Red Flag Alert, Signs & Symbols Rule Our World

Not laws, not words, not politicians, not entertainers, and not steroid sport athletes.

The term and the expression “to raise the red flag” come from various usages of real flags throughout history. A red flag is frequently flown by armed forces to warn the public of live fire exercises in progress and is sometimes flown by ships carrying munitions (in this context it is actually the flag for the letter B in the international maritime signal flag alphabet, a red swallow-tailed flag).

In many countries a red flag is flown to signify that an outdoor shooting range is in use. The United States Air Force refers to its largest annual exercise as Red Flag operation. Red flags are used for various signals in team sailing races (see Racing Rules of Sailing). A red flag warning is a signal of high wildfire danger, and a red flag on the beach warns of dangerous water conditions (double red flags indicate beach closure). Red flags of various designs indicate dangerous wind and wave conditions for mariners. In auto racing, a red flag indicates that a race has been stopped.

The Alamo was built by Spanish settlers and Franciscan missionaries in the early 18th century, originally known as Mission San Antonio de Valero, founded in 1718. It served as a mission and fortress compound aimed at converting local Native Americans to Christianity and integrating them into Spanish colonial society

What happened to the Slaves at The Alamo Mission?

“Republic. I like the sound of the word,” John Wayne’s Davy Crockett lectures Laurence Harvey as William Travis in The Alamo. “It means people can live free. Talk free. Come or go, buy or sell, drunk or sober, or however they choose.” Nifty speech, and since Wayne was directing he got to say it any way he wanted. It fits in nicely with a narrative that the United States has always been and continues to be dedicated to principles like individual responsibility and freedom. As a nation we’re finally reexamining that narrative and acknowledging that it’s all very well and good, as far as it goes, but for too long it hasn’t gone far enough.

Part of the narrative of the 1836 Battle of the Alamo is that the defenders were there to liberate Texas from the tyranny of Mexico. One of the points that often gets lost amid the flag-waving and coonskin caps is that by the time of the Texas Revolution, Mexico had abolished slavery, and Texas hadn’t. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, as History tells us, but made some exceptions in Texas — for instance, slaves whose master had died with no heirs would be freed (providing they hadn’t actually killed their masters, though who could blame them?). Slaves could not be imported. Immigrants to Texas usually came from the South and brought slaves with them to work their agricultural enterprises, says History News Network, but if slavery was outlawed?

Besides the identified survivors, there were also a number of unidentified slaves who lived through the battle. A number of the Alamo’s defenders were slaveholders, and Joe, Travis’s slave, reported that several Blacks were in the Spanish Mission.

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