Civilly disobedient display of constitutional obedience

One way out - and no door, front or back, in sight

The Alamo, Misión San Antonio de Bexar, Texas – It is a matter of record that Gen. Sam Houston refused to come to the aid of Col. Wm. B. Travis, besieged at this impromptu garrison for 13 days in spring of 1836.

RECITALS

What is little known is the true reason for the debacle that martyred those immortal souls who lost their lives in that conflict.

They had no Constitution!

At Washington-on-the-Brazos, Koloneh knew that if he did march there, he would thereby be engaged in an act of piracy as blatant as that of Travis' disobedient reactions to his orders, and Sharp Knife, from his redoubt at Washington City so far distant, would have been displeased, to say the least.

The Raven wasn't having it.

He told his brothers in arms to vote out a Constitution for the new Republic – or else he would continue to sit tight there on the Brazos and drink his corn for all day and all night. The General knew his mission well.

Quite simply, it was to expand the western border of the United States of America far past its then-present terminus at the Sabine River, thence through the network of the drainages of the western rivers to the northwest territories of the purchase of Louisiana.

He had told Travis to stunt, run and gun, stay ahead of the enemy, to salvage what he could in the way of ball, powder, shot, shell and cannon, fire the buildings, destroy the fortifications at the Alamo, and head for Goliad, or Gonzales - or points further east.

It would have been a rude thing to do, to burn the church where people went for prayer, for communion, novenas, christenings, weddings, wakes and funerals, where the Franciscans did their business to Baptize, christen, marry, bury, preach and teach.

An act of guerilla provocation, designed to enrage an already irritated Enemy – to lure him to the swamps of Anahuac, that certain place in space chosen by The Raven for his ambush.

Koloneh was no pirate; he was a Scout, and he had always scouted for the Sharp Knife, Andrew Jackson, by the Constitutional authority of the Army of the United States – and no one else. His strategy was to fight the enemy on ground of his own choosing, and not in the court of a church on the river named for the patron saint of those who have lost at love, or lost in matters less tangible, lost possessions as cherished as their right minds, their birth rights - or their immortal souls.

The Hapsburg regime, from its far-flung outpost at Mexico City – a last vestige of the dying Holy Roman Empire - had directed the troops to confiscate all weapons of war, to place the Texians at the mercy of their enemies, to clap them in irons and place them in custody at the whim of any sword-toting policeman on a mission.

The cassus belli was that of God-given rights, not of privilege bestowed by the authority of man, but of that sublime level of humanity endowed by the Almighty.

When the end came for the besieged, they were not shot, executed in a soldierly fashion. A commander at war – even today - may do as he pleases with pirates. Santa Ana had his dragoons club them to death, to bludgeon them with rifle butts and stab them with bayonets before they burned their corpses in the interest of sanitation. The number of those merely stunned and not yet dead has gone unrecorded, but scuttlebutt around the cauldron has it there are banshees who scream in the moonlight of certain nights, cry out for...Enough!

Paradoxically, Houston's instructions were accomplished, after all. It's just that his opposite number, the General Santa Ana de Lopez unwittingly carried out his orders for him. He set fire to el Alamo, Missión San Antonio de Bexar, Texas, in the interests of sanitation.

PATRIOTS ON PATROL – PISSING OFF POLICE

And now, on the auspicious date of October 19, 2013, the Texians chose once again to bear arms in defiance of appointed mortal authority, the chief of police of this fabulous and vibrant city on the river named for the patron of those who have lost something, Santo Antonio. He is an appointed official who has instructed his dragoons to threaten incarceration and confiscation of firearms borne in self defense by patriots on patrol, hell bent on the manly mission of pissing off police.

This time, there is a difference. A huge difference.

Vast.

Interplanetary.

Galactic.

Universal.

These chaps - and no inconsiderable number of their ladies - many of them native born, others of whom have arrived as quickly as they could by voting with their feet and joining the Texians, body and soul, have stepped across the line in the sand, made themselves known as Constitutionalists, strutted into the arena of history like proud roosters on parade in the dooryard of the mission.

They have not one, but two Constitutions – United States and Texas – that in unison proclaim them endowed by their Creator with the perfect right to bear arms, locked and loaded, in the defense of their persons, their properties, their papers, and those whom they love and cherish.

They have spoken; hear them roar.

Hear. Hear.

I have spoken.

I am sincere.

So mote it be.

The Legendary

Jim Parks, WAR correspondent on Ghost Patrol, founding member -

The Texas Long-Haired Rifle Association, organized at New Orleans, Louisiana, 1980

Knock that door. Come on and ramble along, y'all. We here.