Tuesday night the McCann Gym was the venue of the biggest event I’ve ever seen on Marist’s campus. Bernie Sanders personally held a rally at Marist, giving thousands of people the chance to hear their favorite presidential candidate inspire them with his plans as the next president of the United States.
The line for Bernie started before noon, meaning some people waited almost eight hours for him to speak and the line wrapped around the area near McCann for at least a good half mile. A lot of the Bernie supporters were from Marist, but lots of adults, families and students from other colleges made the trip as well.
The waiting lasted for hours, as our feet got tired and we got hungry. Representatives from local organizations in support of Bernie for president held the crowd’s attention for a few minutes at a time and started the hype for the main speaker. Finally, the time came when Michael Stipe of R.E.M. stepped up to the podium and introduced our beloved speaker of the night. The waiting was all worth it when Bernie finally walked onstage to a huge cheer and spoke to the crowd. He highlighted the biggest points of his campaign, including how he wants to cut down the average work week to 40 hours, break up big banks, raise minimum wage in all states, make college affordable, make health care affordable and treat all American citizens equally, regardless of race, age, gender or sexual orientation.
Bernie empowered everyone standing with him to think differently about the way America is run, as he has thought differently about how a presidential campaign should be run. “We don’t have to accept the reality of today,” he said, as he mentioned the things that needed to be changed for the better. Bernie questions America’s government, and forces its citizens to do the same. He looked back in history at other movements, including women gaining the right to vote and the legalization of gay marriage to prove how change is possible, saying, “When people stand up and fight back, change can happen.”
Bernie got the crowd to go crazy as he promised that Trump would not become president, using puns including, “Coming together always ‘trumps’ dividing us up,” and “Love always ‘trumps’ hatred.”
Thank you, Marist College, for allowing such an empowering speaker to host a rally at our campus and giving the Poughkeepsie community the chance to interact with the man who could be the next President of the United States.