This is a love letter to campus. We are a group of loving and concerned students who have been part of a student-organized response to hate crimes on campus. We would like to express our appreciation for this community, and want this to serve as a gentle reminder that all of us reacting right now comes from a place of genuine caring. We react because we are trying to protect this community, and the last thing we want is for these actions to start divisions that destroy the very thing we strive to protect. It hurts an entire community when a hate crime occurs, not just a single individual or group. Thus we have come together not because of group affiliations, but because of our individual love and appreciation for this campus community. We recognize that there are other forms of reacting, coping and communicating after unfortunate and tragic incidents like the one that happened recently, and that all of those are valid and appreciated. We recognize too that our choice to react in the way we have has been because we have the time and resources to do so. Just because you are here does not mean you are not concerned.
We love the willingness to communicate that Grinnellians have expressed and we hope that this dialogue continues in a beautiful and loving way. Hate is something that lives in all of us, and the only response we have is to combat it with love and acceptance. So let’s start feelin’ the love, Grinnell, because we have so much love to share. We all need each other in trying times like these, and our ability to lean on each other and take care of one another is one of the many things that makes Grinnell a beautiful and amazing place in which to live and learn. [You] are loved.