Hillary Clinton speaks to youthful crowd, vocal anti-war protestors

December 3, 2005 (WLS) -- There were several loud calls to bring the troops home during a speech by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in Chicago Saturday. She was in town to inspire young people to get involved in the political process. But as ABC7's Ben Bradley reports, she first had to speak over the shouts of some of those young adults.

The New York senator and Park Ridge native was only on the stage a few seconds before the first protests erupted.

"Troops out now! Troops out now," they shouted. Some tried to shout the former first lady down. Others opened umbrellas that read "out of Iraq" and a third group dumped anti-war leaflets from a balcony.

"Give me a chance and I'll address that if you'll then be quiet," the senator said.

Security dragged some of the protestors out of the auditorium and Senator Clinton continued her speech and later returned to the topic of Iraq and her mixed feelings on the war and the reasons for it.

"I disagree with those who believe we should immediately pull out, and I disagree with those who say we should stay there forever," said Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, (D)-New York. "It would be wonderful if we could turn the clock back but we cannot."

High school and college students came to hear from Clinton and others about leadership and the need to get more young people involved in politics.

"Some people feel it doesn't affect them. They don't see how the politics effect day to day life," said Justin Williams, Provison East H.S. student.

"I think it's a fallacy that they don't get involved. People here volunteer. This generation more than any other generation sees the need to get involved locally. They act locally and think globally," said John Hart, American Democracy Institute.

Despite an 11 percent surge in the number of 18-to-24 year-old voters in the last presidential election, young adults still have the lowest voter turn-out of any age group.

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