IN THIS SECTION     Core Issues      Discussion Core Issues Related to This Section Text of the Victory or Death Letter "To the People of Texas and All Americans in the World" February 24, 1836 Written by Colonel William B. Travis Fellow citizens and compatriots; I am besieged, by a thousand or more of the Mexicans under Santa Anna. I have sustained a continual Bombardment and cannonade for 24 hours and have not lost a man. The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken. I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, and our flag still waves proudly from the walls. I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid, with all dispatch. The enemy is receiving reinforcements daily and will no doubt increase to three or four thousand in four or five days. If this call is neglected, I am determined to sustain myself as long as possible and die like a soldier who never forgets what is due to his own honor & that of his country. Victory or Death. William Barret Travis Lt. Col. Comdt. P.S. The Lord is on our side. When the enemy appeared in sight we had not three bushels of corn. We have since found in deserted houses 80 or 90 bushels and got into the walls 20 or 30 head of Beeves. Travis Discussion The United States has been experiencing several hits to our prestige and dignity from both within and outside our borders.  Some of it is a form of long-term terrorism.  Other parts of it are culturally driven.  Remember a house divided will fall, and that is exactly what certain anti-American groups are attempting.  This means there is a goal to make the American mainstream, the backbone, look racist, silly, mistaken, unstable, hapless, lost, corrupt, foolish, stupid, limpid, hollow and misguided.  They will want homeless veterans sitting along our streets looking feeble.  Corrupt leaders and cartels in or linked to our military will be teaching other members of our active duty personnel bad habits which can be retained as thieving, drug dealing veterans, including those with sour and corrupt business practices (like a few veteran mechanics). A strong point of focus should be our military and policing personnel, both during and after active duty.  We need post- duty sustainability. Below are some suggestions. HOW TO DO HONOR -Make the drug dealing and using, as well as sexual abuse issues in the military a top priority.  Identify and stop sexually abusive language on the job, discourage low grade activities when off duty, etc. -Stop American Military leaders from dealing drugs - heavy penalties for traitors -Stop the culture of drugs and alcohol in the military; it should not be commonplace.  People should not by lax about it. Close down bars on military bases.  Prevent frequent usage of them off bases within a ten mile or so radius during off duty hours - or something to that effect. - Make an emphasis in investigating and reviewing exising studies in key American military/American police drug dealing complicity -Stop rapes, porn, misogyny and sexual misconduct in general on bases and off duty.  The thing about misogyny is the men are not making best use of the resources of the country.  By ostracizing, bad-mouthing, and treating women with contempt in various ways, they divide the country which is self-defeating.  Everywhere the men go, there is another woman; you cannot avoid nor eliminate them. Everyone can learn to work more smartly and efficiently within the limits of their physical frame with a little forethought.  The biggest thing here is to identify that if men are not nurtured and included in the fold, they will project that onto women.  Women can be rough and tough, too, using foul language, conducting themselves in a course manner not dignified of any gender or sexual orientation.  Women have to do their part in these matters - not to used against them by abusive men who would make any excuses that women are the bad ones - this issue is about listening, feeling and seeing what we are doing, and what the people around us are doing - and calling a spade a spade.  Course, vulgar language and behaviors don’t make us look good and do not make our country look good.  It’s not about being raw and natural; it is about what we have heard growing up and around us, and the bad habits that we allow ourselves to develop. Women do in fact carry a heavier load with nature’s given menstrual cycles and the making of babies; looking at any bio-energetic photograph shows us the intensification of heat and color in the aura - more “work” is being done by the body.  As such, women should continue to be given credit for that as time out and patience, because such things would add bio-energetic, biochemical and physiological strains to anyone.  Better to see it as a human thing as much as a woman thing. But the most of the time they can be an asset to any work force if trained properly.  Men with tendencies for rape and hard core sex need to learn safer and saner sex relief valves than abusing people for temporary bangs that don’t really go anywhere.  People often refer to rape as violence, not sex, but there is a core problem with someone having such a low sense of self-worth as to force sex on someone because he does not feel his own life is worth more than that.  As he objectifies the women, so too does he objectify himself. -Identify high risk  populations for sexual abuse in military based on background checks and criminal records and put through rigorous side-training program upon inception.  Do not tiptoe around difficult subjects for fear of racial discrimination.  For example, if high risk groups are blacks and Hispanics from the inner city, then step up to the plate and admit it.  If far right white guys are spinning Muslims in dryers and killing them out of bigotry, then stop that, as well.  Whatever it takes to address the problems in various groups and regarding any individual with a past record.  The military has often taken on people with criminal pasts and this will not stop.  However, the military can also be a whole lot smarter about how it handles these people once they get in their door.  Such people should not become a burden and danger to the rest of the military personnel because the military does not take the necessary precautionary steps through education. -Improve military training and on-the-job cultural atmosphere by reducing high psychological pressure, rough and tough, push-push-push mode for a space that cultivates smart, efficient and 360 degree view pro-activity and reflection.  Treat each other with dignity and respect; give time and space for deeper longterm learning.  Encourage problem solving.  Although a toughening is needed to get people used to combat and harsh zones and peoples, we need to go at the training with an eye on honing, not lowering, hampering or abusing our military persons.  Do not hire drill sergeants with a history of substance abuse, domestic violence, rape or any form of abuse toward fellow personnel or students.  Do not hire drill sergeants with a bigotry problem, either as a white (fair-skinned Caucasian raised in a more traditional western American culture) or non-white person.   Blacks and Hispanics can be taking it out on others through a power trip and with a bad attitude gained from the ghettos or inner cities.  They can be using high drama and bad language while pretending to be “training” when in fact they are trying to show the whole American thing is a sham. They don’t really believe in America and are there to lower morale.  They also can try to be funny in a mean way, exaggerating drill practice to the ridiculous.  Whites raised in a largely white Christian fundamentalist environment might clique together with other similar whites to haze people they feel are the enemy overseas amongst them in the military training facility.  They can be breaking laws and lowering the honor of the United States.  Also they can be taking themselves out of the picture by being put in jail or getting a record, when their help with this country is badly needed; we can lose otherwise good men this way.  It is better to keep your nose clean and to use your head to fight America’s enemies among us. -Don’t feed the enemy: stop American practices of handing over billions of dollars to overseas countries and groups who later turn on us.  Those dollars need to go directly to the American people and our own military persons and operations.  We often have no control or eventually lose control over dollars and weapons handed over to other countries.  Stop it, stop it, stop it. -Some Active Duty personnel barely making it financially -Non-American and Anti-American groups exploiting the vulnerabilities of the American military issues listed here, and more - Post-Battle Honor and Personal Dignity: Special task forces for finding and rounding up homeless veterans to offer them real world solutions tailored for certain categories of preference and likelihood for longterm success: this can include low cost highly efficient apartment, trailer and RV parks with excellent “home cooking for morale” food serve centers for the group. Veterans Monitoring Veterans:  No Seedy Practices. Identifying Veterans waving flags for business but providing seedy services to the public: veterans monitoring veterans; veterans deterring other veterans from using their past service as veterans to manipulate the public for handouts. Identify “after active duty” downhill climbs: bitterness, cynicism, the sense of feeling taken, etc…that can lead to criminal activity both as civilians and as members linked to the policing communities.  A large part of the issues can be inadequate health care.  Currently both active duty personnel as well as veterans might be dealing with bureaucratic red tape, long lines or waiting periods, as well as subclass personnel handling the medical diagnoses/evaluations.  The frustration that builds up can lend itself to mutiny (anti-American antics) of various sorts (drug dealing with other countries, stealing from the public, etc).  In addition, depression and a sense of nowhere real to turn to can lead to sitting on the corner with signs that read “Homeless Veteran, Anything Will Help” or any other similar message to the general public.  Having a hot-handed attitude toward work (ie, “good honest work) can make other veterans give up in disgust when their military brethren do this.  We need to adjust our attitudes about the Puritan Work Ethic in this country, because it is not hitting home for a lot of people.  To try to force things in these matters simply will not work.   People will engage when they feel it inside.  In addition, there need to be jobs that match the activity and knowledge level of the people at different times of their lives, or for the course of their lives.  Many of the low level, low energy or repetitive jobs requiring little or no skill levels are being handed over to people overseas and need to be returned to the United States.  Flex time can help, as well. There are several ideas and approaches suggested on River Gold, but many homeless support websites have excellent ideas as well.  It should be a given that any American who truly wants a job will have one.  To reach these objectives, we will need to change our background, reference and previously employment parameters to make them easier across the board in those companies that don’t truly need such for entry level jobs; we need to reserve top notch background checks/parameters for the jobs that truly need them so that we spend more time on them in the right way.  People who have little or no work history, who have a scattered work history or who have not worked in years should not be kept from employment, but added on to a company with that in mind, knowing other ways of working with such employees might be needed.  In other words, there can be a plan as to how to work with people who don’t fit the “9 to 5, 10 to 30 year stable employee” status.  Consider the possibility that evolution over millions of years might have created human tendencies for roaming, like in nomadic packs, or as winter/summer seasonal movement.  In addition, for millions of years, it is likely people banded and worked together in informal settings in which direct survival measured the need to do something, with more immediate gratification for hunting the deer, planting and growing the plants, gathering the firewood and water, with subsequent eating and drinking.  Gaining a paycheck can have direct links to personal survival, but there is an intermediary between then and now, a less direct line of connection to the thing felt, seen and taken inside the body.  With these things in mind, we need to be more patient and gentler on the spirits of the people we want to see working and taking care of themselves in society by finding different sorts of solutions that really work across a large span of interests and capabilities. Updates:  2019/12/16-Travis’ letter from The Alamo; 2019/11/09 some additions and editing.  Page started 2019/11/08.