Mack
Hall, HSG
Mhall46184@aol.com
Honor the Dead
– Buy Alamo Chewing Gum
Al,
Harold, and Jim on KLVI Radio built an interesting conversation one morning
last week on the selling of history. The
immediate topic was a legal dispute over some notes Martin Luther King made for
a speech, and which were saved by his late secretary. The question before a court is this – who
owns those notes?
Who
owns history?
And
who owns the Alamo?
San
Antonio de Valero was one of five Catholic missions along the San Antonio
River, and what is left of it is best known for the 1836 battle which was a
disaster for all concerned.
General-President Santa Anna betrayed the honor and bravery of the
Mexican Army by ordering the murder of prisoners his soldiers risked their
lives to save.
The
State of Texas, the General Land Office, and the Daughters of the Republic of
Texas honor the dead of that terrible night by featuring a gift shop (http://store.thealamo.org/) at the Alamo,
which is as tasteless as a gift shop at Bergen-Belsen or among the graves at
Normandy.
Pictures
of the Alamo are used to sell motorcars and hamburgers so that a real Texan can
drive his as-advertised-in-front-of-the-Alamo pickup truck to the as-advertised-in-front-of-the-Alamo
cinder-block fast-foodery for an as-advertised-in-front-of-the-Alamo hamburger
and french fries (which aren’t really from France or the Alamo).
Would
ya like a refillable Anne Frank coffee mug with your order?
Many
of us have known a beautiful image, in a hospital named for her, of kind and
gentle Saint Elizabeth of Hungary, also known as Saint Elizabeth of Thuringen, to
be blocked by display tables and exhibits.
Who has the authority to say yes or no to that?
Who
owns history?
Texas
Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, a Marine and by repute a good man and a
stand-tall Texan, spoke quite reasonably at a gun-rights rally within the Alamo
last Saturday.
Commissioner
Patterson, a sturdy advocate of freedom, also has a problem – should he have
been there at all? As Texas’ current
defender of the Alamo, what will he do to maintain the integrity of a
historical site whose ground is blessed with the blood of heroes? The Alamo itself, although sometimes used for
tellyvision commercials, has always been free from political demonstrations
A
worse problem for Commissioner Patterson is that Alex Jones, haunted by Masonic-Jewish-Illuminati-NWO-Bildergerg-Weather
Weapons conspiracies, also spoke – or, rather, emitted words at the same event. If the Commissioner was ambushed
(metaphorically, of course) in the matter, no blame can attach to him. If, however, he knew he would be sharing the
occasion with a man who embarrasses even Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, then he
needs to withdraw his tinfoil hat from the political ring and himself to his
Bunker of Solitude.
Lee
Spencer White, president of the Alamo Defenders’ Descendants’ Association didn’t
want this parody there. She is against
politics on site, maintaining, quite properly, that her group regards the Alamo
as a family cemetery.
And,
you know, there’s nothing that says family cemetery like a gift shop.
Victoria
Montgomery, spokeswoman for Open Carry Texas, argues that the history of the
Alamo is predicated on politics, and that makes it a perfect place for a rally
advocating personal freedom.
Both
Ms. White and Ms. Montgomery make excellent points, but perhaps now the people
of Texas should draw that line in the sand just like the one Colonel Travis may
or may not have drawn:
The
Alamo is sacred to the First Nations, to Spain, to Mexico, and to Texas. The Alamo should be swept clean of
made-in-China coonskin caps and of demonstrators; let the commerce and the
look-at-me moments and filming for hamburger advertisements take place across
the street, next to the Ghosts of the Alamo movin’ picture shows and fruit
juice bars.
The
Alamo began as a Christian church under the spiritual patronage of St. Anthony
of Padua. Unlike the other four San
Antonio missions it will probably never be consecrated again as a church, but
the theme remains – sacrifice and redemption.
As St. Thomas More might or might not have said, we have no windows to
look into men’s souls, and so we must not presume to judge anyone who died on
the walls of the Alamo; instead, we must remember our Christian obligation to
respect them, “the dead with charity enclosed in clay,” as King Henry V might
or might not have said.
San
Antonio is now a very large city, and for miles and miles in every direction people
may buy, sell, and argue; what remains of the Alamo is such a tiny space that setting
it aside as sacred ground where people will remove their made-in-China ball
caps and be silent for a few minutes in the presence of a shared memory will do
no harm to the State of Texas, the First Amendment to the American
Constitution, or to cash registers.
Who
owns history? You do. And so do the dead.
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