http://www.thealamo.org Quotes from this site…
“Originally named Misión San Antonio de Valero, the Alamo served as home to missionaries and their Indian converts for nearly seventy years. Construction began on the present site in 1724. In 1793, Spanish officials secularized San Antonio’s five missions and distributed their lands to the remaining Indian residents. These men and women continued to farm the fields, once the mission’s but now their own, and participated in the growing community of San Antonio.”
“While the facts surrounding the siege of the Alamo continue to be debated, there is no doubt about what the battle has come to symbolize. People worldwide continue to remember the Alamo as a heroic struggle against impossible odds — a place where men made the ultimate sacrifice for freedom. For this reason, the Alamo remains hallowed ground and the Shrine of Texas Liberty.”
I have always dreamed of visiting The Alamo ever since the early movies with John Wayne. I remember mostly David Crockett and Jim Bowie as heroes. But there are almost 100 other men who were heroes of The Alamo. The Alamo is an historic site and shrine with a story most critical to winning freedom during the Texas Revolution. We should “Remember the Alamo” just like other major battles and wars in our history, and the heroes who fought and died for freedom.
Judy and I spent hours on the grounds of this Shrine and museum dedicated to the memory of the men who fell in defense of the Alamo. The Alamo represents the center piece of San Antonio and it is well preserved with exhibits of artifacts and the story of “thirteen fateful days in 1836.” The Daughters of the Republic of Texas (DRT) have been entrusted by the Texas State Legislature since 1905 with the care and the maintenance of The Alamo. According to Texas Law, the DRT must preserve the historic site “as a sacred memorial to the heroes who immolated themselves upon that hallowed ground.”
There is a connection to early sufferers of moral injury and PTSD as written in Petticoats and Pistols, a story about Susanna Dickinson. “Susanna was a strong woman and a survivor, but the memory of those days would haunt her the rest of her life. She sometimes suffered from what she called her “black days”. She married and divorced 4 more times and is reported to have lived in a brothel for a time before she met and married Mr. Joseph Hannig. She and Hannig had a successful marriage until her death in 1883.” http://petticoatsandpistols.com/2010/12/18/susanna-dickinson-the-woman-who-survived-the-alamo-by-celia-yeary/
We are once again grateful for the opportunity to know America’s history better and to experience the spirituality of this sacred place…The Alamo. We also honor these early American warriors who died for our freedoms. And we see once again that moral injury among those who survived was a life time challenge…
Steve Sparks
Author
Reconciliation: A Son’s Story
