I

t’s 2017 and, according to 
White House counselor 
Kellyanne 
Conway, 
it’s 

finally the dawn of 
a new day. Wanna 
know why? 

The 
American 

reality 
is 
finally 

getting a facelift. You 
may not think there’s 
anything 
wrong 

with, oh, you know, 
actual 
reality, 
but 

that’s only because 
the 
mainstream 

media indoctrinated 
you into liking it. And 
trust me, this current reality 
really 
pales 
in 
comparison 

with Chief Strategist Steven 
Bannon’s — er, I mean President 
Donald 
Trump’s 
— 
new 

American reality. Believe me, 
it’s gonna be “yuge.” 

Imagine 
a 
world 
where 

pigs fly, border walls are cost-
free 
and 
hair 
plug 
comb-

overs are deeply attractive. 
Thanks to alternative facts, 
the 
new 
administration’s 

recent innovation in political 
communication, you don’t have 
to imagine anymore!

And really, if you think 

about it, we as college students 
are well-poised to capitalize 
on 
this 
new 
impressive 

innovation. Say goodbye to 
days spent poring over library 
books, 
LexisNexis 
search 

results and statistical analysis 
software. 
With 
alternative 

facts, these little annoyances 
can become things of the past 
… well, at least in the social and 
natural sciences.

Disclaimer: 
Unfortunately, 

engineers aren’t quite off the 
hook. We still need them to 
use actual knowledge to design 
things for American workers 
to manufacture. In Trump’s 
America, that is very important. 
(Unless they want to design 
parts for folks in the growing 
clean 
energy 
industries 
to 

manufacture. That’s a waste of 
time, because climate change 
isn’t real.)

Now I know a lot of you have 

been pretty stressed lately by one 
or more of the many executive 
orders 
Trump 
has 
signed 

since his inauguration. (Hey, 
remember when Republicans 
frowned on the extensive use of 
executive orders?)

Granted, reality in Trump’s 

America hasn’t been all that great.

One 
of 
Trump’s 
first 

executive 
orders 
banned 

individuals from seven Muslim-
majority 
countries 
(notably 

not the ones that the majority 
of 9/11 terrorists came from. 
Those 
countries 
have 
the 

desirable 
feature 

of being home to 
several 
Trump 

Organization 
properties) 
from 

entering the United 
States. 
The 
ban 

even 
excluded 

translators 
and 

others who risked 
their lives to assist 
the 
Department 

of 
Defense. 

Apparently, “Support 

Our Troops” actually means 
“Support Our Troops*.”

(*But don’t expect the United 

States to compensate you for 
your service, because they may 
renege on their promises if and 
when it becomes politically 
expedient to do so.)

The executive order even 

had implications for students 
at the University of Michigan. 
One student on campus, LSA 
senior Tina Al-khersan, told of 
her sister’s detainment at the 
Canadian border while U.S. 
officials struggled to interpret 
and implement the notoriously 
vague executive order. Her 
sister is a citizen of the United 
States, New Zealand and Iraq.

You 
could 
follow 
the 

news 
surrounding 
this 

injustice, 
angering 
yourself 

in the process. But this might 
tempt you to exercise your 
First 
Amendment 
right 
to 

#resist and join one of the 
many protests set to become 
permanent features of Trump’s 
presidency 
or 
otherwise 

behave in ways Tomi Lahren 
might deride as liberal crybaby 
whining. Now, some people 
might say you’d be doing your 
civic duty to engage in the 
democratic process by making 
your voice heard and holding 
the president accountable.

If all that sounds like it may 

pose too big a risk of worry 
lines, grey hair or peptic ulcers, 
then boy, are you going to 
appreciate 
alternative 
facts. 

Alternative facts will ensure 
that you, the voter, will have 
absolutely nothing to worry 
about under President Trump 
(that you know of).

With 
alternative 
facts, 

Trump’s 
highly 
unjust, 

un-American ban on some of 
the people most in need of a new 
start to life in the United States 
becomes a humane, necessary 
and wholly Constitutional way 
of keeping Americans safe and 

putting Americans first. It’s 
the only way to protect good, 
hardworking American families 
from malicious terrorists who 
wish to do them harm. This is 
supported by the alternative 
fact that 99.8 percent of all 
acts of terrorism and crime are 
perpetrated by Syrian terrorists 
disguised as refugee children.

Obviously, this article has 

been more or less satirical so far. 
But let’s get real for a second.

The right to free speech —which 

includes the rights of journalists 
to report information on our 
political leaders and their actions 
and disseminate to the public — 
is one of the most fundamental 
American rights, and it’s a crucial 
feature of our democracy.

But for the first time in 

my 
memory, 
the 
president 

and the officials within his 
administration have publicly 
lambasted honest, hardworking 
reporters for simply doing their 
jobs and reporting on his actions 
as president-elect and president. 
On Wednesday, Trump even 
used a Black History Month 
event as a platform to condemn 
CNN as “fake news” and praise 
conservative-leaning 
network 

Fox 
News. 
The 
president 

has 
also 
publically 
agreed 

with 
Bannon’s 
statement 

characterizing the media as the 
“opposition party.”

It doesn’t matter who is in 

the White House, Republican 
or Democrat. Transparency and 
democratic oversight require 
ardent free speech protection 
and journalists who can do their 
job of relaying important, if 
inconvenient, facts to the public 
without the White House trying 
to delegitimize entire networks 
perceived as unfriendly. 

My real suggestion? Support 

journalists 
who 
do 
the 

difficult — and increasingly 
dangerous — work of holding 
our leaders accountable. If you 
can, subscribe to reputable 
news sources and follow their 
content in your free time. If 
nothing else, do your own 
research before buying into 
Trump & Company’s fiery 
claims that reputable news 
networks 
are 
“fake 
news” 

whenever 
they 
publish 
an 

unflattering story.

But hey, if none of that sounds 

appealing, you could always 
believe the information that 
the administration wants you to 
have: its alternative facts.

I 
 

think we can all agree that 
the world is currently in 
the midst of a great deal 

of upheaval. There 
are few times when 
it does not seem 
as 
if 
the 
world 

is 
changing, 
of 

course 
(we 
can 

maybe 
assume 

there 
wasn’t 
too 

much societal shift 
in 
the 
pre-multi-

cellular 
organism 

stage of the Earth 
for 
instance). 

Still, the intensity of societal 
change that took place while 
humanity figured out crop 
rotation agricultural systems 
compared with the amount of 
societal change in the last ten 
years (or ten days even) is not 
even close.

It can be challenging during this 

time of transition and uncertainty 
to feel safe, think clearly or keep 
up with political changes. To 
help, I sometimes try to rely on 
the things that don’t change, the 
things that make me feel safer: 
humanity’s penchant for helping.

There’s a quote from Mr. 

Rogers I’ve seen quite a bit 
recently that’s fairly in line 
with this thinking. It states, 
“When I was a boy and I would 
see scary things in the news, my 
mother would say to me, ‘Look 
for the helpers. You will always 
find people who are helping.’”

To illustrate this, while 

working and traveling abroad 
this summer, there were a 
handful of times when I didn’t 
feel completely comfortable. 
That just comes with the 
territory when your language 
skills are spotty and you 
constantly look like you’re 
wearing a hat that reads, 
“I’m very American and very 
gullible! Please confuse or rob 
me!” However, even when I 
was feeling nervous, I often 
found 
help 
from 
random 

people willing to step in.

One specific instance I can 

point to is when I used a week 

off work to visit Morocco. My 
travel partner and I had set 
up a tour of the palm groves 

on the outskirts of 
the city as a day 
trip. Unfortunately, 
we had some mixed 
messages with the 
tour guide and ended 
up in the wrong place 
with no quick way to 
contact him. I was 
left 
to 
frantically 

Google his contact 
information 
while 

taxi drivers came by 

repeatedly to ask us where we 
were going and if we needed a 
ride. This did not do wonders 
for my anxiety.

I was ready to give up or 

have a small panic attack on 
the street (both equally likely) 
when another man approached 
us to ask about giving us a 
taxi ride somewhere. I started 
waving him off, already telling 
him that we were just waiting 
on our ride when he asked for 
more details.

I 
was 
immediately 

distrustful, but when I gave 
a quick explanation of our 
situation, he waved over the 
other taxi drivers. He relayed 
the information about our issue, 
and they immediately started 
collaborating with me about 
how to figure this out together.

I was ridiculously touched 

and 
grateful. 
These 
men 

definitely had better things 
to do than help — including 
making a living — yet they were 
seriously involved in helping 
us, and we all celebrated when 
I got in touch with our guide.

In this instance, the stakes 

for not receiving help were 
relatively 
low. 
We 
would 

have missed our tour and I, 
incidentally, would not have 
experienced being thrown off a 
camel later that day. (Actually, 
maybe it would have been 
better if we didn’t receive help 
after all.) It would have been 
disappointing, but not harmful 
in a long-term or serious way.

I really can’t say the same for 

immigrants and other at-risk 
populations 
in 
the 
United 

States right now though.

There are serious, long-term 

repercussions on a personal and 
a societal level when families and 
individuals are being threatened 
with deportation, being barred 
from entry into the country or 
losing health care. Families are 
being indiscriminately kept from 
their homes and being denied 
access to doctors, which many 
would consider a human right.

With the scale of these issues, 

making a positive difference, even 
on an individual level, can seem 
too complicated to even attempt. 
To deal with these heightened 
challenges, people need legal help 
and financial security — things 
that many of us can’t offer.

With this in mind, it can be 

challenging to know how to 
be the helpers here. We have 
to work within our means, 
and sometimes when we can’t 
throw money at a problem to 
make them go away, donating 
time and attention might not 
feel like enough — it can be 
hard to see the payoff when it 
seems that nothing changes, 
especially 
when 
you’re 

challenging 
something 
on 

the institutional and societal 
level, like sexism or racism. 
It may not feel immediately 
rewarding, but that doesn’t 
make it any less valuable.

The payoff of these small 

actions 
is 
cumulative 
and 

can have a massive impact 
on the whole. Showing up to 
protest, finding contacts and 
resources to get involved with 
and reaching out to those who 
might need your help are all 
worthwhile, every time, even if 
you feel you have little to offer. 
Every bit counts, even if it’s as 
small as taking a break from 
your work to translate some 
contact information for some 
confused foreigners.

Opinion
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
4 — Friday, February 3, 2017

L

ast Friday, President 
Donald 
Trump 

issued 
an 
executive 

order inappropriately titled, 
“Protecting the Nation from 
Foreign Terrorist Entry into the 
United States.” Ostensibly, the 
goal was to limit immigration 
from countries that the Trump 
administration deemed high-
risk for terrorism in the United 
States. We, along with millions 
of 
other 
Americans 
and 

concerned people around the 
world, denounce the move as 
inhumane, devoid of empathy 
and simply un-American. By 
closing our doors to people 
from 
Iran, 
Iraq, 
Libya, 

Somalia, Sudan, Syria and 
Yemen — a group of nations 
that tens of millions of people 
call home — Trump is signing 
into law a message that is as 
misguided as it is powerful: 
The United States’ fear of 
terrorism is stronger than its 
commitment to humanity. In 
addition, by suspending the 
Refugee Admission Program, 
the Trump administration’s 
executive 
order 
is 
openly 

and brashly neglecting the 
humanitarian 
ideals 
that 

we as a nation should be 
striving toward. It is our 
unwavering stance that the 
United States should utilize 
its 
international 
privilege 

and influence by accepting 
the world’s most vulnerable 
citizens. By condoning the 
creation 
of 
physical 
and 

psychological borders, we are 
only distancing ourselves from 
the benefits that come with 

building 
an 
internationally 

diverse community. As long 
as Donald Trump and his 
administration 
continue 
to 

abandon these principles that 
we hold dear, we at Michigan 
in Color will continue to speak 
up and uplift the voices of 
those affected. Advocating for 
the safety of our fellow human 
beings is not, and cannot, be 
reduced to a bipartisan issue. 
Rather, it is an active choice 
that we should all be willing 
to embrace — regardless of 
political allegiance.

In 
response 
to 
this 

executive 
order, 
the 

University 
of 
Michigan 

President 
Mark 
Schlissel 

issued a statement outlining 
their refusal to release the 
immigration 
status 
of 
its 

students and other community 
members. In the statement, 
the 
University 
reaffirmed 

its commitment to diversity, 
non-discrimination, 
privacy 

and public safety. Notably, the 
University’s refusal to disclose 
the 
immigration 
status 
of 

its students and community 
members does not violate any 
existing state or federal laws. 
While 
we 
are 
encouraged 

by the its commitment to 
protecting its students and 
faculty, we are unnerved that 
the 
University’s 
response 

was motivated by the desire 
to “identify, recruit, support 
and retain academic talent.” 
We reject the idea that an 
individual’s worth is solely 
determined by their ability 
to contribute to the academic 
community. 
We 
want 
to 

remind everyone that those 
affected by the ban are, first 
and foremost, human beings 

— individuals whose rights 
and civil liberties have been 
wrongfully denied.

While we wrecognize that 

many students have been and 
will continue to be affected 
by the legal unfoldings of the 
Trump 
administration, 
we 

acknowledge that those whose 
roots lie in the nations affected 
by the recent executive order 
may feel particularly isolated. 
Our 
platform 
has 
always 

existed as a space for students 
of color to affirm, acknowledge 
and express love toward one 
another, and this mission will 
only become more salient as 
we navigate the uncertainties 
of this new political climate. 
Writing, 
along 
with 
other 

forms of art, are particularly 
potent forms of healing and 
recognition of our existence, 
and we invite those who 
are affected to share their 
stories. Right now, we must 
exist together, because our 
livelihood as people of color 
relies on building solidarity 
with 
one 
another. 
Our 

liberation from oppression has 
always been connected. We 
must elevate one another and 
speak for those who cannot — 
the invisible, resilient people 
who have historically been left 
out of the dominant narrative. 
We must continue to articulate 
our experiences, issues, and 
suffering as people of color. 
There is power in speaking 
the unspeakable, and we will 
continue to amplify our voices 
and condemn those who try to 
silence us.

REBECCA LERNER

Managing Editor

420 Maynard St. 

Ann Arbor, MI 48109

 tothedaily@michigandaily.com

Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan since 1890.

EMMA KINERY

Editor in Chief

ANNA POLUMBO-LEVY 

and REBECCA TARNOPOL 

Editorial Page Editors

Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily’s Editorial Board. 

All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.

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Pay it forward

SARAH LEESON | COLUMN

An alternative column

VICTORIA NOBLE | COLUMN

Victoria Noble can be reached at 

vjnoble@umich.edu.

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sleeson@umich.edu.

VICTORIA 

NOBLE

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SARAH 
LEESON

No Bans in this Land

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