The New York Times recently published What Makes Texas Texas, and the article has received a lot of attention.  One Texan responds as follows:

I am a Texan. I was born in Texas and I grew up in Texas. I got my first pair of cowboy boots at the M. L. Leddy’s boot shop when I was 4.

I no longer live in Texas, and the Texas I read about and hear about does not seem like the Texas I knew. It does not seem like the Texas I keep close to my heart.

My Texas was the Texas of John Connally and Ann Richards. My Texas was the place where my grandfather, a windmill repairman and former ranch foreman, could wear a Stetson hat and cowboy boots and yet not believe in the death penalty or in the killing of animals for sport.

I am sad that I no longer recognize the Texas of today.

DAPHNE HAUBER

Killingworth, Conn.