March 31st, 2016, has to be by far the most inspirational day of this year. Earlier that day I received information that Bernie Sanders will be having a rally in the South Bronx and doors open at 4PM. I sent this to anyone I thought would be interested and was on a mission to go, with or without company. I felt like I had no excuse not to go considering it was less than ten train stops away from my school. My experience is one that will last a lifetime.
I ended up going with a friend and immediately when we got off the train, that friend felt uncomfortable. We were “deep in the south Bronx” and the area was, as she described it, ghetto. I don’t want to offend anyone so I will leave the location out of my article. We were not alone. We walked from the train to the site with a mob of Bernie supporters and it felt like I was a part of something larger than myself. We chanted, we laughed, and we felt alive.
Once we arrived to the site where Sanders was going to speak, my friend and everyone else was shocked, to say the least, about how many people there were waiting in line. We saw where the line started and walked about three to four blocks to where the line ended (at that particular moment). Once we joined the line, it continued to grow and according to others, it continued to wrap around another two blocks. The people standing behind myself and my friend, were the most amazing outgoing people, I have ever met – and they were from Brooklyn. We chanted, “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie” and “Babies for Bernie”, when we saw little children with their parents. The atmosphere felt warm and hopeful. I felt a sense of togetherness and euphoria. There was an elderly lady with a walker who passed by where I was standing and I can vividly recall her reason for supporting Bernie was, “Because f**k this s**t”. Gotta’ love the people in the Bronx.
The line finally started moving, and by the time this happened I met up with another friend and her husband. They were extremely helpful in my, up close and personal, view of Bernie. We cut the line that for specifically for the close view of Sanders. The police said they weren’t taking any more people into that area – which I felt was a crock of garbage, so my friend and I felt dangerous. Once we bypassed the police, we hopped over a fence that had all the approved people. My bag was searched by a handsome Secret Service guy and, once I was approved, I hopped and skipped my way into the designated area where I will eventually see Bernie Sanders.
The event started off with speakers I do not know – I apologized, and then got geared up with the appearance and speech delivered by Rosario Dawson, followed by Residente, and Spike Lee. I am unfamiliar with who Residente is, but all the Latinos went crazy for him, and he delivered some interesting facts about the Puerto Rican economy and the injustice they receive from the United States government. You should check it out whenever you have the chance. Bernie Sanders finally came out – after waiting nearly four hours, I was finally blessed with his presence. Of course, his speech spoke about his policies and what he would like to accomplish in terms of creating a prosperous economy and free education in America. He believes he can accomplish these things by not having wars. The billions of money America spends on a war, can be allocated to making education assessable for those who previously thought it was unattainable. He wants to create 13 million decent jobs by having people work on the country’s water system and fixing roads and bridges to make the country beautiful again while giving people jobs and money to feed their children. Bernie is against the idea of people working two to three jobs and barely make enough to sustain themselves. He also touched on health care and immigration – two hot topics in this election. He proposed health care is not a privilege, but a right that every American deserves and from what I gathered, it sounded like he was in support of universal health care, like our current President Obama. He also said those without citizenship should be able to have a way to citizenship and he will “try” to create a pipeline to attain this, as there currently is no pipeline to citizenship if you are an “illegal immigrant”. He continued to talk about our broken justice system spewing rhetoric that I have heard countless of times. Those police officers who break the law and violate people’s civil liberties, should face equal trial and be punished for their actions.
Sometimes it was hard for people to hear him because there were Hillary supporters chanting, who knows what, and they were annoying. What I want to highlight from this was the reaction of the crowd. Myself among, perhaps twenty other people in the area, told them to shut up. They were being rude, and preventing me from hearing what Sanders had to say. Two fights broke out, but instead of others in the crowd amping the fight and becoming violent themselves, like at Trump rallies, many people said to leave the supporters alone. They had an equal right to be here and express their opinion, even though it differed from ours. I related this back to videos at Trump rallies and Hillary events. At Trump rallies, opposers get punched in the face, cursed at, and put themselves in danger for what they believe in. At Hillary events, opposers get removed and boo’d out the area. At Sanders rallies, opposers get left alone, and might get a little rowdy with others. This is the kind of free and safe atmosphere Sanders promotes, and this is the kind of crowd he attracts. I enjoyed myself and I cannot wait to tell my children and grandchildren, that I was in the presence of one of the U.S presidents.
