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Mid Hudson Times, Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Bernie Sanders rally rocks the waterfront
By SHANTAL RILEY
[email protected]
The People’s Waterfront was the
stage for a rally celebrating presidential
candidate Bernie Sanders, known to many
supporters as the “people’s candidate.”
“Bern baby, Bern,” shouted Gabrielle
Burton Hill, standing on a small stage.
Sanders fans flocked to the edge of the
Hudson River on Friday to demonstrate
their support four days before the
Democratic Presidential Primary in New
York. “Bernie has worked tirelessly to
raise the minimum wage,” said Hill. “I
want to thank him for that.”
Later, Hill praised Sanders’ call for Wall
Street reform, free tuition for students
attending public colleges and universal
healthcare coverage. “Healthcare is not
a privilege, it’s a human right,” said
speaker Marlon Ramos to the 200 or so
people who stood listening. “We are not
asking for handouts.”
The grass-roots rally was organized
by City of Newburgh residents Decora
Sandiford and Joshua Brown. “This is a
rally for the people,” said Brown at the
event.
Saturday
Richard Harper expresses his support for Bernie Sanders.
The rally blended politics, music and
celebrities, including environmental
activist, actor and Warwick resident
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Newburgh Community Cleanup
April
9 a.m.
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James Cromwell. The event was held
shortly after Sanders addressed a crowd
of thousands at the Marist College campus
in Poughkeepsie. Among his many points
at the college last Tuesday, Sanders urged
young people to get out and vote.
“We have an opportunity to be pioneers
for social and economic change,”
Newburgh City Councilman Torrance
Harvey said at the rally Friday. “We have
an opportunity to elect a president… who
has heard the mighty voices of the people
of the United States of America. We’re
talking about the working class.”
Harvey decried the cost of college
tuition. “College costs $50-$60-$70,000 per
year in this country,” he said. “Come on.”
Harvey, a history teacher at Newburgh
Free Academy, gave the crowd an
impromptu history lesson. In the past,
Harvey noted, Sanders was an activist with
the Student Non-Violent Coordinating
Committee (SNCC), a leading civil rights
group of the 1960s.
Harvey
highlighted
Sanders’
involvement in the March on Washington
with Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in
1963 and the fact that many people aren’t
aware of Sanders’ long record of working
to further civil rights and racial equality.
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