This one is a blatant insult to everybody’s intelligence. It’s one of those “c’mon, man, you’re shittin’ me” type deals.
I was watching teevee a couple months ago, really bad habit and fortunately I never developed it into the stupor addiction that seems to be running across our land like a horrible Biblical plague.
There was one of those History Channel shows, Histories Mysteries or some bullpoopoo title, examining the myth, legend and whatever evidence remains from the battle of the Alamo. One of the most controversial things about the show, they spent 15 minutes of air time(about a third of the entire show) on the subject of the evidence that Davey Crockett didn’t fall in a hail of bullets and flashing swords as depicted so often in the romantic press.
The theory has been, since the seventies, that Mr Crockett and a few others actually surrendered, but were lined up and shot anyway. Which would have been an atrocity, right? Even more so than the order to give No Quarter.
But this one Texas historical society (and there are a lot of them running around, we just usually manage to keep them confined to Texas, where they are safe) insists that the Very Idea of Crockett Surrendering was slander against Mr Crockett. And the others who were apparently shot with their hands behind their backs.
They pointed to the source of the Slander, a Mexican lieutenant, as being proof positive that the thing was made up. Ignoring that the only Anglo types who survived were some women, children and Colonel Bowie’s slave Moses, who was manumitted (legally set free) in Bowie’s will.
And they were held in the chapel until the bodies were disposed of, so there was no way for them to witness whether or not the killing stopped before or after, lacking or in spite of, a surrender by some of the men.
This account was also written down by some of the women in their journals.
And in Texas it is traditional to treat General Antonio Jose y Maria Lopez de Santa Ana as the worst kind of villain, and it is also generally thought that Fannin and his men surrendering at Goliad and then being massacred took naught away from their status as Heroes.
But here is the sicker kicker….
The spokes-dude for the historical society went on and on about the 70s being a time when it was acceptable to question the (undoubtedly) spotless history of morality of the US military.
(and ignoring the fact than neither the Alamo nor Goliad was officially a U.S. military endeavour.)
And then said that not fully believing and accepting at face value the John Wayne portrayal of Davey Crockett’s last stand was so anti-patriotism that it actually encouraged al Qaeda to attack America….
I know, I know…just take a few deep breaths, pick your jaw up off the floor… breathe in, out, relax. ommmm calmmmm ommmmm…
And said that Americans needed the absolute faith in these legends to keep up the Morale of Our Troops while they face down the relentless brown hordes. And made the insinuation that “historical revisionists” were traitors and complicit in the terror America is so bravely fighting now….
And this show has aired at least twenty times in the past year.
This is the mindset facing us.
What I always hated about that Alamo/ Davy Crockett crap was how they never mention that the fight was about stealing Mexican territory to bring another Southern slave state into The Union. Not a pretty picture when one gets down to it.
And you reminded me, Jonah, of what a sorry sap John Wayne was and how I always hated his sappy personae in his Ronald Reagan chimp style movies about the Old West when I was growing up. Sure wish we had had Cantinflas movies to watch instead. Luckily, we did have The Stooges to show us Texas kids what reality was really all about. And maybe you might even remember Icky Twerp, Jonah, if you’re from Texas, Podner?
Icky Twerp? I must have missed that one. I do remember the Banana Splits show from the 60s.
I read where you wrote you’re from Dallas. I spent a lot of time in Ft Worth, and while Woodstock was going on I was living on a ranch outside Cleburne, had rarely seen a dude with a beard and especially never saw a hippie.
oh in Ft Worth I lived in Poly most of the time.
Hey there was something on WBAP 820 back when it was a country station….
“Always remember :Dallas spelled backwards is Sallad”
Never quite figured out what it meant, but I always remembered it.
I was living in Euless for a few years before coming up here.
I came across a neat description Recovering Texan.
Now I spend a lot of time with my ear pointed to the southeast, toward Crawford. Listening for the sound.
You know the one, that loud popping noise when Bush finally pulls his head out.
I have fun with it, otherwise it would drive me nucking futs.
heh. quotation mark + capital deal put a smiley there.
Oh, Kay.
One thing I remember about the John Wayne movies, and westerns in general. They always portray post Civil War Texas as a place where people openly wore revolvers down the street, and had shootouts in downtown or wherever.
Neglecting the fact that packing a short-arm was illegal until 1991.
and even now you have to get a license to do it.
The cops in Ft Worth once showed me in the Vernons Civil Codes, the abbreviated copy they pack around in the squad cars… you can pack a rifle, a shotgun or if you have license to own one (federal) a machine gun, fully loaded safety off finger on the trigger round in the chamber, and just walk down the sidewalk like that.
But you can’t carry a slingshot, a knife that doesn’t fold up, short arms,or a bow and arrow (guess which particular ethnic group that one was aimed at.)
I was tempted to ask about packing a molotov cocktail but decided for once not to press my luck.
But yeah, they sure mythologized the whole Texas experience.
Jonah, I can’t believe you don’t recall the famous Icky Twerp? He did a Dallas-Ft. Worth kid show where he introduced The Stooges and others. I used to go out to Cleburne with my SO often visiting my girl friend’s best friend who lived out that way. Countreeeee…… She had a dairy farm out there. Drove that way too when heading down the backroad through Johnson City to San Antonio on my motorcycle. The scenic route….