I am a change maker. That was what Aden Haji, 23, hoped each attendee would feel about themselves after attending a town hall event Sunday in Burlington that featured Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as the headliner.
Haji, a University of Vermont senior, was one of the speakers at the event and called for greater civic engagement from members of New American communities.
The gathering at the Old North End Community Center specifically targeted New Americans and was intended to teach them the nuts and bolts of voting, to inspire them to become politically engaged, and to give them an opportunity to make their concerns known to Sanders. It attracted a crowd of about 150 people, most of whom were members of the Burmese, Bhutanese, Iraqi, Somali and Sudanese communities.
It was Haji and his friend, Ahmed Noor, who suggested to volunteers for Sanders’ campaign office that they organize such an event.
“There’s a lot of Somali Bantu guys [who] talk about politics, but they don’t even vote,” said Noor, a senior at UVM.
The 22-year-old student first voted during the 2016 presidential elections, he shared: “I felt like I finally got to say my opinion.”
As he watched the hall fill up, Noor said he was “so excited” by the outpouring of interest. Having Sanders appear made the event “even better,” he continued.
Staffers from the Burlington School District, Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program and the Association of Africans Living in Vermont were among those in attendance. State Sen. Chris Pearson (P/D-Chittenden) and Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman, a Progressive/Democrat, also mingled at the event. Both politicians are seeking reelection this November.
The event kicked off with an introduction from Sandrine Kibuey, the associate director for Chittenden Community Action at the Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity. A former asylee from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kibuey shared her own immigration story before urging attendees to go to the polls and hold elected officials accountable.
“If you don’t do it for yourself, do it for your children,” she said.
Hemant Ghising, who works in the central office at the Burlington School District, and Barb Prine, a longtime Sanders’ campaign volunteer, took the stage next to talk about voter rights and education.
Quoting civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., City Councilor Ali Dieng (D/P-Ward 7) told the crowd that “silence is betrayal.”
He urged the crowd to step up and run for office. Dieng said he’s part of a network of New American leaders who will send candidates to run in future state legislative, mayoral and congressional races. He went on to introduce Sanders as the “most progressive senator of our time” who fights for “the most vulnerable.”
Once at the podium, Sanders told the crowd that he’s a first-generation American and that his father came to the U.S. from Poland at age 17 with no money and little English. “So, I have a little bit of understanding of what it means to come to this country as a New American,” he said.
Stressing the common humanity of every individual, Sanders went on to highlight some of the issues for which he’s fighting, including raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, and making public colleges and universities tuition-free. He also called on New American parents to encourage their children to pursue jobs in the professional health care sector.
Vermont’s junior senator went on to take a couple of questions from the audience. A Somali audience member told Sanders that he hadn’t seen his mother in 20 years. But Somalia is one of the countries on President Donald Trump’s travel ban list, he continued.
Sanders agreed that the policy is “discriminatory and racist” and directed one of his staffers to take down the man’s information and vowed to have his office follow up.
The program ended about 45 minutes earlier than scheduled, and many in the crowd didn’t have the opportunity to have their questions answered.
“We did shorten a few portions of the program because it was so hot in there and we were concerned about the wellbeing of the attendees,” Sanders’ campaign manager Shannon Jackson said in a phone interview.
Every speaker got his or her chance to talk, Jackson noted. “We did collect all the questions at the end, and our staff will be following up,” he continued. “We are looking forward to additional town halls.”
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Classic racist comment disguised as an innocuous stating of facts. The comment has nothing to do with the article, but does remind me that many of my fellow white/European-descended people believe we are inherently better/smarter than others. Of course culture is one factor of cultivating an inteligent population, but so is stability, opportunity, and amount of time spent simply surviving (food, shelter, safety). With so many Bosnian refugees in Vermont, its curious why Bosnia wasnt listed but Arab and African countries were. Regardless, I at least find comfort that most of us Vermonters are accepting, neighborly, kind people who are more likely to help others than not.
My French-speaking grandma moved to this country from Canada as a teen, the same age as some of these young men. She would’ve appreciated this kind of neighborly welcome. I’m glad one of our senators is putting forth the effort.
The comment about IQs is kind of funny, kind of sad. Unless YG’s ancestors were all indigenous she doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on.
Interesting that the discusssion has become one of iq and nation of origin and is has resulted in someone posting articles related to such studies. None noted race, just nationality. But, the USA was down in the twenties (what race is USA?), but far behind some of the other Asian countries with less average economic prosperity when compared to USA. Seems to me more of a cultural issue I.e. how much value the parents put on education. Parents, and not teachers, are the ones who need to instill value of education and insist upon study at home,
Young Grandma – You neglected to note that your source said the U.S. average IQ is surpassed by at least 22 other countries (another source said 26).
Gi Grape – “Young Grandma, you should explain to the people who these numbers apply to and where they came from”
They appear to come from here.
https://iq-research.info/en/average-iq-by-…
Here are two takes on that highly questionable source.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2012/04/30/dumb-…
https://academic.oup.com/esr/article-abstr…
This is what Wikipedia says about the source (I don’t have time for more digging):
“The relationship between nations and intelligence is a controversial area of study concerning differences between nations in average intelligence test scores, their possible causes, and their correlation with measures of social well-being and economic prosperity.
Richard Lynn and Tatu Vanhanen constructed IQ estimates for many countries using literature reviews, international student assessment studies and other methodologies to create estimates, which have been widely criticized on theoretical and methodological grounds. Subsequent research by psychologists such as Earl B. Hunt, Jelte Wicherts and Heiner Rindermann has focused on identifying potential national differences in cognitive ability and causal factors, and determining the nature of the relationship of IQ to variables such as GDP, life expectancy, and governance.”
Not sure what the purpose of posting those supposed statistics is, or how they relate to this article, other than good old fashioned, disgusting racism.
Young Grandma, you should explain to the people who these numbers apply to and where they came from
Young Grandma: Count down until our posts are removed.
Measured Intelligence and Education
WAIS Mean IQ Educational Equivalent
115 Mean of college graduates
105 Mean of high school graduates
100 Average for total population
75 About 50-50 chance of reaching ninth grade
Free college tuition for everybody:
Average IQ by nation:
Iraq: 87
Bhutan: 80
Sudan: 71
Somolia: 68
Very Superior 130 and above
Superior 120-129
High Average* 110-119
Average 90-109
Low Average* 80-89
Borderline 70-79
Extremely Low* ** 69