Texas’ Independence Day came this week in 1836, declared on March 2 at Washington-on-the-Brazos.
Texans are proud of this history, and we should be. It’s a rich history of courageous underdogs, both white and Hispanic, standing up to a tyrannical dictator hellbent on taking away their freedoms and their guns.
A reason Texan and American sensibilities share a similar stripe is how synonymous those themes of independence are.
It’s a history that deserves pride and proper historical accuracy and we at The Texan agree.
But accuracy is giving way to falsehoods as woke ideologues are working hard to change Texas history to fit their own poisonous narrative.
Last week was the anniversary of the siege of the Alamo and The Texan tweeted out William B. Travis’ famous letter asking for aid to his besieged outpost. That help never arrived but the heroic actions of its author were written in stone, cemented into the story Texas.
But instead of pride, revisionists circulate toxic fallacies, as you can see by this response:
That is the most absurd, uncharitable, and flat-out wrong interpretation of the Texas Revolution, but unfortunately I’m seeing a lot of this blatant rewrite of history in response to these kinds of posts.
Even worse, this particular person claims to teach history in a public school! Dear Lord, no wonder the school choice movement is gaining so much momentum.
There are two strains of injurious history: the first, deifying men of the past as if they weren’t actually subject to flaws and human nature like the rest of us and the second, demonizing them as real life devils based on some 21st century value judgment.
Based on this person’s comments, he teaches his students nothing but the latter.
In a world that shrugs at or spits on history generally, and Texas’ specifically, The Texan revels in providing an antidote.
When I founded The Texan almost four years ago, one of my non-negotiables was to write about the Texas history that legacy media either ignores or reviles.
I’m proud that in between our great coverage of contemporary politics, we’ve maintained a large stream of Texas history articles. Check them out here.
It includes the Battles of Gonzales and San Jacinto, the Massacre at Goliad, the origin of the oil boom at Spindletop, the political bare knuckle brawl over Texas joining the Union, the Galveston Hurricane, and many more.
The history of Texas is as big and as broad as its geography. It must be respected, not whitewashed, but also told factually.
That’s what we do at The Texan.
There’s an old saying by George Santayanna that “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” History is always happening, constantly adding new pages to the textbook. It is our responsibility to treat the past with the reverence it and those who came before us deserve.
I’m proud to say we’re doing our small part to preserve the memory of the past and counter that regressive hatred Antonio here is pushing.
That’s our ode to Texas history — follow along with it by subscribing to The Texan today if you haven’t already!