Interested, Enthusiastic and Engaged Voters (This Woman is Bernie Strong!)

The New Hampshire primary has finally arrived, and "Berners" are more excited than ever. (Get out and #VoteTogether, N.H.!) Bernie supporters are the epitome of interested, enthused and engaged voters--the complete opposite of what establishment candidates expect or even want. Berners want to know what's going on, who's on the take from whom and for how much. (And what exactly is in those Goldman Sachs speech transcripts?)

This week we have some thought-provoking pieces from and about Bernie supporters who aren't about to accept the corporate candidates' status quo. First up, a new weekly feature I'm calling "This Woman is Bernie Strong!" If you're a woman who supports Bernie Sanders, we'd love to hear from you. A short testimonial (doesn't have to be very long) and a photo of you is all we need. Email it to thebernieblog2016@gmail.com and help stop the media reports saying that only "BernieBros" support Bernie's candidacy and to silence the recent insults made by Clinton supporters.

This Woman is Bernie Strong!

by Jessy Phares

I am a woman who believes in humanity. I am a woman who believes people's actions are louder than their words. I am a woman who does not forget even if I forgive. I am a woman who believes our planet and our children need much more help and attention than they are getting. I am a woman who has had to stand up for myself my whole life. I am a woman who intends to continue. I am a woman who is making sure she self-educates. As a woman, I am asking that you too, please become self-educated. There are far too many out there who would rather we remain ignorant. I am also a woman who believes just because someone has "done something for a long time" doesn't make it the right thing to do. I am a woman who thinks if there is truth being pointed out that you may not agree with it does not mean you can arbitrarily change the definition of the word "slander." I will not be shamed or bullied into voting for candidate(s) I do not feel have my best or even humanity's best interests at heart. While you are entitled to your opinion, I am entitled to mine as well. I, this woman, upon serious and thorough thinking will be supporting Bernie Sanders for our next president of the United States in 2016. He is the only one I see who is offering a platform founded on women's rights and worth. $15 an hour anyone? Full medical and time off anyone? No fracking or TPP anyone? 

As a woman, I have no time to waste on other people's games. We have a planet to save! #ThisWomanIs #BernieStrong

Interested, Enthusiastic – and Engaged!

by A.J. Matthews

Saturday evening saw us up in Toledo for the national Bernie Sanders campaign meeting there. Over the course of the thirty minutes before the meeting began Tremainsville Hall filled up to standing room only. People from all over the city and beyond came to learn more about Bernie Sanders' campaign and what they could do to promote it. To think the meeting was held on a Saturday evening with comparatively little notice, yet was full to overflowing shows the remarkable level of enthusiasm for Bernie's cause. I've been in a few political meetings on both sides of the Atlantic in my time, but not one of them approached the sheer degree of energy felt in Tremainsville Hall that evening.

A friend of ours arrived with a large quantity of campaign buttons she made, intending to  give them away in exchange for a campaign contribution. Whatever she had left over she would take to another meeting. Over the course of the evening she gave away all but a handful. Between us we could hardly keep up with the demand and the contributions.

 What we experienced that evening seems of a piece with the enthusiasm and sheer hope generated by Senator Bernie Sanders' bid for the presidency. We the people know that in him we have a genuine champion for our cause, a champion who will overcome wealth inequality, pry loose the cold greedy hands of corporate America from our lives, and restore and enhance the democratic values we need.

Evidence that his message is spreading far and wide can be seen in the aftermath of the recent Iowa caucus as seen in this Washington Post article.

An aide to the Democratic presidential hopeful said Tuesday that the campaign had raised $3 million since Monday night’s Iowa caucuses, in which Sanders finished right behind Hillary Clinton, according to Iowa Democratic Party figures.

“It’s been our best day ever,” Sanders communications director Michael Briggs said of the fund-raising haul.

He also benefited from new donors in the hour after his speech on Monday night. Four in ten who gave during that stretch had not contributed previously to the campaign, Briggs said. The campaign announced it raised an eye-popping $20 million in January alone. The past 24 hours have exceeded even that pace.

Whatever your thoughts about the apparent shenanigans connected to the Iowa caucuses (and I have a few not safe for work), the result shows the "business as usual" approach of the other candidates no longer resonates with Americans. Bernie Sanders is climbing in the polls in every state. The mainstream media is now forced to follow where social media has led the way – into recognizing in Senator Sanders the only person who should be president.

America is feeling the Bern!

Bio: A. J. Matthews is a Brit living in America, a writer, artist and enthusiastic Bernie Sanders supporter. He says he's ready for the political revolution. Keep feelin' the Bern!

Original artwork by Jaeil Cho 
www.jaeilchoart.bigcartel.com

Feel the Bern

a poem by Manus Brennan
 
Hours before the people decide
my heart is pumping with hope
for all that has brought us here
for all who believe your words
for the many who matter most                                        
for the labourers in the vineyard
those who have come to help
those who can't who are with us anyway, the young, the old, the women, the men, the black, the white, the brown, the red, the
colours of the rainbow you have drawn in our imaginations
and our hearts. 
Feel the Bern!

Bio:  Manus says, "I am a 59 year old retired teacher from County Donegal, Ireland, and I have come out to the U.S. for a month to volunteer on the Bernie Sanders campaign. I am working out of the Dover office. Keep up the good work!"

Don't forget to phone bank this week and continue to push Bernie's good news on all your social media sites. Share links, positive memes and messages. Soon everyone in the U.S.A. and the world will know who Bernie Sanders is!

Bernie is My Super Hero

Bernie is My Super Hero

words and photos by Randy Leavitt

Last night, as dusk approached, I walked down Church Street in Burlington, Vermont, toward the Flynn Theater where Donald Trump was holding a campaign rally, and where I expected a to find a large crowd of protesters.  I was not disappointed.  I was wearing my excellent Superman costume and carrying a sign that said, “Bernie is my Super Hero.”    

By the time I got halfway down Church Street, I already had people laughing at the costume and giving me high fives and asking to take my picture.  As I neared the City Park an elderly woman approached and asked me if I was going to the rally and if she could join me.  Then, as we walked, she explained she was a Muslim and she was afraid to go to the rally alone, but she said she couldn’t stay home either.  She told me about recent harassment she has encountered and said she just wanted to live her life, like anyone else would.  

 I think, all kidding aside, she felt safe with me -- with Superman.  It is a funny costume, and, really, as powerful a figure as Superman is, in real life, with me wearing his suit with the plastic muscles and the bold primary colored tights and underwear worn on the outside… I can be quite charming -- and disarming. 

So, she joined me and we entered the park together to find a small but growing crowd. Main Street was closed; barricades were set up to keep people off the street.  On the far side of the street, in front of the Flynn theater, more barricades were set up, these to funnel those waiting in line who wanted to hear Trump speak -- or to protest him and his message -- into the theater.

The people in the Trump line itself, those still eager to enter what must have been a nearly full building, stretched around the corner from the Flynn Theater away from the lights and the sounds of Main Street for at least two blocks to where it disappeared into the darkness.  I tried to get a better view of how far the line stretched, but as I approached the line I could feel the anger rising from the people along with the steam from their breath in the cold.  

 I heard later that Trump told the crowd inside that there were 20,000 of his supporters waiting outside.  A lie.  I think it was more like 1,000 and just as many Bernie supporters in the city park across the street.  I spent nearly all my time mingling with the crowd in the park.  I must have had a hundred great conversations; I was interviewed by five different news organizations including Al Jazeera, Seven Days and the New York Times.   

I had my picture taken so many times I can’t even say.  Sometimes there were ten or more people taking my picture at once.  I posed with kids and men and women and groups and with a man in a clown suit whose sign said, “It's not funny,” which was funny.   

I had a great time all night, and I was so glad to have been there.  My message was clear but delivered with a lightheartedness that is, again, disarming.  For me, at least, this method works well, and I have found using humor is a good way to move though the world. 

Somewhere, early on in the evening, I lost my new Muslim friend.  Last I saw her she was enjoying the fair-like atmosphere in the park. People were handing out candles, there were fun signs and t-shirts for sale. A pizza place around the corner was handing out free pizza, and a woman gave us some snacks for free because she said it was cold out and she needed to do something.  There were just lots of very nice, interesting, outgoing people.   

I talked to a man who was a 'Nam vet who was homeless until Bernie became mayor of Burlington, and he said Bernie changed his life.  I talked to some women who stood in the Trump line and had entered the theater but were forced out when it became clear they were Bernie supporters.  For me being there with all these people was invigorating, and it did a lot to restore my hope.

Three times during the night, while the line of people waited to see if they could get in to hear Trump speak, even though the Flynn was already full, I approached the line to have a better look.  It felt truly dismal.  In the relative darkness down that street, it looked like a depression era lineup of hungry people looking for work at a slaughterhouse.  Their superhero, Trump, had abandoned them, allowing the ticket agents to give out ten-times more tickets than the Flynn has seats.  They were on their own.  Some had waited all day.  They couldn’t get in and there was nothing for them outside.  No community -- just abandoned.   

There was little color in the line -- okay due to the darkness perhaps, but it felt colorless and drab even more than it looked. Each time I approached the line, in my funny super-suit, I was assaulted with angry words. I was called a moron, a f*cking a**hole, a dipsh*t, a traitor and a queer. It was astonishing. Debilitating even. There were children in the line as well holding signs, the poor things. But what I didn’t feel or see in the Trump line was happiness.  None.   

I overheard many conversations, and they were all angry and filled with hate -- every one of them.  Take this with as much salt as you require, for I am a Bernie supporter and always have been, but each time I returned from that cold place where the Trump supporters waited down the block, I felt like I was leaving a cold, dark, cave, and returning to something warmer, brighter, safer, more creative, happier, more joyful really.   

When I came around the corner, the music in the park and cheerfulness of all those Bernie supporters chanting against Trump and his hateful message moved me.  It was rhythmic and soothing and comforting. The whole festival was filled with fun and engaging people who were dancing and cheering and laughing.  My people.  My community.  Yet, all the while, inside the theater, hate.

What I think -- Trump can’t win.  He only has hate to draw his supporters. He hasn’t a plan or the capability to lead.  He is a complainer, a blamer.  He assembles people around him who are vulnerable and eager to blame everyone else -- anyone who is different. He is a sad and sorry man.  He left all those supporters out in the dark and cold with not so much as a howdy-do.  They eventually were told that there was no room for them, and they disappeared into the night. 
 

I am glad that I went to the rally, and I am glad to have met all the people I met. And I am glad to have led the Muslim woman into the safe place we found in the city park.  

You won’t find this story on the evening news.

Bio: Randy Leavitt is Superman. Here's what he says about himself: "I am a seventh generation Vermonter, a longtime Bernie supporter, and I lived in Burlington shortly before Bernie was elected Mayor. My son went with me to the Burlington anti-Trump rally." He also states that he has two grand kids, is a veteran, a teacher, a fiddler, a home owner, a community organizer, a good person, and is 59 years old.

* * *

Congratulations, Bernie! You rocked Iowa last night!

The scene at Carol's in Sandusky, OH. We were yelling and cheering as we watched the results of the Iowa caucus on TV as well as online at Bernie2016TV. We know who the real winners were last night--us, the American people. Go Bernie!  New Hampshire is yours! #NotMeUs #CaucusForBernie #ShowTheVotes

 * * *

#BernieStrong in Toledo, Ohio 

 Photos by Cindy and Adrian Matthews

This past Saturday, about 300 people showed up for a last minute "official national organization" meet-up in Toledo. It was standing room only! Will E., who is traveling throughout the Midwest for the Bernie Sanders Campaign, fired us up and got us setting up phone bank events throughout the area. Rumor has it that we may be seeing Bernie in the Buckeye State in March before our primary on the 15th. Remember, you can go to http://map.berniesanders.com and sign up for a phone bank and/or other Bernie event today!

Standing room only in a wedding hall. Awesome last minute turn out and Will says we had more people than the Columbus area meet-up. Take that C-bus! The Glass City rocks!

Jamie made badges and brought them to distribute to other Berners. 
We raised $185 in donations to the campaign.

 

Will E. from the national organization inspired us to get out and phone bank for Bernie. About 90% of the people in the hall said this was their first time volunteering in a political campaign.

Dave signs up Don to a phone bank at his home, while Jordan looks on. He's hosting a phone bank at B.G.S.U. There are dozens of phone banks set up in Northwest Ohio now. The IBEW union hall and U.T. are leading the way in the Toledo area, hosting many phone banks over the next few weeks. Sign up for one or more today!