Tear gas and violence surrounded the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as Congress tried to certify the election of Joe Biden as President. The man behind the curtain, telling supporters to march to the Capitol, was former President Donald Trump, who recently announced his plan to run for re-election in 2024.
It has been said that more than six in 10 U.S. citizens do not want Trump to run for re-election, according to PBS. Many previous Trump voters have even expressed their opposition to his re-election announcement because of his behavior. Trump created a movement of challenging elections across America, weakening the integrity of the election system. He continued to attack mail-in and absentee ballots, claiming he was a victim of fraud by the vote-by-mail system.
His posts became so unprofessional and hateful, that his account faced a permanent suspension because of the violence he instigated in general and on Jan. 6. He tweeted, “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
During his presidency, Trump signed executive orders that discriminated against specific cultures and groups of people, appointed anti-LGBTQ and anti-women’s rights Supreme Court judges, banned transgender service members from the military, and so much more that stripped basic human rights away from Americans. He is not for the people; he is for the rich, the wealthy and the white.
Why should we trust the man who encouraged a political riot because he simply could not fathom the fact that the majority of Americans did not want him as president?
Electing him in 2016 was a mistake, and it would be an even greater mistake to elect him once more. It is with our sincerest hopes that people educate themselves and do their research before voting in the 2024 Presidential election. This is more than Trump being a Republican or a battle between both parties. This is about every marginalized group/citizen living in this country that could greatly suffer at the hands of Donald Trump.
On the night of Feb. 7, rumors of an active shooter spread to students throughout our campus. The police report that students received came more than an hour after Facebook posts, snapchat stories and tweets had been made about the suspected incident. Students shared posts with each other, telling their friends to stay safe and stay on the lookout. Even students from other universities heard about the rumors and contacted those attending TAMUK before students received any form of communication by the school itself.
Waiting to send any type of notification or alert about a situation regarding a possible shooter in any location on campus is not okay. Students were genuinely scared and concerned awaiting notification from the university about what was happening.
According to tamuk.edu, “In the event of a significant emergency or dangerous situations involving the immediate threat to the health or safety of persons on the campus, the university will, without delay, and taking into account the safety of the community, send mass emergency notification messages to provide information which will give specific directions to the community to help to ensure a safe campus environment.” This did not happen.
Some students might say the night of Feb. 7 would fall under this promise, and we certainly believe it does. There was a suspected shooter on campus, and as we’ve learned from the many mass shootings that this country has tragically faced, the event of a suspected shooter should not be taken lightly.
Not only does the untimely response by the university cause more anxiety among students on campus, but it also resulted in a lack of trust between students and the school.
The first lesson in public relations is to never take too long to respond to a crisis and sadly in an incident that involves a possible shooter, an hour was too long to respond. We have also come to know that students, faculty and staff must manually subscribe their cell phone to the emergency system TAMUK has in place. To find this information log on to JNET, click campus resources, scroll to the bottom of the page to find the emergency notifications block. There you will find links to instructions on how to subscribe as well as the link to do so.
