Opinion

WAITE | 2020 and the Trauma it Reignited

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When my brother and I were younger, we often used his magnifying glass to try and start mini fires amongst the dehydrated weeds in our backyard. I know that it is cliche to write this; but gosh were those simpler times. A few weeks ago, I read a tweet that said “stop saying ‘fuck 2020.’”

The tweeter (@elinamarchh) continued on to say “[stop] acting like police brutality, medical racism, extreme poverty, etc. are part of some weird curse. They’re not specific to 2020.

Opinion

WAITE | The Racial Divisions that Shine From Rush Limbaugh’s Medal of Freedom

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I Googled the Presidential Medal of Freedom. According to Wikipedia, the list of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients fall under 17 categories — and a total of 23 subcategories. These categories broadly range from politics, military and computing to arts, media and religion. I then went to the official website of the White House to ascertain the reasons for why one receives such a prestigious and honorable award. According to the site, it is awarded “to individuals who have made exceptional contributions to the security or national interests of America, to world peace or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors”.

Opinion

WAITE | The Cost of Peak Performance at Cornell

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Yes, challenges are essential. The purpose of our time at Cornell is to prepare us for our futures — to prepare us for the goals we’ve set for ourselves. So I get why this University is challenging. It is supposed to be. It is meant to drive us and allow us to achieve more and more.

Opinion

WAITE | White Discomfort

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Outside our summer Cornell residence hall, a group of high schoolers chase each other with water balloons. They laugh uproariously when their attacker misses and viciously when they instead soak their targets. A girl in the program and I look at each other — we were merely acquaintances at this point — and arrive at the same conclusion: these kids are having a blast. “We should go join them,” I exclaim to my friend. She remains expressionless and says “I don’t fit in with them.

Opinion

WAITE | Is Higher Education Closing Doors on Disability?

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My brother’s nickname for me growing up was “spell check.” Anytime he wanted to look something up or needed to write something down,  he would say “spell-check, how do you spell ‘their’?” and I would rattle off the letters he requested. My brother Daniel is three years older than me, but he has always been terrible at spelling. In second grade, Daniel came home from school one day extremely upset and cried to our mom, insisting that his teacher thought that he was dumb. His third grade teacher laughed in my mom’s face when she mentioned Daniel going to college in the future. The teacher was amused because at nine years old, my brother still could not read.