(The Center Square) – Mary Lou Blakely created the Sharing and Caring Ministry after-school program offering free meals and games. Robert Allen has been a volunteer fireman in Farmerville for 58 years. Pastor Chance Lewis’ Sew Caring Prayer Quilt Ministry in DeRidder makes quilts for members of the community in need.
Speaker of the U.S. House Mike Johnson honored nearly two dozen “tremendous public servants” at an event held Thursday at the Bossier Parish School for Technology and Innovative Learning campus. Johnson greeted and recognized each recipient with his Spirit of Louisiana Award.
“I am so grateful for all of your work,” Johnson told the recipients and their families, who were selected from across his congressional district for their dedication serving others. “It’s the greatest honor of my life to represent the people of Louisiana.”
Johnson, a constitutional law attorney, offered a sentimental reflection on what makes the United States different from other countries, with focus on the Declaration of Independence quote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
“What is a self-evident truth? They’ll ultimately conclude something like, it’s obvious. We hold these truths to be self-evident, obvious, that all men are created equal,” Johonson said. “Wait a minute. Interestingly, it doesn’t just say born equal, it says created equal, right?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal by God, and that God is the one that gives us our inalienable rights,” he said. “Government doesn’t give us our rights. God gives us our rights, and among those, the rights of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.”
He asked his constituents to remind the younger generation of the importance and implications of that language, because the United States is the first nation in the history of the world that made such a profound revolutionary proclamation.
“Every single person has inestimable dignity and value, and our value is not related in any way to the color of our skin, or what zip code we live in, or where we went to high school,” Johnson said. “Our value is inherent, because it’s given to us by God.”
Johnson is the first House Speaker elected from Louisiana. His district encompasses 20 parishes and 760,000 people, to include 20 parishes in the western, northwest and northeast regions of the state. He is currently serving in his fifth term.
