Texas Dissident: Dispatches from a Diminished State 2006-2016 - Softcover

Bills, E R

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1681790955 ISBN 13: 9781681790954

Publisher: Eakin Press, 2017

Synopsis

Texas is known as a stronghold of conservative politics and values--in many cases ultraconservative--but those beliefs are taken to task in E.R. Bills' new book, Texas Dissident: Dispatches from a Diminished State, 2006-2016.

A growing number of Texans are tired of Lone Star Conservatives, sick of being embarrassed by their political representatives and horrified by the devolution of the state conversation in terms of race, sex, sexual orientation, immigration, religious freedom, environmental responsibility, etc. From 2006-2016, Texas contrarian E.R. Bills came out swinging on these issues, and in these insightful, evocative missives, spares no purveyor of the farcical Lone Star status quo

Bills' unique perspective on these topics is indispensable. His last offering, Black Holocaust: The Paris Horror and a Legacy of Texas Terror (Eakin Press, 2015) documented an era when Texans burned an average of one African American a year at the stake for three decades. And his seminal book, The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas (The History Press, 2014) was a catalyst for the dedication of a historical marker commemorating the atrocity.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Every year for the last ten years or so, friends from all over have asked me what I'm still doing in Texas.    I always give the same answer: It's my home.    It's also, unfortunately, home to a Red state army of heavily armed mouth-breathers that make The Walking Dead look like a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A war is being waged and Texas comprises one of trenches on the front line. It would be easy to migrate to some Liberal enclave on the East or West Coast, but that would mean giving in. And giving in isn't very Texan.   When I set out to compile these writings, I had no idea how prolific I'd been for the 10-year period they cover. I attribute the output to how difficult it was to watch things hit the skids in this state and across the nation during that stretch. Wholesale devolution, paranoia for profit, paranoia as patriotism, persecution for political gain and crippling ignorance vouchsafed as sacred virtue--a few of us  had to at least pretend to be sane. I'm not sure I was a good candidate for the call, but I put my shoulder to it when I could.    At this late date, the damage we've done to our state and our cultural institutions is considerable and members of the minority sentient population inch forward through the fog of their neighbors' and their elected representatives' imbecility. But if there's a silver lining to this hellishness, it's that it may well have girded us for what we face now, and what we must do.Keep reading.E. R. Bills

From the Back Cover:

"At the risk of descending tounscientific generalizations," Doc Holliday once noted, "ninety percent ofTexans give the other ten percent a bad name." Holliday's observation is justas relevant today as it was when he uttered it over a century ago.
   A growing number of Texans are weary of LoneStar Conservatives, tired of being embarrassed by their politicalrepresentatives and horrified by the devolution of the state conversation interms of race, sex, sexual orientation, immigration, religious freedom, environmentalresponsibility, etc. From 2006-2016, Texas contrarian E. R. Bills came outswinging on these issues, and in these thoughtful, evocative missives, hespares no purveyor of the farcical status quo.

About this edition

• Publisher: Eakin Press
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1681790955
• ISBN 13: 9781681790954
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220