November 9, 2016

EDITORIAL: Donald Trump is Not Cornell

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Late last night, the voters of this country elected Donald J. Trump the 45th president of the United States. Despite running a campaign distorted by hints of authoritarianism, building a platform based in racism and misogyny and despite the appalling personal inadequacy of Trump govern this great nation, in January he will ascend to the White House.

Cornellians last night and today reacted with an outpouring of horror and sadness. Many minority students fear they could face deportation. Women are anxious about the decisions that will be made by a Republican Congress and right-leaning Court, and wonder about the implications of elevating a man who brags about sexually assaulting women to the Oval Office.

On a day that looms dismal for a nation dedicated to the proposition of freedom and equality, we at The Sun are committed to exhibiting the resistance of our campus, to giving a voice to students who feel that their status as citizens of this country has been called into question.

We stand with immigrant students at Cornell who feel that they no longer have a place within our borders. We stand with minority and LGBTQ students who fear for their physical safety and emotional well-being. We stand with the women and men who feel that their history as victims of sexual assault has been delegitimized on the national stage. We stand with students of color who now must call a man endorsed by the KKK president. We hear you and we stand with you.

Today, we encourage students to remain politically engaged, to police the Trump administration’s policies, to call their representatives and to seek and showcase empathy. In these trying times, it is unclear what activism means or can change, but we at Cornell must work to organize and mount resistance to any betrayal of our national values.

Over the next few days, the next months and the next four years, we will be vigilant in guarding the protections at the very core of our identities as Americans. We will resist even when “libel laws are loosened.” We will stand by the most vulnerable members of our society to defend the principles of diversity and inclusion, of kindness and decency that have already made this country great.

President Elect Donald Trump is not America. And we will not let him be Cornell.