Donald K. Allen for President

Top of the Week

June 30, 2008

We went to Lancaster, PA this weekend to attend the International Association of Torch Clubs’ annual convention.  Torch Club members prepare and present papers on a variety of subjects through the year to their local clubs, then the best are chosen for the annual convention.  Five papers were presented, ranging from “Don’t Tell Me What To Do: The Scots-Irish and the Shaping of America,” to “Immigration: Is the Melting Pot Boiling Over?”

During the presentation of “Polling and the Presidential Election: Cliffhanger or Blowout?” Dr. G. Terry Madonna pointed out that the further away we get from 9/11, the less national security becomes in importance to Americans.  Other issues rise to the top of our concerns, such as the economy and health care.  This is scary, because it tends to make us complacent, and our guard automatically decreases, facilitating another attack.

Aside from the presentation of papers attendees are able to learn about local features of the immediate area in and around Lancaster.  On Friday we visited the National Watch and Clock Museum in Wheatland, and Saturday we chose to go to the Mennonite Center and then tour Amish country.  We learned about the extreme religious persecution the Mennonites and their splinter group, the Amish, faced in their home countries of Switzerland and Germany and how they ended up in Pennsylvania due to the Quaker invitation to come to America, where they could experience true religious tolerance.

Friday night the group went to the historic Fulton Theatre, one of the oldest American theaters still in use and a National Landmark, to see “Brigadoon.”  The cast and show were outstanding, and this is truly a professional theater.  Saturday evening we were treated to dinner at Lancaster’s The Hamilton Club and presentation of the prize-wining Paxton Paper, which posed the question, “Should Turkey Be Admitted to the European Union?”  It is a debate in Europe that may not be settled until after 2015.

I did some campaigning, too, while in Lancaster, and found many people interested in discussing topics from America’s continuing loss of our manufacturing base to the need for further education of all our citizens to enable this country to not only lead the world, but survive as a nation.  My Opportunity Scholarship plan would allow every American, regardless of age, to attend college free of charge.  If we can invest over a trillion dollars in the war in Iraq, certainly we should invest a trillion in the future of our children and America.

For those of you who have made no plans for Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2008, I still need Presidential Electors from every state.  This would allow you to participate in the national election by casting your vote in the Electoral College for your state.  Anyone who is a registered voter can be an Elector, with the exception of politicians holding high state office in most states.  Please let me know if you would like to help my campaign in this manner.  California needs 55 Electors, and I don’t know that many people in California!  All your expenses for that day will be reimbursed by my campaign.

In this land of religious freedom, where the American Civil Liberties Union is methodically eradicating religion from all public life, I remind you all that the words “separation of church and state” cannot be found anywhere in our Constitution.  God Bless America.