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I am tired. I am tired of explaining myself to people who do not want to listen. I am tired of explaining that “No, we did not delay the task force because we wanted to keep our power as Senators.” I’m tired of explaining, “No, we didn’t impeach two women of color for being women of color and having opinions.” I’m tired of explaining, “We care about what is best for the student body and no, we don’t only care about what we want.” I am tired.
These last two weeks I have not slept. I have not done my schoolwork. I have considered taking a leave of absence from the university and I have considered resigning from my position as senator for the College of Arts and Sciences. I have been beaten down, subjected to angry emails, to shouting, to slandering with comments such as, “You are a token minority and hinder the progress of [people of color].” I have been shouted at to a point where I have burst into tears.
Why is this okay? Why is it okay for my fellow students to make me feel worthless? I am a student just like you.
I have seen the group “BU Students Against Silence.” I have seen the posts with the snide remarks about senators here and there and the posts reporting on what we have written with comments like, “Someone tell her to sit down” or “Someone tell her to go back to writing 100.” Why is that okay?
I’ve seen their plans. Someone said, “Don’t get constituents to talk to their reps.” That is sabotage. The senators are making an effort to reach out and represent you and you decide it’s okay to say things like that? You are a part of the problem and not the solution if you are seriously encouraging this.
Though they have the best intention, BU Students Against Silence is corrupt. One search of the hashtag #BUStudentsAgainstSilence on Twitter and you will see tweets full of misinformation and inaccurate statements of what happened. Here is a perfect example of a tweet that provides misinformation: “BU Stu Gov does not represent me; impeaching two women for having personal opinions blows my mind #BUStudentsAgainstSilence.” This is not what happened. This is not the truth. We senators saw two people who failed repeatedly to do their jobs and when given the chance to show up and do it they again failed us.
We need reform, but it has to come out in a constructive and civil way and right now I am not seeing that.
It’s time to cool down. It’s time to treat your senators with respect as we are juggling this with schoolwork and our personal lives. We are humans. We have feelings. I have feelings. So please consider them.
Anushka Pinto, anushka_pinto@hotmail.com, CGS’15 CAS’17