Recently a candidate for the American presidency, Barack Hussein Obama, made comments that indicated he looked down on "small-town" Pennsylvanians who owned guns and went to church. He saw those things as a crutch, a crutch the uninformed and the unsophisticated used to deal with high rates of unemployment and an uncertain future.

Meanwhile, one of the biggest Second Amendment enemies in recent memory became a shooter. Hillary Rodham Clinton, tried to convince us that learning to target-shoot as a girl, if she ever really did, was the most important event in her life next to learning how to shoot whiskey. One wonders: Did she learn to shoot both guns and whiskey the same day? Did she chase both with a beer? Did she do both on the way to church?

Maybe Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton should have read Sir Walter Scott, who penned, "Oh what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." On second thought, maybe all candidates for public office should be required to memorize that little bit of moral wisdom.

Sen. John Sidney McCain finally weighed in, but anemically. Maybe he was having too much fun watching all the maneuvers of his Democrat Party rivals.

Perhaps our all too smug and sophisticated candidates for president - and the rest of the candidates in America who think they are fit to run for office, any office, need to remember how this country came into being, as well. In the beginning, a bunch of backwoods small-town religious types were willing to stand up to the Superpower of the world at that time, using in many cases their own personal firearms. That Superpower was the British Empire. Those unsophisticated types were, of course, the participants in the American Revolution. Some of the patriots even came from small towns in Pennsylvania. Freedom of religion was part of the dispute.

Many of them were having a hard time economically; first from some of the trade and tax policies imposed upon them by a faraway and out-of-touch government and second from the disruptions caused by the American Revolution. If our candidates for public office really think that folks with similar views to those who did the heavy lifting to get this country started should throw their religious faith and guns away, maybe they should think about a career change. At the very least, they should forget that Texas, the South and much of the West exist if they have such a view of middle-class folks who have both firearms and faith.

My guess is that they will also be very uncomfortable with much Texas history. After all, Texas came into being on a shoestring and involved the initiative of men who were very skilled with their own weapons. In some ways, the Texas colonists had even more to be angry about than those who fought the American Revolution.

Santa Anna assumed leadership of the government of Mexico with the support of Texas colonists. He had indicated that he would restore the Mexican Constitution of 1824 which had been suspended by Santa Anna's predecessor. When he refused to do so and assumed dictatorial powers, much of Mexico, including Texas, rebelled. President Santa Anna proceeded to put down the rebellion. After suppressing revolution in the rest of Mexico, he took an experienced professional army into Texas.

His army was met by Texas colonists, a majority of whom originated in the United States. A significant number were originally Spanish, many of whom had fought to make Mexico independent of Spain. They often are referred to as Tejanos. Texas colonists of both backgrounds were an independent bunch and not in favor of being disarmed, something the invading Mexican Army tried to bring about. From the Texas declaration of independence:

"It [Santa Anna's Army] has demanded us to deliver up our arms, which are essential to our defense, the rightful property of freemen, and formidable only to tyrannical governments."

The Alamo as an act of selfless defiance lives in the American soul. A group of imperfect men, some from foreign lands, many colonists from the United States and a significant number of Tejanos sacrificed their lives for an abstract notion - the idea of self-government and meaningful elections.

Following the Texian loss at the Alamo and the slaughter of prisoners who surrendered under promises of good conduct at Goliad, Santa Anna's army engaged in the grand chase of General Sam Houston's volunteer army. In the process, settlers and their property were scattered in the retreat called the runaway scrape. Houston cunningly waited for Santa Anna's forces to get stretched out.

Arrogant, Santa Anna probably chose not even to place sentries when he and his army settled in for a mid-day siesta on April 21, 1836, near Buffalo Bayou. Santa Anna's forces were aware that the Texians had even burned the bridge behind them, which was the only path of retreat for both armies. The Texans advanced using both the terrain and position of the afternoon sun favorably. The outnumbered Texans defeated the Mexican army in less than twenty minutes. Santa Anna was captured and the nation of Texas was born. Less than ten years later, Texas entered the Union by treaty.

Most of the Texians were armed both with arms that they themselves had purchased or inherited and a faith that sustained them, with a dash of arguably righteous rage. The dictator Santa Anna's army was government issue.

On the way to whatever media-required Earth Day celebrations all the candidates will attend on April 22, maybe they will stop off and see the San Jacinto monument near Houston and commemorate on April 21 what armed men of faith could do in the defense of liberty - then again maybe not. Maybe they wouldn't fit in.

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