Claremont Insider: A Second Moment of Silence, Please

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

A Second Moment of Silence, Please

The local MSM (mainstream media for the acronymically impaired) had plenty of coverage of last Saturday's Claremont 4th of July celebration.

The Daily Bulletin's David Allen blogged about the annual parade, which gave him much amusement.

And the Claremont Courier's Tony Krickl wrote of running in the 5K. Krickl also covered the Opening Ceremonies and the Speakers Corner. Oddly, one important person was notably absent - Claremont Mayor Corey Calaycay (photo, above left), whom Krickl says overslept, causing him to miss his speech following the Flag Raising at 10am. Calaycay also missed his 11am opening Speakers Corner speech.

Since when does a politician pass on a free public-speaking gig? Turns out Calaycay wasn't observing the obligatory moments of silence for recently departed Speakers Corner founder T. Willard Hunter. Krickl ran this one to ground:

By 11:30 a.m., city staff was getting seriously worried about his safety. Police, fire fighters and assistant city manager Tony Ramos were sent to Calaycay's house to make sure he was okay.

They found him, alive and well, if not a bit sleepy-eyed. The mayor had simply overslept. He eventually made his way down to Memorial Park to join in the fun and apologized for his earlier absence.

"It's never a nice thing to have to begin a speech with an apology but I must do that," he said at the Speaker's Corner. "It's tradition for the mayor to open the speaker's corner and I was truly looking forward to that and I'm embarrassed to say I overslept this morning."
If only we could get the pols in Sacramento to sleep in more often, the people's work might actually stand a chance of getting done.