09/28/02
Jerry Springer traces the roots of his political success to Kent State University's most infamous moment.
The future extreme talk-show king was a long shot to win a Democratic nomination for Congress in 1970. He was 25, a New Yorker and an anti-Vietnam War candidate.
Then National Guardsmen shot four Kent State students dead on May 4. The next day, Springer won his district's primary election.
"Here I am coming back and the subject matter is the same. We're going to war," Springer told a one-third full Kent State University ballroom Friday afternoon as part of his trip to Northeast Ohio to raise money for the Democratic Party. After his speech, he held a fund-raiser at Glory Days, a local bar.
He spent much of his time with the Kent State students railing against the Bush administration's policy on Iraq.
"It's like we're on this Texas 'we're gonna gun 'em down' thing," Springer said with a mock twang. "God, we ought to be pissed off about this. Politicians determine whether we live or die. We're about to make that decision again."
Springer mainly was frustrated at the malaise surrounding the issue, especially on college campuses.
"When I think of where campuses were then," he said, referring to 1970, "they were the center of the war. Now the campuses of America are incredibly quiet and passive. And we're wondering how 'Kelly the idol's' album is doing."
Not him, though. He's Springer-show angry -- like a husband who just found out his wife is really a man.
"We are thinking we can run the world," he said, admonishing Bush like he would one of his talk show's secret-keepers. "I don't know how you can justify killing tens of thousands of human beings just because the leader is horrible."
"Going to war should be the last resort, but here it seems like the first resort."
Springer suggested that we should learn from such past policies as deterrence, which worked during the Cold War.
"Deterrence doesn't work against suicide bombers," Springer said, "but Saddam Hussein wants to live. He does everything he can do to survive."
After his anti-war rant, Springer rattled off a litany of classic liberal Democratic thoughts:
- Citizens should be required to go to the polls, even if it means they don't vote for anyone.
- Wealthy people aren't "better," they're luckier.
- Welfare cheats "aren't getting away with anything," considering how much corporate leaders get away with.
- Al Gore isn't irrelevant, because he got more votes than Bush.
- Voting is essential.
All delivered with the cool calm of a ringmaster clad in black Armani.
The students, who started chanting "Jerry! Jerry!" when he first came on stage, were amazed at Springer's seriousness.
"I agree with his reasons about going to the polls," said Steve Farwick, a 20-year-old Kent State junior from Canton. "He brings up good points."
Another student was impressed by the audience. It was made up of college students who know Springer's outrageous show, yet no one asked him a single question about it, unlike the media members who attended.
"I thought there would be more joking," said Aubrey Durkey, an 18-year-old freshman from Green. "I was surprised that Kent students were so serious."
As Springer signed autographs in a receiving line, several star-struck students giggled as they took pictures with him. For some, though, that's not what they'll remember.
"When my stepmom told me that I have to vote, I thought, 'Oh, why,' " Durkey said. "But I now know that one person can make a difference."
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Stephen Dyer
The Beacon Journal