(dramatic piano music)
- Here we are, Bernie in Brooklyn.
- Sounds good.
- Do you recognize this place?
Brooklyn College.
- Well, of course I do.
You know, I grew up in Brooklyn.
I graduated James Madison High School
a few miles away from here.
- What did you do as a kid?
- Our life centered around playing ball.
We played basketball.
James Madison had one of the best teams in the city.
We played football, we played softball.
And I'll tell you something.
This is interesting, Mark.
In those days, and I think it was a good thing,
kids played it without adult supervision.
So we made up our own games and we
worked these things out ourselves.
I learned a lot about democracy
in the schoolyards of Brooklyn, New York,
and it was a great experience.
I spent the year here before I went
to the University of Chicago.
- How much did it cost you to go to school here?
Much cheaper than it is today?
- I would say that is an understatement.
(laughing)
Ya, I mean, what people forget
is Brooklyn College, or the city colleges of New York,
these were good schools.
- [Mark] Yes.
- [Bernie] These are good schools.
- [Mark] So, so many famous people
graduated from around here: Colin Powell,
Ruby Dee, Ira Gershwin, Henry Miller.
Jonas Salk went to City College,
and he discovered the vaccine for polio!
How much did they pay to go to college?
- In those days, public colleges
and universities were virtually free.
- So that's not a radical idea.
- That's the point.
It is not a radical idea.
You have countries all over the world today
who provide free college because they want
to invest in the future of their nation.
They don't want kids to be going bankrupt
when they get outta school $50,000 in debt.
And it used to be the case in the United States of America.
So no, what I'm proposing
is not a radical idea, that's for sure.
- You grew up in this neighborhood.
Was it a immigrant neighborhood?
- Largely, it was.
Many of us were the sons
or grandchildren of immigrants,
and the main shopping area was King's Highway.
And if you went shopping there,
you would see people who had serial numbers
on their hands, on their arms,
which was from Hitler's concentration camps.
- Yes.
So, you have this beautiful pluralism in your world view.
Would you say that that was informed by--
- Absolutely.
- Your experience here?
'Cause there's no more densely populated area in America
that has so many different kinds of people, right?
- Yes.
The strength of this country is the fact
that we have so much diversity.
And I think we do better when we are a people
who appreciate, love, respect people
from all over the world who bring
their own values and traditions
and become part of the American experience.
- [Mark] Your father, what did you learn from him,
those key things that you carried into your life?
- [Bernie] He was aware that coming to America
and making enough money to live
in a better standard of living than where he came from,
what for other people may have seemed not to be much.
But from where he came from, it was a significant step up.
- And what about your mom?
- My mom died young, she was 46 when she died,
and spent a lot of her love and energy on her two sons.
And I think because the family did not have a lot of money,
never kind of...
Did some of the things that she dreamed of doing.
- What would she think if she saw you now?
- Oh, God.
- Would she be proud of you?
- Well, more than proud.
I think it would have been an unbelievable,
something that they would have never conceived.
Ya know, when you come from a rent controlled apartment,
you don't talk about the kids becoming
President of the United States.
That's not a good discussion!
- That's a beautiful discussion. (laughs)
- [Voiceover] Speak to the power of this nation.
- [Mark] And so, from here you went to Chicago.
You were there during the Civil Rights Movement.
You were deeply involved
in the anti-segregation movement there.
- [Bernie] Right.
- [Mark] How does this white kid decide
that he's gonna stand with his black brothers
and sisters and put his body in harm's way?
Because you were arrested, weren't you?
- [Bernie] Yes, I was.
When I wanna go overly dramatic about it.
At the same time, the people gettin' their heads
busted in in the South, that wasn't our case,
but it was a sense of justice.
- You were so effective
when you became the mayor of Burlington.
Against all odds, you stopped these real estate tycoons
from displacing hundreds of working families
from their homes, and you built this progressive coalition.
And because of your legacy, Burlington is now the first
American city to run 100% on renewable energy.
People just don't know this.
And how is it in the 90s,
when the Republicans controlled the house,
somehow you formed these partnerships
and passed all of these amendments on corporate crime?
IRS accountability, child labor, green energy,
supporting the troops and their kids,
and auditing funds given out by the Fed?
I mean, nobody ever audited
the Fed since it was established.
You got so many amendments passed
they dubbed you the Amendment King, for crying out loud.
Do you know what you make me feel?
That all of my ideals as a young person
can actually grow up with me.
When I look at you, I say all of the ideals
of him as a young person grew up with him.
He didn't have to give that up growing up.
Is that true?
- Well, here's what I think.
Don't give me too much credit--
- Well, no, I'm just relating to you that way.
- Alright, but here's what it is.
- Vote for Bernie!
- [Bernie] One of the beautiful parts of this campaign
is your dreams and my dreams, you may have thought
that were very few of us.
Turns out we're the majority of the people in this country.
(chanting)
And people now, through this campaign, I think,
are sensing that they're not alone, and that's a big deal.
(whoosh)