Be a hero.

Save a life by something as simple as writing a letter.

That’s the goal of the Up’ til Dawn finale event that will take place from 7 p.m. to midnight Friday in Russell Gymnasium.

The event is hosted by the Baylor chapter of Up’ til Dawn, a national organization that raises money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

One week after an election that disheartened many conservatives, citizens from 34 states are petitioning the White House to secede from the Union, and Texas is leading the rebellious pack with more than 103,000 online signatures.

The request from Texans “to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government,” follows a long tradition of wishful and independent thinking in a state that once was its own nation.

From the ill-fated Republic of Texas rebellion of 1997 to the never-say-die Texas Nationalist Movement, the notion of Lone Star independence doesn’t seem to go away.

George P. Bush’s father has issued a fundraising letter asking donors to open their pocketbooks because his son “is considering” running for Texas land commissioner, though a political strategist for the younger Bush said Wednesday that no final decision has been made.

A rising star among Hispanic conservatives, George Prescott Bush is the grandson of one president and nephew of another. He made headlines last week by filing “appointment of a campaign treasurer” forms with the Texas Ethics Commission — the first step toward seeking statewide office.

A pair of Mexican drug smugglers in camouflage pants, bundles of marijuana strapped to their backs, scaled a 25 foot-high fence in the middle of the night, slipped quietly into the United States and dashed into the darkness.

U.S. Border Patrol agents and local police gave chase on foot — from bushes to behind homes, then back to the fence.