Texas Readies 1000 National Guard Troops for Election Day

The upcoming (or currently underway, if you count early voting) presidential election is shaping up to be one of the most highly charged political events of our lifetime.  It seems like more is on the line now than ever before, and officials in Texas are planning for the worst.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the Texas National Guard is readying 1000 troops to deploy as soon as this weekend to 5 cities across the state.  These soldiers will be in place to reportedly assist local law enforcement in the event that things get out of hand.  According to Maj. Gen. James K. “Red” Brown's statement to the San Antonio Express-News, these assets have been activated to: "...deter any civil disturbance at sites in various cities within Texas.”

The 5 cities in Texas that have been identified as possible hot spots for protesters and demonstrators are: Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio.  No information was given as to the number of Guardsmen assigned to each city.  In a weird turn of events, Dallas city officials say that not only were they not informed that Governor Abbot had ordered the deployment, they didn't expect the kind of response from the public that would require the Texas National Guard on station to assist with crowd control or to protect buildings from rioters or looters.

That being said, I would like to take this opportunity to call for calm.  I will be standing in the lines and voting right alongside everyone else, and I too hope that my vote is cast for the eventual victor in this election.  If that isn't what happens, I'm not going to riot and help destroy the city I live in and its reputation.  We will all have to deal with the results of what happens on November 3rd.

It is my hope for this nation that we can all agree to move on and make the best of whatever duly-elected government we have to look forward to on that day.  Surely we don't need soldiers to babysit us, right?