Des Moines Register
10-03-06
Kerry stumps at ISU to urge student political action
'If young people ... refuse to vote, we're in big trouble,' says the Massachusetts
senator.
By LISA ROSSI
REGISTER AMES BUREAU
Ames, Ia. - Scott Bents attended Iowa State University in the 1990s, during a
time of economic prosperity and political apathy.
Now a graduate student, Bents, 31, said he would never have imagined what
unfolded Monday on campus: Students swarmed around Massachusetts Sen.
John Kerry to hear him speak about the environment, activism and the war in
Iraq.
"I think it's changed," Bents said.
Monday kicked off Political Action Week at ISU, a series of lunchtime speeches
from local, state and national leaders on an array of topics, from whether
students are treated as second-class citizens in Ames to the role of religion in
politics.
Students stood in a line Monday for free hamburgers and potato chips before
Kerry, a Democrat, spoke. Many lifted cell phones to take photographs of the
former presidential nominee while he spoke.
Mark Mba, a graduate student from West Africa, said he believes students are
too apathetic and will not mobilize for change unless their way of life is
threatened.
"People are living comfortable lives," said the 23-year-old Mba. "If you know
there is nobody threatening your ability to get online, to socialize and have a
good time, you don't care about people who are dying in other parts of the world."
Kerry tried to rally students to get involved in the political process. He also
expressed concern about the direction of the country under the Republican
administration.
"If young people - too many who know better - refuse to vote, we're in big
trouble," he said.
Also, Kerry attended a news conference at ISU's Memorial Union to campaign for
Iowa secretary of state candidate Michael Mauro, a Democrat.
Kerry denounced former U.S. Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., who resigned Friday after
the disclosure that he sent explicit messages to teenage boys working as U.S.
House pages.
Kerry said he and his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, are "appalled and astonished
and angered by the double standard of values."
"I'm really angry those in a position of responsibility care more about power and
politics than protection of children," he said.
ABC News has published excerpts of explicit conversations between Foley and
one of the pages.
Kerry wouldn't predict whether the scandal will affect midterm elections in
November.
But Kerry said it adds to the "Republican culture of corruption," and linked it to
what he said were failures to respond to Hurricane Katrina, the handling of the
war in Iraq and the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks on the United States.