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Thursday, November 14, 2019
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City presents townhall on net zero carbon emmissions Community members, officials discuss Ann Arbor’s climate goals for future BARBARA COLLINS Daily Staff Reporter
ALISON ROH/Daily
GEO hosts rally before start of new contract negotiations with University
Members of the Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) gather on the Diag prior to bargaining a contract with the University Wednesday afternoon.
Members, supporters advocate for improved health coverage, gender inclusive bathrooms starts with a strong union contract. “This is the first day of what will be a month-long process, where there will inevitably be a compromise made on every side,” Gauld said to the crowd. “If we, the graduate employees and the GEO members at the University of Michigan, continue to show up every step of the way to show support for our team, for our platform and for our union, the University will hear us. We get what we are organized to take.” At the end of the winter 2017 semester, the University and GEO reached a contract agreement that included pay
ALEX HARRING Daily Staff Reporter
Ahead of the start of contract negotiations between the Graduate Employees’ Organization and the University of Michigan, approximately 200 GEO members and supporters convened on the Diag for a rally Wednesday morning. Demonstrators marched to the Michigan League, where contract negotiations began. GEO president Emily Gauld, a Rackham student, said GEO is taking part in a nationwide campaign to improve the accessibility of graduate education, explaining this
caps on mental health services, the formation of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Graduate Student Student Assistant positions and increased protections for international graduate students. This contract — which expires on May 1, 2020 — came after 27 bargaining sessions, multiple sit-ins and threats of a walkout. GEO bargaining committee co-chair Sumeet Patwardhan, a Rackham student, said some of this year’s proposals include improved mental health and transgender health coverage, mitigating pay inequity among graduate students on the
three University campuses and having gender-inclusive restrooms available across campus. He said the platform is the most ambitious GEO has ever created. “If you’re out there feeling like other people are better equipped to win this platform than you, remember the strength of a democratic union is not in its leadership, but in its membership,” Patwardhan said to the crowd. “Let’s let the vision of our platform motivate us. Let’s let our solidarity immunize us to the divide and conquer tactics, and let’s win the platform we deserve.” See GEO, Page 3
The city of Ann Arbor and nearly 40 partner organizations hosted a town hall on Wednesday at Cobblestone Farm to discuss how to help Ann Arbor approach carbon neutrality. At the event, more than 100 community members shared ideas and concerns regarding the city’s potential transition to net zero carbon emissions. Ann Arbor Mayor Christopher Taylor opened the town hall by explaining Ann Arbor values carbon neutrality. “Ann Arbor is a place that prides itself on its environmentalism,” Taylor said. “This is something that is really important to the heart of our community.” In a City Council meeting on Nov. 4, councilmembers voted to declare a state of climate emergency and passed a resolution to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Taylor said Ann Arbor has personally experienced the effects of climate change, referencing a one degree temperature increase during
McPherson Former Wells Fargo CEO reflects on discusses leadership in time of business crisis medicine Tim Sloan assumed role after bank’s deposit and credit card account scandal on border RESEARCH
REMY FARKAS Daily News Editor
Doctor talks mental health conditions in children detained at U.S. detention centers
Tim Sloan, University of Michigan alum and retired chief executive officer of Wells Fargo Bank, discussed “Building Trust in Crisis” as part of the Business and Society 2020 speakers series Wednesday morning. Sloan graduated from the University with a BA and MBA and spent 30 years at Wells Fargo before becoming the CEO in September 2016.
ABBY TAKAS
Daily Staff Reporter
Wednesday evening, the Michigan Medicine Department of Psychiatry hosted its 24th Annual Waggoner Lecture on Ethics & Values in Medicine, featuring medical doctor Pamela K. McPherson. McPherson’s lecture focused on her experience witnessing harmful conditions in immigration detention centers along the U.S. - Mexico border, and her ethical dilemma over what to do with this confidential information. McPherson is a medical doctor triple-boarded in general, child and adolescent, and forensic psychiatry, and also works as an expert for the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. As a mental health expert for the CRCL, McPherson was working under a nondisclosure agreement — a condition common for this position. She was trusted in the family residential facilities she visited. She toured the physical grounds, interviewed women and children and examined mental health records. See ETHICS, Page 2
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Sloan assumed the position following the company’s disclosure employees had opened nearly 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without customers’ knowledge, being forced to pay a $185 million fine from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Lindy Greer, associate professor of Management and Organizations and faculty director of the Sanger Leadership Center,
moderated the conversation and began by discussing the mission of the Business and Society 2020 speakers series. “We have a responsibility to honor our mission to make sure that in the sessions we’re touching on issues that are foremost in society right now, which is challenging,” Greer said. “Equality, sustainability, education, economic growth. The goal of the series is to bring together a lot of leaders, industry leaders and professional
development opportunities for students to engage in structured dialogue about this intersection of business and society and how the system positively engaged society is all from these most pressing challenges.” The discussion focused on the building of trust between businesses and society as it pertains to Wells Fargo and Sloan’s role in a leadership capacity. See WELLS FARGO, Page 2
the last few years as well as a more than 45 percent increase in precipitation within the last 50 years. In 2017, the city allocated $880,000 to climate action, and the Office of Sustainability created a climate action plan for the next five years. Additionally, Taylor said the city plans to have additional carbon neutrality town halls in the coming weeks to open up the conversation to more of the community. Following Taylor, Regina Strong, environmental justice public advocate for the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, spoke on environmental justice. Strong said community members must work together to create positive change. In her presentation, Strong said the Environmental Protection Agency defines environmental justice as the fair and meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies. See CARBON, Page 3
HEALTH
Teen gets transplant after vape lung injury 17-year-old Detroit boy first in nation to receive new organs after vaping illness MADELINE MCLAUGHLIN Daily Staff Reporter
A 17-year-old boy is believed to be the first vape-injured patient in the U.S. to receive a double lung transplant in order to save his life. The procedure was performed at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit on Oct. 15, doctors said at a news conference on Tuesday. Dr. Hassan Nemeh, surgical director of thoracic organ transplants at Henry Ford Hospital, said in a statement this procedure was crucial to the boy’s survival. “This teenager faced imminent death had he not received a lung transplant,” Nemeh said. The boy — who turned 17 while in the hospital — was first admitted to Ascension St. John Hospital in Detroit with symptoms of pneumonia on Sept. 5. However, his health quickly deteriorated, and he was transferred to Children’s Hospital of Michigan where he was placed on a machine to keep his heart and lungs active. Five days later, he was moved to Henry Ford Hospital for the operation.
ALISON ROH/Daily Tim Sloan, a former CEO of Wells Fargo, speaks at the Ross School of Business Wednesday afternoon.
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WELLS FARGO From Page 1 “Wells Fargo, which had been one of the most admired companies in the world … The year before that (2016) we were the most valuable financial institution on earth by market capital,” Sloan said. “In fact, you can go back and look at the Wall Street Journal headlines, you can see that. But we, in hindsight, made some really big mistakes.” Once Sloan took the role, he worked with his 250,000 person company to review and restructure the organization. He said given the situation, the bounce-back had to be a team effort. Sloan described how he had to distance himself from his coworkers in order to make difficult choices. “What we needed to do is really step back and look at what were the issues and what we will do to address those,” Sloan said. Sudoku Generatorto look at things in a “I needed very objective way. And that was
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feedback from community personally. Sloan circled back to the title members. He invited people to directly send him an email of the conversation: leadership or contact him, to which he and trust during a crisis. He companies would respond personally. From recommended this feedback, the company emulate that style of leadership raised member compensation, daily. “I really believe that one of granted restricted stock rights to 250,000 employees and the things that I’ve learned as we move from being in a period expanded paid parental leave. “All this was based on the of crisis to having to be much feedback we were getting,” more balanced from a leadership Sloan said. “I knew that we standpoint, it was the same kind could be successful at dealing of structure, the same type of with all the challenges and the oversight, the same government opportunities that we have governance model, the same and to satisfy all our other type of feedback and the way stakeholders, unless we didn’t that we interact with our team,” win the hearts and minds of our Sloan said. “I’ve learned is that managers, our stakeholders and businesses should operate as if they’re in crisis every day of the various businesses.” Wells Fargo has over 70 week.” Sloan went on to say the best million consumer customers — one in three Americans, Sloan way to make quick decisions added. He said repairing that is to gather a diverse group of relationship and increasing people to get varying opinions communication helped the issues. He emphasized having the courage to hold a different company rebound. “The key was to make sure opinion than the others in the that there was an open level of group, but recognizing when http://sudokugenerator.com/sudoku/generator/print/ communication,” Sloan said. you are wrong. “Don’t be afraid to take a “The fact of the matter is that most of our customers, position that’s fundamentally they didn’t care about different from the way that the the mistakes that we had company or you had operated made. They wanted to the day before, the month know that we are going to before,” Sloan said. “Sometimes that change can be incredibly make them right.” EASY and incredibly Sloan explained the important power and spotlight that valuable.” Finally, Greer asked Sloan comes with the CEO position. He said this how he knew when it was time spotlight allows one to for him to retire. He explained make an unimaginable that following 32 years at the difference. However, he company, he no longer felt the described the negative company benefited from his effects that came with leadership. “That was a really hard it, when he would see something negative about decision for me,” Sloan said. himself in the news. “I love the people at Wells He also described an Fargo. They’re some of my best instance in which 200 friends… Having said that, protestors stood outside you also need to appreciate, when you’re a CEO, that it’s not his California home. He provided advice about you. You work for your following this experience. shareholders. And I always He said it’s important said to our board, and to my not to say the first thing wife … the point at which I that comes to mind don’t think that I had enough when instances like this value for the company, I need occur, as well as how to to not be seen.” © sudokugenerator.com. For personal use only.learn to deal with it. He Read more at puzzle by sudokusyndication.com emphasized resisting MichiganDaily.com taking the attacks
hard… because I love the people. And I love the business.” He said once he became CEO he had to reorganize the company, transitioning it from a decentralized organization to a more centralized company through consolidating enterprise functions and separate finance groups. “We needed to reorganize the company,” Sloan said. “When you have an issue to deal and you make mistakes, sometimes that organization becomes very insular and insulated and doesn’t get to the bottom of issues doesn’t invite perspectives from across the company as it should and it makes the problem worse as opposed to better.” Sloan explained the way the company worked to repair their relationship with their employees and their customers. He said after taking responsibility for the situation, he held frequent town halls where employees asked unscripted questions. Wells Fargo also began doing pulse surveys and receiving frequent
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Center of the city task force focuses on community feedback
Ann Arbor opens online survey to hear residents’ concerns on transition process AYSE ELDES For The Daily
After a week of soliciting community feedback through a pop-up DecaDome in Ann Arbor’s Library Lot, the Center of the City Task Force met at Larcom City Hall on Wednesday to discuss residents’ ideas. The task force, formed after voters approved to amend the City Charter, has been working to decide how to make use of the Fifth Avenue site. According to Meghan Mussolf, committee chair of the Center of the City task force, the committee has been meeting for about four months and is halfway through its allotted time to formulate a decision on the space. Mussolf took time during the meeting to thank the group for their effort to gather community feedback thus far. “I think we’ve done a tremendous amount of work and good work to come together and really move the conversation forward,” Mussolf said. “We now have the luxury of having a lot of feedback.” Heather Seyfarth, project
CARBON From Page 1 “In creating an equitable environmental future, you’re talking about the environment, which is critically important,” Strong said. “As you do your work, you have to be very intentional about who is a part of the conversation, who’s impacted by the work.” Strong said to work toward achieving carbon neutrality, the community should value inclusion
ETHICS From Page 1 “My professional ethical obligation to maintain confidentiality and the trust placed in me as a mental health subject matter expert are obligations that I had kept for my 30 years of forensic work,” McPherson said. “That is, until 2018 — in July 2018, after fully considering this trust and my ethical obligations as a physician I became a whistleblower.” McPherson’s work focuses on studying children and adolescents, known as unaccompanied minors in immigration proceedings. In the United States, different agencies have different control over different facilities, providing a range of complicated bureaucratic difficulties for evaluating conditions and policies. Legally unaccompanied minors can be held up to 72 hours in Customs and Patrol Border facilities, before they are transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services. “The average length of stay for an unaccompanied minor in a DHH facility in 2018 was 60 days,” McPherson said. The number of unaccompanied migrant children has been continuously increasing since 2015, as well as the number of immigrants in detention centers as a whole, according to McPherson. “In 2018, ICE held an average of 42,000 per day, including an average of 2,113 in family detention, at a cost of over 8 million dollars per day,” McPherson said. With many of these centers becoming significantly overcrowded, McPherson and her colleagues observed the harmful effects on everyone, especially children as they were separated from their families. “I could barely contain my outrage,” McPherson said. “I’m a child and adolescent psychiatrist. I’m a medical doctor who specializes in helping children with overwhelming emotions. I help children and families be
manager of the task force and an Ann Arbor city manager, reported an online survey posted on Nov. 12 received 247 responses within 24 hours. The survey will be open until Dec. 6. The group is now transitioning toward compiling this data to formulate an understanding on how Ann Arbor residents want the space to be utilized. The main obstacle facing the task force is efficiently reviewing the feedback. Task force member Norman Tyler suggested delegating blocks of survey responses to be reviewed by each member. Tyler deemed it unnecessary for each person to read every response and explained a common consensus among members that time was becoming a looming constraint. Vocal critics of this comment included task force member Alan Haber and Ann Arbor resident Odile HugonotHaber. Though most members expressed awareness minority voices were missing in the group, Haber said Ann Arbor residents were generally not aware of the city’s activity around the “Center of City” and the task force should focus
on informing residents about their activity. He and member John Haines were assigned to a subcommittee tasked with producing an informative pamphlet to be sent as target mail to the community. “Of the people we talked to at the DecaDome, very few of them knew what was going on,” Haber said. “I did not get a sense that Ann Arbor people know what’s happening. This returns to my sense that we should be sending out some sort of invitation or report to the whole community. And basically, we’re dealing not with a base that has thought about this at all.” During the Center of the City Task Force’s next two meetings, selected residents in Ann Arbor will be invited to share their input on the project. Invited speakers will include business owners, a representative from the police department and other voices the group felt had not yet been represented. Feeling community backing for a new park was not being acknowledged enough, Hugonot-Haber spoke to the task force about the
by incorporating and valuing differences on a shared platform. She also said the community should take into consideration how the past shapes the present and social advantages and disadvantages to address equity. “For justice to really be just, it has to come from everybody,” Strong said. “You learn so much more from having these diverse perspectives in the room.” Missy Stults, Ann Arbor sustainability and innovations manager, also spoke at the town hall. Like Strong, Stults said the
city must work together to be successful in achieving carbon neutrality and discussed the initiative to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. Stults also revealed the logo for the new carbon neutrality initiative, called A2Zero. “Carbon neutrality probably means something to all of you … but for many people, it doesn’t,” Stults said. “We want people to know they’re part of this, part of what it is we’re talking about. This isn’t a four month journey, this is a 10-plus year journey.”
stronger, but I was watching them be torn apart.” She explained that with children, the trauma of being detained causes them to regress, and hinders their ability to recognize safe relationships upon release. Even when their mother or father is simply dropping them off at school for the day, they may feel like they are being abandoned all over again, and become inconsolable. These impacts increase the longer they are detained, and are especially exacerbated when the length of their detention is unknown. “I knew children were being harmed, and that I should act, but I didn’t know what to do,” McPherson said. Robert Sain, a community child psychiatrist in southeast Michigan, attended the lecture and told The Daily he related to McPherson’s experiences through his experience working in Detroit with Mexican immigrants. “It takes a lot out of me because all of these families have been traumatized — the kids have been traumatized, their parents have been traumatized, it goes on for generations,” Sain said. “I get very frustrated with the lack of resources, or concern, for helping these families.” McPherson’s colleague Scott Allen, also an expert for CRCL, reached out after working in the Department of Homeland Security together in 2014 and they discussed their course of action. Both were worried about the legal repercussions of speaking out — on themselves, and on their families, coworkers, employers and patients. McPherson recalled several people discouraging them, claiming that the letter would not affect any real change and that it was better to stay quiet, considering the risks. McPherson also discussed the dilemma over working for an organization that causes the harms she witnessed. Margo Schlanger, professor at the University of Michigan Law School and the former presidentially-appointed officer for CRCL, elaborated on the ethics of this in an interview
with The Daily. “The question is, is reform the right approach, or does reform entrench the problematic institution?” Schlanger posed. “I’m a believer in trying to address ongoing harm while you also try to get rid of the thing that causes the harm.” The pair sought legal counsel from the Government Accountability Project, and decided to write a letter to Congress, rather than an Op-ed as originally planned. “The fundamental flaw of family detention is not just the risk posed by the conditions of confinement — it’s the incarceration of innocent children itself,” the letter reads. “Detention of innocent children should never occur in a civilized society, especially if there are less restrictive options, because the risk of harm to children simply cannot be justified.” The New York Times caught hold of their letter, garnering the attention and support of 14 professional medical organizations. The president of the American Psychological Association reached out to them personally, thanking them for their moral courage. Allen and McPherson also received letters from children their letter had affected, thanking them. “I was reminded that our children are always watching and listening, [and] when we use our voice, we give them hope and teach them that change is possible, if we take action,”McPherson said. Deborah Pinals, director of the Program in Psychiatry, Law, and Ethics at the University, helped introduce McPherson and later reflected on the importance of the lecture in an interview with The Daily. “In today’s climate when there’s so much in the press about immigration, detention, and detention of families and children,” Pinals said. “I think what was really important was to hear about the ethical dilemma of the physician working trying to improve conditions of confinement and then finding out that the very conditions were harmful in and of themselves.”
advantages this addition to Ann Arbor would bring. Citing benefits such as common space interaction and cultural enrichment, “In the city itself, the people are a tremendous resource,” Hugonot-Haber said. “They have many ideas and solutions to problems, and we should capitalize more on the resource we have within our city.” Hugonot-Haber, who disagreed with task force member and LSA senior Hannah Boettcher’s dissent of a formal partnership with the Ann Arbor Library Green Conservancy, urged the task force to favor partnership with the group in its future activity with decision-making. “I can understand you guys don’t want to do things together, but at least it should be, when you talk about them it should be a little more respectful,” Hugonot-Haber said. “If not, I think you’re doing a good job, and I hope you get very excited because it’s a very cutting edge work that you are doing, and I think it will make a big difference.”
The town hall then moved to let attendees express their ideas and concerns about climate neutrality through writing on various posters hung up throughout the event space. Topics of discussion included energy, adaptation, mobility and resource reduction. LSA senior Kristen Hayden, a staff member of Ann Arbor’s Department of Sustainability, told The Daily the decision to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 is a reaffirmation of Ann Arbor’s commitment to being a sustainable city.
VAPING From Page 1 In the conference the doctors explained the boy’s lungs were damaged in a way they had not previously seen, specifically citing shocking inflammation, scarring and dead tissue. “This is an evil that I haven’t faced before,” Nemeh said. Dr. Lisa Allenspach, a pulmonologist at Henry Ford, said the statement the vaping has created a real issue for the younger generations. “Our adolescents are really faced with a crisis,” Allenspach said. “There was a study released last week that surveyed over 10,000 middle school and high school students. And 28 percent of high school students reported ongoing use of e-cigarettes and 11
GEO From Page 1 Patwardhan said 20 working groups within GEO have built the platform over the last seven months. He noted the importance of showing up to membership meetings and bargaining-related events over the months ahead. State Rep. Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, shared his support for GEO at the rally. He said GEO is an example of what graduate students elsewhere can accomplish if they unionize. “You’re fighting for an issue that is about the future of our state and that is about making sure that everyone has access to a good-quality education,” Rabhi said. “On behalf of the people of the 53rd District, I want to thank you for your work in furthering the issue of social justice and furthering the issues of economic justice in our state. What you’re doing here in Ann Arbor is setting the stage for what can happen in other parts of the state, too, when graduate employees organize, stick together and fight for their rights.” After the rally, the group marched to the Michigan League, reciting chants encouraging the University to listen to their demands. Before the bargaining team went inside to begin negotiations, Devlin Mallory, a Rackham student and member of the team, addressed the crowd. Mallory said the likelihood of their demands being met is tied to
“Carbon neutrality ties into all facets of community living,” Hayden said. “This is not just about emissions and pollution but about people and their relationship to the community.” Ideally, Hayden said a carbon neutrality plan should put frontline communities first and support their energy and lifestyle needs while getting the community to zero carbon emissions. Ann Arbor resident Mary Garton volunteers with Citizen’s Climate Lobby and Climate Reality Project. She told The
percent of middle school students reported using e-cigarettes.” Dr. Nicholas Yeldo, a cardiothoracic anesthesiologist, said in a statement he hopes the incident brings awareness to the greater issue in society with vaping. “We are here today to beg the public to pay special attention to the special steps that were taken in this case. ... I beg of you, this was not just the unlucky one,” Yeldo said. “This is happening way too much to turn our heads to this.” The family of the boy described him as a typical 17-year-old, who enjoys sailing, hanging out with friends and playing video games. In a statement, they said they hope to bring awareness to the dangers associated with vaping. “Within a short period of time, our lives have been forever
GEO’s organizing. He encouraged members and supporters to continue showing up for events and thanked the hundreds of union members who contributed to the building of their platform. “Our strength at the bargaining table doesn’t come from rhetorical skills or the logical soundness of our arguments, it comes from the power of our membership,” Mallory said. “As the bargaining team, we’re excited to continue the progress you’ve started and win an equitable and just contract.” University spokesperson Rick Fitzgerald wrote in an email to The Daily negotiations between the University and GEO will happen twice every week going forward. He characterized Wednesday’s initial session as “productive.” In a written statement to The Daily, Sascha Matish, associate vice provost for academic affairs and senior director of academic human resources, said the University is committed to working with the GEO to develop a contract both parties can agree upon. “We recognize the importance of Graduate Student Instructors and graduate student staff assistants to the academic mission of the university and to the academic success of our students,” Matish wrote. “We are committed to bargaining in good faith with GEO to reach a fair agreement that serves the interest of all parties.”
Daily working towards carbon neutrality is an important step in reducing the effects of climate change. “Efforts need to be taken at the city, state, county and national levels to reduce carbon emissions, not only because of climate change but because of air quality and water quality,” Garton said. “National legislation is needed as is state legislation, but in reality, cities need to pick up the ball because we’re living here and this is where the changes will happen.”
changed. He has gone from the typical life of a perfectly healthy 16-year-old athlete...” the family said, “to waking up intubated and with two new lungs, facing a long and painful recovery process as he struggles to regain his strength and mobility, which has been severely impacted.” The teen is on the road to recovery, but it could take months. In a statement to the Detroit Free Press, Nemeh explained the use of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation to replace the function of the lungs. “He is very close to being transferred to rehab,” Nemeh said. “However, because he was on the ECMO machine for almost a month with total sedation, he is incredibly weak.”
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POLICY TALKS @ THE FORD SCHOOL
JOCE YLN BENSON
CONNIE MALLOY
CHRIS L AMAR
CHRISTOPHER THOMA S
C LO S U P L E CTU RE S E RI E S
MODER ATOR: NANCY WANG
“Communities of Interest” and Michigan’s New Approach to Redistricting
Monday, November 18, 2019 4:00 - 5:20 pm Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Annenberg Auditorium, 1120 Weill Hall 735 S. State Street
Free and open to the public. Reception to follow. Information: 734-647-4091 or closup@umich.edu
@fordschool #policytalks
Opinion
4 — Thursday, November 14, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
DIRECT ACTION FOR PALESTINE | OP-ED
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ANIK JOSHI | COLUMN
The problem with trying to end ‘forever war’
A
ll three of the last presidents have emphasized the need to draw down American involvement beyond American borders. President George Bush ran an isolationist campaign and his administration proceeded to embrace neoconservatism and nation building. President Barack Obama decried Bush’s wars as a senator, but once he was elected, he amped them up to the point where there were troops in more countries when he left office than when he came in. President Donald Trump also ran an isolationist campaign and has embraced some of that in the White House. He also called Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq “the single worst decision ever made.” President Trump is in charge of the military and could choose to bring the troops home. However, he probably will not – despite running on it – for the same reason America has stayed in the Middle East for as long as it has. While us being in the Middle East is problematic, us leaving does more damage and that is the paradox of the forever war. The “forever war” has many problems, but one major success has been that Americans have been kept safe in a way that they weren’t before. Since 9/11, there have been no attacks on that scale because of the global security apparatus that we helped build and then deploy. American power doesn’t just protect us – it protects
civilians in the Middle East as well as civilians all over the world because of the deterrence factor. If Trump decides to withdraw troops and history is any guide, it could be followed by an even bigger deployment. The closest parallel to Trump’s pulling out of Syria before fully finishing the job is Obama’s pulling out of Iraq in 2011. At the time, Obama was anxious to fulfill a campaign promise, and he acted quickly to draw down the troop presence until it had all but evaporated by December 2011. In Iraq, there was still work to be done – just like there is in Syria – but domestic political desires and a general American weariness towards Middle East involvement outweighed that. However, Obama did end up redeploying troops to Iraq in one of the crueler twists of irony. Today, ISIS is at one of its lower points, but just like in Iraq, it is not done yet. In all likelihood, this will not be the end of American troops in Syria and rather than losing ground now and having to fight for it again, we would be better served staying there and maintaining our gains. In addition to problems when we stop engaging, there are issues when we choose not to engage at all. There is no other nation that has both our values and our resources – in other words, there is no other nation that can police the world as well as we do. If we decide to draw down our foreign involvement out of
some misplaced desire to let the world go on as it would, then the world would be a much more brutal place. Though there are occasional exceptions, American involvement abroad is generally a positive, and when we stay out, bad things tend to happen, such as the Rwandan genocide that took place in the 1990s. During that genocide, President Bill Clinton made a decision to avoid involvement because of the political blowback from the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia. As a result, we watched hundreds of thousands of people die between April and July of 1994. Us not being involved didn’t make things better. In fact, it made things far worse for the people who were left to fend for themselves during one of the bloodiest episodes in human history. President George H.W. Bush once said that America is more than a country on the roll call between Albania and Zimbabwe, and he was right. We have a duty to uphold freedom, human rights and liberty and to help others who do the same. If we fail to do so, people will be victimized all over the world. While some may say those beyond our borders are not our problem, they are wrong. When we don’t act to prevent problems abroad, they come home to roost, and that tragedy should be avoided at all costs. Anik Joshi can be reached at anikj@umich.edu.
CHERYN HONG | COLUMN
A
No, this doesn’t justify cultural appropriation
round Halloween, our campus was buzzing with the crucial question that plagued everyone the entire month of October: What will my Halloween costume be? As these conversations went on, posters were also put up throughout dorms and common areas suggesting how to avoid cultural appropriation with costumes. While I assumed that costumes that feed into blatant stereotypes are no longer a consideration, I have seen a handful of costumes on social media that do this, including people wearing “Indian” headdresses and dressed as Japanese geishas. My stomach drops every time I see those costumes and I always ask myself: Why? Coming from a South Korean background, I have never seen a costume mimicking my culture. I have even showed pictures of “Asian” costumes to my family whom were natively born in Japan and South Korea, and they didn’t find anything wrong with it. So, why am I so furious about something that has no direct relation to me? My anger stems from getting teased for my bento lunch boxes and my family members dressing up in traditional Korean garb when I was a kid, and now, years later, all the things I was teased for are a trend that everyone wants to take part in. According to American poet Fatimah Asghar, “cultural appropriation occurs when members of a dominant group take elements and symbols of another culture for their own economic or social gain while simultaneously devaluing and silencing the bodies, opinions and voices of the oppressed culture.” This definition sets a standard and clear understanding as to the significance of cultural appropriation and what it means to various Americans. The
disconnect between my family members born in East Asian countries and me, who grew up in the United States, reflects upon the dichotomy of how cultural appropriation is received among people of color. However, this difference should not be a justification for acts of cultural appropriation as the standard of disrespect is dictated from historical inequalities and not the opinions of any non-white person. In 2018, a high school senior wore a traditional Chinese qipao to prom, stirring controversy on Twitter and resulting in backlash. However, she also received a lot of support from natives in East Asia. Hong Kong cultural commentator Zhou Yijun is quoted in The New York Times saying “it’s ridiculous to criticize this (the prom dress) as cultural appropriation. From the perspective of a Chinese person, if a foreign woman wears a qipao and thinks she looks pretty, then why shouldn’t she wear it?” Most of the people who were offended were people who identified as Asian Americans and those with cross-national identities. Evidently, not all people of color recognize cultural appropriation in the same light as others. For example, East Asian countries that extend to — but aren’t limited to — China, Japan and South Korea have had instances of blackface on national television. Adored K-Pop groups have acclaimed to get “away with cultural appropriation” as they draw much of their inspiration from Motown bands. The difference between East Asian and American cultural appropriation of Black culture comes to a disconnect in awareness. East Asia is far more racially homogeneous, and thus certain stereotypes about Black culture and African Americans persist, explaining the inappropriate instances of blackface and mockery. The U.S.
on the other hand is a country that has a more diverse population, and while ignorance may be the case for certain acts of cultural appropriation, the country also has a horrific history with how minority groups have been treated. This could be one way why cultural appropriation is arguably more of a prevalent issue in the U.S. as it is because of our historical context and systemic oppression that is unique to the country. Black Americans have historically been exploited and victimized by institutions. Professor Mia Moody-Ramirez, director of graduate studies at Baylor University, emphasizes how costumes that involve blackface go back to minstrel shows in the 1800s, where white Americans appropriated African American culture for profit. It now perpetuates illmannered stereotypes of being “lazy, unintelligent and criminal in nature.” These historical events that continue to affect these minority groups shouldn’t be mocked or mimicked, as many inappropriate costumes perpetuate negative stereotypes and gloss over the prevailing issues they encounter. It is integral to note that cultural appropriation can be inappropriate and rightfully offend certain marginalized groups. The weight of cultural appropriation and why it is inappropriate and disrespectful is dependent upon the history of America. So, while there remains a mixed reaction from different people of color, and further obfuscates why certain people of color get offended, an important variable to keep in mind is the context of what is being appropriated and what the bigger picture looks like. Cheryn Hong can be reached at cherynh@umich.edu.
L
Occupation is not an innovation
ast Sunday, a group of students organized an event at the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business called Israel Summit at Michigan to celebrate Israel. The summit’s stated goals were to “decrease anti-Israel sentiment on campus” and to “present Israel as the positive world contributor it is.” Members of Direct Action for Palestine and Students Allied for Freedom and Equality stood in protest against the event, taking issue with both of its stated goals. We marched to draw attention to the problematic nature of the event and to raise awareness of the ongoing settler colonization and military occupation of Palestine. After marching, we stood outside the summit with signs that read “Free Palestine” and “Occupation is not an innovation.” Despite being careful not to disrupt the actual events of the day and following the University’s protest guidelines, the Division of Public Safety and Security used lies and intimidation to shut down our protest in violation of our First Amendment rights. DPSS said the event was private, but the event was promoted as open to all – not to mention, we were outside the event. They also said that only those registered could be there, but as students, we have the right to enter any building we normally have access to during the daytime. At another point, they said only students could be there, but as members of the University community, we can bring guests to campus. Finally, one officer repeatedly threatened an individual with a misdemeanor charge for covering their face with a scarf, but under Michigan state law, covering one’s face is legal except when committing a crime. As a Palestinian, the individual was protecting their identity to avoid ending up on a blacklist that could inhibit travel to their historic homeland. The officer’s threat led them to expose their face, putting them at risk. We are disturbed that DPSS would infringe on our right to free speech so blatantly and in violation of the University’s own guidelines. Why did we protest an event focused on celebrating how Israeli citizens and companies have contributed positively to the world? We believe that the technological and
LEAH ADELMAN | OP-ED
E
very time I buckle my bike helmet, I wonder if it will be my last ride. I commute to class by bike and train on the road as a competitive cyclist, and each day I worry if my safety precautions will be enough. In the past year, two of my teammates have been struck by vehicles and injured while they were following the rules of the road. Without asking for it, I’ve become an advocate for cyclists and bike infrastructure. We love to hate cyclists. They’re on the road with the cars, taking up space and making it harder to drive. We love to tell stories about irresponsible cyclists running red lights or making it hard to pass. It is unfortunate that we generalize this group of road users and fail to bring up in these conversations the staggering number of irresponsible drivers that make roads equally unsafe spaces. Despite the fact that cyclists are doing good for the world by reducing traffic and greenhouse gas emissions, I can put up with people who choose to see the negatives of road users on bikes. What I cannot put up with, however, are those who are unwilling to support the efforts to make roads safer and more effective for community users. The new two-way protected bike lane on East William Street is a step forward for everyone. Recently, I was infuriated when the driver of my Uber mentioned his distaste for the road changes. He said he
entrepreneurial contributions by Israeli companies are inseparable from the settler colonization of historic Palestine, the occupation of the West Bank, the siege of Gaza and violations of Palestinian human rights. Israel’s success is built on the oppression of Palestinians, and Palestinians are excluded from participating meaningfully in Israeli society. While Israelis enjoy a growing standard of living, cutting edge urban infrastructure and access to internationally recognized institutions of higher learning, Palestinians are losing their homes in demolitions, having their olive trees burned and are only offered inadequate, inconsistent internet access, which is controlled by Israel. The disparities are stark. One summit attendee argued that we misunderstood the conference, highlighting a summit speaker who founded PeacePlayers International, an organization that uses sports to “inspire young people to create a more peaceful world.” We support building relationships between Israeli and Palestinian children and see both groups as victims of Israel, but ultimately, Palestinian children cannot be held accountable for the conflict, and “positive attitudes” will not alleviate the inequality of Israel’s apartheid regime. We do not know whether PeacePlayers International ensures safe travel to and from playing sites for Palestinian participants. Regardless, any Palestinian traveling from the West Bank must travel across a segregated road system that forces them to take circuitous routes where they are subject to harassment by soldiers. And what about the children stolen from their homes in night raids and held in detention? How do they get to the basketball court? We are skeptical of any program that calls for peace without also calling for justice. Likewise, though the Israel Cancer Research Fund – whose Chicago Executive Director, Allyson Greenfield, was a speaker – contributes to fighting cancer, Palestinians in Palestine often cannot access medical care since most hospitals are on the other side of checkpoints. These require hard-to-get medical permits issued by Israel as well as arduous travel as a result of Israel illegally establishing Jewish-only settlements in the West Bank.
In addition to not sharing in the spoils of Israel’s economy, Palestinian lives represent the cost of Israel’s “innovations.” The militarization of Israeli society has fueled the creation of numerous security-focused start-ups. The links between military service and security businesses have attracted global investors interested in Israel’s military and security technology. But, the technology that Israelis are celebrated for is used against Palestinians and “tested” on them. Israel has also made it clear that it is more than willing to sell weapons and surveillance tech to anyone and everyone, even for the purposes of genocide and the persecution of LGBTQ people. We stand against the portrayal of Israel as a positive force in the world while it systematically dispossesses, displaces and terrorizes Palestinians. Celebrating Israel’s accomplishments downplays that Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza lack access to basic resources, normalizes the legalized discrimination and exclusion faced by Palestinian Israelis and disguises that Israel’s wealth and power on the global stage have come at the cost of Palestinian selfdetermination. The summit’s stated goal of decreasing anti-Israel sentiment on campus goes directly against DAP’s goal of advocating for a free Palestine. Israel is directly responsible for Palestinian living conditions, and it is our duty as members of an American university community to hold Israel accountable, given the close ties between the two countries. That the University would sponsor such an event demonstrates their disregard for Palestinian students and community members. We will not stand by in silence. We will not stop critiquing Israel loudly and in public as long as it threatens the existence of Palestinians and Palestine. We will continue to spread the word about the military occupation of Palestine. We will continue to call on the University to divest from companies profiting off of the suffering of Palestinians. Direct Action for Palestine is a coalition of students, grad students, faculty and community members that organizes for Palestinian liberation. They can be reached at dapumich@ gmail.com.
The right to ride
doesn’t like these types of new accommodations for cyclists because it makes the roads narrower and reduces parking space. He was concerned the narrower roads would cause more drivers to hit one another. While I’m sure he did not mean to, what he was implying was that he favored the protection of vehicles over the protection of human lives. Bike infrastructure saves human lives — I, personally, am unconcerned with a few extra cars getting dented. What if the money used on this bike lane installation was instead used to fix other roads? Yes, that could happen, but if we are talking about the issue of potholes and disintegrating roads, we should also think about the damage to a road done by a person on a bike versus that by that same person in a motor vehicle. The cyclists of Ann Arbor are paying taxes just like everyone else, yet they are not doing nearly the same damage to roads. People make jokes about how entitled the pedestrians are in Ann Arbor. They love to make fun of the idea that pedestrians walk in front of cars and are asking to be killed. I laugh at these jokes here and there, but I’m worried about how this humor may actually affect how we think about driving. Drivers often think they own the roads and that if something bad occurs, it’s because any pedestrian or cyclist involved was unpredictable or stupid. While we should all be alert on the road, the person with their
hands on the wheel should not assume that the other road users are trying to get killed. The way we think about pedestrian safety is closely linked to that of cyclist safety because these two groups both comprise vulnerable road users, meaning they have little or no external protection in the event of a collision. Crosswalks, sidewalks and well-known right-ofway laws help make Ann Arbor a pedestrian-friendly community. Meanwhile, cyclists exist in a gray space. The pavement they use as transportation is designed for and shared with vehicles much larger and more powerful than them. The lack of parking in Ann Arbor is a disaster. The traffic in Ann Arbor is a disaster. The road quality in Ann Arbor is a disaster. The new bike lane is incentivizing biking as a safe and effective mode of commuting for the community. There are people who are hesitant to mount a bike because they know the threatening nature of motorists. People die all the time while following the rules of the road because of irresponsible drivers. But better bike infrastructure means more people on bikes, which means fewer in cars. And fewer cars means a better experience for people who live and work in Ann Arbor – including those who continue to drive. Leah Adelman is a junior in the Ford School of Public Policy and can be reached at ladelman@umich.edu.
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, November 14, 2019 — 5
COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
TV NOTEBOOK
Sammy Sussman: When art responds to tragedy — particularly art that responds to genocide, or the millions of pieces that seek to respond to the Daily Community Culture Columnist Holocaust — my initial assumption is that the pieces will be sad, frightening and powerful. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to I assume that they will appeal to pathos, attend Yoni Ki Baat’s “Bravado” in Munger’s reminding me of the emotional horrors of the South Commons. (In the interest of full Holocaust, for example, and the many reasons disclosure, I should explain that I attended the why we must never allow something like that to event largely to hear my amazing Daily news happen again. But when it came to “Cabaret,” I was colleague, Claire Hao, read a piece about the abuse she faced earlier in her life.) I left the confronted with a totally different sensation. event both saddened by the alleged abuse and This was not “Schindler’s List.” I was not sad oppression that the speakers had faced and about humanity’s moral failings, but inspired inspired by their willingness to confront it in by the actions of one brave individual. I was disgusted and guilty, angry at myself for not such a public setting. This got me thinking about art and tragedy. understanding the true implications of my In particular, I was reminded of how effective thoughts. I was incredibly, irreversibly moved. art can be in allowing us to think about, react I was unable to dismiss what I had witnessed to and move past tragedy. I thought of the because of the heroic actions of a few to save the different ways that artists have chosen to react many. On the other hand, Penderecki’s “Threnody to tragic historical events, the different routes that artists have taken to reach an appropriate to the Victims of Hiroshima,” is a stunning, gutplace of contemplation and reflection, of sad wrenching 10-minute work for string orchestra remembrance and meaningful thought towards about the first use of atomic weapons in warfare, the bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima the future. In particular, I thought of the MUSKET in World War II. The piece is the opposite of “Cabaret” performance this past year. (Again, “Cabaret.” It evokes the horrors of its subject matter from its opening in the interest of full moment. It deals not in disclosure, I’ll mention subtly or in unexpected that I was the bass player plot devices but in abject in the pit orchestra of this terror, in abject sadness. show. This role afforded Both works, I realized, me the opportunity to see the show many, many compel audience times and analyze it at members to think length.) critically about their For those unfamiliar subject matter. But with “Cabaret,” the show “Threnody” does this opens with a simple through raw, emotive love story: An American force. It is one of the most writer living in Berlin, frightening things that Cliff Bradshaw, begins I have ever heard, one to fall in love with a of the most frightening cabaret dancer, Sally. works of art that I While many characters have ever experienced. allude to socio-political What “Cabaret” upheaval throughout the accomplishes through COURTESY OF SADHANA RAMASESHADRI first act, it is only at the subtly, “Threnody” very end of the act that accomplishes through the audience understands these oft-alluded-to utter lack thereof. changes to be rise of the Nazis and the end of the Somehow, despite their disparate means, Weimar period. both works manage to achieve the same end. I remember witnessing this moment of And in some way, strange as this may sound, I revelation for the first time and the inevitable began to see the magic of the arts reflected in the punch to the gut that it evoked. I’d been laughing diversity of these works. along with the characters, following their As Leonard Bernstein famously stated at budding romances with great interest. But all a concert shortly after the death of John F. of a sudden, I felt guilty — ignorant to a society Kennedy, “this will be our reply to violence: to that was turning increasingly anti-Semitic, make music more intensely, more beautifully, complicitly oblivious to a political system more desperately than ever before.” It is through moving irrevocably towards fascism. the arts that we respond to tragedy both One other aspect of “Cabaret” that I will never personal and societal. It is through the arts that forget is the audience’s vocal responsiveness to we address these events in all their emotional the humor of the first act and the utter silence complexities. of the second act. At the beginning, for example, As a composer, I’ve often been obsessed the sexual jokes of the Emcee, the host of the with the idea that music expresses what words “Kit Kat Klub,” are quite funny and met with cannot. But in the context of tragedy, I’ve begun audible, and sometimes abundant, laughter. to realize that the arts do more than that. In this But in the second act, as the anti-Semitic context, the arts begin in a place past words. undertones to the Emcee’s humor become The best pieces of art, however, take us a step more apparent, the audience neither laughs nor further: They connect places within ourselves applauds. Yet the cast and crew play on, acting as that we hadn’t known existed to events and though nothing has changed; it is not the nature subject matters that we did not experience. They of the humor that has changed, they seem to force us to think critically about ourselves and imply, but the audience’s understanding of its about society; they provide us with new areas implications. of thought and demand from us new degrees of When I think of art that responds to tragedy emotional complexity. SAMMY SUSSMAN
NETFLIX
Labor unions are actually what make Hollywood run SAYAN GHOSH Daily Arts Writer
Earlier in the year, the animators of one of Netflix’s long-running originals, “Bojack Horseman,” ratified a contract with The Animation Guild (TAG) to formally unionize and benefit from the protections that their colleagues in the writing and acting areas of the show were already receiving. It’s worth taking a deeper dive into just why such a move was important and how organized labor already plays a big part in the production of TV.
NETFLIX
The Animation Guild in particular already serves most of Netflix’s animated shows produced in-house in Los Angeles. At its core, TAG, like any organized labor union, advocates for its members by way of establishing wage minimums, providing health benefits and negotiating with bosses. Specifically, TAG’s collective bargaining agreement ensures that time worked in excess of 40 hours a week will be paid at a higher hourly rate than the standard and provides provisions for dismissal pay. Despite its relative stability in the present day, TAG’s history shows that the major studios in Hollywood have always attempted to withold any semblance of protection to some of its most essential workers. For example, the website notes “In the 1970s, the subcontracting of television animation to foreign subcontractors, known as ‘runaway production’ began to seriously affect employment.” While TAG won a case guaranteeing local employment, by the 1980s, the studios gained the upper hand and
eventually most animation work was sent abroad. While an animation “renaissance” of sorts countered the decline of the 1980s, history always shows that without organized labor, the studio executives will always take decisions to undermine the livelihoods of the people that make their shows. Many of the animators and other types of artists are freelancers, the type of workers that large studios love to exploit even more so than usual, making organizations like TAG that facilitate collective bargaining essential. The writers on “Bojack” are themselves part of a union, the Writers Guild of America (WGA). Founded as a response to studios slashing wages for its writers, it too has actively advocated for the army of writers spread out across the TV, film and media landscape. As recently as April of this year, thousands of WGA members fired their talent agents as part of a protest against packaging fees, in which talent agencies take a cut of profits from the shows they work with rather than commissioning their clients. The WGA contends that this pseudo-“backdoor” arrangement eliminates the incentives for the agency to maximize their clients’ pay. The brutally competitive world of Hollywood and the ruthlessness of the executives who rule it make it an absolute necessity for the workers (writers, actors, artists, sound engineers, etc.), who make the whole thing spin to use their collective power. As consumers, it is important for us to recognize the precariousness of the situations so many Hollywood workers find themselves in and therefore support the efforts to allow them to continue making the art we know and love.
NETFLIX
MUSIC VIDEO REVIEW: ‘FOLLOW GOD’
SINGLE REVIEW: ‘YO LOVE’
PARK PICTURES
In 2019, Kanye West found himself This video has a few similarities with the reacquainted with two of the most important boisterous video for “Otis” from Jay-Z and men in his life: the Lord, his Father (spiritually), Kanye’s earth-shattering 2011 release Watch and Ray, his father (biologically). With the the Throne, specifically the shots of the two men release of the music video for “Follow God,” in each video whipping automobiles around an endless landscape, doing donuts and generally Kanye enjoys the presence of both of them. The video opens with a monologue from Ray, just vibing, but the two differ starkly. While during which he poses the question, “What does both videos are triumphant, “Otis” gives off it really mean to follow God?” and answers by the vibe that, at the time, Kanye felt the need to recalling the first time he guided his fearful prove himself to the world. The “Follow God” children through their video, on the other hand, presents an entirely first snowfall. He states that they ought to different man, one that Follow God “Walk in the footprints is not only celebratory of his accomplishments that (he’s) already Kanye West but also content with made.” Ray and Kanye Getting Out Our Dream II are decked out in a where he is in life. He’s set of Walls-branded got nothing to prove to insulated coveralls and anyone anymore. overalls, respectively. “Follow God” may They proceed to take a couple of Kanye’s all- seem like a relatively uneventful video for Kanye, terrain vehicles (a blacked-out, yet family- whose last release was the utterly bizarre video focused Polaris RZR and a blacked-out, yet for “Fade,” but that’s the point. He doesn’t need completely impractical SHERP) around Kanye’s to generate publicity anymore. He can be the 4,000-acre ranch in Cody, Wyo. and collectively exact person he knows he is, and this sentiment enjoy the gifts their God gave them. The video is accurately reflected in the video’s focus on closes with a blue-and-gold text slide inspired by the relationship between Kanye and his dad. All the cover of Jesus is King. It details a sentimental Kanye needs are his family, his father and his and affecting exchange between Kanye and Ray, God. during which Kanye confesses, “It took me 42 years to realize that my dad was my best friend.” — Jim Wilson, Daily Arts Writer
UMG RECORDINGS
“Yo Love” is a collaboration between Vince in his subject matter. 6LACK and Mereba Staples, 6LACK and Mereba, released for take on the chorus of the song, combining Melina Matsoukas’s upcoming drama/thriller their smooth vocals to continue the love story film, “Queen & Slim.” The combination of the Staples begins to tell at the start. It’s refreshing three R&B artists is slightly unexpected, as and exciting to see such a shift in sound from Vince Staples has never collaborated with a rapper like Staples, and this single further either before. The proves the breadth of his talent. The song itself is even classic, hard-rap more of a surprise, considering that sound of his fullYo Love Staples’s most length albums and most of his recent releases Vince Staples, 6LACK, Mereba EPs and mixtapes have boasted UMG Recordings the consistent cannot and should uptempo, bassy not be replaced, sound that made but that doesn’t mean it isn’t nice him famous. “Yo to switch up Love” is not one of those songs, and is certainly more in line with the tempo every once in a while. “Yo Love” the other two artists’ typical softer sound. is the perfect, sappy break that Staples’s Although the single is not the first mellow discography needed. track that Staples has been a part of, it is one of the few times we see a pure vulnerability — Gigi Ciulla, For The Daily
Arts
6 —Thursday, November 14, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
FILM LONGFORM
Bad romance and teen nostaligia: A ‘Twilight’ deep dive SAMANTHA NELSON Daily Arts Writer
Growing up a hopeless romantic and a movie buff, I’ve always been in love with the idea of love. At nine years old, I swooned over the connection between Eliza Doolittle and Henry Higgins in “My Fair Lady;” at 11, I watched “Romeo + Juliet” religiously, and when I was 13, there was nothing dreamier than the cuttable tension and crude banter between Claire and Bender in “The Breakfast Club.” In my eyes, these couples were idealizable. I never considered that Professor Higgins had to transform Eliza in order for her to be lovable, that Romeo and Juliet’s bond was solidified more by lust than love or that the basis of Bender and Claire’s relationship was essentially verbal harassment. Considering this pattern, I started to wonder: Did every romantic relationship in film merely include the good and gloss over the bad and the ugly without a second thought? In order to tackle this question, I decided to reassess some of my favorite movie couples from my teenage years, Edward and Bella in “Twilight,” J.D. and Veronica in “Heathers” and Holly and Kit in “Badlands,” to come to grips with my and society’s potentially problematic romanticization of these on-screen relationships. The “Twilight” series was one of my first loves and, as an angsty fifth grader, Bella and Edward’s moody, supernatural and iconic courtship was PG-13 gold. My infatuation started with the books, which I devoured in a frenzy as a tween. There was something so entrancing about the tale of a paranormal romance shared between two wandering souls who met in a high school biology class. Thankfully, the end of the four-part saga was only the beginning for the franchise. In 2008, three years after Stephanie Meyer released the book, “Twilight” went to the silver screen, and a whole universe was created filled with adoring fans, future sequels and promises of memes, fanfiction and “Twihard” fan-clubbing for decades to come. For anyone who somehow managed to avoid the “Twilight” fever that swept our generation, I’ll give a brief synopsis. Bella Swan, a 17-yearold, semi-reclusive girl moves to the tight-knit, drizzly town of Forks, Wash., to live with her estranged father. Life in Forks looks unpromising and monotonous until a gorgeous, mysterious boy named Edward Cullen catches her eye. Long story short, Edward is revealed to be a vampire, the chemistry Bella and Edward share is otherworldly and by the end of the film, there is no doubt in their minds — or the audience’s for that matter — that they are soulmates. Since its release, my appreciation for “Twilight” has been unwavering, strengthened each year by annual rewatches and replays of the iconic soundtrack. Nevertheless, “Twilight” has always been divisive. For millions of young girls, teenagers and moms, “Twilight” was a pop-culture revolution, a rebirth of the romance novel that was desperately in need of revival. Not everyone shared this same optimism. For some, “Twilight” and its sequels prompted criticisms of poor acting, mockeries of ridiculous dialogue and a whole lot of flack for sexism. As a die-hard fan throughout middle school, “Twilight” could do no evil in my eyes. But I had also never viewed it through an analytical lens. After recently rewatching the saga with my roommates, I felt my 11-year-old blinders begin to fall, and I finally began to digest the criticisms. Was Bella giving women a bad name by coming off as “weak?” Was Edward’s temperament swoon-worthy, or paternalistic and condescending? Could I forgive these flaws, and most importantly, if loving “Twilight” was wrong, should I want to be right? The first criticism that I aimed to address was the one proposed
about Bella’s fragility, and the overall representation of female dependence on men. In an article for The Atlantic, Ashley Fetters quotes Guardian writer David Cox, who bluntly labels the franchise as one that “‘ate feminism.’” Though a bold claim, Cox’s assessment cannot be swept under the rug. Fetters argues that the question of what exactly “Twilight” was trying to get at is still open for debate, elaborating that Edward and Bella’s romance could be interpreted by both “a cautionary tale about the dangers of unbalanced relationships, or as a commentary on the virtue of an unswervingly committed partner.” Such commentary reflects on Edward’s tendencies that skirt the line between creepy and protective, i.e. watching Bella while she sleeps without her knowing, scolding her for being clumsy and reaffirming her lack of power by vowing to always “protect” her from harm’s way. While I had always perceived Edward’s attention toward Bella to be affectionate and pure, perhaps his influence on her is more controlling than considerate. Without Edward, Bella is portrayed as lost, thrown into a new school in a new town with a father she barely knows. All of Bella’s relationships before Edward are unfulfilling: Her mother is preoccupied with her younger boyfriend, her father feels like more
of a stranger than a family member and her new friendships serve more as placeholders than genuine connections. Edward’s entrance into the picture represents a shift for Bella — an awakening from monotony, so to speak. But instead of functioning as an addition to her life, he becomes the center of it and a reason for living where there was, apparently, not one before. Bella’s growing desire is not only directed at Edward, but also at the world he belongs to. Her world is composed of divorced parents, ditzy friends and aimlessness, but his world is one filled with a loyal family, ageless beauty and unearthly powers. His is a world that Bella can only be a part of by association, which she soon realizes will never be enough. It is this realization that seduces Bella, the idea that Edward’s life of magnetism, beauty and strength is not quite hers, but eventually could be if she became a vampire. Bella’s goal of immortality would arguably be less worrisome if it weren’t for the fact that the person who dictates its fulfilment is Edward. He holds the power to change Bella, a reality that he continuously reminds her of, and objects to her wishes to be “turned,” justifying his reasoning with the logic that he wants to save Bella’s soul, since he no longer has his own. By practically eliminating Bella’s ability to exercise choice, Edward governs the path that her future will follow. Though it pains me to admit it, Edward’s initial refusal to change Bella may not be entirely motivated by authentic concern and adoration, but also by a concealed impulse to feel power over her.
The more I mulled it over, the more I began to realize that “Twilight” wasn’t the first time I’d kept my blinders on. Two of my favorite film relationships, J.D. and Veronica in the cult classic “Heathers” and Holly and Kit in “Badlands,” were also of questionable standing. While these two films differ from “Twilight” in their maturity levels and their much more obviously toxic romances, there is no doubt a pattern of illusory female control and real male power that runs between all three films. In the world of film, there seems to be a recurring tendency to romanticize relationships that revolve around violence, deception or infatuation, and to pass these relationships off as exceptional portrayals of love. The toxic and sinister relationship that director Michael Lehmann displays between charming-yet-psychotic J.D. and brilliant, quirky and fierce Veronica is one that sometimes comes off as romantic. When I first saw this film, I was wooed by J.D.’s badboy, carefree attitude and, because of this, was partly able to set aside the fact that he murders his classmates and is completely deranged. Though obviously diverging into a much darker genre than “Twilight,” J.D.’s allure for Veronica is much like Edward’s for Bella. Both boys extend the opportunity for an escape from the mundane pattern of high school life. Like Bella, Veronica finds herself immersed in J.D.’s world, which puts her further and further out of touch with her own (and her sanity). His coaxing brings out a different, sinister side to her and, for a while at least, she embraces it. Though Veronica eventually gets a grip and, remembers that murder is wrong, she has to break away from J.D.’s control in order to do so. We can compare these relationships to that of Holly and Kit from “Badlands,” the 1973 Terrence Malick movie. Holly, the female protagonist in “Badlands,” goes on a murderous escapade across the country after the male lead, Kit, kills his girlfriend’s father. Kit is trigger-happy, killing without real motive and still somehow charming audiences both within and outside of the film. Similar to “Heathers,” “Badlands” paints an oddball, disturbing romance in which an attractive couple gets caught up in crazy, violent antics that yield disastrous results yet remain bizarrely romantic. Though all three of the aforementioned YOUTUBE films vary considerably, the common thread of idealized, unrealistic and perilous romance remains consistent. From Romeo’s impulsive murder of Tybalt, to J.D.’s obsession with eliminating Veronica’s friends, to Kit’s insensitivity towards violence in general, these depictions have lead me to believe that the idealization of destructive and twisted teenage “love” is something deeply ingrained in the culture of film. Now comes the big question: Are films responsible for showing realistic exemplifications of “young love” instead of illustrating ridiculously unhealthy relationships? Or is there an artfulness and beauty to idealized, over-dramatized and often dangerous romantic depictions? Films have an undeniable power to shape our understanding not only of the world around us, but about ourselves as well. In the midst of a rising demand for more diverse, well-rounded and realistic roles for women in film, it is essential to consider the repercussions that films can have on a young girl’s confidence in her sexuality, awareness of herself worth and conception of what a healthy relationship looks like. Perhaps the problem is not that films like “Twilight,” “Heathers” and “Badlands” present young, heavily female audiences with risqué, dark or destructive relationships, but rather that there is no dissection of these contentious themes in the films. Blindly romanticizing relationships filled with drama, instability and immorality will understandably confuse young viewers, taking away the message that something as serious as murder and suicide can be taken lightly if it is a labor of love.
TV REVIEW
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I’ll try ‘Green Eggs & Ham’ One of the most remarkable things about this show is the cast and crew. Michael Douglas and Adam DeVine aren’t the only big names. Diane It all starts with a robbery. A thief in all black Keaton (“Annie Hall”) also voices a character known swings down through the clouds on an umbrella, as Michellee, an overprotective mother of a very like a criminal Mary Poppins. The thief swings over spunky daughter. Daveed Diggs (“Hamilton”) even the gates of the Glurfsburg Zoo, past a distracted voices a French mouse. However, the true star of the security guard, past the various animals. Stopping show is Keegan-Michael Key (“Key and Peele”), who in front of a cage, the thief comes face to face with voices the narrator. For all the show’s attempts at a dark, growling mass. The alarms go off. Sounds reinvention, Key’s confused, rhyming narrator is by far the best addition. Here, he’s both of crashing. When the security funny and charming, managing not investigates, the cage is busted to overwhelm the story, but keep it wide open, the animal gone. fresh and upbeat. For those of us who grew The original book is 72 pages in up through the rhymes of the length, often with one, maybe two pseudonymous doctor, the story sentences on each page (usually doesn’t sound like any Dr. Suess concerning where one might book we’ve ever read. His rhyming eat green eggs and ham, with a picture books have sustained bold refute). The fact that Netflix through the cultural imagination managed to turn the story into a since they came out in the ’50s and 13-episode series says a lot about just ’60s. Every few years or so, we get how much the streaming service yet another attempt to reinvent added to its story. The inventor plot, his books for the big screen, even thus far, seems to work well enough. though it never quite captures NETFLIX It’s a very simple story but, then the original magic. Netflix’s new attempt at “Green Eggs and Ham” may be simple, but again, so is the original “Green Eggs and Ham,” so it’s hard to complain about that. to its credit, it’s also interesting and fun. Something I particularly admire about this The story this time around follows Guy-Am-I (Michael Douglas, “Wall Street”), a grumpy, failed adaption is the animation. There have been a number inventor who turns out to be the only inventor not of animated adaptations in the past twenty years, chosen to go to Meepville to present his invention. such as “The Lorax” or “Horton Hears a Who.” But He also does not like green eggs and ham — not that Netflix’s “Green Eggs and Ham” appeals to the older, he’s ever tried it. This is information given to Sam- hand-drawn animated specials from the ’60s and ’70s. There’s a kind I-Am (Adam DeVine of nostalgic charm “Workaholics”), in seeing such a fun, a happy-go-lucky relaxed application of inventor. It turns a very old animation out the latter is Series Premiere style. also the thief from All in all, the the beginning Netflix original plot of “Green having stolen the Streaming Now Eggs and Ham” works Chickeraffe, a much the same way dangerous animal other Dr. Suess books that the police now believe on the loose in the streets of Glurfsburg. have: It is a framework onto which larger, entertaining Only it isn’t. It’s in Sam-I-Am’s briefcase. But when stories can be told. I can’t say it’s the most sophisticated Sam and Guy accidentally swap briefcases at a diner, show or even the best offering for younger audiences, but it does appeal to nostalgia. It may even be good. things get a little tricky. MAXWELL SCHWARZ Daily Arts Writer
Release Date: Thursday, November 14, 2019
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
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Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
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30 Long-limbed 44 __ training beasts 46 Tails partner 31 “So ready for the 49 Furnish with weekend!” gear 32 Chaplin 50 Sporty Toyota named for her until 2002 grandmother 51 Laundry day DOWN 33 Relax in the hot casualties 1 Clear, as a tub 52 Rooster topper printer 35 Yuletide libation 53 Seed covering 2 Czech Republic 39 14 British pounds 54 Jazz singer capital, to Czechs 41 Big name in Simone 3 “Don’t beat advice 55 Show up around the ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE: bush!” 4 A bit out in the ocean 5 Painter’s tool 6 ... in a board game 7 Present in a biased way 8 Reed instrument 9 Pond protozoan 10 ... in a ball game 11 Gusto 12 Back muscles, briefly 13 K-12 appropriate 24 ... on a game mat 25 ... on a game card 28 Actor Estrada 29 “Dibs!” 11/14/19 62 Bother a great deal 63 Great times 64 Uruguay’s Punta del __ 65 __ de deux
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Green Eggs and Ham
By Joseph Ashear ©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
11/14/19
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Thursday, November 14, 2019 — 7
Offense clicking behind Patterson Simpson stands out on pick-and-roll CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer
MILES MACKLIN/Daily
Senior quarterback Shea Patterson has been running the ball more, helping open up Michigan’s offense.
THEO MACKIE Daily Sports Editor
Ben McDaniels stood in front of the media Wednesday afternoon, detailing the texture that a football takes on in cold weather and the impact that has on ball security. Midway through, the quarterbacks coach offered an apology, realizing that the minutiae of a football’s texture isn’t high on the list of storylines surrounding Michigan football three days before the Michigan State game. Inside Schembechler Hall, though, it’s a strange juxtaposition to the scene just a few weeks ago, when ball security was the unavoidable topic of the month. That was back when Shea Patterson fumbled five times and lost four in the season’s first three games. Now, six games removed from his last lost fumble, it’s a forgotten topic from a departed part of Michigan’s season — back when its offense couldn’t get going, with Patterson as the primary culprit. “Ball handling’s improved a ton,” Patterson said. “Struggled a little bit early to keep the ball off the ground, but that was a big emphasis over the last four, five weeks.” The correlation isn’t lost on the Wolverines. “Not getting ourselves into
bad situations, third-and-longs (has helped the turnaround),” Patterson said. “Just taking care of the football, and I think the run game’s really helped that out. It’s opened up the pass game a little bit, and our guys are really getting into open space.” Back then — when Michigan nearly got shut out in a loss to Wisconsin and then scored just 10 points on Iowa two weeks later — the questions that encompassed the Wolverines’ offense were wholesale, with Patterson clearly hampered by a series of injuries. What is this offense supposed to be? Why is it not utilizing its best weapons? Is Josh Gattis ready to be an offensive coordinator? Four games, 146 points and three wins later, those questions are gone, largely replaced by conclusive answers. This isn’t the Oklahomaesque spread offense that many envisioned when Gattis was hired, and Patterson isn’t a dark-horse Heisman candidate. But there’s a coherent identity and Patterson looks comfortable in the offense, mixing in elements of Gattis’ modern concepts with Michigan’s old offense. Holding onto the football has been a large part of that, helping Gattis install his promised runpass option game. “That’s a big part of our offense,”
McDaniels said. “The mesh with the backs, giving it, pulling it, throwing it, it’s a huge part of the system. And (Patterson) does a good job of it.” The biggest impact of Patterson’s improved ball security, though, can be found in the ground game. Amid his slew of early-season injuries, he was hesitant to keep the ball on quarterback reads or get out of the pocket on passing plays — moves he feels more comfortable making now. Since the loss at Wisconsin, he’s picked up gains of 10-plus yards in all but two games, run for five touchdowns and helped get the Wolverines’ run game going by keeping defenses honest. “Of course we know he can run and throw, so that’s an added benefit,” said senior guard Michael Onwenu. “If they bite down hard on a run, we can pull it. ... It makes defenses think twice.” So now, two months after Patterson ran for negative yards in consecutive games, McDaniels doesn’t even have to talk about running with him. He’s trusted to make his own reads and get out of the pocket as he sees fit. “Every plan is built in a way that, for the right reasons, when he takes off, it’s a good thing for our offense,” McDaniels said. And, most importantly, it doesn’t end with the ball on the turf.
It was a play Creighton had seen before. Jon Teske — with his imposing 7-foot-1, 265-pound frame — set a high-ball screen for Zavier Simpson, who, fully in control and dangling the basketball from his right hand as if it were a yo-yo, led his defender right into Teske’s torso. As Simpson peeled off, occupying two Bluejays in the process, the senior center dove towards the basket, eventually receiving a pinpoint bouncepass and converting an easy layup underneath. The sequence gave Michigan a seven-point cushion with just over five minutes remaining in the second half and was the fourth time the duo had connected directly off the pickand-roll, leading to a 79-69 win. Creighton saw that set countless times on Tuesday night — it just couldn’t stop it. “Simpson’s hard to control,” said Bluejays coach Greg McDermott. “He is who he is for a reason. He makes great decisions with the basketball and got us stretched out some. “Our bigs probably didn’t do a good enough job of stopping the basketball, and when we did, Simpson made the right read, either with the skip pass or finding Teske under the basket.” Simpson was his usual self against Creighton, dictating the Wolverines’ offense and attacking the basket when the opportunity presented itself. In addition to his nine assists — five of which went to Teske — the senior point guard tallied 17 points. For much of the first half though, junior forward Isaiah Livers and junior guard Eli Brooks were the beneficiaries of Teske’s high-ball screens. Curling off and attacking the lane, Simpson found them for open looks from deep.
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Senior guard Zavier Simpson operated the pick-and-roll well against Creighton.
But, as time went on, things opened up for Teske. Nearing halftime, Simpson found the rolling big man on consecutive possessions for two uncontested dunks. “He was just being more patient,” Teske said. “He wasn’t forcing things. When he’s in those ball screens, he can get downhill. He’s gonna find you if you’re open — either kick it out for threes or throw it up for a lob. He’s just very creative off of those ball screens.” With Creighton hedging on the shooters more in the second half and lacking size in its frontcourt, the SimpsonTeske pipeline was even more freeflowing. As a result, Teske scored 12 of his 17 in the final 20 minutes. “Anytime we play a team like that, we want to use our height advantage,” Teske said. “In the first half, we were trying to, but sometimes it’s not going to really work. But (Simpson) did a great job of getting downhill and kicking it out for open threes. In the second half, that kinda opened it up for everyone downlow.” While Michigan coach Juwan Howard prefers his team push the ball up the floor in transition, in half-court sets, his offensive system is predicated on his guard’s playmaking
ability coming off the high-ball screen. Against Appalachian State, Simpson struggled with this, especially in the second half. A proven ball-handler, he uncharacteristically turned the ball over six times — five of which came after halftime. As Howard is quick to point out though, transitioning from John Beilein’s offense to his own will take some time, even for Simpson. “Well, it’s a new offense for him,” Howard said. “For all of us. There’s going to be some growing pains throughout the process. Hopefully, with the growing pains that there are, we get better. But I trust we will.” The growing pains Simpson experienced against the Mountaineers were absent on Tuesday. With Simpson orchestrating the pick-and-roll to perfection, the Wolverines improved over the course of the game. And, the Bluejays had no answer for it. “He’s very crafty and smart,” Howard said. “Our bigs can do a better job of screening, which I will help them get better in that area by screening and screening angles, to allow Zavier to be able to get downhill, to make plays for himself, or for others.”
For Michigan hockey, this weekend 3-point shooting provides key for ‘M’ is about more than Michigan State JACK KINGSLEY
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Michael Pastujov has learned about the Michigan-Michigan State rivalry
MOLLY SHEA
Daily Sports Writer
Michael Pastujov smirked. “I mean, it’s (Michigan) State week,” he said. “Everybody’s pretty fired up. Everybody’s ready.” When asked about the upcoming weekend series, the junior forward’s response was direct and to the point. Everyone was onboard. Everyone was buying into the vision. Just like Pastujov’s answer, Michigan coach Mel Pearson’s message to the team this week sung the same tune. Pearson emphasized the importance of taking the schedule one game at a time and stressed that the Wolverines’ season wasn’t in danger of needing to be turned around. It’s still early in the season, and the Michigan hockey team is building the foundation of its play style. “It’s obviously very important,” Pearson said. “You can’t keep giving points away if we’d like to finish as high as we want to. Especially home games.” And there are certainly areas where the team could stand to improve. In the last two weeks 12 conference points have been within Michigan’s grasp. It’s only managed to eke one point out from its last four games — good enough for second-to-last
place in the conference. It’s no secret that as of late, the Wolverines’ offense has been struggling considerably. Through its last five games, Michigan has found the back of the net just seven times. Despite these setbacks, Pearson preached a message of positivity to his team this week during practice. “The mood has been good,” Pearson said. “The intensity has been really good in practice, which is a positive. There’s so many games left, so it’s not like football where if you lose one game, it can really sidetrack you. You have to stay upbeat and positive and really trust in the players around you.” The Wolverines’ absence on the scoresheet is not the only thing that’s provided fuel in the team’s preparation for the upcoming games against the Spartans — there’s an almostcentury long rivalry, too. For players like senior forward Will Lockwood — someone who’s been a Michigan fan his entire life — the history between the two schools is long and grinding. On the other side of the spectrum are Wolverines like Pastujov, born and raised in Florida, completely unaware of the vying teams. “Until I got here, I didn’t really think about it much,” Pastujov said. “Then once you get here, you learn the
history of it. What it means to everybody here and what it means to the fans. It’s hard not to get pretty deep into it.” In Pastujov’s freshman year when Michigan State came to play at Yost, Michigan blanked the Spartans, 4-0. Then — the next day — it lost, 5-0, at Munn Ice Arena. Every year, no matter how either team is fareing, the series is either school’s for the taking. With the Wolverines having only one conference point, there’s a lot at stake this weekend. “At the end of the day it’s all about Big Ten play,” Pastujov said. “And right now, we’re on a four-game skid in Big Ten. There’s going to be six huge points this week. I guess that’s priority one, but the rivalry, it’s definitely still in our heads.” The energy boost provided by such a big rivalry is exactly what Michigan needs. Yes, it’s still early in the season. And yes, its last five games have been close, but if this team wants to achieve the goals it set, there has to be a momentum swing at some point. Beyond fierce competitiveness, this series offers players who’ve been struggling — like sophomore forward Jimmy Lambert — a shot at redemption. Twice last Friday, Lambert had the game on his stick and failed to convert. The frustration was written all over his face and mirrored on his teammates’, too. This weekend, he has the chance to prove his talent, and maybe provide the spark the Wolverines’ offense has been desperately searching for the past five games. Because, yes, it’s rivalry weekend. But for a team still trying to find its footing in the Big Ten, it’s about so much more than history. “You don’t come to Michigan just to play in big games,” Lambert said. “You come to win in big games.”
Daily Sports Writer
In both of its games so far, the Michigan women’s basketball team has attempted at least 20 3-pointers — a statistic that occurred only one time all of last season. The change in style is largely due to one player in particular: Naz Hillmon. Against both Western Michigan and Bradley, Hillmon was the defense’s main focus. She often faced double and tripleteams as opposing defenses dared other Michigan players to beat them from the perimeter. In both games, open 3-point opportunities were plentiful, and the Wolverines were willing to take what they were given. “We make sure we’re taking threes every day and getting up shots every day, because we know the attention that Naz is gonna face,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “If people are double-teaming the post, somebody else has gotta step in and make a play.” Added junior forward Hailey Brown: “It definitely opens (the floor) up. If my player wants to go on double or help off, then that’s an easy kick out to me, or honestly with anybody.” In Friday’s game, the Wolverines only went 5-for-20 from 3-point range, but it was
clearly a focus of their offense. On Sunday, this percentage improved. Michigan shot 11-for-23 from beyond the arc, and two of its biggest runs were sparked by efficient 3-point shooting. Rather than forcing the ball into the paint and taking contested shots or risking turnovers with Hillmon drawing in bodies, the Wolverines took these open 3-pointers and didn’t lose confidence in themselves when they weren’t falling. Freshman guard Michelle Sidor — who has received praise from both her teammates and Barnes Arico on her ability to score off the bounce — attempted 16 shots in the two games, 11 of which were from deep. “Obviously I can shoot ... but I can definitely drive too and score in a lot of different ways,” Sidor said. “I didn’t display that a lot this weekend because I was mostly just coming off screens and shooting.” These 3-pointers didn’t just come from Michigan’s top shooters such as Sidor. Over the weekend, nine different Wolverines made a 3-point shot, including every forward on the roster except Hillmon. The ability of the Michigan’s bigs to knock down these shots, in turn, opens up the paint more, forcing defenses to cover the perimeter. “I think it’s great when you have a great compliment to Naz in another post player that can
face-up and knock down threes, and our three other post players are really good at that,” Barnes Arico said. “So we just gotta have the confidence, if Naz is being doubled, to make those shots and take those shots.” It was no coincidence that Hillmon registered a doubledouble on Sunday. With Michigan shooting more effectively, the opposing defense had to shift some of their focus away from Hillmon and towards its shooters. “It opens up the floor a lot,” Hillmon said. “You have to close out to those 3-point shooters, and it opens up the lane so much for me to get long or short rebounds, so having great shooters on my team … helps me a lot.” Despite streaky shooting, the Wolverines decidedly won their first two games because of their ability to catch fire at any time. As the competition gets better, it will be crucial for them to consistently make open 3-pointers to force teams to stop packing the paint against Hillmon, allowing her to be as dominant as she was last season. “If we’re able to knock down shots it’ll become a lot more easier for her to get her quick scores and stuff like that in the paint,” Brown said. “Just being able to … shoot from the outside forces defenses to kind of pick and choose how they want to defend and what they want to take away.”
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan women’s basketball team wants to shoot more threes when teams double-team Naz Hillmon.
Sports
8 — Thursday, November 14, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Dueling columns: The Daily vs The State News L D ast week, our editor-inchief, Maya Goldman, and I received an email from The State News asking if we could play our annual touch football game — which has never let a little weather change things MAX before — MARCOVITCH inside this year. Forgetting for a second the fact that this is newspaper football and nobody has the time nor the means to rent a damn dome, that actually sums up the current state of this newspaper rivalry quite well: one side humming along, business as usual, the other desperately looking for any excuse to feel slighted. Every year, their quips in this column take on a similar tone. This year, as with most, they will fall remarkably flat. The State News will claim to not care about the annual touch football game, which I suppose is the correct stance for a group that had recently graduated diapers the last time their team won. They’ll show up to chant expletives at us anyway, take their 15th-straight loss and drive back to East Lansing assured that next year is the year. They’ll lament our large staff, because offering opportunities to eager, young journalists is, of course, a bad thing. Awfully rich coming from the paper that, as of the publication of this column, hasn’t covered its school’s women’s soccer team in 26 days, its volleyball team in 13 days and its field hockey team team in 78 days. They’ve written two stories all year — one of which was a 398word Big Ten title game story — about the women’s cross country team, which is the most successful team at the entire school. You might want to grab any riffraff off the street to help you out there. Maybe, in a fit of desperation, The State News will turn to the Michigan State football team’s onfield product, which seems, uh … off the table this year. It’s always been weird when your writers have gone that direction in the past, considering you’re supposed to be objective, but I suppose it’s
particularly hard to do this year when the Spartans are a living, breathing embodiment of the “this is fine” GIF. They’ll hold up their J-School as if it somehow portends a better newspaper, which is easily dispelled by, I don’t know, a cursory scroll through statenews.com. Sometimes they’ll stress their collection of awards, which seems like the wrong course of action in a year we won the award for the best college sports section in the country — not to mention best gamer, best columnist and best front page. One year, they even drew a little Spartans/Persians metaphor that made for quite the read. One excerpt: “Mark Dantonio is King Leonidas, and has been for his Spartans since his arrival to the throne of head coach in East Lansing. A great leader — the men he has recruited were not the best athletes, nor the greatest students, but dedication to his process of intense, hard-nosed training and conditioning has led him to glory no Spartan coach in the modern era of MSU football has achieved. ‘Those who have stayed are already champions.’ ” Nailed it. Just a couple thoughts: 1) Be more of a homer. I dare you. 2) Help me brush up on some history — was King Leonidas also
forced out of his role after blowing a 25-point lead at home to Lovie Smith? In reality, I harbor no disdain for Michigan State. I’m not from Michigan. I did not apply to Michigan State. I’m sure it’s a fine school, and I’m sure you’re all totally, completely, entirely pleased you’re there and not here. I’m sure you’re all good people, and I’d love to grab a meal or beer after we make it 15 on Friday. You can have your robotic J-School ledes, I’ll take our creativity. You can have your haphazard profiles, I’ll take our deeply-reported features. You can have your professors, I’ll take the best alumni base out there. You can have your smaller staff (weird flex), I’ll take the best college sports section in the goddamn country. So, by all means, rehash the same flimsy insults this year; there’s not a single leg to stand on. We’ll just be over here beating you on the field, off the field, in the classroom, in the newsroom and just about everywhere in between. Hopefully you can find some dignity in that defeat.
Marcovitch is a co-managing sports editor and football beat writer for The Daily. He can be reached via email at maxmarco@umich.edu or on Twitter @Max_Marcovitch.
ear Only News Source in Ann Arbor, To be honest, I’m impressed. Finding time to go to class, prepare for a football game and bike to city hall meetCHASE ings in the MICHAELSON rain — all while balancing being one of four (four!) city government reporters — must be exhausting. The thought of carrying one whole fourth of really any beat while attending the prestigious University of Michigan — wow. They should write stories about people like you in The New York Times. It’s not just your city government reporters I would want to single out, though. Unless you were, well, craving the attention of being singled out by being featured in the Times. It’s also this quote — which I had to re-read twice — because I couldn’t believe it wasn’t said in jest, even by someone at your notoriously humble university. “We’ve been given this mantle of holding the powerful
accountable, five nights a week, with no department backing us up,” your managing editor said. When it comes to the rivalry between The Daily and The State News, you might want to pipe down about holding the powerful accountable. That’s kind of our thing. That’s why we win Pacemakers. And unlike the one in Schembechler Hall, our trophy case is full of awards from this century. What department, by the way, do you speak of? Are you referring to the fact that your university, with its 200 years of history and presidential alumni, still doesn’t have a journalism school? Your university cured polio, so ask them to invest in its journalists! We don’t have a department backing us up, either. The State News is wholly independent, both from our university and our journalism school. We “carry that mantle” also, and we do it without histrionic, self-important quotes. I wonder how you get by with just a $4.5 million endowment and a staff of more than 250 students. According to the Times article, you only elected your most recent editor-in-chief after she was able to successfully name the 11 members of city hall,
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Michigan football team will play Michigan State on Saturday, and on Friday, The Michigan Daily and The State News will play their annual touch football game.
along with their wards and party affiliations. I assume she was one of 17 or 18 people covering the city the year before, but maybe not. That is not a test to see if someone is fit to lead. That’s the kind of pointless memorization I had to do when I joined a fraternity. So, now we come to the football game. A touch football game played to prove, well, what exactly? I couldn’t tell you. That your staff of 250 has better athletes than our staff of 40? It’s like a school from the Football Bowl Subdivision losing to a team from the Football Championship Subdivision — there’s a difference in scholarship count. You guys are the favorites this year, looking for your 15th straight win in this very important, not at all farcical, game. But The State News could win. Crazier things have happened, like a Michigan team under Jim Harbaugh winning an important game on the road, or a Michigan alumnus going through one whole dinner party without mentioning their degree. It happens once in a blue moon. And, besides, no team representing the University of Michigan has ever lost a football game when they had a substantial advantage in the number of participating athletes. So, with that, I will wish you good luck Friday night. I’ll wish good luck to the real team representing your university with actual athletes on Saturday afternoon, too. I’ll be there. So will your 14 football reporters. In all seriousness, in this day and age, where journalists from all schools are under attack, I think it’s important that we stick together. We’re all trying to do the same thing — keep the public informed. Some of us just recognize that other people do it, too. Michaelson is a spring sports editor for The State News. He can be reached via email at chase. michaelson@statenews.com or on Twitter @Chasemarino13.
FOOTBALL
Michigan preparing for cold weather ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
AN EVENING WITH SAFA AL AHMAD NOVEMBER 19, 2019 | 7:30 P.M. | RACKHAM AUDITORIUM
FREE | NO REGISTRATION | WALLENBERG.UMICH.EDU
As the Michigan football team practiced outdoors in singledigit windchills this week, snow and ice still on the ground, Chris Partridge didn’t hear a single complaint. But the safeties and special teams coach couldn’t help but notice that he hadn’t quite dressed for the weather. “I don’t understand (when coaches wear shorts),” he said. “I don’t want to freeze. I want to have clothes on when I’m coaching.” In bad weather, Partridge has to worry more than most other coaches — not just because of his apparel choices, but because special teams plays like kicks and punts are affected more by the weather than others. Rain, snow and cold all make kicks harder due to reduced aerodynamics, and wet conditions make returns more difficult without fumbling. The Wolverines’ coaches have always embraced whatever weather may come and hope their players follow their lead. This is Michigan, after all. And Saturday — when the Wolverines suit up against Michigan State with a forecasted high temperature of 31 degrees — it won’t be their first brush with bad weather. Michigan took the field before a tilt with Notre Dame on Oct. 26, wearing blue warm-up jackets. Some coupled that with white gloves or long socks to shield from the rain and mid-40s temperatures. For that game, the Wolverines were more pumped up than usual. “That’s our best warmup we’ve ever seen,” Partridge said. In the end, Michigan game-planned perfectly for the conditions, sticking to an aggressive rushing attack until the rain slowed and ultimately
running all over the Fighting Irish. But this week, the team will face a different sort of weather challenge in the bitter cold. While Ann Arbor isn’t exactly known for balmy weather in November, most games are at least in the 40s. You’d have to go back six years, to a game against Iowa at Kinnick Stadium in 2013, to find a game that kicked off with temperatures below freezing. To make matters worse, Monday blanketed Ann Arbor in nearly a foot of snow — and not all of it is expected to melt before Saturday. So, to be ready for anything come the weekend, the Wolverines have been switching off between indoor and outdoor practice. “Coach (Jim Harbaugh) does a really good job of going in and out and being outside,” Partridge said. “It was great yesterday, I don’t think it sucks. I mean, we’re in Michigan, we’re not gonna say, ‘Oh, it’s gonna be warm,’ we’re gonna go out and we’re gonna deal with it, and I think that’s important for the players, too. “It’s like, ‘OK, well, it’s cold out, so we’re gonna stay inside the whole time?’ No. You play in Michigan. This is what it is. So you go out there and enjoy it. I didn’t hear one complaint.” According to quarterbacks coach Ben McDaniels, cold temperatures, and even snow, don’t affect game plans as much as rain. Wet weather causes the ball to become slippery, which can cause problems in the passing game and with ball security, so safe running plays — like what the Wolverines ran against Notre Dame — are the best bet. As part of pregame preparation, the coaches check the forecasts, cross their fingers that they’re accurate, then adjust on the fly if needed. There’s no snow in the forecast Saturday, at least not for now. But
cold weather can still change the feel of the ball, so it’s important to get reps in for all kinds of conditions. “My experience is, cold is cold, so it’s gotta get pretty darn cold to factor in, in my opinion,” McDaniels said. “Some guys wear gloves, some don’t, that’s a topic of discussion for quarterbacks. But my experience coaching guys and some playing experience, once you get running around, you’re pretty comfortable and you get used to being in the environment and those frigid, frigid temperatures might affect, at some point, your ability to hold a ball. The feel of the ball is different as it gets colder, but we should be in great shape for this weekend.” McDaniels was careful to note that cold weather didn’t necessarily mean ball security was harder, just that the texture of the ball could be different and quarterbacks need to adjust. Senior quarterback Shea Patterson is one signal-caller who does wear gloves in low temperatures. He’s done it ever since he was a little kid when the thermometer dropped below 30. Harbaugh is a perfect poster child for Michigan’s weather mentality. Look at him, and it might as well be 70 degrees and sunny. When Harbaugh and the other coaches adopt that attitude, the players follow suit. If the Wolverines have their way, they’ll play like they don’t even notice the temperature. “That’s really Jim’s personality, right?” Partridge said. “He can walk outside and everyone else is like, ‘Damn, it’s pouring out,’ and he’ll be coaching his butt off, not even noticing it’s raining. “You’re like, ‘Does this guy even know it’s raining and freezing?’ But the team gains that personality. The coaches, that’s who they become.”