Dear Readers,
“Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the HUB was.” — Lola
Before I get into anything, can someone make sure Billy Joe Armstrong is awake? He’s been sleeping for, like, the entirety of September and I’m starting to get concerned.
Jokes about Green Day aside, summer has come and passed, and fall has officially begun! Autumn has always been my favorite season for three big reasons. One: the holidays are just the best. Two: all of the best games are released in October and November. Three: the weather is amazing; neither too hot nor too cold.
On Sept. 21, Lola Offenback, our assistant editor, and I had an amazing opportunity to attend a Tim Walz rally right here in Bethlehem. It was even held at my alma mater, Freedom High School!
I’ll save the nitty-gritty details for our report on the rally, but here I’ll talk briefly about my experience attending.
To say the least, it was a surreal experience. Going back to my high school was crazy enough to begin with, but seeing the Democratic vice presidential candidate speak there was like my own personal crossover of the century.
This was the first political rally that I’d ever been to, and this was a hell of a first one to pick. I’ve never seen a vice presidential candidate excite and mobilize their base quite like Walz has, so to see the crowd getting riled up in person was electrifying.
Additionally, we had the best seats in the house! We managed to get press passes, so Lola and I were in the press pool the entire time; we had a front-and-center view of the whole event.
Even though we were supposed to be impartial journalists, I couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride and patriotism during this rally, especially since it was in a place I was intimately familiar with.
The crowd was super energetic even before the rally began and the excitement only got higher as the day went on. I won’t lie and say I didn’t want to go into the crowd and start dancing with them.
I will say, though, there was one thing that disappointed me. When Governor Walz was shaking hands and kissing babies after his speech, I was very sad to find out I was not allowed to go over to see him. I didn’t even want to ask him any questions. I just wanted to shake the man’s hand like everyone else.
Regardless, I was surprised how familiar he seemed to be with the Bethlehem area because he talked at length about the connection between Minnesota and Bethlehem. The iron mines in Minnesota were a pivotal supplier of iron in the steelmaking process at Bethlehem Steel, which was a core component of our victories in both World Wars.
As much as Republicans can rant and rave about Walz and call him “tampon Tim,” this rally just confirmed what I already knew: Tim Walz is extremely down-to-earth.
Now, before I get off my soapbox, I would like to emphasize once again the importance of voting. I know this current political climate is exhausting, but in Walz’s words: “I don’t care if you’re not into politics, politics is into you.”
Also, look forward to more election coverage in The Comenian over the next five weeks because we are going to kick things into overdrive.
Before I sign off: if you’re interested in joining The Comenian please join us at our meetings, which take place every Wednesday at 5 p.m. in Zinzendorf Hall, room 100. We also have secondary meetings on Thursdays at the same time and place for people who can’t come on Wednesdays. If you cannot make it to meetings, that is fine as well! We fully allow asynchronous participation, so don’t feel scared about not making it to meetings.
We are looking for new writers, photographers, videographers, graphic designers, and more, so if any of those interest you be sure to stop by or email me at [email protected].
The Comenian supports a wide range of content. If you want to interview students around campus, you can. If you want to make video essays you can. If you want to make short comics, you can. Whether you want to write about news, politics, music, movies, sports, video games, food, history, or anything else, I guarantee you will have a place here.
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That’s all from me folks! Thank you for reading our paper and be sure to check back in for future editions!
Your editor-in-chief,
AJ
