“Whilst men are linked together, they easily and speedily communicate the alarm of any evil design […] When bad men combine, the good must associate.”
That is a quote from the essay titled “Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents” by philosopher Edmund Burke.
The essay was written in 1770; 247 years later and its message needs to be heard and spread throughout the country.
Men and women have to link, join and take a stance together to communicate against President Donald Trump’s unjust policies on immigration, and the travel ban to seven countries.
On Monday, Jan. 30 University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer and University of Chicago Provost Daniel Diermeier wrote an open letter to Trump.
The letter states, “We are writing to assert in the strongest possible terms the importance to the United States of continuing to welcome immigrants and the talent and energy that they bring to this country.”
The letter continues to “strongly urge” Trump to reexamine the methods and actions he is taking concerning immigration.
A letter to the president might seem too simplistic to be the cause of any change however it is an official stance against policy that can harm students in the university.
If nothing else, it shows that the school is willing to recognize the wrong policy and not pretend that what Trump does will not affect its community.
Likewise, another letter mailed to Trump was published in the current issue of “The New York Review of Books.”
That letter is dated Thursday, Feb. 2 and is signed by 48 university presidents and chancellors; from universities such as Columbia University, Boston University, Johns Hopkins University, University of California, Berkeley, Dartmouth College, University of California Davis, University of California Santa Cruz and the University of California Irvine.
That letter states, “We write as presidents of leading American colleges and universities to urge you to rectify or rescind the recent executive order closing our country’s borders to immigrants and others from seven majority-Muslim countries and to refugees from throughout the world. If left in place, the order threatens both American higher education and the defining principles of our country.”
Cerritos College is also a place for higher education it is a community whose students are greatly impacted by the recent changes in policies.
As a college that cares for the education and wellbeing of its students it should take a stand against the unjust policies and executive orders of the Trump administration.
Cerritos College should take the initiative to unite with other community colleges across the nation to write their own letter and take a stand against the recent executive orders; “else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle,” as Burke warns.
The gesture would be more symbolic than literal, however it would show the nation’s educational system as a united front that cares about the future of its students and the values America was founded on.
To say “wait it out” and “four years go by fast” is not an option because as Burke said, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”
