Texas Nationalist Group Meets in Tyler

TYLER — East Texans are among the many Texans who have voiced their displeasure with the direction the United States is moving, and they’re holding a local nationalist movement meeting. The Smith County Texas Nationalist meeting is scheduled to take place tonight. The organization will hold its event at 6:30pm at The Diner on the 7900 block of South Broadway Avenue in Tyler. According to a flyer sent to the media, the group plans to use the meeting “to familiarize local citizens with the organization goals to promote, secure and protect the political, cultural and economic independence of Texas.”

The organization claims the Texas Nationalist Movement has experienced major growth leading up to and after the presidential election. Smith County resident Tammy Blair, a member of the movement, tells KETK the group is doing it for liberty. “This is a peaceful movement. That’s important. We’re not looking for war. And if people think that we are, we’re certainly not. It’s not a racist movement, it’s a movement about liberty,” she said.

Meanwhile, in a statement Tuesday, Texas Governor Rick Perry chose not to support the cause. “Gov. [Rick] Perry believes in the greatness of our Union and nothing should be done to change it,” his press secretary Catherine Frazier wrote in a statement to the Dallas Morning News. “But he also shares the frustrations many Americans have with our federal government.” As of Wednesday morning, a petition on the White House website asking for the peaceful withdrawal of the state of Texas from the union has reached nearly 100,000 signatures. Only 25,000 are needed to elicit a response from President Obama, but he has yet to comment.