Whether people are emotional or emotionless about the newly-appointed president, Jan. 20, 2017 marked the day Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States after being elected in Nov. 2016.
For students at Keene State College, the attitudes towards the inauguration were both positive and negative, and for many students, this was the first election that they were able to vote in.
File photo / Jake Coughlin
First-year student Mackenzie Donovan said, “When I voted, I voted independent, but I realized after I voted that I really didn’t feel that way. I feel that I am definitely way more conservative than I originally thought I was and I definitely am pro-Donald Trump.”
During President Trump’s inaugural address, he vowed to the citizens of America that he would work for them and with them to “Make America Great Again,” and supporters and non-supporters watched and listened.
Before the inauguration coverage, Donovan said, “I will be following the inauguration. I would like to see first-hand what happens there because a lot of celebrities and a lot of people are going down there in attempt to protest the inauguration with the whole ‘hashtag not my president’ and I just want to witness first-hand what really happens because the left media news is obviously going to paint it as the left usually does, which is that the violence is incited from the right and that isn’t the case and hasn’t been the case.”
While some students felt positive and strong feelings about the newly-elected President, there were also students who were not as enthusiastic about having the former television personality become their president.
Contributed photo by Ashley Simpson
Senior and president of the on-campus club Feminist Collective Katrina Feraco said, “I will not be watching the inauguration, I do believe that he cares about his ratings and cares about getting a rise because he is an egomaniac and a narcissist, and I don’t want to give him the satisfaction of me tuning on my television or my radio for his inauguration. I will, however, be following up in the evening and the coming days with news organizations like CNN and ABC.”
Feraco took part in the Women’s March protests in the City of Boston on Saturday, Jan. 21, making her voice heard with other members of the Feminist Collective; according to Forbes.com, there were marches in over 600 U.S. cities on the same day.
For some, this election was about policy, civil rights and changing the pace in the White House.
“This election really showed me that I do want these conservative values in the White House in the sense that I want to take down the establishment and this wasn’t an issues or policy vote, it was really just about we need somebody who isn’t a career politician in power,” Donovan said.
There has been much negativity surrounding the election and the inauguration and according to CNN, over 90 people were arrested after protesting near the inauguration site.
For one KSC student, she was able to witness the inauguration and its protests first-hand when she attended the ceremony in Washington D.C.
Contributed photo by Bethany Peterson
Bryanna Pearson stated, “It was amazing, and at first I was pretty afraid to be in that big of a crowd, but security was super tight. My favorite part of the whole trip was during the actual ceremony there was a sense of togetherness, which is what the inauguration should be: a peaceful transfer of power.”
Pearson also stated that “the media kept saying there were so many protests, but there wasn’t at all.There were people with signs, but just walking around and trust me, I walked 13 miles yesterday (Jan. 20). I didn’t see anything like what the media was saying.”
Despite being a Hillary supporter, Katelynn Kaimi said, “I am still nervous to see how Trump handles the presidency and I still don’t feel confident, but to wish him to do a bad job is like putting a hole in the ship that’s already sinking that I’m on. So I do hope that the president does the best that he can and try to help everyone else.”
Mary Curtin can be contacted at mcurtin@kscequinox.com