A diverse crowd, big enough to fill up both Grand Park and the steps to the Los Angeles City Hall consisted of people who decided to show up based on different personal reasoning.
The rally was open to people of all ages, emotional support animals, and also provided ada assistance.
The ‘yuge’ crowd of people, according to Bernie Sanders himself via Twitter, was made up of people of all different styles, ages, races, genders, sexualities, animals, and people with disabilities.
The rally was set to be coordinated at Grand Park in Los Angeles on Saturday, March 23.
The park was full, so some people listened to the ideas Bernie proudly referred to as ‘radical’, from the top of the hill at Grand Park to the bottom steps at City Hall.
Ariel Rose, who wore a fuzzy pink hat to the rally, alongside her dog named Lucy to see Bernie speak, “He’s part of the revolution … the real deal and we all know that,” Rose said.
for the Bernie Sanders LA rally to start. Photo by Fernando Pacheco.
Rose mentions her long time support for Bernie and how she’s been committed since before the 2016 election.
She admitted that she lost a bit of hope when Bernie did not make it to the 2016 election, however, Rose feels hopeful this time around.
She explained why she brought her dog along, “She’s my girl I take her everywhere and I wanted her to hear him speak too, it’s a historical moment,” Rose said.
For Luis Reyes, a Bernie supporter since 2016, who showed up to the rally wearing a blue paisley neckerchief wondering if Bernie would speak about Puerto Rico.
“I’d also be curious if he mentioned Puerto Rico, I’m Puerto Rican and I know he’s a big supporter of being aware and bring awareness to the state that Puerto Rico is in,” Reyes said.
Reyes’ friends explained their feelings of the country being divided between people, but were excited to be in Los Angeles to rally for a change.
Which lead Reyes to explain his thoughts, “There’s a lot of hope.”
The Mueller report was one of the reasons why people showed up.
Wearing dark pentagon shades Hector Solarao, a recent college grad, “The American people deserve to see the Mueller report,” Solarao said.
For Idalia Gonzalez, a LBCC student who has been supporting Bernie since 2016, she wanted to hear about environmental issues, “Environmental justice reforms he has planned.”
Although the possibility of Bernie not making into the election again, Gonzalez wanted to explain that there is still hope, “The seed is planted because when he started fighting in 2016, he was thought of as radical for talking about climate change … it’s not that much of a drastic or radical ideology anymore,” Gonzalez said.
During Bernie’s hour long speech he touched on many issues that he wishes to alter as a potential democratic candidate.
One of which included stating his thoughts on the Mueller report, “I also know that it is absolutely imperative that the Trump administration make that full report public,” Bernie said.
He spent some time explaining his plans, which included, providing more jobs in America through the construction of affordable housing, helping educating the workforce by making colleges and universities that are public and tuition free while attempting to lower current student debt.
He also mentioned raising social security benefits, and shifting our energy system away from fossil fuel into energy efficiency.
The rally ended with the crowd cheering ‘Bernie’ as soon as Sanders concluded his speech by saying, “I believe that when we go forward together nothing is going to stop us. So Los Angeles thank you for coming, let’s move forward together.”
For each individual, the reason to rally is different, but for Bernie it’s about moving forward together.