Remember the Alamo!

 

( I originally posted this at The American Catholic, and I thought the Alamo mavens of Almost Chosen People might find it amusing.)

 

News that I missed, courtesy of The Babylon Bee:

AUSTIN, TX—There are a few key attributes that define being a Texan: firing guns, yelling “Yee-Haw!”, and remembering the Alamo. But with the winter storm having overtaken Texas and power out in many places, one local Texan has been so focused on keeping warm he has forgotten the Alamo.

“Oh, I know there is something I’m supposed to remember,” said Lyle Thomas as he huddled under a blanket with his wife, “but I can’t think of what. Too busy shivering.”

His wife, Sue Thomas, immediately grabbed him and started shaking him. “The Alamo! You need to remember the Alamo!”

The Alamo, if forgotten, will lose its power and disappear — much like fairies. Without the power of the Alamo holding Texas together, the state could fall into a hundred years of ruin and end up like a common California.

“Sorry, I just can’t remember it anymore,” said Lyle. “Maybe I’m blocking it out of my mind because it was a winter battle.”

Sue started slapping him. “You have to remember! Remember!”

“I’m trying. Just so cold.”

“Then let’s do the other thing we Texans do to warm up,” Sue suggested. “Fire guns.”

Lyle agreed that snuggling recently fired guns is a great way to stay warm. He took out his revolver, pointed it in the air, and shouted, “Yee…” before suddenly stopping. “Oh wait. How does the rest of that go?”

Go here to read the rest.

Top Ten Posts of All Time on Almost Chosen People

 

I get in a stats mood every now and then.  Here are the top ten most viewed posts on Almost Chosen People:

1.  Edmund Burke and the American Revolution is the top post with 15,460 views.  Go here to read it.
2. Sam Houston and Secession is at number two with 14,128 views.  Go here to read it.
3.  Jefferson and Rousseau-On Democracy comes in number three with 14,051 views.  Go here to read it.
4.  Magna Carta comes in at number four with 9,967 views.  Go here to read it.
5.  Federalist 51-Madison comes in fifth with 9,944 views.  Go here to read it.
6.  Edmund Burke’s Views on America has 7851 views.  Go here to read it.
7.  Washington at Prayer has had 7,551 views.  Go here to read it.
8. Quotes Suitable for Framing Admiral William L. Halsey, Jr. has 7, 281 views.  Go here to read it.
9.  George Washington in Trafalgar Square has 6,289 views.  Go here to read it.
10. Lincoln on the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act has 6,224 views.  Go here to read it.

 

I would note that my co-blogger Paul Zummo wrote the posts at 1,3,5, and 6 and I drafted the remainder.

Almost Chosen People

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate of the State of New-Jersey: I am very grateful to you for the honorable reception of which I have been the object. I cannot but remember the place that New-Jersey holds in our early history. In the early Revolutionary struggle, few of the States among the old Thirteen had more of the battle-fields of the country within their limits than old New-Jersey. May I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have ever seen, “Weem’s Life of Washington.” I remember all the accounts there given of the battle fields and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New-Jersey. The crossing of the river; the contest with the Hessians; the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any single revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for; that something even more than National Independence; that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come; I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle. You give me this reception, as I understand, without distinction of party. I learn that this body is composed of a majority of gentlemen who, in the exercise of their best judgment in the choice of a Chief Magistrate, did not think I was the man. I understand, nevertheless, that they came forward here to greet me as the constitutional President of the United States — as citizens of the United States, to meet the man who, for the time being, is the representative man of the nation, united by a purpose to perpetuate the Union and liberties of the people. As such, I accept this reception more gratefully than I could do did I believe it was tendered to me as an individual.

Abraham Lincoln, February 21, 1861

Corpus Christi and Memorial Day

(I am posting this at The American Catholic and I thought the history mavens of Almost Chosen People might like to read it.)

When Corpus Christi rolls around I always think of Saint Thomas Aquinas and his great eucharistic hymn Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium written by Saint Thomas at the command of Pope Urban IV to celebrate the feast of Corpus Christi instituted by the Pope in 1263.   It says something vastly significant about the Church that perhaps the greatest intellect of all time, Saint Thomas Aquinas, was not only a Doctor of the Church, but also capable of writing this magnificent hymn. 

The last portion of the hymn, Tantum Ergo, has vast significance for my family.  My wife, who is a far better Catholic in my estimation than I am, is a convert.  A Methodist when we married, she converted to the Church a few years later.  She had questions regarding the real presence, and this line from Tantum Ergo resolved them:  Faith tells us that Christ is present,  When our human senses fail.  When our kids came along she would whisper at the Consecration to them:  First it’s bread, now it’s Jesus.  First it’s wine, now it’s Jesus. 

This year Corpus Christi falls on Memorial Day and that strikes me as appropriate when we recall these words of Christ:

Greater love hath no one than this: to lay down his life for his friends.

John 15: 13

Christ took on our flesh, our blood and our mortality.  He sacrificed His flesh and His blood to save us.  He gave us the great Sacrament so that just as He took on our flesh and blood, we might consume His flesh and His blood and draw close to Him through His grace.

On Memorial Day we honor our war dead.  They lost their flesh and blood in our service and to protect us.  Just as we owe Christ a debt that can never be repaid, so too do we owe a debt to those men who have died for us and that debt can never be repaid to them.  Christ gives us His body and blood to give us grace and His teachings to allow us to lead lives that attempt, oh so imperfectly, to follow in His footsteps.  Our war dead allow us to do this in more freedom and security than most of our ancestors possessed.

Top Ten Most Popular Posts For Almost Chosen People

The long Memorial Day Weekend gave me time to look at statistics of the blog.  Here are the top ten most popular posts for Almost Chosen People:

 

Magna Carta  9,548
Jefferson and Rousseau – On Democracy  7,378
Washington at Prayer  7,085
Edmund Burke and the American Revolution  6,590
Sam Houston and Secession  4,468
Top Ten Movies for the Fourth of July  3,939
Federalist 51 – Madison 3,438
July 5th, 1775: The Olive Branch Petition  3,192
Battle of Bunker Hill  2,570
John Adams Meets King George III 2,553

Almost Chosen People

Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Senate of the State of New-Jersey: I am very grateful to you for the honorable reception of which I have been the object. I cannot but remember the place that New-Jersey holds in our early history. In the early Revolutionary struggle, few of the States among the old Thirteen had more of the battle-fields of the country within their limits than old New-Jersey. May I be pardoned if, upon this occasion, I mention that away back in my childhood, the earliest days of my being able to read, I got hold of a small book, such a one as few of the younger members have ever seen, “Weem’s Life of Washington.” I remember all the accounts there given of the battle fields and struggles for the liberties of the country, and none fixed themselves upon my imagination so deeply as the struggle here at Trenton, New-Jersey. The crossing of the river; the contest with the Hessians; the great hardships endured at that time, all fixed themselves on my memory more than any single revolutionary event; and you all know, for you have all been boys, how these early impressions last longer than any others. I recollect thinking then, boy even though I was, that there must have been something more than common that those men struggled for; that something even more than National Independence; that something that held out a great promise to all the people of the world to all time to come; I am exceedingly anxious that this Union, the Constitution, and the liberties of the people shall be perpetuated in accordance with the original idea for which that struggle was made, and I shall be most happy indeed if I shall be an humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this, his almost chosen people, for perpetuating the object of that great struggle. You give me this reception, as I understand, without distinction of party. I learn that this body is composed of a majority of gentlemen who, in the exercise of their best judgment in the choice of a Chief Magistrate, did not think I was the man. I understand, nevertheless, that they came forward here to greet me as the constitutional President of the United States — as citizens of the United States, to meet the man who, for the time being, is the representative man of the nation, united by a purpose to perpetuate the Union and liberties of the people. As such, I accept this reception more gratefully than I could do did I believe it was tendered to me as an individual.

Abraham Lincoln, February 21, 1861