Texas Constitutional Convention Updates

Session 13 Opening Remarks
by Donald Dale Henson, Chair

NOTE: The following comments were made by Donald Dale Henson as Opening Remarks at Session 13 of the Texas Constitutional Convention of 1997. There was no written record of the comments but the following represents what was said to the best recollection of Donald Dale Henson.

We are gathered together here today to formally approve a document that has taken several man-years of effort to create. Perhaps, to be politically correct, I should say "person-years" since we had several women participating in this effort. The document we are here to approve is Texas Constitution 2000, a document that if ratified and implemented will, in my opinion, become a shining beacon, a testament to individual liberty that will shine its light down the centuries. It is destined to take its place amongst those other documents of freedom and will rank right up there in the same category as The Magna Carta. If it is ratified and implemented.

But don't we really know deep down in our hearts that this is an impossible task? Don't we know that we will never get the new constitution ratified and implemented? Isn't this just too hard to do?

"You cannot build a carriage that will move about under its own power. You have to have a horse or a mule to pull it."

"You cannot fly around in the air like a bird. There's nothing to hold you up. It's against the laws of nature."

"You cannot go faster than sixty miles per hour. The air pressure will crush you."

"You cannot fly around in the vacuum of space. There's nothing to push against. And even if you could, everyone would die because there's no air to breathe. And even if you solve those two problems, who would want to go up there anyway?"

It seems to me that Texas Constitution 2000 is in pretty good company.

If you were to travel back in time and interview Orville Wright, you may decide to ask him a question like, "Orville, most of the noted scientists of your day stated outright that powered flight was impossible. What made you and Wilbur think you could do it?"

And Orville might have answered, "Well, I guess they forgot to tell us it was impossible and, since we didn't know that it was impossible, we just did it."

"We just did it." Think of the power in those words. Think of the power in that attitude. If you believe something is impossible, you are defeated before you even start. But, if you have the attitude that you are going to figure out how to do something, regardless of what it takes, then you cannot fail.

"You can't get this constitution ratified and implemented. Most Texans will vote against it. And even if you get it ratified, those jerks in Austin won't let you get away with it."

Later in this session, we are going to introduce you to two proposed members of the Texas Constitution Ratification Committee, the TCRC, the organization charged with the responsibility of getting the new constitution ratified and implemented. We haven't told them that the task they are taking on is impossible. And since they don't know that the task is impossible, they're just going to do it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we're going to complete this project. We're just going to do it.

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