Sen. Kerry visited Northampton on Thursday, and stopped by the Sierra Grille as part of the Kerry on Your Corner tour. He spoke with supporters (including a significant number of Smith College women) to talk about the upcoming election. The Senator recalled his visits to Smith when he was in school, and mentioned that his sisters were both Smith grads. The trip down memory lane also lead to a story about his mom and his early political career.
Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.
He talked about the role of young people in the important events of our country, in particular the civil rights movement, the anti-war movement and the environmental movement, and of the need to increase our majority in Congress, explaining what's at stake, and calling on all of us, especially the youth of our country, to work for change.
The crowd reaction was interesting when Sen. Kerry mentioned both Joe Lieberman and Sarah Palin, both drawing laughter from those gathered. Mind you, he wasn't telling jokes, he just said their names. It's pretty telling when just the mere mention of a politician's name is followed by laughter, and not good for either of them.
A question was asked about the 'bailout', and Sen. Kerry explained the plan, how he expects taxpayers to recover the rescue money and potentially make a profit. He spoke about his warnings to the administration their failure to heed them, and about what we need to do in the future to create new jobs and grow our economy.
The Senator called the work ahead of us over the next few weeks an 'investment', and it is just that. Just as we need to invest in new jobs and new business opportunities, we also need to invest in a new administration that will provide the economic protections to restore our financial future.
Audio of Sen. Kerry's speech here.
