There is much to love about the city of San Antonio,
But from among the attractions that Tom and I were able to take in - and enjoyed much -during our two days in San Antonio, it was a visit to the Alamo that left me feeling especially inspired.
The Alamo was an old 18th Century Spanish mission that eventually became a Mexican army fortress which was seized in 1835 by the Texan army during the Texas Revolution, Texas's war of independence from Mexico. In 1836 the Mexican army led by Santa Ana, the President of Mexico, laid siege to The Alamo, wiped out the Texan forces and recaptured the fortress.
But news of the battle of the Alamo spread across Texas and "Remember The Alamo!" became the battle cry of Texans and several months later Texas won its independence from Mexico, though another decade would pass before all military hostilities ceased between Texas and Mexico.
But today, 150 later, the Alamo is no longer a site of war and hostility between people,
And so today people, whether they are of Mexican, American, or of any other descent, arrive at the Alamo in great numbers not to engage in conflict as they did 150 years ago,
They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.
And I fantasized that a hundred or two years from now tourists might visit and pay respects to what were once the battle grounds of Iraq, Syria and other war-torn areas of the Middle East, now historical sites of struggles and suffering long past.
How happy a future would that be?