Posted on Fri, Mar. 02, 2007

Remember, on this day, what got us here
By Bob Ray Sanders

Star-Telegram Staff Writer
ASSOCIATED PRESS ARCHIVES


Only a few days after Texas declared its independence 171 years ago today, the Alamo fell, but its defenders are revered.When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression ...

Thus begins the Texas Declaration of Independence, adopted unanimously on this day 171 years ago.

A rebellious group of "Texicans," having grown tired of broken promises and assaults on their civil rights by the Mexican government, hastily met in the Convention of 1836 to adopt the document that would decree "our eternal political separation" from Mexico.

Even as the declaration was being written overnight on March 1-2, 1836, another group of brave men, almost 200 miles away, were holed up in the Alamo, surrounded by thousands of Santa Anna's troops. Four days after the Declaration of Independence was adopted, the Alamo fell, along with its defenders.

The only survivors of the onslaught that morning, according to the Texas Almanac, were "a few women, children and black slaves."

What happened at the Alamo became the rallying cry as the Texas army, under the leadership of Sam Houston, went on to defeat the Mexicans at San Jacinto.

Although the Republic was short-lived -- just nine years until Texas joined the union in 1845 -- Texans remain proud of that history of independence and the men and women who brought it about.

I am a Texan.

If nothing else, my name gives me away. Texans are famous for having first and middle names that are used as if they are one. You've heard them: Billy Joes, Jim Bobs, Betty Lynns and, yes, Bob Rays are found all over the state.

My roots are deep in this fertile soil, well over 140 years in Tarrant County alone.

I have the distinction of being able to connect -- through legacy, if not by blood -- with both the slaves who survived the Alamo and the many Anglos who pledged to William B. Travis that bleak March day that they were willing to fight to the death. And, yes, I feel a connection to hero Juan Seguin, who distinguished himself in battle and in politics.

The banner of the Republic, the Lone Star Flag that is our state flag today, is still revered as a symbol of a people and spirit that fought off tyranny and went on to conquer an expansive wilderness that is now the second most-populous state in the country.

The people of Texas adore this state's uniqueness of having existed under six flags, being able to balance and embrace its Western and Southern heritages, as well as its competing rural and urban interests. At the same time, the state continues to be a confluence of cultures that adds to the richness of our diversity.

Those who call Texas home can argue about our differences, and even debate the positives and negatives of our connections to the nations whose flags have flown over this land.

But we would do better to talk about our similarities and what brings us together rather than what separates us.

The men who gathered at Washington-on-the-Brazos more than 17 decades ago could not have imagined what their offspring and an influx of immigrants would be able to do with this once rugged land that they knew was full of promise. Nor would they have been able to guess that their descendants would one day stand along with the descendants of slaves and Mexicans and others in governing our state, overseeing our major institutions and working together to secure a brighter future for coming generations.

They probably could not have foreseen how closely related Texas and Mexico would be today, coexisting with many shared hopes, an economic codependence and a host of challenges that won't disappear anytime soon. Our futures are inextricably tied, despite conflicts over immigration and trade or anything else.

We Texans are often accused of being proud to a fault, bordering on conceit and obnoxiousness. But believe me, it is not arrogance that we intend to display when we celebrate our heritage and accomplishments; it is just that we fervently honor our past and those who were part of it, and we relish what they handed down to us.

On this Texas Independence Day, we should give thanks for the sacrifices of those Texans -- from all walks of life -- who came before us, and we should rededicate ourselves to their ideals, understanding that they had their faults as well as their outstanding attributes.

And while you contemplate these things, consider the final words of that document adopted in 1836:

We, therefore, the delegates with plenary powers of the people of Texas, in solemn convention assembled, appealing to a candid world for necessities of our condition, do hereby resolve and declare, that our political connection with the Mexican nation has forever ended, and that the people of Texas do now constitute a free, Sovereign, and independent republic, and are fully invested with all the rights and attributes which properly belong to independent nations; and, conscious of the rectitude of our intentions, we fearlessly and confidently commit the issue to the decision of the Supreme arbiter of the destinies of nations.


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