Sporting a top hat plastered with red, white and blue stars, Amos Race chanted, “Feel the Bern!” in a British accent.

“I am a cynical old git and I’m here,” he said. “And I think there’s a lot of cynical old gits, frankly, who are going, ‘You know what? I will get behind this man because now we can make it happen.’”

Around 50 people gathered at the Westcott Community Center on Sunday afternoon in support of Sen. Sanders at the Westcott Street Cultural Fair. Supporters ranged from young to old, all of whom were emphatically voicing their trust in Sanders.

The event was volunteer-led and not organized by anyone in Sanders’ official campaign.

Race, who was born in England and has lived in the U.S. for 15 years, is a freelance medical writer and an avid supporter of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who is on the Democratic ticket for the 2016 presidency.

 

While New York state might not fully be behind Sanders, there’s a lot of excitement around the country for the candidate, Race said.

“We hope a lot of people are watching us and joining,” said Peggy Sterne, a 92-year-old woman. “He’s for everything that I believe in and everything that’s good for the country.”

Sanders is running against Hillary Clinton, Martin O’Malley, Lincoln Chafee, Lawrence Lessig and Jim Webb in the Democratic primary. Currently he is second in the 2016 National Democratic Primary poll, according to a Sept. 18 Huffington Post article.

As more people arrived, ralliers handed out pamphlets, talked about Sanders’ goals and created signs with political slogans describing the campaign. Some read “Running for the 99%,” “A vote for Bernie is a vote for the people” and the highly popular “Feel the Bern.”

Signs and chants consistently reflected a goal of Sanders’ campaign: To represent the interests of the people and not those of the wealthy 1 percent.

“Bernie doesn’t want the money from the billionaires,” Camillus resident Mike Manley said. “He’s raised well over $18 million from people like us with donations of $25 or less; he is a people person and he sticks to his platform.”

Manley was among other supporters who sang while marching down Westcott Street. Led by a blaring trumpet horn, parade classics such as “When the Saints Go Marching In” and “Down by the Riverside” fueled the collective excitement of the crowd. When “This Land is Your Land” was sung, fairgoers joined in on the unifying tune.

 

Event host John Wesley led the most effective and attention-drawing chant of the rally. Wesley would yell: “Who do we want?” to which the crowd would respond, “Bernie!” The same format continued with: “When do we want him?” “Now!”

“We want to get the message out that Sanders wants to work for everyone and we’re trying to have folks in Syracuse to ‘Feel the Bern’ as much as we do,” Wesley said.

Deborah Justice, a music history professor at Syracuse University, also walked in the rally, playing a string instrument and singing with other supporters. She said she didn’t realize how many people felt so passionately or that there were so many local supporters of Sanders.

She added that she sees it as a positive that people care when there’s an event such as the one Sunday.

Throughout the half hour of parading down Westcott Street, some bystanders observed the march while others yelled, “Feel the Bern!” and “Go Bernie!” at the ralliers.

Others, who were not part of the rally to begin with, often began to walk with the supporters down the barricaded streets after they were given pamphlets.

Published on September 20, 2015 at 10:16 pm

Contact Connor: cmlayden@syr.edu