Re: College adopts ‘institutional restraint’ policy, outlines procedures for department statements
To the Dartmouth community:
“Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”
— Army Attorney Joseph Welch to Senator Joseph McCarthy, June 9, 1954.
Ask these questions of President Donald Trump and every member of his regime. They apply to most members of Congress, who are AWOL from their duties to defend the laws and Constitution of the United States.
Ask them as well of College President Sian Leah Beilock, whose cowardly policy of “institutional restraint” ignores Trump’s blatant attacks on American higher education and First Amendment rights overall.
Where is the “Voice Crying in the Wilderness”? It has been stifled by the Beilock administration.
Now is the time to demand that Congress withdraw all support from Trump’s policies, including Stephen Miller's domestic ICE terrorism and Marco Rubio's international escapades. If not now, then when? If not us, then who?
Last week, I stood on a street corner in downtown Nampa, Idaho, with a bright green poster board sign that said “Defend Greenland/Melt ICE” on one side and “Trump Must GO/Trump ya NO” on the other.
In today’s upside-down world, this is something I can do effectively, using the so-called yet truly despicable “privilege” I represent as a white, male, straight, highly educated, middle-class Christian. It’s the least I can do, speaking truth to power for 30 minutes in the cold.
A dozen people gave me signs of support, and two basically told me to go to hell in worse language as they drove by. Be an upstander! Make some good trouble and stand against Trump in your own communities.
Will Browning is a member of the Class of 1978 and an emeritus professor of French and Spanish at Boise State University. He served as entertainment editor of The Dartmouth from 1976-77. Letters to the Editor represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
