The 2024 elections are over. Over half of American voters voted to end women’s reproductive freedoms, restrict the rights of transgender children, curtail the powers of several federal organizations, end medicare, forcibly detain and deport thousands of illegal immigrants and ensure the United States is an oligarchy that serves the needs of its wealthiest. Our current president-elect faces 26 counts of sexual harassment and 34 felony convictions - all of which are unlikely to reach any sort of conclusion. In addition to control of the presidency, the Republican party also controls the senate, and has nominated six of nine sitting supreme court justices, assuring a dangerous ideological unity between all three branches of our government.
In efforts to encourage voting, student organizations at Hamilton have been politically active this semester. HamVotes ran voter registration drives. HamDems encouraged students to register to vote with their college address, in order to win NY-22, a seat that Democrats lost in 2022 by 2,631 votes. Hamilton students have helped incite change.
This has centered much of the discourse around civic engagement at Hamilton on voting. Voting is an easy way to engage with democracy. As such, much political energy, as we can see from HamVotes and HamDems, has been put into voting. We must not let this energy die, even though election day is over and the results may seem disparaging. Hamilton is often considered an apathetic campus. For the last few months, we haven’t been. Let’s continue to not be.
As we scroll through texts from our families, as we walk through the late November heat - as we dread, and as we mourn - we must recognize not only our ongoing political and moral imperative, but also our agency in fulfilling it.
Politics On The Hill:
Don’t devalue voting. It is one of the most important rights that we have. But also, don’t devalue other forms of civic participation.
To be clear, voting is a fundament of democracy, but it is not its totality. In the wake of these most recent election results, we must not lose ourselves in defeatism, but instead embrace all forms of political activity. Along with our right to vote, we possess the right to assemble, freedom to express our ideas openly and clearly, and thus ultimately the right to continue struggling against the powers that be. Now is the time to express these rights. Now is the time to protest. Student activist groups like the Feminists of Color Collective, the Students for Justice in Palestine, and the Black and Latine Student Union have demonstrated that there is a real desire for change. They have done this not only in the wake of these election results, but in the context of burgeoning right-wing sentiments, an uptick in the popularity of right-wing media, and more open acceptance of prejudiced ideas in public discourse each passing year, which has lead to violence. Police violence against minority groups is massive, and this year national media has run numerous stories of horrific civilian hate crimes rooted in the racist rhetoric of our new president-elect.
The new path for America, a glimpse of which can be witnessed in Project 2025, expresses a deep hatred for all of its people, besides the wealthy. It is overwhelming, and the most important bastion against it is community. At Hamilton, at home, and in our local spaces off-campus, it is imperative that we work to build solidarity among the people most affected by these most recent election results – the working class, groups marginalized by their queer and racial identities, disabled people, students, educators, and any who dare speak out against the institutions that control our lives. Community building takes many forms on campus. There are numerous activist groups that fundraise and organize, and that have worked to create real change to the policies of our college that affect both us and the world at large, and interest groups that work to support and advocate for marginalized peoples, and those in need, both in our communities and beyond.
Change Begins With Community:
HAVOC (Hamilton Association for Volunteering, Outreach and Charity) is one of many ways for a Hamilton student to get involved. HAVOC is a student group that works with organizations like Habitat for Humanity, as well as local soup kitchens and independent service projects organized by HAVOC itself. Beyond HAVOC are numerous organizations and programs dedicated to tutoring and mentorship of youth in schools in Clinton, New Hartford, Utica and elsewhere, a list of which can be found on Hamilton’s website here.
Additionally, mutual aid networks are valuable ways of building community and then using that community for the benefit of all involved. The concept of mutual aid is best understood as a network of individuals who offer material assistance to one another according to each person’s need as it occurs. Mutual aid networks can be established among friends, or among broader communities through online forums, mailing lists, as well as through pre-established connections in organizations dedicated to service or particular interests. Through these mutual aid networks, those in the community can help those less fortunate. Any mutual aid network established here at Hamilton could be expanded beyond our campus and into the local area where many individuals are in need. There are also existing mutual aid networks and organizations that exist already in Utica, Oneida County, and more broadly the whole of Central New York. Some of these existing organizations are nonprofits like the Mohawk Valley Community Action Agency, or other agencies listed on the Oneida County System of Care. These nonprofits, along with mutual aid, are ways to broaden one’s reach.
Donations to reputable aid organizations, like the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund in the wake of Hurricane Helene, or the Palestine Red Crescent Society, are invaluable. Creating these infrastructures one’s self in local communities to address local issues is feasible, needing only like minded people to assist with organization and distribution of funds and services.
There is a community garden that used to operate on Hamilton’s campus, and reinvesting into this garden could be an effective means of providing money to contribute to these causes, both of mutual aid and of donations. It is not in use, but is most certainly worth salvaging.
There are many other ways to incite change, and for people to create their own forms of activism across campus. However you are feeling, there is a community of people feeling the same way and ready to support you.
If you hesitate to participate in these forms of activism because they are not national and national issues feel the most overwhelming and important, consider that the world and the country face many problems, but you cannot solve every one of them. Issues can be addressed on a smaller scale than you think. Civic engagement doesn’t have to be broad, or even off-campus in Utica. Supporting Hamilton and advocating for change here is equally important advocacy.
Staying Aware:
In order to be civically engaged, you must stay aware and educated. This can be through reading the morning news, or by setting notifications on your phone for breaking news. We must stay vigilant, especially as our rights are jeopardized. For the issues that you care about, follow that news. Educate yourself on what laws are being put forward. Determine how you can help your local community face these issues.
In the face of a time that will almost certainly place our democracy in jeopardy, we face an increased moral responsibility. In a climate of mounting bigotry, we are responsible for caring for one another, and especially for those of us that are particularly marginalized or vulnerable. In a time when systems of education are threatened, we are responsible for remaining aware of the legacies of those that came before us, and of the histories in danger of being erased. In a time when our rights are increasingly being encroached upon, we are responsible for asserting the rights we DO have, and for making our voices heard. Most of all, we face the moral imperative to be the antithesis of hopelessness and apathy, and to engage in new ways with our democracy.
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