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Bernie Has Feelings, Too! | The Nation

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders greets supporters after a rally at Brooklyn College in New York on March 2, 2019. (Reuters / Andrew Kelly)

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Bernie Sanders’s first rally of his presidential run featured something that no other Democratic candidate can borrow, imitate, or adopt. It wasn’t a unique policy or a left-wing talking point: It was his own story.

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The location of the Saturday rally, and the one that followed on Sunday, was meant to draw attention to Sanders’s personal history. The first took place at Brooklyn College, where he first went to college, not far from the “three-and-a-half-room apartment” he grew up in on King’s Highway. The second rally was in Chicago, the city where, as a transfer student at the University of Chicago, Sanders started his over 50 years of left-wing rabble-rousing as an activist protesting housing and school desegregation.

“I know where I came from. That is something I will never forget,” he said.

Sanders’s speech bore his now-familiar litany of policies and adversaries: the “starvation wages” paid by Walmart and fast-food companies, the Titanic wealth of the Walton family, or the minuscule tax bills paid by Amazon and General Motors. But Sanders—who once told The New York Times Magazine, “I do not like personality profiles”—also presented himself as more than a vessel for progressive policy ideas. Now that Cory Booker, who previously criticized the Obama reelection campaign for talking too harshly about Bain Capital, has co-sponsored Sanders’s Medicare for All bill and supports a jobs guarantee, Sanders might have felt the need to show that he’s more than his ideas.

“Coming from a lower-middle-class family, I will never forget how money or, really, lack of money was always a point of stress in our family,” Sanders said. “My experience as a child growing up in a family that struggled economically powerfully influenced my values,” he went on, describing growing up the son of a Polish-Jewish immigrant paint salesman who lost nearly his entire family in the Holocaust.

“Unlike Donald Trump, who shut down the government and left 800,000 federal employees without income to pay their bills, I know what it’s like to be in a family that lives paycheck to paycheck,” Sanders said. “I did not have a father who gave me millions of dollars to buy luxury skyscrapers, casinos, and country clubs. I did not come from a family that gave me a $200,000 allowance every year beginning at the age of 3. As I recall, my allowance was 25 cents a week.”

The near-freezing rally at Brooklyn College was attended by a diverse, mostly young group of supporters that included stroller-rolling parents, Supreme-wearing twentysomethings, a woman wearing the “Bernie” sweater made famous by actress and model Emily Ratajkowski, along with older union members and Brooklyn College staff. Dozens of volunteers, hopping and moving to stay arm, ushered and guided the crowds in the campus’s snow-covered quad.

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It was nothing like Sanders’s 2015 announcement—largely made to reporters outside the Capitol that spring—that kicked off his last presidential run. The subsequent mobilization of resources and people by Sanders both as a candidate and a roaming progressive activist in less than four years was a manifest demonstration of precisely why many Democrats have veered to the left in order to head off his campaign.

Those core supporters don’t care so much about Sanders’s biography, which suggests that the biographical turn is an effort to win over voters who saw him as a spoiler. Nearly everyone I spoke to identified either income inequality or health care as the issues that were pushing them to support Sanders from the start, and seemed at best unimpressed by other candidates’ taking on similar policies (although several expressed a fondness for Elizabeth Warren).

“Bernie has been more consistent,” said Zach Eisen, a videographer and Democratic Socialists of America member from Queens. “He’s shifted the paradigm.”

While admitting that there was an “emotional tug” from their shared Brooklyn roots, Liz Dorval, a social-media coordinator from Bensonhurst, said that Sanders’s history “fundamentally didn’t matter,” and that his focus on stagnant wages and high student debt “resonates with me.”

Lynn Cole-Walker, an adjunct at New York City College of Technology, said she supports Sanders because “this country has got to change” and “this is our last chance.” The challenges of income inequality and climate change were “both equal in my mind.”

Andrea Nandoo a 24-year-old marketing analyst who also sees single-payer health care as one of her core issues, said she liked Warren as well, but said Sanders was “more genuine” and that she doubted how committed Kamala Harris was to single payer.

In 2016 and still today, Sanders’s most passionate supporters, especially online, often insist that their affection for Sanders was solely the result of his policy positions. This reluctance to tackle awkward questions about representation and historical firsts—was it more important to have a socialist, or a centrist woman?—engendered a lasting bitterness from the 2016 Democratic primary that persists today.

Some supporters at the Brooklyn rally said they were still bruised by 2016. Cole-Walker said it was “completely unfair” and “totally rigged,” while Ernie Searle, a 67-year-old parking attendant at Citi Field in Queens with a handlebar mustache and a history of left-wing activism dating back to 1959, said that the primary process so disgusted him that he even registered as a Republican to protest the Democratic National Committee and that he “regretted” voting for Clinton in the general election.

Like anything Sanders does, the rally quickly became a flashpoint online between his supporters and Clinton loyalists who have transitioned into all-purpose critics of the senator. When a reporter from HuffPost posted a video of a multiracial but largely white reggae band playing before the speeches began, it was gleefully spread by Sanders critics who saw it as an encapsulation of his supposedly race-ignorant “brocialist” politics. A former Clinton campaign spokesperson said—incorrectly—on MSNBC that Sanders took 23 minutes into his speech to mention race or gender.

“I did not come from a family that taught me to build a corporate empire through housing discrimination, I protested housing discrimination, was arrested for protesting school segregation, and one of the proudest days of my life was attending the March On Washington For Jobs and Freedom led Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Sanders.

While the personal history he put forth was essentially a potted narrative that skipped over 50-plus years of Sanders’s life in snow-white Vermont—including his entire time in elected office—it still offered something important to voters who didn’t show up for a rally 11 months before the Iowa caucuses: It told a story.

Unlike Obama, Sanders can’t easily weave his personal history into a narrative about the progressive development of the country. He can’t do what Clinton did, either, and embody the aspirations of a historically marginalized group that’s been excluded from power at the highest levels. In fact, Sanders projects reluctance; he can’t shake his lived-in crankiness even when talking about the parts of his life that would be appealing to Democratic voters who don’t identify as democratic socialists.

Still, adopting a more traditional campaigning style is more than a strategic choice to help win one election. It’s part of a long journey over more than 40 years, from a third-party gadfly to holding elected office as a socialist to serving alongside and working within the Democratic Party. Sanders knows where he comes from; he also knows it could pave his way to the White House.

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garkodigitalmedia · 6 years

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Bernie Has Feelings, Too! | The Nation

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders greets supporters after a rally at Brooklyn College in New York on March 2, 2019. (Reuters / Andrew Kelly)

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“I know where I came from. That is something I will never forget,” he said.

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“Bernie has been more consistent,” said Zach Eisen, a videographer and Democratic Socialists of America member from Queens. “He’s shifted the paradigm.”

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8312273 https://hashtaghighways.com/2019/03/05/bernie-has-feelings-too-the-nation/

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nicholerestrada · 6 years

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Bernie Has Feelings, Too! | The Nation

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders greets supporters after a rally at Brooklyn College in New York on March 2, 2019. (Reuters / Andrew Kelly)

Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue.

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“I know where I came from. That is something I will never forget,” he said.

Current Issue

“Bernie has been more consistent,” said Zach Eisen, a videographer and Democratic Socialists of America member from Queens. “He’s shifted the paradigm.”

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Source: https://hashtaghighways.com/2019/03/05/bernie-has-feelings-too-the-nation/

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blackkudos · 7 years

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Ernie Davis

Ernest "Ernie" Davis (December 14, 1939 – May 18, 1963) was an American football halfback who was the first African-American athlete to win the Heisman Trophy.

Davis played college football for Syracuse University before being drafted by the Washington Redskins of the National Football League (NFL) in December 1961, then almost immediately traded to the Cleveland Browns and issued number 45. He was diagnosed with leukemia the following summer and died in 1963 at age 23, without ever playing in a professional game. Davis was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979. He is the subject of the 2008 Universal Pictures film The Express, based on the non-fiction book Ernie Davis: The Elmira Express, by Robert C. Gallagher.

Early life

Davis was born on December 14, 1939 in New Salem, Pennsylvania. From 14 months of age, Ernie was cared for by his maternal grandparents, Willie and Elizabeth Davis, in Uniontown, Pennsylvania. His father was killed in an accident shortly after Ernie’s birth, and his mother, Avis Marie Davis Fleming, could not raise him alone. At the age of 12, he went to live with his mother and stepfather in Elmira, New York. In Elmira, Davis excelled in baseball, basketball, and football in grade school. He attended Elmira Free Academy, where he earned two All-American honors. At the end of his senior season he was recruited by numerous colleges, and chose to attend Syracuse University after being persuaded by his childhood hero, Jim Brown, a Syracuse alumnus.

College career

Davis played football for coach Ben Schwartzwalder at Syracuse University from 1959 to 1961, and went on to national fame in each of those three seasons, twice winning first-team All-American honors. As a sophomore, Davis led the 1959 Syracuse team to a national championship, capping an 11–0 season with a 23–14 win over the Texas Longhorns in the 1960 Cotton Bowl Classic, where Davis was named Most Valuable Player. That same season, Elmira Star-Gazette sports writer Al Mallette coined the nickname for Davis, the "Elmira Express". In his junior year, 1960, he set a record of 7.8 yards per carry and was the third leading rusher in the country with 877 yards, having rushed for 100 yards in six of nine games. The 1960 Syracuse Orangemen finished with a record of 7–2 and did not play in a post-season bowl game. In Ernie's senior year, the 1961 Orangemen finished with a record of 8–3, closing the season with a 15–14 victory over the Miami Hurricanes in the Liberty Bowl, played at Philadelphia's Franklin Field. College football used limited substitution rules at the time and players played both offense and defense.

Davis found discrimination prevalent in the American South during his Cotton Bowl visit to host city Dallas, Texas. Author Jocelyn Selim writes that at the banquet following the 1960 game, Davis was told he could only accept his award and then would be required to leave the segregated facility. Davis and his black teammates were allowed to finish their meals at the banquet. When dessert was brought, a gentleman quietly approached them and told them they would have to leave when the doors were opened to the public for a dance. The three got up to leave and when the teammates found out, they wanted to leave too, but were told that it would only cause a bigger problem, so they stayed.

A different account of the banquet is given by John Brown. He was Davis' teammate at Syracuse and on the Cleveland Browns, his roommate and a close friend. According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, all the players from the game attended the banquet. Brown recalls that the teams sat on opposite sides of the room. After everyone ate and the trophies were handed out, the three black Syracuse players, including Brown and Davis were asked to leave and were taken to another party in Dallas by local NAACP representatives. One Syracuse player, Gerhard Schwedes, recommended that the whole Syracuse team leave the banquet to show solidarity with their black teammates, but the suggestion was overruled by Syracuse officials. When the Chronicle asked Brown whether the film is a truthful portrayal of his friend, Brown said " ... in short, no."

Davis became the first black athlete to be awarded the Heisman Trophy (the highest individual honor in collegiate football) and he also won the Walter Camp Memorial Trophy following his 1961 senior-year season at Syracuse University. President John F. Kennedy had followed Davis' career and requested to meet him while he was in New York to receive the trophy. Later in 1963, when Elmira chose February 3 to celebrate Davis' achievements, Kennedy sent a telegram, reading:

During his time at Syracuse, Davis wore the same number, 44, as legendary Orangeman Jim Brown, helping to establish a tradition at the school that was acknowledged on November 12, 2005, when the school retired the number in an on-field ceremony. After winning the Heisman Trophy, Ernie Davis talked Floyd Little into doing an about face and play football for Syracuse instead of Notre Dame. Davis also played basketball at Syracuse for one season 1960-1961. Syracuse University, as a way to honor all of the athletes that have worn the number 44, was granted permission by the United States Postal Service to change its zip code to 13244.

While attending Syracuse, Davis was a member of the Sigma Alpha Mu Fraternity, a nationally recognized Jewish fraternity. Davis was the first African-American to become part of the organization not only at the Syracuse chapter, but for the national fraternity as a whole.

Davis was posthumously inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 1979.

Davis was a member of The Pigskin Club of Washington, D.C. National Intercollegiate All-American Football Players Honor.

Pro football career

Davis was the number-one pick in the 1962 NFL Draft. Selected by the Washington Redskins, he was traded to the Cleveland Browns. He was also drafted by the Buffalo Bills of the American Football League.

Redskins founder and owner George Preston Marshall was an avowed racist who kept the Redskins entirely white long after the other teams had integrated. He openly admitted that his unwillingness to sign a black player was an effort to appeal to his mostly Southern fan base (they had long been the southernmost team in the league). The signing only came when Interior Secretary Stewart Udall issued an ultimatum to Marshall: sign a black player by the start of the 1962 season, or he would revoke the Redskins' 30-year lease on D.C. Stadium (now Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium). The stadium was a city-owned facility, and the Washington city government has long been legally reckoned as a branch of the federal government (given that the Constitution gives Congress ultimate authority over the capital). Marshall could not bring himself to draft a black player, so he left the decision to general manager and head coach Bill McPeak, who picked Davis. Davis refused to play for the Redskins and demanded a trade. A deal with Cleveland was engineered by Browns coach Paul Brown without the knowledge and consent of the owner Art Modell. This had been standard operating procedure with the Browns from their inception in 1946; Brown served as his own general manager, and had enjoyed a free hand in football matters. Davis chose to go to the Cleveland Browns where his classmate John Brown would be his roommate and Jim Brown, whom he admired, was already playing.

Davis signed a three-year, $200,000 contract with the Browns in late December 1961 while he was in San Francisco, California practicing for the East-West Shrine Game. Originally reported at $80,000, the contract, according to Davis's attorney, Tony DeFilippo, consisted of $80,000 for playing football, including a $15,000 signing bonus; $60,000 for ancillary rights, such as image marketing; and $60,000 for off-season employment. It was the most lucrative contract for an NFL rookie up to that time.

The Browns' dream of pairing Davis with Jim Brown took a tragic turn when Davis was diagnosed with leukemia during preparations for the 1962 American Football Coaches All-American Game in Buffalo, New York. The rift between Coach Brown and Modell worsened when Modell brought in doctors who said Davis was well enough to play and Brown still refused to allow it. Although Davis's leukemia was in remission at the time, Brown felt letting him play would hurt team morale. This contributed to Modell's decision to replace Brown before the 1963 season.

Davis was allowed to practice on the field without physical contact and helped Brown draw up game plans but he never played a meaningful down. His only appearance at Cleveland Stadium came during a 1962 pre-season game, in which he ran onto the field as a spotlight followed him. Following his death, the Browns retired his number 45 jersey.

Death

In the summer of 1962, Davis was diagnosed with acute monocytic leukemia and began receiving medical treatment. The disease was incurable and he died in Cleveland Lakeside Hospital May 18, 1963, at the age of 23. Davis went to Johns Hopkins when he was dying, three months after being diagnosed and through chemical treatments experienced a four to five month remission. That was the time that the controversy between Paul Brown and Art Modell took place. Both the House and the Senate of the United States Congress eulogized Davis, and a wake was held at The Neighborhood House in Elmira, New York, where more than 10,000 mourners paid their respects. During the funeral, a message was received from President Kennedy, and was read aloud to all of the people attending the service. Davis is buried at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira. His commemorative statue stands in front of the school named in his honor, Ernie Davis Middle School, where he attended as Elmira Free Academy during his high school years. Another statue of Davis stands on the campus of Syracuse University, near the steps of Hendricks Chapel and the Quad where pre-game pep rallies are held. He was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame in the fall of 2008, coinciding with the premiere of The Express and the beginning of construction of Ernie Davis Hall, a Syracuse dormitory.

The Express

A motion picture biography, The Express, directed by Gary Fleder and based on the non-fiction book The Elmira Express: the Story of Ernie Davis by Robert C. Gallagher, began production in April 2007 and was released on October 10, 2008. Rob Brown plays Davis, with Dennis Quaid portraying Davis' Syracuse University coach, Ben Schwartzwalder.

In 2011, rival schools Southside High School (Elmira, New York) and Elmira Free Academy combined their athletic teams, which together were renamed the Elmira Express, named after Ernie Davis.

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