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Paul Perry writes a weekly opinion
column for his local daily paper. Following is a sampling of those
articles. All were originally published in the Waxahachie Daily Light, although some were subsequently published elsewhere, such as in DallasBlog.com.
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Paul D. Perry
Published on April 20, 2008
The Importance of April 21, 1836, Today
Recently a candidate for the American presidency, Barack Hussein Obama,
made comments that indicated he looked down on "small-town"
Pennsylvanians who owned guns and went to church. He saw those things
as a crutch, a crutch the uninformed and the unsophisticated used to
deal with high rates of unemployment and an uncertain future.
Meanwhile, one of the biggest Second Amendment enemies in recent
memory, Hillary Rodham Clinton, tried to convince us that learning to
target-shoot as a girl, if she ever really did, was the most important
event in her life next to learning how to shoot whiskey. One wonders:
Did she learn to shoot both guns and whiskey the same day?
Maybe Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should have read Sir Walter Scott,
who penned, "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to
deceive." On second thought, maybe all candidates for public office
should be required to memorize that little bit of moral wisdom.
Sen. John Sidney McCain finally weighed in, but anemically. Maybe he
was having too much fun watching all the maneuvers of his Democrat
Party rivals.
Perhaps our all too smug and sophisticated candidates for president -
and the rest of the candidates in America who think they are fit to run
for office, any office, need to remember how this country came into
being, as well. In the beginning, a bunch of backwoods small-town
religious types were willing to stand up to the Superpower of the world
at that time, using in many cases their own personal firearms. That
Superpower was the British Empire. Those unsophisticated types were, of
course, the participants in the American Revolution. Some of the
patriots even came from small towns in Pennsylvania. Freedom of
religion was part of the dispute.
Many of them were having a hard time economically; first from some of
the trade and tax policies imposed upon them by a faraway and
out-of-touch government and second from the disruptions caused by the
American Revolution. If our candidates for public office really think
that folks with similar views to those who did the heavy lifting to get
this country started should throw their religious faith and guns away,
maybe they should think about a career change. At the very least, they
should forget that Texas, the South and much of the West exist if they
have such a view of middle-class folks who have both firearms and faith.
My guess is that they will also be very uncomfortable with much Texas
history. After all, Texas came into being on a shoestring and involved
the initiative of men who were very skilled with their own weapons. In
some ways, the Texas colonists had even more to be angry about than
those who fought the American Revolution.
Santa Anna assumed leadership of the government of Mexico with the
support of Texas colonists. He had indicated that he would restore the
Mexican Constitution of 1824 which had been suspended by Santa Anna's
predecessor. When he refused to do so and assumed dictatorial powers,
much of Mexico, including Texas, rebelled. President Santa Anna
proceeded to put down the rebellion. After suppressing revolution in
the rest of Mexico, he took an experienced professional army into
Texas.
His army was met by Texas colonists, a majority of whom originated in
the United States. A significant number were originally Spanish, many
of whom had fought to make Mexico independent of Spain. They often are
referred to as Tejanos. Texas colonists of both backgrounds were an
independent bunch and not in favor of being disarmed, something the
invading Mexican Army tried to bring about. From the Texas declaration
of independence:
"It [Santa Anna's Army] has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which
are essential to our defense, the rightful property of freemen, and
formidable only to tyrannical governments."
The Alamo as an act of selfless defiance lives in the American soul. A
group of imperfect men, some from foreign lands, many colonists from
the United States and a significant number of Tejanos sacrificed their
lives for an abstract notion - the idea of self-government and
meaningful elections.
Following the Texian loss at the Alamo and the slaughter of prisoners
who surrendered under promises of good conduct at Goliad, Santa Anna's
army engaged in the grand chase of General Sam Houston's volunteer
army. In the process, settlers and their property were scattered in the
retreat called the runaway scrape. Houston cunningly waited for Santa
Anna's forces to get stretched out.
Arrogant, Santa Anna probably chose not even to place sentries when he
and his army settled in for a mid-day siesta on April 21, 1836, near
Buffalo Bayou. Santa Anna's forces were aware that the Texians had even
burned the bridge behind them, which was the only path of retreat for
both armies. The Texans advanced using both the terrain and position of
the afternoon sun favorably. The outnumbered Texans defeated the
Mexican army in less than twenty minutes. Santa Anna was captured and
the nation of Texas was born. Less than ten years later, Texas entered
the Union by treaty.
Most of the Texians were armed both with arms that they themselves had
purchased or inherited and a faith that sustained them, with a dash of
arguably righteous rage. The dictator Santa Anna's army was government
issue.
On the way to whatever media-required Earth Day celebrations all the
candidates will attend on April 22, maybe they will stop off and see
the San Jacinto monument near Houston and commemorate on April 21 what
armed men of faith could do in the defense of liberty - then again
maybe not. Maybe they wouldn't fit in.
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