Presidential candidate Kucinich visits campus
Originally published in the Colorado State Collegian
Presidential candidate Kucinich visits campus
By Jamie Way
April 09, 2004
The rain did not keep Dean Powers and roughly 150 other people from listening to U.S. presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich speak on campus Thursday.
"I wanted to support the Democratic cause and I think Kucinich is a really noble guy," said Powers, a senior English major. "He's out there pushing ideas."
Powers said he was interested in what Kucinich had to say about education. Powers said he did not understand why the United States spends such large amounts of money on defense instead of education.
"It's astonishing how much we're spending on defense and not education," Powers said.
Kucinich visited the university, in particular, to discuss the financial issues surrounding higher education.
"I want to be at Colorado State because this is an institution that has suffered, like all institutions, from lack of educational funding," Kucinich said. "I mean, we could have a country where everyone is able to go to college tuition-free. We ought to really do that."
While Kucinich spoke, ROTC could be seen marching in the distance.
"We have brave young men and women whose lives are on the line right now, and they're counting on us to bring them home," Kucinich said. "How are we going to bring our troops home?"
Kucinich said that while he realizes the nomination has been decided, he continues his campaign in hopes of influencing the Democratic Party's platform.
"I think that people want to see the Democrats stand for something, so this election means a lot," Kucinich said. "... because if the Democrats stood for something people would be lining up to vote Democrat."
Colorado's caucus will be held on April 13. Then Colorado will get to take a stance on Kucinich and his views.
"People in Colorado have a chance to say this is the direction the Democratic Party should go in," Kucinich said. "We know who the nominee is. We don't know the direction of the party, and I want to help shape that."
Kathay Rennels, Larimer County commissioner, said that although she disagreed with Kucinich's views, the university is a great forum for discussion.
"People bring different opinions," Rennels said. "It's a free country."
Although Rennels was unable to attend Kucinich's rally, she encouraged people to test the validity of what Kucinich said.
"There's a risk in throwing out accusations to an educated population," Rennels said. "It's the population's responsibility to check into those accusations."
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