Senator-elect visits Auraria
by Lindsay Sandham
The Metropolitan
Matthew D. Jonas / The Metropolitan
Ken Salazar signs Metro student Thomas Borrett’s arm as Metro student
Leila Mlynar watches a rally between the Tivoli and the Plaza Building
Oct. 29. Borrett said, “This is not a costume,” — he
dresses this way every day.
Newly elected U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar visited Auraria campus during his
campaign Oct. 29.
The senator addressed students, urging them to get out and vote Nov.
2.
“The choice for president will design how we move forward in the
world internationally in dealing with the issues of terrorism and dealing
with the issues of economic security here at home,” Salazar said.
“For students in particular, they ought to be concerned about the
future of educational opportunities including access to higher education.
I support increasing Pell grants and HOPE scholarship tax credits and
hope young people have an opportunity to go to school. That’s the
kind of thing I think we need to stand behind.”
He went on to explain that this may be the most important election not
only of his lifetime, but of students’ lifetimes as well.
“For all of you who are the young people of America today, it certainly
is the most important election of your lifetime because the outcome of
this election will not only decide what happens in the next four years,
but it will chart the future of this nation and the future of this world,”
he said.
Whoever is elected will have a dramatic effect on the issues that will
define and shape the future of the world, he said.
“And that is why it is so important to have all of you here today
participating in this exercise of democracy, and we need you to help us
to make sure that we get out the vote on Tuesday, Nov. 2,” Salazar
said as the small but supportive crowd cheered him on.
Salazar said during the long race for U.S. Senate he was blessed to have
had many wonderful encounters and met many wonderful people. He said one
of his most memorable experiences was an encounter with former Sen. Max
Cleland.
Salazar ran into Cleland in a hallway where Cleland yelled out for him
to come over.
“I went over to where Max Cleland was and he looked up at me and
he had this smile on his face. I looked at where he was, in his wheelchair,
he has no legs—because he lost those legs in the Vietnam War—and
it seemed like he was about ready to fall off the wheelchair,” he
said. “I looked at the place where he was supposed to have his right
arm and his right hand and there was only a sleeve that hung over that
right arm. I looked at him and he lifted up his only remaining limb, his
left arm and his left hand, and he put his hand around my neck and brought
me down into his chest and he said: ‘Ken Salazar I love you, and
we gotta take back America and it’s gonna start in Colorado this
November 2004.’”
Salazar said he often thinks about this encounter with Cleland and there
are several points that come to mind.
The first is that when Cleland referred to taking back America, he is
still very hurt about what happened in Georgia in 2002.
“Where those people, like Karl Rove and the forces of darkness
and pessimism for America, decided that what they would do is they would
spend not a million dollars, but millions after millions after millions
of dollars to emblazon across his forehead—that very patriotic American—to
emblazon across his forehead the term unpatriotic American,” Salazar
said. “They were able to defeat him in Georgia with that kind of
negative campaigning. We, in Colorado, are not gonna let them do that.
Not withstanding the fact that they have spent probably well over $10
million trying to defame my name and my record. Today we are beating Pete
Coors four days before the election.”
He also said the second thing that comes to mind is that when Cleland
says ‘we gotta take back America,’ he is still living in an
America of hope and optimism.
“When you consider a man who has lost so much, who has lost three
of his limbs, who has given so much to this country and yet who continues
to work for the future of America,” he said. “The grin on
his face says it all. When he says ‘Let’s take America back,’
what he means is let’s take America back for our young people.”
Salazar also said he thinks Cleland meant we have to take America back
to a time of economic prosperity.
When students graduate from college there should be jobs available for
them, he said.
“We should judge those who have led our country over the last four
years based on results,” he said. In the state of Colorado 75,000
jobs have been lost in the last four years, household incomes have declined
by $2,700, insurance premiums for health have gone up 36 percent, gasoline
prices are up 30 percent and tuition costs are up by 36 percent, he said.
“We know that we can do better than we have done under the last
four years under the leadership of this country and that’s why we
need to change directions,” Salazar said.
Lastly, Salazar said he thinks Cleland meant we should take America back
for our environment.
“Native Americans have a saying and that saying is that we inherit
the planet from our parents, but we borrow it from our children,”
he said. “That means that all of us have a special responsibility
to take care of this planet and this very special place that we inhabit,
to make sure that as we borrow it from our children, we give it to them
in as good of condition or even better than the way that we inherited
it. So we must stand up for the land, air and water that make our nation
so great.”
The senator pointed out that there are a host of differences between
him and Pete Coors, the main one being that he has the experience and
leadership to help lead the country while Coors does not.
“Pete Coors has zero experience in dealing with these issues and
it is for that reason that I expect that I will be your U.S. Senator come
Nov. 3 of 2004.”
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