Deflection

On February 18, I when to the Alamo. Since the Alamo is in the heart of the city of San Antonio, the city grow up around the old mission. The property surrounding the church are stores and hotels. The long barracks became a two story business building. Through time, the church became the property of Texas. As can be seen today, the land that the mission was on is being reclaiming by Texas. They have restored all of the buildings that were still in existence since the battle. Since they were constructed out of limestone, the stone is flaking off probably due to the extreme heat in the summer. The signs stating not to touch the limestone was hilarious. Since the stone had already flacked, touching it would only remove the flack. If they want the flacking to stop, they need to put the limestone in a protective environment.

Instead of constructing the footprint of the walls, they are constructing new museum buildings to hold artifacts and for education. While I was there, there were a huge number of school children on tour, as well as retired people.

They are in the mist of a $400 million project, with construction everywhere. The state of Texas is determine to implant their history that they were a sovereign country at one time in the minds of their citizens.

The environment was like another other day with the sun shine and the birds singing, but that was not the case of the Texans on the inside of the mission before the battle. I did not hear El Degüello being played to call the Mexicans to battle. The song means give them “no quarter.” Death to all inside. If you ever hear the song played for a long time, it gets to be nerve racking, as intended by President General Antonio López de Santa Anna.

When I was in Graceland in April, Elvis’ music was being played everywhere, but not around the house, and it really set the mood for the day. If El Degüello was being played around the Alamo, there would be a completely different feeling in the environment. Music does hit our soles with a profound effect that will cause us to react from a smoothing to a somber feelings. It is totally impossible on the feelings that those in the Alamo had with the song being played for hours on end. It would be clear that it would have had an effect on the Mexicans, too. For those of you that are not familiar with the song, it has been played in about every movie related to the Alamo.

For those that feel that war is glamorous, it is not. A person may look sharp in a military uniform, but there is nothing glamorous about fighting a battle on the front line. As for those that were in the Alamo, they know that their life on this earth was gone. What did their life mean? They were holding the fort to give Sam Houston time to build an army to defeat President General Antonio López de Santa Anna, and Houston did defeat the Mexicans a few months later. Did the names in the Alamo mean anything? Not to Santa Anna. But, because Santa Anna killed those in the Alamo, the state of Texas is determined that their names live on forever.

Life is not always fair. What will we leave as a legacy? Who will remember our names? But, if we treat people fairly and with respect, then people will remember us.

Roger