Everything you should do as a UChicago student after the election
We can do great things in this country no matter who’s in charge
Last night was hard. The quad had a mob of angry students. Dorm rooms and apartments were full of residents drinking themselves to sleep. House lounges were jammed with students silently watching poll numbers come in, heads in their hands. At house tables, roommates fought and shot hateful glares at the few Trump hats on campus. In dorms, nights were spent pacing around the basement.
But last night is over.Today is a new day, and the world is still here. This is a world we have to live with and it is ours.
On campus, we have students from all fifty states and seventy-two countries, but we are all here in Chicago. No matter where you came from, you are now an educated person with resources, and it is your responsibility to help this nation. For your time here, the well-being of the city of Chicago is as much your responsibility if you grew up in Englewood as it is if you grew up in New York, or New Delhi.
I hope that last night we got all of our hate, our sadness and our fear out, because we don’t have the time to hide or lash out at each other. This is a time for love, compassion and hard work. This is a time now to redouble your investment in the future.
There is so much you can do from your position. You are smart, you have access to any facet of human knowledge you could dream of. You have prepaid transportation, premade ties to community groups, and structures that are there solely to help you help others.
Now stand up, and get started. This is what you can do at UChicago:
Protest
Tutor
Educate CPS students so that they can make their own decisions in future elections
Vote in the midterms
Educate yourself on down-ballot issues
Walk into the UCSC
Spend money on the south side
Go to the DuSable Museum
Make friends with someone outside of Hyde Park
Volunteer at the Hospital
Give Blood
Donate that sweater you don’t need.
Your actions shape this world, and you have the responsibility to make it a good one. Today is not the day to assign blame, hide, or bemoan the future of this country.
Today is the day to seize some tiny corner of this city, this nation, this world and make it a little better.