ITHACA, N.Y. – Students from the Youth Organizing Fellowship arranged an anti-Donald Trump rally in front of Ithaca City Hall Thursday night,where they called for officials to stand against the president-elect’s recent political appointments.
The students are asking Senators Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand to refuse to meet with Trump while Alt-Right Stephen Bannon is his Chief Strategist and publicly oppose Jeff Sessions for Attorney General.
They also called on Mayor Svante Myrick to “publicly commit to opposing Trumps agenda.”
Youth Organizing Fellowship, which is a program with the Multicultural Resource Center, released the following statement about the rally:
Two weeks ago, 17 millennials were arrested in Senator Chuck Schumer’s Washington DC office calling on him not to cooperate with Trump when our lives are on the line.
In Ithaca and Tompkins County, we are inspired by their action.
We are a group of high school students from LACS, New Roots Charter School and Ithaca High School who are appalled at Trump’s election and the Democrats who are willing to cooperate with his hateful agenda. Our local representatives in Ithaca and Tompkins County are no exception.
Many of us are not old enough to have voted in the 2016 election — even though our lives and our futures are now at risk. We may not be old enough to vote but we are going to make our voices heard.
Today, we’re gathering to demand that Mayor Myrick publicly commit to opposing Trump’s agenda and publicly calls on Senators Schumer and Gillibrand to
1) Pledge to block Trump’s agenda
2) Publicly oppose Jeff Sessions appointment to attorney general
3) Refuse to meet with Trump as long as Stephen Bannon is chief Strategist.
After hearing from some of our speakers today, we’re march to Tom Reed’s Office at the Gateway Plaza to call on both Senator Schumer and Representative Tom Reed to oppose Trump’s agenda.
Chuck Schumer, a Democrat, and Tom Reed, a Republican, have something in common — willingness to work with a president-elect who has pledged an agenda of hate and violence directed at people of color, immigrants, muslims, women LGBTQ people, and people with disabilities.
This action is in coordination with youth led actions around the country with #AllofUS, an organization comprised of millennials who are standing against trump’s hatred and for a country where “We The People includes All of Us.”
Photos submitted by Aidan Setlock,who participated in the protest.
