‘Too great for hate:’ Community members embark on anti-hate march

An unmistakable crowd of Utah State University students, professors and community members gathered Thursday evening on the university quad before embarking on an anti-hate march.

The march was organized by the USU Inclusion group. An email memo sent out by the march’s organizers that announced the event said it would be peaceful and invited all those who “respect the rights, lives and liberties of others to attend.”

The invitation to join the march mirrored its message.

Chanting maxims like “Love not hate—let’s congregate” and carrying a myriad of multi-color signs boasting the crowd’s message of love, the marchers descended the Old Main Hill steps, then made their way down 400 North and eventually ended their trek in front of the Cache County Building.

The march was one of many demonstrations in passing weeks that have happened at USU and abroad. Specifically, the march came on the tail end of a wave of activism that has featured the USU Black Student Union’s November Black Out and the Standing Rock pipeline protests at Logan’s Main Street Wells Fargo location.

Rachel Hager, a PhD student in ecology at USU and one of the march’s organizers, said Thursday’s turnout was “amazing,” and it was incredible to see so many people “supporting no hate in our community.”

The marchers elicited responses from passersby. Cars honked, drivers and passengers rolled down their windows and hollered in approval or brandished peace signs and waves. A handful of passing drivers attempted to antagonize the marchers, but the group held true to their message of love.

In the midst of chants, many marchers noted that the ordeal was “so cool” and that they felt “part of something.”

USU Sustainability Office’s Jack Greene, a self-proclaimed “tree hugger” who also hugs “ a lot of people,” said the march took him back to the 60s and 70s in San Francisco during what he called the “peace, love and anti-war” protests.

Greene said his reason for joining the march, first and foremost, was to “show support for diversity,” and, he added, because he feels “energized by the students.”

Greene added that he’s “trying not to hate Trump.”

“There’s good in all of us—I don’t care who you are,” he said. “I’m trying to help preserve what I’ve been fighting for for 50 years.”

At the end of the march the crowd teemed on the Main Street curb out in front of the Cache County Building and continued their chant: “Utah State—too great to hate.”

The crowd finished the night lighting candles, which marked the conclusion of the demonstration and, perhaps, the beginning of many more instances of activism in the weeks, months and years to come.

–jordan.floyd@aggiemail.usu.edu