November 6, 2007
Students rally around Obama
As the 2008 election season heats up, students, like other voters across the country, are carefully weighing their presidential options. Much like the rest of America, we are concerned about the issues that dominate the national debate, including the war in Iraq and the debate surrounding healthcare. We are looking for a candidate who speaks to our particular concerns, who can talk with equal passion and insight about war and healthcare as they can about student loans and genocide. Most importantly, students are looking for a candidate who can talk about the future as well as he can about current issues facing us.
On both measures, we have found our candidate in Barack Obama. At a college rally just before he declared his candidacy, Senator Obama reminded a packed room of students of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” He challenged students to “grab that arc” and to work to set America on the right path once more. On campuses across the country, students have risen to Senator Obama’s challenge, building a grassroots movement of historic proportions to elect the President our country deserves.
Senator Obama knows that every student in this country should be able to attend college without worrying about graduating under a burden of crippling debt. One indication of his commitment to students is the fact that the first bill he introduced in the U.S. Senate was legislation to expand the Pell Grant program that makes college more affordable for students in need of financial assistance. He has demonstrated a nuanced understanding of the issue of access to higher education in this country, and he has proposed to reform corrupt lending institutions that bankrupt all too many students trying to get an education.
Senator Obama has shown that he has the vision and the judgment to lead. Students are rallying behind him as the only candidate who opposed the war in Iraq from the start, before it was popular or politically expedient to do so. He has been a leading voice in Washington on the genocide in Darfur, traveling to the region to raise awareness and getting legislation signed into law to increase funding to work to end the bloodshed there.
With his strong and clear voice on the issues, it’s no wonder students were among the first to rise to meet Senator Obama’s challenge to “grab that arc,” to bend it in the direction of justice. In the summer of 2006, a group of students founded Students for Barack Obama as a grassroots movement to elect Senator Obama. Since then, Students for Barack Obama has grown into one of the largest grassroots organizations in modern political history, with more than 600 chapters and thousands of members on campuses nationwide.
The UM chapter of Students for Barack Obama is the first of its kind in Montana, with new chapters starting every month. Debate parties, a successful “We Can!” Canvass, writing potential voters, offering internships, pumpkin carving, tabling to get Senator Obama on the ballot in Montana, and updating our supporter list are just some of the things we are doing to make the current Senator Barack Obama; President Barack Obama. We are also planning a trip 3-4 day trip to Las Vegas in January, just in time to help the campaign during the all too important Nevada caucus. Hopefully the work we do in Vegas doesn’t necessarily stay in Vegas, the purpose is to help persuade voters and delegates, starting in Nevada then cascade to other states. The trip should be a lot of fun, we would love to have you join us.
Andy Shirtliff is a junior majoring in Political Science and the Chapter Coordinator for University of Montana Students for Barack Obama
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Comments
He will change America and the world if we can get his name out to everyone and make sure he wins Iowa and the Democratic primary and then the general election.
Posted by Nathan Kosted on 11/07/2007 at 1:20 pm
