"America, conjointly with Britain, has a very important and noble part to perform in the affairs of humanity in the near future." – Adam Rutherford, 1934

PETER SELLERS SAID that if you asked him to play himself, he wouldn't know how to do it, because he did not know who or what he was. The same can be said about America and Britain today. We have lost our identity and our purposes in life. But if we did know our national identity, we wouldn't be just sitting around watching our decline and fall. A friend recently gave me a valuable, and timely I think, book. A few excerpts:

• The U.S.A. was formed by 13 states that signed the Declaration of Independence.

• The first flag had 13 stars and 13 stripes, and when first hoisted it was saluted by 13 guns.

• Their first navy consisted of 13 ships.

• Abraham Lincoln's prayer for the nation consisted of 13 petitions.

• The Great Seal has 13 arrows in one of the eagle's talons, and the olive branch in its other talon has 13 feathers.

• The American eagle's tail has 13 feathers.

• The motto on the scroll in its beak has the words E pluribus unum (13 letters).

• Above its head is a cloud with 13 stars.

• On the other side of the Seal is the pyramid, with 13 steps.

• Over the capstone is another motto, Annuit Coeptis ("He prospers our beginning"), again 13 letters.

• In the Great Seal are altogether 52 letters, 4 times 13.

I DON'T KNOW HOW TO BREAK IT TO YOU, BUT THE FOUNDERS WERE TRYING TO TELL US SOMETHING, AND I THINK THE TIME HAS COME FOR US TO FIGURE OUT WHAT IT WAS.

This is a controversial, though mostly ignored, topic in mainstream academania. The history departments would poo-poo the premise of the book my friend gave me. Needless to say, the premise used to be accepted at least as one theory on our origins in earlier, more "normal" times. This is the title of the book:

ISRAEL-BRITAIN, or

Anglo-Saxon Israel;

An Explanation of the Origin, Function and Destiny of the Anglo-Celto-Saxon Race in the British Empire and U.S.A.

In the PREFACE, Adam Rutherford (you can't get more Anglo-Saxon than that name) starts by mentioning the four great world empires predicted in a dream to the king of Babylon (and interpreted by the prophet Daniel). He implies the question, "Why wouldn't God prophecy anything about the empire that was greater than all four combined (and the sun still never sets on the English language, which is a propitious fact)"? Ruther wrote his line about the "noble part" we would play seven years before we got into World War II, which prevented the complete extermination of the Jews in Europe. He concludes his Preface:

"This volume is written to explain the origin, function and destiny of these great Anglo-Celto-Saxon nations, including the U.S.A., and to show the Divinely appointed WAY OUT OF THE 'TIME OF TROUBLE' into lasting peace and prosperity...." [my caps]

WELL, I'm running out of time on the library's computer, so I'll have to let you regurgitate and ruminate on this column until my next one.

P.S. More to come.

PPS: In his first inaugural address, Thomas Jefferson said that God brought our first settlers here "as Israel of old" into a land with enough resources for a thousand generations. If we can keep it.