That’s 70’s show
7th grade at Joshua middle school was a great year for me. Back in 79 it was principled by the very man its named after now. Mr Loflin ran the school, Coach Nichols ruled the roost but a man named Dub Crocker tought the Texas history class.
It was a very political class for seventh graders because Mr Crocker, was all fired up about the mess America was in at the time. Before I finished 7th grade I understood what an interest rate was and I knew that it was at 24% for house mortgages and that I should be outraged over that. That same year, I learned where Panama was and I knew that president Carter had given it away and that I should have been upset. “Teddy rosevelt was rolling in his grave,” I learned. Though I had never heard of Iran before the 7th grade I knew that we had hostages there and our American embassy was taken over because everybody knew we were a bunch of “Pushovers” that wouldn’t do anything.
What did that have to with Texas History? Well, Mr Crocker saw the world in terms of how it effected Texas. He was a Texan and that’s the way most of us see things.
Gone to Texas
Out of all the things I learned in that incredible year, there is one thing that he introduced me to that started a life long fascination and passion that continues today. I had heard about the Alamo before 7th grade but not like he taught it. We actually studied the 13 day siege and the three warriors that some would revere as the trinity itself. Travis, Bowie and the coon- skined cap wearing “Lion of the West” Davey Crocket.
You don’t have to be black to revere Martin Luther King Jr as an amazingly great man and you don’t have to be Catholic to love Mother Theresa as an awesome woman. Just like that, you don’t have to be Texan to love Travis and the guys at the Alamo.
Freedom Fighter
I have read more than a dozen books on the subject and actually visited the shrine of Texas at least thirty times. In my mind Crocket is still on those adobe walls firing against all odds and Houston is still on his white horse in full gallop towards Santa Anna’s tent. Call me a sap but I love the romantic notion of freedom fighting.
On March 3, 1836 William Barret Travis frantically scribbled a few lines wile under cannon siege.
“Take care of my little boy. If the country should be saved, I may make for him a splendid fortune; but if the country be lost and I should perish, he will have nothing but the proud recollection that he is the son of a man who died for his country.”
Travis loved freedom and the letter to David Ayers is the last known letter written by Travis before the fall of the Alamo on the morning of March 6. Travis died at his post in hand to hand combat on the cannon platform at the northeast corner of the fortress. He was 26 years old.
Houston, Travis, Austin, Crocket, Sequin, Bowie and Bonham set a standard for all of Texas that followed them. A tradition and heritage of Freedom, guts and rugged individualism.
God and Texas
It is the nature of people to conform to the image of what makes them tick. It is a biblical principle and a matter of fact that God made us to take on the characteristics of the things we love. Whether its Heavy metal, the military or Nascar, if you look at something long enough-you start to look like it.
Because of this principle, I have noticed that while not all revolutionaries are Godly people, all Godly people are revolutionaries in one way or another. A true characteristic of the love of God is to hate bondage and oppression.
Nearly 2000 years before Travis fell at the Alamo, Jesus Christ was lifted on the cross.
He hated the oppression and bondage of sin so much that he was willing to die to overcome it. He loved humanity and wanted us to be set free so bad that he was willing to give his own life on our behalf. He didn’t die for nothing, he died and rose again so that you and I could have a real shot at true freedom.
God Almighty is not your warden, He is your deliverer and as the bible says, he whom the Son sets free is free in deed. In Galatians 5:1 Paul declares “It is for Freedom Christ has set us free. God loves to scrap for your freedom friend, so take advantage of it. It is the Brewer’s humble opinion that only though Christ will you find the freedom to forgive, to have joy, to have peace, to love God and to pursue a life of passion that really makes a difference. Freedom isn’t for wimps but it’s offered to everybody.
1 comment:
I knew Dub Crocker when he was our 9th grade football coach and govt teacher at Alvarado in the mid 70's. I think 79 was his first year at Joshua.
Loved the guy, but he was a bit too far right for me as far as his politics went.
My sister had occasion to be at a retirement center afew months ago and ran into him. He's doing OK...she said he didn't remember her at first - but then seemed to after alittle coaxing ( this left me alittle concerned about his mental status because he totally should have remembered her ). I think it was in Grapevine.
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