Around 70 OU students and residents met to hear from local speakers and express their support for the presidential candidate.
As the national presidential race heats up, more and more Athens residents are beginning to “Feel the Bern.”
About 70 students and Athens residents convened in the Athens Community Center, 701 E. State St., Thursday night to express their support for presidential candidate Bernie Sanders.
At the third Athens for Bernie Sanders meeting since the group was founded this summer, local Bernie Sanders supporters gathered to hear about campaign plans, meet with local activists and discuss policies and ideas.
“It’s important that we come together and concentrate our efforts on a variety of issues,” Nate Wallace, a recent OU Ph.D. graduate who founded the group, said at the meeting. “It’s important to go out into the country and rural areas to get people to know who Bernie Sanders is and what his policies are.”
{{tncms-asset app="editorial" id="e1801ca2-4a9e-11e5-833b-c74ba993a28e"}}
Wallace said the group plans to march in the university’s Homecoming Parade Oct. 10 and encouraged residents to wear “Bernie gear” to the Ohio Pawpaw Festival in September.
Stu Adams, president of the student group Bobcats for Bernie Sanders, spoke at the meeting. He said over 200 students signed up for the group at Sunday’s Involvement Fair.
“Maybe one of the only truths in politics today is that Bernie Sanders speaks his mind,” Adams said. “This is the kind of movement that can convince people that money isn’t everything, honesty matters and that if you stand on rooftops long enough, people are going to hear you.”
Adams stressed the importance of letting people know about Sanders, citing a recent West Virginia poll that said a third of people polled in that state did not know who Sanders was.
“What I cannot live with is people simply not knowing about Bernie Sanders,” he said.
Two representatives from Planned Parenthood also spoke at the event to garner support against a bill in the Ohio legislature that would strip funding from the organization.
“We believe that women should make their own health care decisions,” Beth Schopis, a regional field manager for Planned Parenthood of Greater Ohio, said. “We need to get the message out that 1 in 5 women will go to Planned Parenthood. These aren’t just statistics, they’re real people.”
Richard Kern, a local labor activist and Athens for Bernie Sanders member, spoke at the meeting and explained that his support for Sanders stems from personal experience.
Kern said he was diagnosed with cancer at age 18 and accumulated over $100,000 in medical bills. Shortly after, his father had multiple strokes and owed “considerably more.” But because of health insurance from his mother’s union, the family’s medical payments were more affordable.
Kern said he backs Sanders because of the candidate’s support of single-payer healthcare.
“There is one candidate in Congress who does care: Bernie Sanders,” Kern said. “Me and my dad are living, breathing proof that unions keep people alive and save lives. Politicians should be able to stand up and say unions are necessary.”
@AlxMeyer
