In a thick white peacoat and gold headscarf, Lul Hassan held her young son’s hand as she entered a polling station on Burt Street. A resident of Syracuse, she is far from her native country Somalia, which she left in 2004 at the age of 14. But she is now a citizen of the U.S., and voted in the presidential election this afternoon as a Muslim-American refugee.

“[One of the candidates] say immigrants or terrorists or ISIS, even though I’m not one of them,” Hassan said. “I’m Muslim, but I am a citizen. My vote matters and my voice matters.”

Sounds of solidarity could be heard all night long from the corner of South Clinton and West Fayette Street in downtown Syracuse. The source? Funk ‘N Waffles. The event? A fundraiser for the Standing Rock Water Protectors in North Dakota.

In front of the Schine Student Center last week, a group of Syracuse University students held signs that read “Celebrate Indigenous Survival,” “No DAPL” and “We Stand with Standing Rock!” They were waiting for the university to formally announce its recognition of Indigenous People’s Day on campus and spent the morning raising awareness about the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL).

Red traffic lights pose a stand off between a driver and traffic: Which will move first once the light turns green? Almost every driver has missed the one-second standard reaction time to accelerate his or her vehicle upon light a change. Whether it’s because they are taking swigs of water, changing the radio station or checking the mustard stain left over from lunch, drivers have missed this window. Honks and aggitated shouts echo through the street until these distracted individuals make haste, but what if the aggression could be avoided?