PENNRIDGE STUDENT ATTENDS STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS
WASHINGTON, D.C. >> Gallery 11, Row C, Seat 3.
That’s where 16-yearold Pennridge High School student Justin Lyons was seated in the U.S. Capitol for President Donald Trump’s Feb. 5 State of the Union speech.
“I was close to Melania, Donald Trump’s wife. I was like 10 feet away from her,” said Lyons, a Hilltown resident.
Lyons, who attended the speech as the guest of U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R1st Dist., whose district covers Bucks County and part of Montgomery County, said the experience was “sweet, really cool.”
After arriving at Fitzpatrick’s office the day of the speech, the first thing he and his mother, Tracy Cangro, did was have lunch with Fitzpatrick and four other House of Representatives members, Lyons said.
“One was Democrat, the rest were Republican, but we all ate together,” Cangro said.
Discussion during the two hour lunch wasn’t necessarily political, she said.
Following lunch, Cangro and Lyons had some time to check out the National Mall, but the rest of the day was a whirlwind of activity, the two said.
Lyons had been invited to a pre-speech reception in House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s large office suite, Cangro said, but she was surprised that when she dropped him off, she was also asked to stay.
“There were so many people, it was overwhelming,” she said. Those attending the pre-SOTU party included several government officials and their guests, which included family members and military veterans, she said.
“Everybody was so nice,” she said.
“You think of politics,” Cangro said, “and it so wasn’t that way for us.”
Being in the gallery for the speech was exciting, and it seemed to go much more quickly than the actual nearly 90-minute
length, Lyons said.
“I thought I was just gonna be sitting there looking into space,” he said.
Cangro said she, too, thought he would be bored.
“I wasn’t,” Lyons said. “I listened to everything.”
He said he joined in several of the standing ovations, including for the wall on the southern border and immigration policies.
“When he talked about heroin and stuff, I stood up. Childhood cancer, I stood up,” Lyons said. “I like Trump.”
With the Feb. 15 deadline remaining for another partial government shutdown, Lyons said he
hopes there won’t be another shutdown because of his concerns for workers not being paid during the shutdown.
Cangro, who watched the SOTU from Fitzpatrick’s office, said Trump’s speech was a good one.
“I thought it was a really good speech,” she said. “Even people that don’t like him would say it was.”
The following day, Cangro and Lyons were given a tour of the Capitol building, the two said.
Having the experience of attending the SOTU was life-changing, Lyons said.
He said he wasn’t previously very interested in politics, but now has more of an interest in finding out what’s going on.
“As soon as I got home,
I made a Twitter and followed Donald Trump,” Lyons said, “and Brian (Fitzpatrick), he was my first. I followed him first.”
While he’s now more interested in politics, Lyons said he’s not personally interested in running for office.
Fitzpatrick picked Lyons to be his guest after having sent out an email to teachers’ union members asking for suggestions of students directly affected by the opioid epidemic and a neighbor who is a teachers’ union member gave Lyons’ name, Cangro said. Fitzpatrick is vice chairman of the Bipartisan Heroin Task Force and a member of the Congressional Addiction, Treatment, and Recovery Caucus.
Jared Lyons, Justin’s brother and a 2014 Pennridge High School graduate, died of a fentanyl-related overdose in 2016.
Although the reason for Justin being invited to the SOTU is bittersweet, being there was a good experience, Cangro said.
“How many people in their lifetime can say they were invited to a State of the Union?” she said. “I just thought it was pretty awesome.”
Asked if he has anything more to say for this article, Lyons had one thing.
“Everyone vote for Brian Fitzpatrick, put that in,” Lyons said. “Everyone vote for Brian Fitzpatrick. He’s the man, the myth, the legend.”