#FeelTheBern: Dinner with Bernie Sanders by Leslie

#FeelTheBern: Dinner with Bernie Sanders by Leslie - February 2016 Scholarship Essay

When one hears the words “historical figure” being uttered, the majority of us begin to imagine household names such as Nelson Mandela, Hitler, and Abraham Lincoln. Individuals such as these have paved a legacy of their own, whether it was for the greater good or demise of the general population. Few have had the opportunity to speak with such people and gain insight on the inner workings of their brains; to truly know where their standpoint on controversial situations, to learn their past and how it influences their current self, but most importantly, how it will influence their future. If I were given the opportunity to sit down and have dinner with a well-known leader, I would have to choose Bernie Sanders. A sort of “underdog” in the 2016 Presidential Campaign, Sanders is a Socialist Democrat who strives to move America in a progressive direction. His policies are fresh and his courage to stand up against the popular opinion is admirable. Sanders is a man that rose from the streets of Brooklyn, walked into the arms of failure, and is now striving to make this country a better place for all.
Born on September 8th, 1941, Bernie Sanders grew up with a Polish immigrant father, one with little formal education who fled his home country to both escape poverty and the major loss of his family due to the Holocaust, and a more fortunate mother, having grown up in New York and gained her high school diploma with flying colors. Growing up in this environment encouraged Sanders to excel in high school in hopes of attending college, no matter what the cost may be. Bernie Sanders wanted to change the world, help people like his parent thrive in an economy that assists the well off and persecutes the struggling majority. Sure enough, following his senior year, Sanders was accepted into Brooklyn College and later, the University of Chicago, where his role in politics and social well-being would gain ground.
Sanders quickly became involved in the Civil Rights Movement in his days at the University of Chicago. As a member of CORE, the Congress of Racial Equality, he participated in a multi-week sit-in against the segregation of off-campus university housing in 1962 where he was arrested. His arrest, however, did not put a stop to his fight against discrimination of all types. Forty years ago, in his involvement with the Vermont-based political party, the Liberty Union, Bernie Sanders called for the abolishing of all laws concerning prejudice towards homosexuals. Bernie had always felt that his duty was to help those in need, those who had their voice silenced by the powerful oppressors he wished to tear down with the power of the people, for the people.
Now Sanders is en route to a new goal; to become the President of the United States in the 2016 presidential elections as a Democratic Socialist. From his occupation as the mayor of Burlington, Vermont to a seat in the House of Representatives to a landslide election for a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2007, Bernie Sanders carries a great reputation as a caring man, but one who is able to make tough choices for the benefit of all. Dinner with such an individual would be an absolute honor, to have the possibility to ask him what his plans for this country are and the potential he sees in the youth, all while getting to know more about him as a human being. Bernie Sanders is a man worth my admiration, a man who has my full support and confidence that if he were to win, he would make this a great country once more.