This past Friday has taught me one thing: I have hope for our future. As I walked through campus early afternoon on Friday, there were hundreds of students and other community members coming together to protest the Donald Trump rally that was taking place at UIC. Not only was there Ben and Jerry’s ice cream being passed out from the supporters of Bernie Sanders, there was a strong sense of community and togetherness. I was so proud to see so many people come out and try to put a stop to the racist beliefs of Donald Trump. If you could not tell already I am “Feeling the Bern” and am a supporter of Sanders.
I was walking around campus with my two friends because they were attending the Trump rally. My roommate Julie attended the Trump rally and said, “It was one of the most hate filled events that I have ever attened. The level of ignorance from Trump supporters was beyond belief. The fact that Trump instigates for his supports to get violent with protestors made me ten times more scared to have him as our next President”. I had a ticket but found out a day before from my brother that Bernie was holding a rally in Summit. I decided I wanted to see my hopefully new President in person rather than a person I found hateful. As I walked toward the UIC Pavilion (where the Trump rally was being held) hundreds were already lined up to support Trump, but there were many people I saw in line who were there to take a stand. I got closer to the Blue Line and I felt no sense of warmth coming from those who support their Republican candidate. I was glad I was headed to Summit.
As I got off the train and to my brother’s car, we took a short ride to Argo High School in Summit and found a place to park. As we drove past it was only four, doors opened at five, and Bernie would not go on until eight. At four o’clock the line was over a mile long and thousands were there. The crowd was filled with diveristy, from all different races and all different ages. We stood in line for three hours before we reached the field house where we would hear our hopefully soon to be President. Just from standing outside we met multiple people who were friendly and shared the same political views we had. It made the time fly by and before we knew it we were inside the field house with an hour to go until Bernie took the stage.
Vampire Weekend performed as if it was a concert and they were the opening act for the main event: Bernie Sanders. Already I was pumped. Before we knew it the clock struck eight and Sanders was there preaching what he believed. As Bernie talked he spoke with so much passion and no hatred. I felt so much compassion as he spoke about immigration, tuition cost, universal health care, clean energy and so much more. He spoke about a revolution that we all talk about, but have no one to pave a way, but we finally found it in Bernie. As the Bernie rally was going strong, so were the protestors at UIC, and they accomplished their goal of shutting the rally down and getting their voices heard. I have never been so proud of my peers.
I am so proud of everyone who came out to support or protest. We got our voices heard! Now we have a chance to get our voices heard and have a bigger impact, but now we have one more step: vote. On Tuesday March 15th we have a chance to start a revolution and everyone who is able to, please go vote. Our time to make a change is now. A revolution is finally possible but we can only progress it further if we vote. So VOTE!