Super rally pumps up students for Obama

Nikki Shonoiki gave a warm welcome to celebrities Kal Penn (“Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle”) and Brandon Routh (‘Superman Returns”) as they appeared at UW-River Falls Feb. 14.

They were here to voice their political views at an on-campus rally; both Routh and Penn are in support of Barack Obama as our next president. Routh says Obama “has already proven he’s a leader” and “he [Obama] will inspire America to do more.”

The rally was sponsored by the UWRF College Democrats, and put together by Avery Newman. Penn and Routh gave speeches on why they support Obama. After the speeches it was time to test the celebrities on their knowledge with some questions from the crowd. There were four main points, including education, the environment, the war in Iraq and healthcare.

After the rally there was a small amount of time when people were allowed get autographs and meet the celebrities.

Penn and Routh agreed that they needed to reach out to everybody and that is why they decided to come to River Falls.

Neither were very active in politics at a younger age and although they weren’t involved, both believe it’s important for the younger people to get involved.

Change is what Obama stands for, and both celebrities would like to see changes.

“[I want] access to affordable heath care and education,” Penn said. “It’s not that they don’t want it, they can’t afford it.”

Routh had other ideas.

“Pro-activity in politics, being informed about the future, and a united America ... hasn’t happened in a long time,” he said. “A president who listens to the people- these are things we can already see happening when we look at Obama.”

As a last thought, Penn told everyone in attendance to all look up the words politician and statesman, because this was the first time in a long time that we had a statesman running for the office.