Senator Tom McClintock Meets With SOA Executive Director Lyman Stucky At Well Attended Fundraiser
September 19, 2003
By B. Raymond Trottier
It was a warm and electrifying Summer evening at the Etiwanda Gardens in Etiwanda, California Friday night as an unexpected overflow crowd brought Etiwanda¡¯s largest reception room to full capacity. They came from all over the Inland Empire, mostly members of the Inland Valley Republican Assembly that quickly swelled with over 100 walk-ins to hear Senator Tom McClintock make his speech during his campaign swing through Southern California.
The Senator is running for Governor among a highly diversified field of candidates in an historic gubernatorial recall campaign generating in record time the greatest number of recall petition signatures in any state's history. Current Democratic Governor Gray Davis' approval rating, hovering around 22%, is shockingly lower than any State Governor in history. Major accounting firms back East accused the Governor of gross fiscal mismanagement over the past two years and the public is outraged. The Governor's solution include the now infamous tripling of the car registration tax.
This was the scene in which our Executive Director of the Spirit of Allegiance had a heartfelt opportunity to speak privately to Senator McClintock while presenting him with copies prepared by the SOA of a remarkable speech the Senator made last year on "Why The Pledge of Allegiance Matters". The Senator was taken by surprise as he had all but forgotten his insightful speech on the Pledge of Allegiance where he explains so clearly the importance of keeping the Pledge as it is; retaining God as the divine law-giver, not man, an error the Senator pointed out made by the French that brought disaster. Senator McClintock was very flattered SOA Executive Director Lyman Stucky had found the speech so profound to not only place it prominently on the Spirit of Allegiance web site but establish a campaign to circulate copies to the community. The obvious help this give his campaign is overshadowed, in the eyes of Lyman Stucky, by the fact that our Constitution, the Pledge of Allegiance and other precepts of modern Democracy in America have come under systematic and successful attacks in recent history.
The SOA acquired the speech some time ago for insertion into the Spirit of Allegiance web site. However, upon hearing the news that the good Senator has decided to run for Governor of California, the speech took on new and important meaning to the SOA and to his campaign.
Copies of the Senator's speech were printed and distributed by members of the Spirit of Allegiance staff to be personally distributed to all the Chambers of Commerce throughout the Southern California Inland Empire.