On Friday Texas Monthly reported that Representative Tom Oliverson of Houston has proposed a resolution that has left many people scratching their heads. Oliverson is the new Republican Representative for District 130. It seems that the new Rep has jumped into legislating with both feet by proposing House Concurrent Resolution 75.
HCR75 asserts that the flag of Chile should not be used to represent the flag of Texas while texting. No, really, that's what it says. In case you're confused by that, open your phone and scroll through the emojis until you get to the section with flags. A few swipes in and you'll see this one:
More like "Don't Mess with Chile"
That's not the Texas flag, though. It's the flag of the South American country of Chile. You can see the similarities between the Chilean flag and the Texas flag. Both are red, white and blue with one star. They even have the colors in the same spot. The main difference is that, on the flag of Chile, the blue plane on the left doesn't extend all the way down to the bottom (like it does on the Texas flag). It is certainly hard to tell the difference because of the minuscule size of flag emojis. Most people probably wouldn't even notice. Thankfully we have Rep. Oliverson to show us the error of our ways.
On one hand, we definitely don't want to be mixing up the Chilean flag with the Texas flag, it makes us look ignorant. On the other hand, are there not bigger issues facing the voters of District 130 and Texas as a whole? The Leg. opened this year facing a budget shortfall due to the drop in oil prices last year. Education is on the forefront of the battleground over spending. Child Protective Services is facing reform, and there are bills going into committee about whether or not Texas should do away with gun licensing requirements altogether. Does the Leg honestly care that much about what amounts to an emoji error in private text messages? The legislature only meets for 140 days every other year, maybe we should forget about the emojis.
