The community of Byram, Mississippi - where I live - has an illegitimate government. And no one is doing anything about it.

We are trying to incorporate and become a city, but we are not incorporated yet. However, there is a man named Nick Tremonte who has declared himself the "interim mayor." And there are five other people - Theresa Marble, Amy Douglas, Danny Ford, Kent Alday (the "President"), and State Senator Richard White - who have declared themselves an "interim board of aldermen." The senator really has no excuse. He knows better.

They claim that they were elected, but there is no record of that election anywhere, to my knowledge. If it exists, I'd like to see someone produce it for public perusal. There was definitely no election in 2005, the year that municipal elections would be held in Mississippi, to see whether we wanted to keep them or "throw the bums out." Now, that's job security. Good thing they're not being paid. They'd really be in there for life then.

This bunch is in collusion with the local monthly newspaper, The Byram Banner, and its editor and publisher, Donna Arnold. I have two e-mails that I could forward to you, upon request, that prove that no letter to the editor is published unless it "passes muster" with this illegitimate government. If they don't want your letter printed, then they say that your letter would be "divisive" and wouldn't promote "unity." Of course it wouldn't! The unity that they want is the unity that allows them to do anything they want. Anyone who is against them is a person who they call a divisive force, but we call that kind of person someone who understands and practices free speech and the freedom to disagree. "Interim government," if you want to govern in this nation of free people, you're going to have to learn to take the heat.

One more thing, they can dish it out but they can't take it. They published the names in The Byram Banner of all the people who live in the Brookwood Subdivision who are in danger of being annexed by Jackson and who are fighting it. Of course, that causes a delay in Byram's incorporation, but they have a right to protest being annexed by a failing city of which they don't want to be a part. Yes, they not only published their names, but they also openly encouraged the readers to contact them and express their displeasure with them. Now, this borders on harrassment. The good thing is that the "interim government" publishes their own names and phone numbers on page 2 of the newspaper, if you can call it a newspaper. We all need to call them and express our displeasure with them. And we need to tell Senator White, who is up for reeelection, that he needs to resign from that sham of a government, and if he doesn't, then we just might fire him from his job in the State Legislature.

There are at least five practical benefits of Christianity.
 
Christian principles produce a civilized society. Neither a good constitution nor good laws can help if the people who govern or the people who elect them are corrupt.

Christian principles are the key to the survival of our form of government, since the key

to a self-governing nation is self-governing citizens. If our citizens do not control

themselves, then government control must increase and individual freedom must

decrease. While civil law prohibits murder, religion addresses it before it occurs, while it

is still only a thought in the heart.

Christian principles produce good citizenship. Benjamin Franklin, among the least

religious of our Founders, wrote Thomas Paine after the publication of Age of Reason,

“Think how great a portion of mankind … have need of the motives of religion to restrain

them from vice, to support their virtue….If men are so wicked with religion what would

they be if without it?”

The elevation of science, literature, knowledge, and national stature historically

accompany the open promotion of Christian principles. Justinian, Michelangelo, Defoe,

Swift, Bunyan, Milton, Calvin, Bach, Handel, Bacon, Montesquieu, Locke, daVinci,

Newton, Kepler, Galileo, and others were all openly professing Christians. Dr. Benjamin

Rush said, “The greatest discoveries in science have been made by Christian philosophers

and … there is the most knowledge … where there is the most Christianity.”

Teaching Christian principles produces a cohesive culture, necessary for governing a

large nation with people from scores of different backgrounds and ethnicities.