Wednesday, December 3, 1997
Let's do more than remember Alamo's shrine
Mexican siege cannons couldn't level the Alamo, but the historic
San Antonio mission is slowly crumbling under the long assault
of nature. Ground water is seeping up into its limestone walls,
freezing, and dislodging small chunks. America should not let
it happen. The country should keep such historic sites intact.
It was in 1836 that 189 courageous Texicans held out for more
than a week against Mexican dictator Santa Anna's 6,000 troops
before being overwhelmed and slaughtered. Happily, the Alamo has
time left before it falls in a more permanent sense, maybe two
centuries. But the Daughters of the Republic of Texas are seizing
the moment to make the landscaping more water-resistant and install
underground barriers to the rising damp. The group so far has
spent $200,000 to save "the cradle of Texas liberty."
Texans are a patriotic lot, and what's been expended until
now is piggy-bank change to some of the state's richest residents.
So money shouldn't be an object in protecting the Alamo from the
elements. It's also gratifying to see a private group man the
battlements in these projects.
But if government funding is needed as a last resort, it ought
to come. The Alamo stands as an invaluable reminder to people
everywhere that the blessings of freedom don't just fall off a
tree. Sometimes they are won by blood.
It will be easier for posterity to remember the Alamo if there
is an Alamo.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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