The Alamo, Abused Children and Battered Women

I don't like the Alamo. Don't care who won or lost anymore -- the Anglos or the Mexicans? It's all the same to me.

The Alamo didn't give me "freedom." The civil rights movement did that.

The women lost at the Alamo. The children lost. Women were raped, abandoned, forgotten, used. I say Forget the Alamo on March 6th by remembering the ugliness, the horror, the pillage of war.

San Antonio is a violent city. We have some of the highest rates in the nation for abused children, battered women, cruelty to animals.

As long as we celebrate this monument to war, there will be no peace in San Antonio. Violence engenders more violence. That war haunts us still as we revere the "heroes" and don't know who the peacemakers are.

This year, I am asking women from all over the world to examine, study, and look again at these monuments to war. Let's begin with the Alamo. Let's ask that the Alamo become a Monument to Peace. A Wailing Wall where all of us can go and cry in our suffering, and let's turn the Alamo into a Center for the Study of Peace, Healing, & Reconciliation.

photo credit: Joan Frederick, www.joanfrederick.net

Comments

Unknown said…

Hi,

I found your view of the Alamo refreshing. Growing up in San Antonio I have noticed most people celebrate the Alamo without thinking twice about what it means. They celebrate for one day and then go on with their lives, however, the Alamo remains the central image or symbol of SA.

I am a grad student at UTSA, and am looking for local bloggers to interview, is that something that might interest you? If so please hit me back.

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