The Purple Principle, a podcast about “the perils of political and social polarization,” is exploring important, if difficult, questions, about Texas, the creators say. And one of the featured guests on an upcoming episode is a Lakewood native.
“Is the Lone Star State still as uniquely independent with all that red vs. blue polarization dominating our news media?” and, “Is it still as neighborly a place, despite all that individual silo-ing and othering on social media and in social life?”
Host Robert Pease, political independent, poses these questions to his panel of so-called “Texperts” including — in upcoming episodes five and six — neighborhood native Lawrence Wright, who wrote God Save Texas: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State.
Steve Harrigan (Big Wonderful Thing) and former Congressman Will Hurd (American Reboot) join Wright to discuss immigration reform and a need for “ideological consistency” in politics, the producers say.
“Not quite as deep as the heart of Texas, this 6-episode series does probe well below the headlines and soundbites to bring an important and thoughtful assessment of political and cultural polarization in this great state,” the creators note.
When I interviewed Wright years back, he talked about a day that shaped both his politics and his relationship with our city and state. It was November 22, 1963.
While Wright — who would become one of the most respected reporters and writers in America — says he was never popular, and preferred the Lakewood Library to any other extra-curricular, it was not until the day of the Kennedy assassination that he decided he could not stay here.
He remembers finding a flyer on his front doorstep that morning. It looked like a WANTED poster but with President John F. Kennedy’s mug and text that indicating the President was “Wanted for Treason,” for “crimes” such as “betraying the Constitution, giving support to communist-inspired racial riots, appointing anti-Christians to federal office, and lying to the American people about his previous marriage and divorce.”
Later that day, Wright recalls, his choked-up Woodrow Wilson High School principal announced over the intercom that the President has been shot. Wright recalls his Algebra teacher Irvin Hill trying to control sobs before leaving the room. He also recalls some classmates laughing.
By Wright’s 1965 graduation the world had stigmatized Dallas — “The city of hate. The city that killed Kennedy.”
In God Save Texas, Wright, now an Austin resident, reckons with his hometown.
“Dallas is a human city, flawed and ambitious but with a self-knowledge that many another bustling town will never learn,” noted Wright. While Dallas clearly shaped Wright, his family, literally, helped shape East Dallas. His father was a banker who made loans to many young Lakewood couples looking to buy or build homes, as he told us in 2018.
Several episodes of the Purple Principle podcast have already aired and episode five drops next week. You can hear them all on Spotify or at purpleprinciple.com
