school in fields such as science and engineering; it also now has the (first) Bush library. But for much of the past century it was known more as a second-tier agricultural and military school, attracting what some regarded as unsophisticated young men from rural areas, who served in the cadet corps, earned their senior boots (seriously!), and developed a fiercely defensive loyalty to school customs and traditions, but often didn't get the kind of well-rounded liberal-arts education that other universities, including UT, the state flagship, could provide. (Rice, SMU, Trinity, to some extent Baylor, etc.) There are widespread alumni networks from both UT and A&M that have long sought to influence everything from business to politics to football, but now some people within them seem to be drawing the battle lines more according to the culture wars, with evangelical religion and fiscal ultraconservatism playing a greater role. One example is the textbook wars, which chronically rage.
In that light, this year's political battles (and the ones that may have been warded off or suppressed, knock wood, within the legislature) may actually show a glimmer of encouragement. To me as mostly an outside observer, they seem to suggest that the 'moderate' right wing, which might include some Bush allies as well as a number of UT alums who don't want their school dumbed down into a for-profit technical training center, may finally be pushing back ever so gently against the newly militant religious and libertarian right. Whether it's a serious effort at rebalancing or just a smoother facade remains to be seen.
But the longer the current politicians fail to solve the state's many real problems, like the growing need for more education (public, not charter), health care (public, including care for the 1/4 of residents who are uninsured), water (public, not golf-course), and highways (public, not toll), the more the whole scenario should eventually play into the hands of those seeking to link the discouraged educated urban minority (including much of Austin, the state capital, which needs UT to remain strong) to the growing Hispanic demographic in order to mobilize a viable Democratic party once again. |
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