Our history, that of these United States, ought always to include the saga of The Alamo and its defenders: Texans and/or supporters of Texan independence, who nearly all, to a man, died there after a 13 day siege on March 6, 1836. At the time these men were often referred to as Texians and their dream was of an independent nation: Texas. Their fondest hopes were realized, not long after Sam Houston's victory at San Jacinto, but the true reason for their struggle lay with their destiny with the colossus of Columbia (and its destiny as well), their neighbor and blood brothers, sons and grandsons of the Spirit of '76.
My knowledge of American history was gained in public schools, back in the day when an honest, more than adequate education could be readily had and was usually acquired barring a complete inability or disinclination to apply one's self. Learn, most of us did and popular culture, especially aided by Walt Disney's natural as well as American history film and television productions, increased dramatically our absorption of knowledge about the formative years of our republic. Loving and reinforcing accounts of American heroes like Daniel Boone, Francis Marion ("Swampfox"), Davey Crockett, Jim Bowie, and others were the bases for a sense of kinship and pride in our past and gave us heroes aplenty in a time when self-doubt and hyper criticism of our western march as a people was unheard of. Myth and legend intermixed with historical facts and the result was a patriotic vision that cemented our unity as a nation before discordant interests from the worst elements of anti-Western "thinking" began their strongest forays against our culture soon after the close of World War II (most ironic after the defeat of the most virulent forms of despotism ever in mankind's history).
The winners of conflicts, whether they be armed struggles, cultural wars or economic battles, get to write the history books and shape and mould the new generations who are taught about their forefathers and their deeds. We are those winners and have traditionally not shrunk from this historical fact. Might does not necessarily make right, but a healthy degree of self-criticism should remain just that. A pendulum swinging too far, as is the case with many if not most educators and political scientists today, has resulted in a moral relativism that has deteriorated into, in more than a few instances, an overt hostility toward the memories of some of the founders of this nation and especially of men who fought to establish the republic in its fledgling days, when its survivability was not an assured thing.
The siege of The Alamo was one of those seminal moments in our history when intrepidity and courage ultimately won the war though not the battle. Who remembers today the Mexican victors? Who celebrates the annihilation of a force less than one tenth the size of its attackers? Who honors the slaughter of the few Texians who had survived the final firefight and had surrendered to Santa Ana's minions or the fact of the very few whose lives were spared, in many cases to serve simply as messengers with a cautionary tale (an expedient and actually a timid underestimation by Santa Ana of the will to resist by Texans implacably readying themselves to avenge the carnage at the mission)? No, we remember the besieged and their pluck, men who laid down their lives so that others might partake of the blessings of a free people, and if we dare to love these ancestors of ours (related and/or spiritual) unapologetically, we hail their memories and thank them for reprising earlier heroism against other despots, at Lexington-Concord, Yorktown, on Lake Erie, New Orleans or in dozens of other places on the North American continent. And we thank them for blazing a trail, more than figuratively, as part of the then continuing pioneering movement that tamed the wilderness and encouraged future heroics, both the peaceful ones: of further building, expanding and strengthening this country, its paths, railroads, highways, bridges, towns, schools, churches, farms, industry and especially the sinews and musculature of Anglo-American laws, language and customs, as well as those noble deeds then yet to come in sadly, more wars: the Mexican-American, our most tragic Civil War, the Spanish-American, two world wars, the ones in Korea, Viet Nam, Iraq, Afghanistan and the global counter-terrorism struggles through to today. We are not a war loving nation, but neither have we ever avoided a fight when sufficiently provoked nor is the toleration for losing, once "let's roll" is announced, anywhere near our comfort zone. C.S. Lewis' character Screwtape (Satan) in his letters to his nephew/apprentice devil warns his young relative about not being too gleeful or complacent about the opportunities for sin, destruction and especially the harvesting of souls during wartime. It is as much a time for Christianity (or liberty loving men) to score points for its side through sacrifice, gallantry, hardihood and the saving of lives, as well as souls. Again, war itself is not to be glorified, but individuals with free will and again, a love of liberty, can shine in these irrational and brutish circumstances. We specialize in this kind of courage and nobility (think of the firemen, police and others on September 11, 2001, the men of the Berlin Airlift, The Battling Bastards of Bastogne, the besieged at Bataan and so many other instances); it's who we are still, despite years of self-loathing projected onto the American people by small but zealous groups of Marxists, One-worlders and the usual assorted collection of apologists for or critics of supposed American "imperialism."
A few final thoughts about the American character. We are not a small-minded or mean spirited people. We are generous and "fair and square" is not, traditionally, a rhyming couplet devoid of meaning for us. And good humor is not some marginalized or compartmentalized facet of our dealings with others and ourselves. Davey Crockett was a great example of this spirit. His storytelling, jokes, exaggerations and self-deprecations (not unlike Lincoln, a contemporary) added also to this rich mix of complex qualities of a great people: happy, optimistic, thoroughly democratic but condemnatory of neither the wealthy nor the impoverished as if either station in life was a judgment on either's moral worth. A belief in opportunity, self-reliance and states' rights delicately balanced with a restrained Federalism, not Statism, are some of the other hallmarks of our beloved land.
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