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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

Bernie speaks on unity, diversity within the party

PHILADELPHIA — As the deep blue lights were dimmed, the 74 year old man, wearing his signature largely rimmed glasses that showcased his bushy white hair and a blue tie entered the stage as the last major speaker of the night. Popular among 44 of the 83 Indiana delegates, Sen. Bernie Sanders D-VT took the stage of Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia with the over 20,000 seats of the arena filled to the brim.

As the first night of the Democratic National Convention, Sanders spoke following large political and celebrity names such as Sen.  Cory Booker D-NJ, Sen. Elizabeth Warren D-MA, Demi Lovato, Paul Simon, First Lady Michelle Obama, and many others.

The crowd that filled the arena was a very large mix of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton supporters and Sanders supporters. A representation of the 2.5 million Americans that pledged their support to Sanders during the primaries had a large voice throughout the night.

“I look forward to your votes during the roll call tomorrow,” Sanders said, invoking screaming cheers from the audience.

Although Sanders originally ran against Clinton, he spoke Monday night as a push for unity.

“I understand that many people are disappointed about the final results of the nominating process, but no one is more disappointed than me,” Sanders said.

Sanders said that he wanted to focus on the needs of the American people and the future of this country, rather than the political gossip Sanders said he saw as the focus.

“It is not about what the media spends so much time on,” Sanders said.

Continuing the speech, Sanders touched on aspects of his platform such as ending the 40-year decline of the middle class, overturning Citizens United and sustainability resources that the country could turn towards.

“(Hillary) understands that we can create hundreds of thousands of jobs by transforming our energy system,” Sanders said. “A president’s job is the worry of our future generations, not fossil fuels.”

Sanders stressed again how the unity within the party was necessary to embrace the diversity among the American public.

“Our diversity is one of our greatest strengthens,” Sanders said.

Prior to Sanders’ speech, a large coalition of the “Bernie or Bust” movement formed together at the entrance in Philadelphia’s city hall to voice their concerns of Clinton as the presumptive Democratic nominee and urge others to vote for other candidates other than Hillary, primarily Green Party pick Jill Stein.

“We’re still here, we are still going to keep this movement going all the way until November 8th,” said Oscar Salaza, student from Westchester, New York, as he adjusted his homemade Bernie “snuggie.”

Salaza traveled to Philadelphia to show his support for Sanders and the platform that embodies him. Mostly aligned with affordable college and election reform, Salaza said he believes Sanders is the only candidate that he could fully support.

“We are going to keep fighting for Bernie’s ideas and we are not going to give up,” Salaza said. “We are not going to just slow down because Hillary is going to be running.”

Other participants had similar views, including two women from Canada that shared their support as non-American citizens.

“We are here to show our support for democracy,” Kim Crozier of Nova Scotia said.

Crozier and friend Karen Suykens traveled from Canada to the convention to demonstrate that the leadership of the United States affects the entire world, not just the country.

“The US is the biggest superpower in the world right now so any decisions they make have an impact on the entire planet, we want to make sure that the U.S. knows, and Bernie in particular, that we support him, Crozier said. “It’s undeniably the best platform in U.S. politics today.”

Bernie is a humanist that truly cares about the people and Trump could care less, Suykens said.

The group as a whole did not see Trump as an option as the president either.

Just because we don’t support Hillary doesn’t mean we need to support the complete opposite, Roger Demhert of Vermont said.

Chants of “This is what democracy looks like” filled the entrance of city hall and continued until the conclusion of the gathering.

Sanders ended the first night of the DNC touching on the diversity and unity that Clinton will lead the country in, through his eyes.

“Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president and I am proud to stand with her tonight,” Sanders said.

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