I really do not know what to say or what to do. I know that there are those that are giving up on the fight, I am now, will not, and never will. Those that do feel that it is too much to take on, I was reading up on Glen Becks website and he talked about this very thing. He then talked about the Alamo. I will just quote him directly:
"You know the Alamo, when you think of the Alamo, what do you think that is? Most people will think, "Oh, it's a fort," but it's not a fort. It wasn't some gigantic fortified castle, you know, built to try to hold off an advancing army. It was a mission. That's all it is is a mission. It had to be made into a fort, but it was the defenders of the Alamo who did just that. They made it into a fort. They faced insurmountable odds. 4,000 soldiers versus 188. 4,000 up against 188? Which one of those soldiers would you be? If you were the 188, would you be going, this is too -- I can't do it, I'm tired, we're alone, we're not going to make it. They were outmanned by over 20:1. This is just after Texas declared her independence. This is just a few weeks later they were forming the Republic of Texas. It was going to become its own country. Not a state. A country. The Mexican general, Santa Ana, demanded that they surrendered. And how did those 188 in the Alamo react? William Travis, who was in command at the Alamo wrote this letter: "I'm besieged by 1,000 or more of the Mexicans under Santa Ana. I've sustained a continual bombardment and candidate for 24 hours, and I haven't lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender. I've answered the demand with cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I will never surrender; I will never retreat." I'm pretty sure I don't speak Texan but I think that means, "Yeah, thanks but no thanks." 188 men alone. They are running low on ammunition, they were running low on food and other supplies. The next day, another letter. This one, this one to Sam Houston. The commander was hoping that Sam Houston would get these letters and send, you know, "Help, help, help, help, send us somebody." He wrote, "Our numbers are few but I shall hold out to the last extremity hoping to secure reinforcements in a day or two. Do hasten on aid as rapidly as possible, from a superior number of the enemy, it will be impossible for us to keep them out much longer. If th ey overpower us, we fall a sacrifice at the shrine of our country," speaking of Texas," and we hope prosperity in our country will do our memory justice. Give me help. Oh, my country, give me help. Victory or death." Somehow these 188 men held out for more than a week against an evading army of 4,000. Have you ever been to the Alamo? It's a little -- 4,000 men advancing and 188 protected that? After ten days Travis was still hoping for reinforcements. He was still hoping, but he had no idea, he had no idea if they were coming or not. He understood the odds. He knew he wasn't going to be able to last much longer, but he didn't back up. He didn't back off. He didn't back up. He didn't whine. He didn't say, "I'm tired." He rode under the flag of independence, "We are ready to peril our lives 100 times a day. I will fight the enemy on his own terms. I'm ready to do it. And if my country men do not rally to my relief, I'm determined to perish in the defense of this place." Later that day he wrote one last time, "Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I will make for him a splendid fortune but if the country be lost and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection but he is the son of a man who died for his country."
Three days later the Alamo would finally fall. The reinforcements didn't make it in time, but it didn't fall for 13 days and not before those 188 took out 600 of Santa Ana's men. More importantly was the number of days, 13 days. It gave 13 days to Sam Houston. He was able to put together a volunteer army, an army that defeated Santa Ana, gave birth to the Republic of Texas, its own country, its own constitution.
Here's the story. These 188 people, they weren't any different than you. Some of them were soldiers, some of them were just regular people, some of them were just, "I'm going to take a stand." You want to feel alone, 188 surrendered by 4,000, they didn't pick the place or the time of their fight. They wouldn't have done it at a mission. If they could have picked anywhere, it wouldn't have been there. They just knew that their cause was just. They just knew that their lives were worth lying down for what was right. They just knew that there was something bigger and more important than them. How did they know it? Why didn't they desert? Why didn't they surrender when they saw 4,000? They did it because they were committed to the idea of liberty. They did it because they felt they owed it to one another: "If he stands, I'll stand. I ain't going anywhere with your brother. We're in it together." When you feel connected to somebody else, you don't give up. That's how soldiers in the battlefield or P.O.W. camps rally around each other because he's standing; I'll stand. It's not about ideology. It's about our commitment to each other. It's about knowing that you're not alone and letting someone else know that they're not alone.
Even when you can't see the people fighting with you, even when you're in the Alamo and you're all alone, just 188 of you and you don't know if that army is coming tonight or never, you just fight on because you're not alone.
It's not just some crazy history lesson about the Alamo. These people didn't die to defend the Alamo which is now some place where you go on vacation and have your picture taken in front of it, and most people don't even know what it means or what it stands for. They didn't just die for protecting the Alamo or even Texas. Today they died to teach us a lesson, to fight on, to never give up. You're not alone.
Read the whole thing here.
