By John David Farrell, Guest Columnist

PICAYUNE, Miss. July 4, 2010 — America was born 234 years ago today. We are a relatively young Republic. Rome lasted over a thousand years.

What is unique, new about America, though?

You only have to read the “Declaration of Independence,” adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, to find out. It plainly tells us in simple words.

Prior to that “Declaration” men had considered acquiring  any type of freedom or legitimacy for instituting a governmental rule over men as deriving from a King, or from a group of men like a  Parliament, in case of the English, who had settled the Eastern Seaboard of the American continent.

But the new Americans who rose up in rebellion against the English nation looked in another place for that authority and freedom.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. . .”

What the Founding Fathers postulated had never been postulated by man before: That our rights don’t come from a King or other men, or a legislature of men; they come from God, the Creator. They are endowed, in other words, are a free gift from our Creator, and they are unalienable, that is, they can never be taken away from each one of us by anyone, or by any government, including our current government.

In other words, no one, no group of people can take away our rights! Our rights are ours, a gift of God to us for eternity. In fact, all that goverments are instituted for is to protect those God-giving rights.

In fact, if this government of ours right now does not secure these rights for us and maintain them, we have the additional right to rise up and change that government, or abolish it and start all over.

Dear Fellow Citizen, that is the difference; that is the reason we are different; that is our birthright that we must hold to no matter what happens, no matter how far our leaders stray from the original idea of self-government propounded by our Founding Fathers.

After this current damage is done, we will, as a free people, have to right ourselves and reassert our God-giving rights. It might be by replacing every single representative that we now have in Washington, and passing new Amendments to right our ship of state from the broadsides that have almost sunk her.

But if we hold to these founding truths, we will hold together and we will survive; it has always been the case, that when our Forefathers faced terrible odds, they held to our founding principles and those truths saw us through our crises.

Are we a Christian nation? We were founded on Christian principles, but America has always been big enough to embrace all faiths, and no faiths at all. But our nation is built upon a theological construct that postulates a Creator God who rules supreme in the universe. No God, no rights.

Yes, we are different, we Americans, and we will always be different and unique as we regain the control of our Republic.

We will take the first step on the journey of retaking our government in November.

Happy Birthday! America! You will have many more!

By John David Farrell, Guest Columnist

PICAYUNE, Miss. July 4, 2010 — We sometimes wonder if we are on the same planet and reading the same press as out illustrious politicians.

Former president Clinton excused the late Sen. Byrd from being a member of the KKK in his early career by saying he had to do it to get elected. If that would have been a conservative Byrd, they would have skewered him, like they did Lott and Thurmond.

Pelosi said, when they were passing the health care legislation, that the Congress had to hurry up and pass it so they could find out what’s in it. Chris Dodd recently said the same thing about the financial reform package.

Pelosi came up with a doosy this week by saying the best stimulent for the economy and best job creator is “unemployment checks.” Yep! That’s what she said.

Am I on Mars or Planet Earth? Please tell us.

Am I an idiot, or are they the idiots? Please tell us.

I am confused. Everything seems upside down.

The Bible said that ancient Israel became so evil, so corrupt  and so impotent, that “children ruled over them.”

Are we now at that stage? Please tell us!