Heroism

It was an October morning in the small town of Gonzalez. The year was 1835, a group of men from the town road to the detachment of 100 Mexican dragoons that demanded the return of a small six pound cannon that had been loaned to the town to defend themselves against Indian reigns. The small group of Texan men simply pointed back towards the cannon and said “there it is come and take it.” Five months later the Alamo was besieged by the 4000 strong Mexican army lead by General Santa Ana. Five days before the fall of the Alamo, 32 settlers from Gonzalez snuck behind Mexican lines to reinforce the defenders. Knowing they faced certain death they still chose to defend the Alamo ultimately sacrificing their lives for freedom.   When I visited the Alamo last summer I was moved by the selflessness the defenders had and their dedication for doing the right thing even when it cost them their lives. Today I will try to convince you to become a hero. First we will look at the importance of courageous actions, after that we will talk about the noble purposes that drive heroes and the ways you can become a hero. In doing this I hope to inspire you to think differently in the choices you make and to incorporate heroic traits into your everyday lives.
More than 2,000 years before the Alamo a Greek King was faced with the same demands as the settlers from Gonzalez. King Leonidas of Sparta and his 300 warriors guarded the pass of Thermopylae against the Persian army of one million men and their King Xerxes.   Because the people of Greece were unprepared for this attack, King Leonidas and his men volunteered to hold the narrow entrance of Greece so that the people of the country could raise the alarms and gather their army.   Xerxes asked the Spartans to yield the pass and Leonidas responded by saying “Molan Lavae” which means come and take it or over my dead body. The battle raged for days but because of the defensive position that the Spartans had taken they were only defeated...