The case for defunding the police after the Jan. 6 coup attempt
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion section, click here.
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The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion section, click here.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion section, click here.
“Princeton in the Nation's Service” is more than a motto. It is a sacred and honored vow of our University community to use our skills and resources to serve our country and humanity. As alumni, we are honored by those of us who have taken this vow to heart and contributed so much to our country. This, above all else, is what makes us the proudest for having attended Princeton: to know that so many of our own have worked to make our neighborhoods, our country, and our world a better place.
Last month, Rebekah Adams ’21 argued in The Princeton Tory that “It’s Time For Communal Accountability” in the Black community. Through a shoddy line of reasoning, Adams concludes that racism no longer exists. Instead, she pins responsibility for racial inequality on Black culture. While Adams believes her “bold” call for accountability and individualism will finally “heal the scars from slavery and segregationist policies,” she fails (or maybe refuses) to remotely address the present-day ramifications of such oppression.
America has witnessed one of the darkest days in the modern history of its democracy. Numerous violent rioters besieged the Capitol and breached into congressional chambers, attempting to stop the lawful certification of the presidential election. This barbarous attack, while sudden, is not an isolated incident, but the grand culmination of the four years of rhetorical strategy that Republican leaders have learned and enabled from President Trump.
My phone would not stop buzzing yesterday. Fox News, MSNBC, CNN, ABC — every news organization was ablaze with the heat of the potential coup.
In its Spring 2021 reopening plan, the University announced that it will not change its Academic Calendar, which slashed the usual weeklong Spring Break to a mere two days. This is not only an unnecessary modification to the usual University calendar, but it is detrimental to the academic experience, mental health, and well-being of students. This new calendar allows for only two days of break in an otherwise uninterrupted fifteen weeks of coursework, examinations, and paper deadlines.
On my way to take my 82-year old grandmother for her COVID-19 vaccination, I received the first notification regarding the article, “The New Strategy to Suppress Conservative Voices on Campus”. Having lost my father to COVID-19 only a few months ago, I understood the importance of making sure that my grandmother, who lives in an independent living facility, would “get the jab” as early as possible. Staying safe, celebrating life, welcoming a New Year, and praying for happier times: these are the things that I and the rest of the Whig Clio Governing Council should have been doing over our winter break.
A dear friend of mine, who is a Latino immigrant, was denied entry to a New Jersey hospital. Twice. He was coughing, had a fever, and felt so weak to the point that he took days off from his job, which was very rare given his usual punctuality. A couple degrees below the temperature-cutoff for entry to the hospital, he was told by hospital staff to stay home and not come back again until he reached the threshold.
Nearly a year ago, I asked our staff to make ten predictions for 2020, which we wrote down and stuffed in an old bottle.
In a recent article in The New York Post, Scott Newman ’21 expressed his displeasure with his experiences at Princeton, particularly what he regarded as an atmosphere of careerism that dominated the school. These criticisms served as a convenient segue into promoting his new 90-page memoir, “The Night Before The Morning After,” printed by the “hybrid publisher” New Degree Press.
By now, many in the Princeton community have already borne witness to the saga of Scott Newman ’21 in some way or another. Perhaps you’ve read the publicly available chapters of his memoir, “The Night Before the Morning After,” in which he recounts tales of his adolescence and time at the University. Maybe you’ve watched his promotional video, or skimmed the New York Post’s coverage, or pored over the hundreds of comments on his recent posts in Ivy League meme Facebook pages.
The following is a guest contribution and reflects the author’s views alone. For information on how to submit an article to the Opinion section, click here.
In recent days, I must admit that I have fallen prey to the binge-worthiness of many of Netflix’s top shows. Alongside reading “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone” by James Baldwin and “The Selected Works of Audre Lorde,” compiled by Roxane Gay, “The Crown” has become a steady fixture of my post-semester life. I watch it while I’m eating my meals, when I feel no concern for life beyond my room, and in the frequent moments when I have been bored out of my mind, drowning in feelings of directionlessness.
As I completed my nightly rounds of Twitter on Monday, I was disoriented when screenshots of various Princetonians being blocked by professor Robert George flooded my timeline. Eventually, I came upon the poll tweeted by George that resulted in such ruckus: “By listing their ‘preferred pronouns’ people are making sure that others know their: sex, gender [or] ideology.”
One of my best friends has a great memory, and, over the years, she has become the de facto historian of our friend group. She can remember all the important things: the shenanigans, where we were, who we were with. That kind of memory is a gift to all of her friends, and it demonstrates an important lesson for a year as tumultuous as 2020. With two vaccines for COVID-19 entering new phases of testing, a semester on campus, and a new year fast approaching, some people are justifiably itching to move on. These developments should undoubtedly be celebrated, as should the prospect of a fresh start. But, just like my friend, we cannot forget everything we have been through: Instead, should find creative and healthy ways to catalogue all that has happened in 2020.
Early in November, Harry Styles made history as the first man to have a solo feature on the cover of American Vogue magazine — but he went even further, making history while wearing a dress. There have been many pioneers of crossing clothing boundaries in the past (Prince, Elton John, or David Bowie) but Styles’ historic cover brought the fight for gender-neutral dressing to the forefront of our current cultural debate.
I would love to begin this column by saying “with the election behind us.” Yet, as of writing, the election is enduring endlessly, at least in certain quarters.
About a month ago, I was left awe-struck, hopeful, and empowered. Oct. 29 marked the conclusion of the Program in Visual Arts’s three-part webinar series, “Combahee Experimental: Black Women’s Experimental Filmmaking.” Each session brought a beautiful range of Black women in conversation with renowned curators Simone Leigh and Tina Campt. Needless to say, spending Thursday evenings hearing from visionaries like Garrett Bradley to pioneers like Angela Davis all but cured my Zoom fatigue.
It’s no secret that Princeton professors are the cream of the crop. Their teaching is routinely lauded as some of the best in the world; they have been awarded Pulitzer Prizes for their artistic collections, MacArthur Grants for their groundbreaking research, and even Nobel Prizes for their contributions to the public knowledge. And these patterns are hardly new — scholars have been producing important work from within the Orange Bubble for generations.