Sanders’ message burns brightly for fans

SPRINGFIELD — They’ve been “feeling the Bern” for months, and Thursday they stood closer than ever to Bernie Sanders’ self-described “democratic socialist” heat.

And if you try to tell them the flame of Sanders’ presidential campaign might soon be extinguished, well, good luck with that.

It’s not likely to curb the enthusiasm of self-proclaimed Bernie fanatics who view themselves as part of a movement.

“We know what Bernie can do,” said Ron Kohn, 75, of Eugene, who moved to Lane County 18 months ago with his wife, Barbara Shapiro, from Vermont, where the Brooklyn-born Sanders has been a U.S. senator since 2007.

Kohn and his wife were among a couple dozen local Sanders campaign volunteers who stood on the other side of a Secret Service security checkpoint in Island Park on Thursday morning, helping to greet the more than 5,000 people who arrived early enough to get through (another 3,000 or so didn’t get in) and hear Sanders’ hourlong speech.

Kohn held a sign that read “#FeeltheBern Lane County for Bernie Sanders.” It had a hole in it that, when he stuck his face inside, gave him Sanders-like white hair and black-rimmed glasses.

“He’s a unique character,” said Kohn, who happened to buy a house on Friendly Street upon moving to Eugene, right across the street from the old church building where Sanders’ first Oregon campaign office opened in March.

“In Vermont, he gets 85 percent of the vote whenever he runs,” Kohn said of Sanders, who was mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989 before being elected as an independent in 1991 to represent the Green Mountain state as a congressman.

“He’s managed to establish community health centers,” Kohn said. “Vermont essentially has universal health care. He’s done things that other people are calling impossible.”

Sanders arrived Thursday shortly after noon, after having had breakfast at The Glenwood near the University of Oregon campus in Eugene. After hours of buildup, after the Trammps’ 1976 hit “Disco Inferno” had blared from the sound system — Burn, baby, burn … burn that mother down — the 74-year-old candidate greeted the crowd with, “Eugene! Thank you all!”

Oh, well, give him a break. Sanders hasn’t spent a whole lot of time in the area, even though his son, Levi, graduated from the UO in the early 1990s.

So what if he was actually standing in Springfield?

No one seemed to give a darn what side of the Willamette River Sanders was standing on. They just wanted to hear him — live and in person.

They held signs that said “Bernin’ 4 Bernie” and “Vive Le Revolution” and “Bernie Sanders/Not the Hero We Deserve but the Hero We Need” and, of course, flame-painted signs that said “Feel the Bern.”

Most of the faces in the crowd were young ones who came to see a man born in 1941, three months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

“I like his manner, how he carries himself,” said Adrian Montes, 17, wearing his Springfield High School letterman’s jacket and standing in the long line of supporters that stretched far out of the park, down West B Street and at least one block of Mill Street about 10 a.m.

“He’s a humble and caring man for the people,” said Montes, who turns 18 on June 1, too late to vote for Sanders in Oregon’s May 17 primary.

But there is still no candidate he wants to support more than Sanders.

Montes, who later got to be one of about 50 lucky supporters invited to sit in bleachers behind Sanders as he spoke, is biracial, part Native American, part Mexican-American.

He plans to attend Lane Community College in the fall and eventually become a police officer. His ears perk up when he hears Sanders talk about ways to increase taxes on billionaires and use the money to create tuition-free colleges and universities.

And Montes likes how Sanders sticks to his viewpoints, how they haven’t changed over the years.

“If I can’t vote for Martin Luther King Jr., one of the most amazing and humble men who ever lived, then why not vote for a man who walked with him and supported him,” Montes said.

After Sanders’ speech, one in which he mentioned how his campaign has been listening to the nation’s Hispanic, African-American and Native American communities, Montes said: “That spoke to me.”

Sharon Johnson, 73, of Springfield, who also was invited to sit in the bleachers behind Sanders, was almost moved to tears by the experience.

“Fantastic,” said Johnson, who got to shake Sanders’ hand. “I’m so excited.”

Asked what struck her most about Sanders’ fiery talk, Johnson said: “Everything he said strikes me the most. What a fabulous, marvelous human being he is.”

Follow Mark on Twitter @MarkBakerRG . Email [email protected] .