We celebrate 250 years of a radical experiment in freedom which started with our Declaration of Independence. Jefferson used the language of “the laws of nature and nature’s God…” to understand where our rights originated.  These Natural rights are “unalienable”, that is, they exist for every person, and they come from our Creator, God. The government, elected officials or a king, does not create these rights.  It exists to protect these rights. Here are a few examples of the roots of the American experiment. Cicero, Roman statesman who died in 43 BC, stated: “There is a true law, a right reason, conformable to nature, universal, unchangeable, eternal, whose commands urge us to duty, and whose prohibitions restrain us from evil.”  Natural law is intrinsic to the human person as it is the imprint of the Divine light in the heart of man as a participation in the Creator. Natural reason is the ability to discern what is good and evil. Law is a dictate of reason ordered to the common good. (St. Thomas Aquinas.). The 10 Commandments are Divine Law revealed to us by God which are universal as they apply to all persons and at all times.  The apostles preached Gospel and brought the presence of Christ to the world through the Church. All of these events and ideas can be understood as the seedbed that went into forming Western Civilization and to form this country.  Without this proper foundation there cannot arise our Declaration.  Self-governance, electing officials, demands citizens who are virtuous.  We are born in freedom to choose the good.  Freedom must be tethered to the truth.  Each person cannot create their own truth. This leads to relativism and the selfish grab for power.  When people are filled with vices then how can they be ordered to the truth. They can’t even see the truth. Everyone is guided by self-interest. We are made by God for Him and others. “For Freedom Christ has set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.  For you were once called for freedom, but do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (Gal 5: 1, 14) “Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.” - Pope John Paul II