The following reflects the majority opinion of the editorial board.
It’s official. Amy Coney Barrett is on the Supreme Court.
When a Supreme Court nominee’s confirmation is fast-tracked to ensure a conservative super majority of six to three no matter the results of the upcoming election, it can feel deflating.
Democracy feels like it’s become more about the power individual politicians can get to push personal agendas rather than being about the people — about us.
That’s what we need to be focusing on right now. When they stop putting us first, we need to be on our own team. And, sometimes we need to support our more vulnerable team members.
We’re in the middle of a pandemic — this is not news to you. The fact that this conservative lean in the Supreme Court could overturn the decision to allow same sex marriage and not allow discrimination based on sex — that might be news to you.
Miami has not always been known as the most accepting and welcoming school when it comes to those in the LGBTQ+ community. But we’ve grown from that and now have organizations, such as Spectrum and FWORD, that offer students who identify within that community a place of support.
But with politics potentially going down a negative and boundary-crossing road when it comes to the rights of fellow Americans, we need to step up.
If taking away rights from minority groups is condoned, it’s likely a continuing trend of hate will follow. But we need to make sure that dangerous negativity is socially unacceptable, even if it’s deemed politically OK.
As students, we can call out hate when we see it. We can make it known how much we value these communities here on campus, emphasize our individual support for them, be able to lean on one another and continue to educate ourselves. We can stay current on political issues and elections, check in on our mental health to make sure we’re doing OK enough to be there for others and not be afraid to ask for help if we’re not.
As far as the school, we don’t expect the administration to make some grand political statement condemning Amy Coney Barrett. But it could say something to make its support for the minority groups at Miami known and give information on how it plans to make them feel welcome and supported during their college experience.
We’ve seen how Trump’s presidency has prompted some people to act. They feel they can openly criticize and go after people different from them through hate speech, and in some cases, hate crimes.
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