You are hard pressed to get me out of bed before 8:30 a.m. most days, but on Wednesday I shot out of bed like a kid on Christmas morning at 6:30 a.m. – before the sunrise! I was giddy with excitement as I rushed to be ready to be on the road by 7 a.m.; I was going to be in the same room with Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
I have been a Bernie supporter since this summer, and I have enjoyed with great enthusiasm watching his rise from single-digit support to single digits separating him and Hillary Clinton nationwide. Seeing Bernie speak live was as close as I can get to a religious experience.
We arrived in Kansas City an hour before doors were set to open and there was already a line that wrapped around Bartle Hall one and a half times. By 11 a.m., the line wrapped around the hall twice over. The crowd atmosphere felt like coming home. If I had to stand in a slow-moving line in the cold, I would pick no one else (other than those there) to stand in it with.
When I was inside the actual hall, the suspense was killing me. There were over 7,000 of us crammed into the large convention area by the time Bernie took the stage, and I ended up 10 rows away from him. Seven thousand people who dropped everything in less than 48 hours notice to see a 74-year-old democratic socialist speak.
The crowd was made up of all kinds of people. There were older women with signs reading "feminists for Bernie" mocking Gloria Steinem's statement that women only supported Bernie because that's where the men are. There was a middle-aged couple remarking how excited they were that so many young people came out, but at the same time there were also young people remarking to friends how excited they were to see non-Millennials show up. On top of that, everyone was complimenting everyone else's Bernie gear (ranging from pins to shirts to signs to even a Bernie plushie) and it almost felt like we had all been friends for years.
When Bernie finally took the stage at about 1:30 p.m., it was like seeing a rock star I've always idolized in the flesh. It didn't feel real at first. The audience was screaming, clapping, and cheering for almost a minute straight.
Everything was just so magical, but the real magic came when Bernie started to speak. I am a firm believer in Bernie's social and economic platforms, and it is clear to see his passion when watching clips of him, but clips do not do him justice. Clips do not show the people in the crowd crying or near tears because what he is talking about hits close to home and the clear, raw passion he has proves he is one of the rare politicians who actually cares.
One of the most important moments of his speech for me was when he spoke about mental health. When most politicians speak about mental health, they speak about it in correlation to gun violence, but Bernie mentioned mental health when he was speaking about healthcare being a right for all citizens. Just hearing a major politician recognizing the importance of mental health and genuinely caring would have made me want to vote for Bernie even if I was not already a committed voter.
As a Kansan, I loved when he publicly called out the governor, Sam Brownback, and in a crowd evenly mixed between Kansans and Missourians, you could tell exactly who was from Kansas by their reactions.
Not a minute went by in his speech without the audience reacting. From cheers when he talked about his proposed policies, to laughs when he made a joke about drug use to boos when he addressed the existence of the wage gap.
Another great moment came when he addressed not only white women making less money than men, but he also addressed women of color making even less than their white counterparts -- a fact that often goes unmentioned when discussing the wage gap.
The plans he proposed and the passion he had while speaking made me see clearer than I had already why he is referred to as a modern-day FDR. Defending the middle and working classes, expanding social security and proposing federal works programs all hearkened back to the speeches I read in high school that Roosevelt gave. I imagined for a brief moment future generations reading the words of Bernie Sanders in their textbooks and writing essays comparing the two.
After speaking for about 45 minutes, Bernie implored us all to be active in the election process: to volunteer, phone bank and canvas. So, I implore you all reading to do the same. I was not ready for him to be done speaking. I could have stood there for another 45 years, but he was off to speak in Tulsa, Okla. later that night.
As I walked out of the crowded convention hall, I felt a fire in me. I felt more involved in the political process than I ever had in my life. I felt a conviction in my beliefs. I felt something I don't feel often, and that is American. I felt utterly patriotic, and not in the ironic way I usually do. I know now that electing Bernie Sanders is our patriotic duty.
