Against, perhaps, my better judgement, I recently attended a talk given by Kim Strassel, author of the book The Intimidation Game: How the Left is Silencing Free Speech. I didn’t read the book ahead of time, but I had a general idea of how this was going to go just from the title alone. More ...
Freedom of speech as we know it is under attack, and if one of the core tenets of our democracy falls, we all lose. Anyone with the faintest political awareness and common sense can see the stormy and polarized political climate in which we find ourselves in, and the left is largely to blame for this. That’s right, I said the left is to blame. Take a deep breath and buckle up. More ...
On Tuesday night, with the soft rush of the water feature in the KJ Atrium plugging away in the background, President Wippman spoke to the Hamilton community on a wide variety of topics. Interviewer and Senior Class President Silvia Radulescu ’17 brought up issues ranging from President Trump’s recent executive order on immigration to the College’s technological initiatives, to advice for the incoming class of 2021. It was an event unlike any other in the College’s history, as President Wippman spoke not from a podium in a grand auditorium or a lectern in one of the school’s historic buildings, but rather to a camera broadcasting to the world via Facebook live from the recesses of a comfy armchair. More ...
This past Saturday, millions of women around the world took to the streets to protest the campaign strategy of recently inaugurated President Trump, and to proclaim their disagreement with his statements and actions. Those who know me were not surprised to hear that I had joined those protests. I know that the March was, and is, divisive and I witnessed firsthand some of the overwhelming whiteness and trans-exclusionary behavior that’s been discussed in the days following the March. I also know that I am not nearly well-versed enough on these issues to write insightfully about them, so I will leave that task to someone who is (and I look forward to reading their thoughts!). Instead, I want to explore the purpose of activism. More ...
I had the enormous privilege of marching in the Women’s March on Washington in D.C. this past Saturday with my mother and hundreds of thousands of other women while millions more marched around the world. It was a life-affirming experience that I would repeat ten times over. However, I was not feeling quite so positive about the March ahead of time. Protests with the best of intentions often get out of hand and crowd control inevitably falls by the wayside. Prior to leaving campus I had been told to write my parent’s phone number on my arm in case I was trampled, to bring goggles in case I was pepper-sprayed and to text my friends and family that I loved them beforehand in case somebody opened fire in the crowd. My mom and I were both feeling a little shaky on the train ride over. While we knew that this vital step in the fight for equality for all people throughout the next four years was our duty, the numerous ominous warnings I had heard let cowardice begin to take over and I thought maybe we weren’t cut out for the revolution. Maybe it made sense to turn back. More ...
Donald Trump’s cabinet is soon to be filled with people united in supporting the President and his policies. On paper, this is exactly what a cabinet should do. They are there to educate the President and help him to make decisions for the better of the country. However, when those cabinet members are out of touch with what actually needs to be done in the country, there can be serious repercussions for the American people as a whole. One nominee in particular, Betsy DeVos, Trump’s pick for Secretary of Education, has shown a startling lack of care or awareness around the issue of guns in schools. More ...
The 2016 election results were absolutely heart-wrenching for millions of Americans. Women, people of color, queer people, immigrants and many other groups who have been marginalized and understand the dangers of publicly validated discrimination are worried about the regression of human rights that will likely unfold within the next four years. The past few weeks since the election have been filled with a combination of mourning and continued efforts to fight the good fight, even though it’s about to get infinitely harder, particularly for targeted minorities. More ...
Jon Stanhope ’18, Maggie Horne ’19 and Gillian Mak ’18 vs. Jonathan Kirshenbaum ’19 and Samantha Gordon ’19 More ...
Since his shocking victory on Nov. 8, President-elect Trump has done little to assuage the fear of racism, misogyny and xenophobia that characterized his campaign. We’ve been treated to a slew of cabinet nominees that seem to embody each tenet of the -isms and -phobias that trailed in the muddy wake of his relentless tromp to the White House. There’s the mind-numbing amount of conflicts of interest with his business and the Presidency, and who could forget his most recent “heroics” with the Carrier Corporation in Indiana, wherein he traded government incentives in return for the domestic retention of less than half of Carrier’s jobs? What a fine precedent set forth by the so-called “business president.” More ...
Before last week, I observed Colin Kaepernick’s media-frenzied protests as an expression of the first amendment. Whether I agreed with the way in which he selected to protest or the motivation behind such a protest was irrelevant. He has every right to protest however he would like for whatever injustices that are occurring in our nation. Given that fact that he was a backup quarterback who had failed to reach his potential, I was intrigued as to why he, out of all the star athletes in the league, would decide to take up such a monumental protest. I was particularly interested in his press conference after the media, and the world, discovered that he had elected to take a knee during our country’s national anthem. This press conference would surely solidify his protest, successfully build upon his actions and explain how they were going to improve the injustices that this nation faces. More ...