Save Our History

You all know that I’m crazy in to history. As a native Texan and genealogist for my family, I don’t shy away from the good, the bad, or the ugly history I discover. This past weekend I found a new link that sent me all the way back to before 1200 in England on one particular relative’s lineage. I spent the whole of Saturday evening and night reading a book full of intrigue, insurrection, and even martyrdom that spanned my family’s line.

Some of the things you find when you look into the past are wonderful. Having the courage to stand for something, even when it ends with your own beheading is courageous. Thus was the case for one great-great-great (etc.) uncle in my family’s past. Not every relative will have a story so profound, and some might even be known as moral outcasts; however, don’t you want to know the truth about these things? I don’t want to read someone’s fairy-tale version of events. I want to know what really happened.

Don’t you want to know if you have any outstanding or even outlaw ancestors in your own family tree?

I got an email today from a Texas values group that I follow who alert me to different things going on within the state of interest to me as a conservative-leaning Libertarian. I’m a Christian wife and mother, first and foremost, and a Texan after that. I take my charge to raise my children to be good stewards very seriously. Texas mandates that homeschoolers teach “Good Citizenship” and so I, by example and by including them, as their teacher, make sure they learn what “Good Citizenship” means.

Today’s email was very worrisome.

The message spurred me to action. Action is what sets a Good Citizen and just a regular ‘ol Joe Citizen apart. Action is when you do something to back your complaint. Everyone should GET INVOLVED. I don’t care what your political bent is. Get involved. Be civil. Be engaged. Live what you believe. Standing – even on the wrong belief – for what you believe in is more admirable than being willing to bend for anything. I’m not saying to be close-minded… I’m saying if you are convicted of something, and you research it, and you learn the true history about it, be wiling to stand for your conviction and get involved on some level.

So today, my level of involvement was a letter. Just an email. One that took me five minutes to churn out. Everyone has five minutes. No excuses.

Here was my letter… and a little history lesson, too.

Words matter. Your voice matters. Let that be your message you take from this letter today:

Dear SBOE Member (you must send a message to your own SBOE member and you find out who that is by clicking here)…

I was sickened to hear this on an email recently:

“Yesterday, Texas Values testified at the State Board of Education (SBOE) meeting in support of continuing to teach about our Judeo-Christian heritage, the First Amendment, the Declaration of Independence, and the heroic defenders at the Alamo.

The rest of this week, the SBOE will continue discussion and begin voting today and Friday on accepting or rejecting the outrageous recommendations by an unelected work group to transform the education standards in social studies and history. These changes would impact millions of Texas students in public schools.
…
The recommendations include removing the word “heroic” when describing the defenders of the Alamo, removing all references to our Judeo-Christian heritage including completely removing Moses, the role Christianity played in the American founding, religious motives for establishment of the 13 English Colonies, the drafting of the Declaration of Independence, and many, many more key elements of history.

These recommendations are a full frontal attack not only on Texas history, but American history – and must be rejected!”

I totally agree. I reject these changes. History should not be rewritten or changed in any format. Learning from the past is what prevents us from being doomed to repeat it all in the future. It is already a travesty that most of the children being “mass-educated” by the State of Texas are graduating with not even a bare minimal understanding of history and government. I am a homeschool mom because of this fact (and others too numerous to mention). We teach in-depth history from all over the world (not just America) and we INTERACT when we learn government. My son was a delegate to the state of Texas for the GOP prior to graduation from homeschooling in 2016, worked campaigns and worked as a voting clerk in multiple elections.

The LEAST we can do for public schooled kids who do not have parents who are able to be involved in their education is to give them GOOD MATERIALS and texts to learn from. If they can’t read the documents and living books that our nation is founded upon, they could at least have them represented in their textbooks!!!!

As a note… words are important.

Lt. Col. Comdt. William Barret Travis may not have been a great man in character (as I would expect a man to be – leaving his wife behind to seek his fortune), but in courage, he stood the test and came out heroic. The words he wrote in his final address which included “Victory or death” may not have saved his own life or the life of his men, but they were the words on which support for the Revolution were based. They motivated Texans who were not present at the Alamo. They rallied the spirits and morale at the final battle with Sam Houston. They projected the emotion and truth of the event and inscribed it forever in the minds of those who read them.

Even today, reading the words of Travis, I am proud to be a Texan (who has had family in this state from prior to the Alamo). We may not all be perfect, but we are Texans – and we stand against oppression and those that would silence us or try to re-write our history, taking away from the “truths that we hold to be self-evident”… (to quote another important document: the Declaration of Independence).

Truths can not be erased or muted. Hiding or “candy-coating” the truth is lying.

Lying to the children in school should be a criminal offense. What need do we have for public schools if all they are for is to indoctrinate children into falsehoods and compliance? May it never be said that America or Texas would tolerate such crimes against our progeny.

End of letter… now go write your own! Send it soon. Texas is counting on you to #saveourhistory.