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Protestors call for equity, climate action at final Regents meeting of year
Climate Action Movement, One University demand ‘U’ withdraw fossil fuel investments, provide equitable funding
KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily Protesters from the University of Michigan’s three campuses demonstrated outside of a Board of Regents meeting in Ann Arbor on Thursday.
LIAT WEINSTEIN & EMMA STEIN Daily Staff Reporters
Members of the Climate Action Movement and the One University Coalition from all three U-M campuses joined forces to protest before and after the Board of Regents meeting on Thursday, ultimately blockading the exits following the meeting in response to the University’s lack of action regarding their demands. U-M Flint senior Lucine Jarrah, a member of One
University, addressed the crowd at the pre-meeting protest. She began by saying the University has not listened to these student activists and has instead actively pushed them aside. “Over the last year, our movements have been actively demonstrating the urgency and addressing the drastic inequities in Flint and Dearborn, as well as establishing a carbon neutrality agreement at the University of Michigan,” Jarrah said. “Instead, for months we have been consistently sidelined by the
Board of Regents who have been dismissive in every opportunity to communicate our mission.” Jarrah said no progress has been made in the One University Campaign, and while the University says they support their cause, no action has been taken. “Time and time again we are seeing the University of Michigan deny and reject the inequitable conditions on the Flint and Dearborn campuses,” Jarrah said. “This denial has only managed to fuel the instability and mistrust between our campuses and,
in the end, students are the ones getting left behind. The One University Campaign was formed in January of last year. It is now almost a year later, and we have yet to see the results we need ... words of solidarity are no longer enough. We need action and we need it now.” LSA junior Solomon Medintz, who writes for The Daily’s opinion section, was the last speaker before the board meeting. He noted while the big picture goals and demands are important, the point of the protests at the meeting are to get the bare
minimum of action needed to keep the University on track. “This is a critical moment, and we haven’t gotten anything, and we need to know that we’re going to have a chance of getting our big picture goals,” Medintz said. “We’re not asking for everything today; we’re asking for what is absolutely necessary.” Medintz then expressed his frustrations surrounding the University’s decision not to take action. He said despite the administration voicing their support for the movements, nothing has happened.
“Both our movements have met with the administration and regents dozens of times, and although officials have said they support our goals, they do nothing,” Medintz said. “They do absolutely nothing. So, we are here to say that we are not going to be silenced or pushed aside anymore.” LSA junior Amytess Girgis told The Daily the University is mistreating people of color, not only on campus, but around the world, because climate change disproportionately impacts minority populations. See REGENTS, Page 3
Workshop gauges interest from Skymint Dingell in on new housing plan opens A2 Madrid to community SmithGroup and city of Ann Arbor host event to discuss affordability GOVERNMENT
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attend UN gathering
marijuana business
JULIA FANZERES
ANGELINA BREDE
Largest company in state launches local dispensary, bringing total sellers in city to 12
Michigan representative joins delegation with other Dems for global convention on climate Daily Staff Reporter
U.S. Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., joined a bicameral delegation to the Madrid Climate Convention 2019 on Dec. 2. The conference is the 25th session of the Conference of the Parties. Along with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other key Democrats, Dingell joined other international leaders for a weeklong convention to discuss steps forward with the Paris Climate Agreement of 2016. This was the first time Dingell traveled to a Conference of the Parties. The Paris Climate Agreement’s central aim is to “strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise this century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.” The treaty was signed on April 22, 2016 by 196 state parties. Dingell noted the importance of staying on track with the Paris Climate Agreement, even if the Trump administration is planning on formally withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement within the next year. See DINGELL, Page 3
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ALEC COHEN/Daily Ann Arbor residents take part in an affordable housing workshop in the Ann Arbor Downtown Development building Thursday.
BRAYDEN HIRSCH For the Daily
About 20 Ann Arbor residents attended an affordable housing workshop in the Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authorit y building on Thursday night. As the f irst of a f ive-step series of workshops, the cit y of Ann Arbor and SmithGroup, an urban desig n f irm, gauged the interest of Ann Arbor residents in a new affordable housing plan the g roup is developing. Affordable housing is def ined as costing 30 percent or less of a household’s g ross annual
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income. To spread the word about workshops, representatives of SmithGroup visited various Universit y of Michigan classes on real estate. The cit y of Ann Arbor wanted to g ive as many people as possible the opportunit y to participate. Michael Johnson, leader of the urban desig n practice at SmithGroup, has taken the lead on this project and hopes to complete the prog ram with the help of the Ann Arbor communit y. “Our f irm is architects, eng ineers, landscape architects and urban desig ners, and we get
to work all over the country,” Johnson said. “Both doing desig n and running exercises public engagement exercises and working with neighborhoods, communities and cities to re-envision what our cities might be in the future.” The workshop consisted of three different stations in which members used virtual realit y to visualize what the buildings would look like in different locations. The location options were the former Y-lot and 415 West Washing ton. At another station, participants used Legos to build potential options for affordable
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housing locations. Taubman g raduate student Jiawen Qiao is taking a class on real estate development. She chose to attend this event to g ive her a real-life example of what she’s tr ying to accomplish in class. “ We are actually bring ing about some apartments,” Qiao said. “And we’re also thinking about adding some affordable units into it. So, our professor suggested we come to some of the committee meetings about affordable housing to learn more.”
Michigan’s largest marijuana company recently opened on Nov. 15 at 1958 S. Industrial Highway in Ann Arbor, about a seven-minute drive from the University of Michigan’s central campus. With the addition of this new location, there are now 12 marijuana dispensaries in Ann Arbor. Skymint, part of Green Peak Innovations company, now has four stores in Michigan. The Ann Arbor location is housed in a 2,500 square foot space, and is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day. The Michigan Marijuana Regulatory recently announced that, beginning on Dec. 1, residents will legally be able to purchase marijuana from stores, after its legalization in Michigan last year. The store was approved for a recreational marijuana license last week. Summer Ransom, president of retail for Skymint, said the legalization of recreational marijuana creates a safer and more regulated environment for users, who now will not have to rely on the illicit market for product.
See HOUSING, Page 3
Vol. CXXIX, No. 42 ©2019 The Michigan Daily
NEWS.........................2 OPINION.....................4 CLASSIFIEDS................5
See MARIJUANA, Page 3
SUDOKU.....................2 ARTS...................5 SPORTS.................7
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MONDAY: Looking at the Numbers
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FRIDAY: Behind the Story
B EHIND THE STORY Every Friday, one Daily staffer will give a behind the scenes look at one of this week’s stories. This week, Business senior Sonia Lee reported on a student’s use of GoFundMe to pay for his outstanding tuition after he was denied in-state tuition due to his immigration status. “Speaking with Juan and Barbara for this story gave me so much more insight on what it’s like to be undocumented at Michigan, especially with the current climate surrounding immigration policy and DACA. At the same time, I was able to learn about how the university administration is trying to engage more with this community and work with them to find solutions. This was about understanding and telling Juan’s story and SCOPE’s activism while balancing how university policy revision works.”
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State senator joins EMU panel to discuss impact of marijuana Jeff Irwin highlights effects of legalization, recreational drug use in local community JENNA SITEMAN Daily Staff Reporter
Eastern Michigan University hosted a discussion panel about the impact of the legalization of recreational marijuana in Michigan on the Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor communities. About 40 community members attended the event Thursday night, which came less than a week after recreational marijuana sales began in the state. The discussion touched on plans for racial equity in the marijuana industry, new drug testing availabilities for companies and the dangers that can accompany edible marijuana. The three panelists included Tim Secinski, EMU police department community relations
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officer, state Sen. Jeff Irwin, D-Ann Arbor, and Kevin Boehnke, University of Michigan research investigator in the department of anesthesiology. Michigan passed Proposal 1 in November 2018, which makes it legal for people age 21 and older to possess up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana. Irwin, who served as political director for the Coalition to Regulate Marijuana like Alcohol, which worked to pass Proposal 1, said he does not like the term “recreational” marijuana due to the fact that legalized marijuana can often make its way into the hands of underage consumers. “I try to use those terms as much as possible, because I feel like that’s a more fair and accurate way to describe what
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we’re really talking about here,” Irwin said. “When we talk about it as recreational, which is sort of the term that has caught fire, it creates a certain connotation that is sometimes but not always accurate about how people are using cannabis.” Though experts say it is nearly impossible to overdose on marijuana, legislators still worry about the effects of the drug. Irwin and Boehnke said they did not think it was appropriate for a company to drug test its employees to monitor if they are using drugs while at work. They noted that drug tests in the past have only been able to show if marijuana had been used in the past month, not necessarily while they were at work. Irwin said newer and more advanced drug tests are being developed that can detect if marijuana has been used in the immediate time frame or further in the past. “So, what I’ve been encouraging employers to do, is to start looking at some of the newer tests that are available,” Irwin said. “You might have heard of some of the roadside swab-tests that are going on across the state of Michigan. I don’t think that these produce data that would be reliable in a court of law, but I think it would be a better tool for our employers to use something that would give them a better read on the recency of use.” Siecinski disagreed, saying employers administering drug tests was proper and reasonable. He said as a member of the police force, the federal law governs what he does in his free time, rather than state law. “I would say certainly employers should be able
to limit whether or not their employees partake in cannabis,” Siecinski said. “One example is law enforcement. Despite the fact it’s legal in Michigan, it remains illegal federally, so police officers, for example, by federal law, you’re not allowed to possess a firearm and be in possession of a scheduled drug illegally.” All three panelists emphasized what they described as the extreme need for research on the effects of marijuana usage. Boehnke said not only is the lack of research harming people, but it is also what created such a fear of the drug in the past decades. Irwin agreed, acknowledging that many legislators feel anxious about approving laws regarding its legalization due to a misunderstanding about the drug and its impacts. “We certainly couldn’t pass it, you know, out of the Michigan legislature,” Irwin said. “We had to go through the vote of the people, because we knew that we wouldn’t get the support in Lansing because, once again, there’s a huge generational divide in this issue, and the people who tend to be in the legislature tend to be a little older and a lot of these people built their career on this sort of ‘tough on crime’ position.” In addition to Michigan’s 6 percent sales tax, marijuana sales are subject to a 10 percent excise tax. Irwin pointed out that revenue generated from the taxes would go to schools and local governments and infrastructure. “However, here’s a part of it that I don’t think many people have even seen, which is that for the first two years of taxation, the state of Michigan is going to generate $20 million for two years for a total of $40 million, which is going to go into research,” Irwin said. See PANEL, Page 3
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REGENTS From Page 2 “The University of Michigan is the top public institution in the country, and the fact that it is neglecting communities of color, lowincome communities, not only in the state, but frontline communities around the world in its complicity with climate change is really not becoming of a number one public institution,” Girgis said. Before the last public commenter addressed the Board of Regents, the 1U and CAM members present in the meeting exited the room chanting, “The people united will never be defeated.” Wearing 1U pins and holding signs criticizing the University for continuing to invest in fossil fuels, the protesters gathered in front of all entrances to the golf course, creating a blockade so cars could not drive through. In an interview with The Daily at the protest following the meeting, Regent Michael Behm (D) said he remains supportive of the protesters even though most regents choose not to respond to their statements during the public comment section of the meeting. “(The meeting is) not conducive to having a conversation,” Behm said. “Many of the topics that came up are things we’re presently working on. And I think it’s good that we do have comments like this, because the comments make the board mindful of how the community feels.” In response to the protesters’ demand the University reach carbon neutrality by 2030, Behm said the University’s administration is working toward making small changes that ultimately bring the University closer to this goal. “Instead of making a hollow promise and not being able to live up to it just with an arbitrary date, the University wants to make sure that we can truly achieve carbon neutrality,” Behm said. “I think (the changes) can be incremental.” Regent Paul Brown (D) also came to the post-meeting protest. He addressed the current culture at board meetings to stay silent after the public commenters in an interview with The Daily. He said he wished he could respond, and that there needs to be a better line of communication and more transparency. Brown also noted the regents do care about issues such as climate change and inequitable funding on the different campuses and spend time brainstorming solutions. “As a new regent, I’m trying to understand the protocol and why the current protocol exists,” Brown said. “But I, and probably every other regent, is crawling out of our skin wanting to respond to each speaker. Right now, the culture is to not. I suspect there are a lot of good reasons for it, but we have to figure out a way to answer each of these questions, because that’s what
MARIJUANA From Page 1 “You always want to know where something is coming from that you’re putting in your body, and you want to be able to go to a place that’s safe to get it,” Ransom said. “More than anything, we look at it as an opportunity to provide safe, tested product where they can come, get what they need, know that it’s from a really good place and how they choose to use it and where is kind of at the discretion of the consumer.” Green Peak Innovations prides themselves on what they call the “from seed to store” process, which tightly controls the production of marijuana from growth to sale to ensure it remains high quality. Ransom said the legalization of recreational marijuana is important because it gives people what they have wanted for a long time, and people
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the questioners deserve. … we have to figure out a way to communicate what we’re doing and why we’re doing it, because the questions that the speakers brought up, we spent most of the day today working on. We are focused really on the issues they brought up today.” While most of the protesters were gathered at the main entrance on East Stadium Boulevard, some were at a back entrance and a walkway to prevent administration from exiting. Police officers and security began bringing out barricades to stop the activists from leaving the front area, even if they were just trying to get to their cars. The officers said “there was no reason to go down there,” and threatened to arrest anyone who tried to cross the barricade for trespassing. Eventually, the police and security forcibly moved and held back the protesters blockading the back exit and waved the cars of the administrators and regents through. After the protesters were pushed aside by police officers and forced to vacate the entrances, Girgis and Medintz spoke to the remaining crowd and praised their efforts, saying they were “brave” to risk possible arrest for their cause. Girgis said even though they made progress in forcing the board to listen to their statements, students will still need to put pressure on the University to agree to their demands. “The fact of the matter is that, yet again, discussion has been avoided about the issues that matter most to us,” Girgis said, causing a chorus of “boos” from the crowd. “About the issues that matter to the state and the people of Michigan, and about the issues that matter most to the nation and the world as a whole. And, to be clear, this is not an isolated incident. We’ve been doing the work for a year and being ignored. And that’s why we’re here, and that’s why we’re angry.” The University of Michigan Board of Regents convened for their final meeting of the year on Thursday at the Richard L. Postma Family Clubhouse to discuss the interim replacement of E. Royster Harper, Vice President for Student Life; the University’s investments in fossil fuels; and rights for student athletes. Community members and students from the One University Campaign and Climate Action Movement protested before, during and after the meeting. The board approved Simone Taylor, the senior associate vice president for Student Life, as the interim Vice President for Student Life to begin serving in that role on Jan. 18, 2020. Soon after, President Mark Schlissel sent an email to the University community announcing Taylor’s appointment as interim vice president. In an address to the Board, Regent Katherine White (D) officially named Harper a Vice President Emerita of Student Life and presented a
plaque to her in honor of her commitment to the University. Harper thanked her colleagues in her last speech to the board. “You’ve been such great teachers and healers to so many faculty, staff and students, including me,” Harper said tearfully. “I’ve appreciated our opportunity to share thoughts, counsel and loving energy. We’ve been colleagues and friends, students and teachers.” Schlissel also announced the new E. Royster Harper Scholarship to provide greater financial aid to University students. “On a personal level, I can’t imagine a better partner and colleague to work alongside the rest of the executive team and myself in providing an outstanding experience for our students, great mentorship, sage advice, wonderful friendship and collectively we all wish her a long, healthy, happy and joyous retirement,” Schlissel said. The Regents proceeded to vote down a proposed $50 million dollar investment to Vendera Resources, a company known for its extensive assets in oil and gas production. Before the vote, Regent Jordan Acker (D) spoke up and motioned to deny the investment. Acker had tweeted the Regents should not make the investment and that doing so would not align with the University’s values. “Vendera is a company that almost exclusively invests in Oil and Gas drilling and exploration, some of the greatest drivers of climate change,” Acker wrote. “At the very moment that @UMich needs to be pushing away from dirty energy, this is absolutely the wrong path.” When the board ultimately voted to not invest in Vendera Resources, the room erupted into applause. Acker then brought up name, image and likeness rights in the NCAA, which allow college athletes to earn money off of things like advertisements or clinics. NCAA athletes are currently not allowed to do this and face potential ineligibility. He emphasized students at the University who pursue other professions are encouraged to be showcased and do whatever it takes to succeed. He said athletes should be awarded the same rights. “Allowing name, image and likeness rights helps our athletes,” Acker said. “Throughout this University, we are able to push our students to succeed in their chosen fields. We hold showcases for our musical theatre students, we encourage the recruitment of our students for companies throughout the world, and even work with our students and faculty to allow them to use their ideas to start world-changing businesses. Restriction of these rights to athletes in this context is simply unconscionable.” After Acker’s statement, public commenters from the community addressed the Regents about divesting from fossil fuels, reaching carbon neutrality and the
1U Campaign. Out of 15 total public commenters, 13 spoke to the Regents about the University’s investments in fossil fuels and what they say is an unequal distribution of resources across the three University campuses. The majority of public commenters, especially those associated with 1U and CAM, posed a question to the board about the University’s perceived inaction toward reaching carbon neutrality or unwillingness to allocate more resources to the Flint and Dearborn campuses. After asking these questions, the commenters waited for the Regents to respond. In between speakers, members of CAM and 1U chanted slogans like “empty words but no equitable funding” and “we deserve to be heard.” Engineering senior Logan Vear, a member of CAM, told the Regents there is a strong link between issues of climate change and 1U’s mission and asked why the Regents have not responded directly to either organizations’ demands after a year of protesting. “While some of you have expressed sympathy, and even at times support, you have done next to nothing to tangibly act to support our causes. During public comment, you have actively ignored us, looked down at your phones and have left the moment we finish or during our comments as well,” Vear said. “So, we ask, why should we continue to come to Regents meetings if they have been so fruitless over the last year?” In response to Vear’s question, Regent Shauna Ryder Diggs (D) said most of the Regents do take the public commenters’ arguments into account and sympathize with their views. She noted how even though the organizations’ arguments have been impactful, significant institutional change still takes a while to enact. “Asking us to give you an answer right this second, I just can’t do that,” Diggs said. “I actually think that you’ve been very effective, because when you first started coming to the Regents meetings and talking individually with each one of us, there was no (President’s Commission on Carbon Neutrality). Even doing all of that work, I think is the reason why President Schlissel put together this commission.” Diggs was the only Regent at the meeting to directly respond to CAM and 1U’s questions. LSA senior Dim Mang reacted to Diggs’s comment by saying student activists should not have to work tirelessly to receive basic resources and support from the University’s administration. “You listen to us, but at the same time we shouldn’t have to fight for our own livelihoods day in and day out when U-M is lucky to have these students here,” Mang said. “Our activism isn’t here to window dress your inaction and, frankly, your fear of student power.”
should have the choice to put what they want into their body. “I see no difference between recreational marijuana and getting altered in some other way — whether you choose to drink or something. If you want to work out, I could go swimming, I could go running — I have choices,” Ransom said. “If you want to get a little bit altered, choices are nice if you want to drink alcohol or smoke a little bit. The people have said that they want it for some time, I think that’s the biggest thing so now we’re finally giving them what they want.” Though the store has opened up sale of recreational marijuana, Ransom said their first priority is maintaining the supply of product for medical customers. “I would have to imagine that some of the patients are considered about rec coming on and supply,” Ransom said. “Although we are excited for recreational use coming on,
we’ll never walk away from providing for patients. We want to make sure that the medicine is available first and foremost.” The store sells 18 strains of cannabis flower, and offers a “buy one-get one” deal on all Skymint vapes, edibles and concentrates. It features a variety of CBD products, flowers, prerolls, edibles, concentrates, vapes, pipes and other accessories. Ransom said the store is unique compared to other dispensaries in that it is set up in a typical retail fashion, as well as with the option to use their “express lane” when purchasing online. “It’s unlike a lot of dispensaries. I mean, before I think it was so much of a quick consult, you come in, you grab it, you go, and now I think it’s more like typical retail. … For us to provide two different shopping experiences based on what people want, I think that’s important,” Ransom said. Kinesiology senior Laurence
Horowitz, president of Green Wolverine — an organization for students interested in business and dedicated to educating people about cannabis and the marijuana industry — discussed the short-term effects this new market will have on the Ann Arbor area. “In (the) short-term, people will definitely go to this new dispensary to try their product. However, only time will tell if the new establishment will develop a foothold in the Ann Arbor market,” Horowitz said. “Use will most likely go up as it will be a novelty. However, things will die down, and the recreational customers that are using today will now be receiving their product after it has been extensively regulated so that it doesn’t include chemicals and pesticides instead of from a street dealer.”
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Friday, December 6, 2019 — 3
HOUSING From Page 2 Members of the Ann Arbor communit y also attended the event. Ann Arbor resident and U-M Dearborn alum Elizabeth Cobb took this event as an opportunit y to learn more about affordable housing for a social psycholog ist she is working with and to become more involved in her Ann Arbor communit y. “I went to Universit y Michigan-Dearborn, and when I was an underg rad, I worked with a social psycholog y professor
DINGELL From Page 2 “The Trump Administration is sadly moving to formally withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement and refuses to acknowledge the science or urgency to act,” Dingell said. “Participants at COP25 will lay out crucial steps and implement guidelines to reduce greenhouse gases — it’s critical our nation be represented at the coalition. American leadership is at the center of rising to the moment to protect our planet for future generations.” In a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, Pelosi stated that extreme actions are necessary to combat climate change and there is significant bicameral support in Congress. “Our delegation is here to send a message that Congress’s commitment to taking action on the climate crisis is ironclad,” Pelosi said. “We must act, because the climate crisis for us is a matter of public health, clean air, clean water for children’s survival; our economy, advancing green, global – green technologies, which will lift everyone up as we address income disparity in the world,” Pelosi said. The convention comes at a time when the climate crisis has been heavily discussed in Ann Arbor politics. On Nov. 4, the Ann Arbor City Council passed a resolution to achieve carbon neutrality by the year 2030. Additionally, earlier this year, demonstrators staged a sit-in in the Fleming Administration Building demanding a meeting with the University of Michigan administration to address how the University plans on achieving carbon neutrality. This has placed additional pressures on University President Mark Schlissel as he balances the University’s carbon neutrality plan with continuing to fund the University as a research institution. Public Policy senior and Ann Arbor native Bernadette Fitzsimons was enthusiastic about Dingell’s inclusion in the delegation. “I believe climate change is a priority for Congresswoman Dingell,” Fitzsimons said. “I think she is one of the hardest working members of Congress. She is deeply committed to her constituents, and I believe she understands that creating a sustainable future is key to the well-being of her constituents.” Yet the response to the climate
PANEL From Page 2 Irwin also discussed how Michigan has learned from laws passed in Colorado, California and Washington, D.C. Allyson Job, a public health graduate student at EMU, said she appreciated the perspective provided by the panelists, but pointed out that all of them were white men. She said that an additional panelist would have helped broaden the range of opinions shared at the event. “I wish it would have been more representative of the community rather than three Caucasian men. I would like to see a little more diversity,” Job said. “But I did like it, and they answered a lot of questions, and overall, I liked how it was done, and for the first time it was pretty cool.”
there,” Cobb said. “And she does research about income inequalit y in the social class and that includes housing affordabilit y. I’m also going into that f ield. And so I’m here to take notes and learn more about what’s going on. Also, I just moved to Ann Arbor, so I’m mostly interested for that reason.” Over the next four days and four workshops, Ann Arbor and SmithGroup are working to inform residents about the new affordable housing plan. They also want to gather information on the communit y’s preferences on where this housing will be located.
crisis hasn’t been moving fast enough for some constituents. Over the past few months, several protesters have occupied Dingell’s office to urge her to support the Green New Deal. Zaynab Elkolaly, a student at student at Washtenaw Technical Middle College and a member of the Sunrise Movement, expressed disappointment in Dingell’s lack of substantial actions regarding climate change. “It is important, first and foremost, on paper that we represent the Green New Deal as a nation, but it is also important to represent it in actions too,” Elkolaly said. “Politicians are quick to be glad about wanting to end climate change and how much of an emergency it is,” she said. “And then, they’ll proceed to take thousands and thousands of dollars … from big corporations.” In an interview with The Daily, Dingell’s primary challenger, Solomon Rajput, argued members of Congress tasked with representing the United States at the United Nations Climate Convention should be at the forefront of climate change policies. Rajput noted this holds particularly true since the convention is being held in Spain, which is one of the most progressive countries in fighting climate change. “Spain is one of the forefront countries when it comes to tackling climate change. They themselves have embraced the idea of a Green New Deal, which is pretty cool,” Rajput said. “Almost all of the progressives have signed onto the Green New Deal. Congresswoman Dingell is one of the last progressives to not sign onto it. … We need a representative who (is) going to be championing a Green New Deal if they are going to be out there representing us when it comes to Climate Change.” Fitzsimons said she admires Dingell’s care in representing all constituents in her district, and not those just in Ann Arbor. “It is also worth noting that groups which represent autoworkers in her district, like the United Auto Workers, have not come out in support of the Green New Deal. I think encouraging labor organizations like the UAW to support policies to combat the climate crisis is key to creating a sustainable future for Michigan,” Fitzsimons said. “Of course, the climate crisis poses an existential threat to all of her constituents. But I believe Congresswoman Dingell understands this, and aims to act in a way that will best serve all her constituents in both the long and short run.”
During the panel discussion, Irwin noted that communities of color and lower socioeconomic standing are being left out of the new industry being created by this recent legalization. “And, you know, given that fact, I think it’s important that communities are careful about equity,” Irwin said. “We’re going to do these things to make sure that we have more equity.” Irwin also stressed the importance of local communities determining for themselves whether or not to allow sales of marijuana in their cities. “Make sure that it serves your community’s needs and make sure that you develop it in a way that assuages the concerns of people in your community that are concerned and make sure you pay attention,” Irwin said.
Opinion
4 — Friday, December 6, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MAX STEINBAUM | COLUMN
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Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of The Daily’s Editorial Board. All other signed articles and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
T
Don’t snitch — swipe
he Metropolitan Transportation Authority of New York City is cracking down on fare beaters. This crackdown is costing the city millions, damaging subway culture and disproportionately impacting a number of historically disenfranchised groups. In the last six months, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo followed through with a plan to plant 500 police officers in the subway and bus systems of New York City to combat a rise in fare evasion and worker attacks. The policy will fine fare evaders $100 — but with increased police presence in public spaces, heightened surveillance from new security cameras and $249 million spent to make these changes, New Yorkers across the boroughs are protesting these changes that will disproportionately impact poor communities and people of color. This crackdown on fare evasion criminalizes these groups instead of succeeding with any greater MTA claim, costing the city more than just the millions spent to “better” it. State Sen. Jessica Ramos, D-N.Y., put it best: “Say we had $249M and we could do anything we wanted to improve the subway system, what would you want to see prioritized?” The MTA lacks funding for its programs and desperately needs infrastructure fixes that could benefit all New Yorkers. Tracks and stations themselves are defunct with constant delays and maintenance issues, causing a steady ridership decline. What residents really want is to be able to get to where they’re going quickly and safely — something that could be fixed with a dedication to upgrades and efficient construction plans. From the perspective of the everyday commuter, farebeater crackdowns seem like a misinformed judgment call by authority fig ures detached from the subway itself. The problems most riders have with public transit are the inconsistent train times and crumbling infrastructure. Danny Pearlstein, the policy and communications director for the nonprofit Riders Alliance, when speaking with AM New York said, “The fare evasion conversation overall is a red herring. When the
governor talks about fare evasion, he’s throwing the subway’s problems back on riders.” Further, the recent MTA fare crackdown follows a pattern of harmful policing policies, such as “stopand-frisk” policing, which disproportionately targets Black and Latinx youth. Just like “stop-and-frisk”, the crackdown is already impacting people of color, with 84 percent of Brooklyn fare evasion arrests being Black and Latinx.
Criminalizing petty offenses destroys communities’ faith in the police Even though nearly 40 percent of subway riders evade fares at least once a year, African-American and Latinx communities, especially those that are low income, have the greatest likelihood of arrest for fare evasion. The MTA crackdown is representative of the larger burden of policing that low-income and POC communities face all across the country. Just as other policing policies and tactics, the discretionary nature of police power leads to the unjust and racist targeting of communities of color. To be clear, the policing and criminalization of fare evasion is costly — and not just financially. Overpolicing and policies such as “stop-and-frisk” erode trust between the police and the communities they are supposed to be serving. The MTA claims these new anti-fare beater policies will increase rider safety, but crime in the subways is actually down to around one crime per million riders — an estimated 86 percent
drop from 1990. Despite arg uments that criminalizing fare evasion makes transit safer, the reality is that criminalizing petty offenses destroys communities’ faith in the police to keep their communities safe. So far, the introduction of 500 police officers into the subway system has been a cause for concern. In a city already grappling with cases of police brutality and unreasonable arrests, the criminalization of fare evasion is furthering tensions between all parties. After videos showed young Black teenagers being tackled, tased and beaten over the $2.75 fare, riders have started a “Swipe it Forward” campaign, and movements like “Decolonize this Place” have organized mass fare evasions similar to those in Santiago, Chile. Fare evasion is not a violent crime and criminalizing it only stands to undermine any attempts of understanding and communication between the police and citizens — two vital components to maintaining a safe environment. It is time that we as a society learn from our past policy failures. The MTA crackdown is only one of a long-standing pattern of discriminatory police practices that have consequences for people’s individual and collective societal futures. The Michigan Daily Editorial Board stands with protesters and believes the New York City government should stop using tactics that do nothing to resolve the issues within the subway system and, instead, only further harass communities of color. The money being funneled into increasing police presence in subways and installing cameras to catch fare evasion should be put toward the plethora of other issues the MTA faces rather than being used to intimidate marginalized people. With the thoughts of g uerrilla MTA signs in mind, we implore you, in more ways than one: Don’t snitch. Swipe.
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O
Well-faring farewell
n a Monday morning in September 1796, readers of the Philadelphia newspaper the Daily Advertiser learned that George Washington, after having served as president for eight years, would not seek re-election for a third term. The news that Washington, former commander of the Continental Army, president of the Constitutional Convention and first President of the United States – in short, an American demigod – would be stepping down probably overshadowed the content of his farewell address. The letter, first published by the Advertiser and soon reprinted by newspapers nationwide, also contained words of counsel for the fledgling republic. One noteworthy piece of advice Washington offered concerned the recent rise of a party system, which pitted Hamilton’s Federalists against Jefferson’s Democratic-Republicans. Washington warned that a party system could threaten popular democracy, but he acknowledged that the advent of an adversarial system of partisanship structure was perhaps inevitable. “This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature,” Washington wrote, and it manifests itself “under different shapes in all governments.” Despite his visions for non-partisan government, Washington worried – and correctly so – that factionalism would take root in the District of Columbia. The party system framework established by the Federalists and Democratic-Republicans still exists today. While the names have changed and third parties have occasionally experienced swells in popularity, the two-party system has dominated the American government for over two centuries. That American democracy has survived this whole time with a two-party system would seem to indicate that Washington’s concerns were ill-founded — but it also doesn’t mean that his cautions against partisanship were without usable wisdom. In fact, Washington’s advice reflects present public sentiments about our current system. A March NBC/WSJ poll found that 38 percent of Americans “think the two-party system is seriously broken,” the highest public share since NBC/ WSJ first posed the question in 1995. Only one in 10, feel that “the twoparty system works fairly well.” The two-party system is so deeply entrenched in our political landscape that it’s safe to say Washington’s non-partisan visions will never be achieved. That said,
the two-party system, while it is the U.S.’s traditional model, is perhaps not suited for our hyper-polarized times. Though a multi-party system is a feature of many modern democracies, it has only a few historical precedents in the United States. On occasion, third parties have enjoyed fleeting popularity – sometimes even displacing a pre-existing party – but prevailing currents have traditionally borne American politics back to a twoparty equilibrium. But such an electoral arrangement is not entirely alien to American political thought; it was actually promoted by James Madison, our fourth president and the chief author of the Constitution.
61 percent of Americans said neither party represented their beliefs To counter the consolidation of power in the hands of a few, Madison advocated in Federalist Paper No. 10 the development of multiple “factions,” or parties, to represent the interests of a diverse populace. Like Washington, Madison recognized that non-partisan government was a pipe dream, as splintering into political groups is “sown in the nature of man.” Accepting this reality, the most realistic way to address Americans’ political interests would be to have a range of factions catering to them — thereby also diffusing power between a greater range of the population. Like Washington, Madison’s visions did not come to national fruition. Madison feared the consolidation of power in the hands of a single party, which our two-party system has been largely successful in avoiding. That said, increasing numbers of Americans feel their voices aren’t represented through the two options that dominate our political scene. The Democratic and Republican parties — presently at their most polarized in living memory — just aren’t cutting it. Two weeks before the 2016 election, 61 percent of Americans said neither party represented their beliefs. A natural remedy for this, of course, is the introduction of additional parties
to the U.S.’s political stage. And a majority would be in favor: According to a 2018 Gallup poll, 57 percent of Americans reflected a desire “for a third, major political party.” Our election system can be described as winner-takes-all: The congressional candidate who receives the most votes wins their district, and the presidential hopeful who receives the most votes gains all of a state’s electoral votes. The emergence of a major third party under such an arrangement is unlikely, because a vote for a thirdparty candidate is often perceived as a “wasted vote.” As such, a majority of voters hold their noses and go with the party that more closely reflects their interests, but leave the ballot box unsatisfied. Encouraging the emergence of third parties, and in doing so providing the public with more viable political options to represent it, necessitates a reconfiguration of our election system. A proportional system — wherein splits in the electorate’s voting are proportionately reflected in government — would allow far greater freedom in one’s choice of party without the current risk of “throwing away” one’s vote. Say you’re a Republican, but you worry that the party is becoming too conservative, and you’re sick of inane partisan bickering. Under a proportional system, you could vote for the moderate party that would inevitably emerge (parties of all stripes exist in countries with such an electoral system). If the 35 percent of Americans who identify as moderates were to vote with you, the “Centrist Party” would receive 35 percent of seats – perhaps enough to constitute a plurality. The Founding Fathers were wise men who devised an electoral system that has functioned, even thrived, for over two centuries. They were also not infallible. By design, they left their American progeny with a malleable Constitution to be altered in accordance with changing needs. The Democratic and Republican parties are becoming increasingly polarized, and on their divergent trajectories leave more and more ideological real estate between them. It does not take a political oracle to recognize that this trend is unsustainable. If we are to improve American democracy, we must be receptive to propositions that will ensure its preservation. Max Steinbaum can be reached at maxst@umich.edu.
ALLISON PUJOL | COLUMN
Two truths and a lie: Cheney, Iraq and viral memes
B
efore the exciting new world of TikTok, before we could enjoy its “For You” page’s random, entertaining 15-second videos and long before the proliferation of VSCO girl jokes, there was Vine. Most young people in the United States keeping an eye on the internet are already well aware of one of Vine’s most iconic memes, “Dick Cheney made money off the Iraq War.” The brief, seemingly tongue-in-cheek video of the original Vine of a guy repeating this sentiment into the camera has received hundreds of thousands of views and seems like a snapshot of millennial humor, but the history of private war-making in U.S. politics is long and brutal. Private military contractors — essentially, multinational corporations that hire professional mercenaries to participate and aid in wars abroad — are an ideal tool to ensure the human and emotional costs of war remain largely hidden from the American public. In her book “The Lonely Soldier”, author Helen Benedict details the overlap between private corporations who engaged in war-fighting and the government officials who supported the conflict in Iraq. As the book and other sources detail, the corporations involved in the Iraq War included those such as Blackwater Worldwide. But the largest corporation by far was KBR, a subsidiary of the Halliburton corporation, of which Dick Cheney had been the CEO before entering the White House. In the first year of the Iraq War alone, thenPresident Bush and Vice President Cheney handed over $39.5 billion over 10 years in noncompetitive contracts to KBR to provide anything from food and water to vehicles and weapons for soldiers in Iraq. Suspicions of Cheney’s war profiteering seem even more
credible given The Guardian’s report that Cheney was paid an extra $1 million by Halliburton during the time he served as vice president. The Washington Post has also reported extensively on the large bonuses that KBR received during the time of the conflict. One would assume that the massive amount of money pouring into private military contractors during the Iraq War would have translated into the efficiency and the desired results often associated with the private sector. But the use of private defense contractors has yielded mixed results abroad, and this is particularly true in Iraq. Indeed, an archived 2011 report from a bipartisan government commission tasked with investigating potential abuse of funds in the Iraq War estimated that there was a $60 billion total — or $12 million/day — loss or waste in fraud via funds allocated from the government to private contractors since 2001. Though Cheney’s involvement in the conflict seems troubling as well as financially motivated, it would be inaccurate to suggest that corporate greed was the sole contributor to the U.S.’s involvement in Iraq. This is not necessarily a uniquely American phenomenon — the U.K., for example, also has a booming industry for private war-fighting. What is uniquely American, though, is the breadth of other justifications for U.S. involvement and deployment, which is not more reassuring than the assertion that Cheney’s greed facilitated the conflict itself. President George W. Bush’s claim that Iraq possessed chemical and/or biological weapons of mass destruction revealed itself to be a lie. Many in policy circles also believed that the U.S. would be welcomed as a benevolent global power that could restore the
American-led deterrence in the Middle East (a blatant falsehood, as U.S. forces entering the region quickly realized). But one of the darker reasons later suggested for the war is that the United States needed the conflict — that the post9/11 power vacuum necessitated an international leader to demonstrate it could fill the void of liberalism, that the U.S.’s invasion of Iraq would “reassert and demonstrate (U.S.) strength in no uncertain terms to a global audience, crown itself king of the hill, and reestablish generalized deterrence.” It’ll be years before we can see what the Bush administration’s motivations might have been, after White House documents become declassified or leaked. But we can see fragments of this policy at work today in Donald Trump’s presidency, despite the White House’s repeated isolationist stances toward international engagement. Daniel DePetris, a fellow at security-focused think tank Defense Priorities, has written about how Trump has repeatedly characterized military engagement in the Middle East as hopeless: The president argued that “Iraq was a disaster; Afghanistan was a tragic waste of lives of resources; Syria was a land of ‘sand and death’; and the nationbuilding campaigns in the Middle East were a sad joke.” And yet, for all of Trump’s insistence on the futility of spending resources in the Middle East, his rhetoric has not aligned with reality. Recent increases in U.S. military spending seem to indicate that the drive for American militarism has certainly remained intact and has every intention to accelerate. Allison Pujol can be reached at ampmich@umich.edu.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Arts
Friday, December 6, 2019 — 5
VELVETEEN DREAMS: STYLE COLUMN
Authenticity & Jude Law
FILM REVIEW
SAM KREMKE
Daily Style Columnist
NETFLIX
‘Marriage Story’ is different for Baumbach, but it’s lovely himself. He’s not even his character anymore. He is rage. His is the kind of performance people will Daily Arts Writer flock to “Marriage Story” to bear witness to. He will be nominated for an Oscar, and he deserves to Noah Baumbach is no stranger to divorce. His win it. Even though Charlie and Nicole sink to the 2005 film “The Squid and the Whale” chronicles the experiences of a Brooklyn family adjusting to depths of depravity when they finally lose control the separation of two parents; it is hilarious and over their anger at one another, they are still, in heartfelt, and I love it. However, there is admittedly spite of everything, good people. After all, one of the very first something “off,” things Charlie’s something divorce lawyer unreal about the (Ray Liotta, family it depicts. “Goodfellas”) The way its tells him is that characters speak divorce lawyers and interact State Theatre see the very with each worst parts of other is close to Netflix good people. reality, but just We know they slightly askew are good people from it. Across because they are his body of work, both, all in all, Baumbach still manages to get to a real, profound emotional core in great parents who are devoted to their son. We also spite of the unbelievability of his characters, much believe in their goodness because we know how much they once loved each other, and probably even like Wes Anderson does in his films. There’s something different about “Marriage still love each other. We know how much love they Story,” Baumbach’s latest film. It’s not necessarily are capable of. The film begins and ends with the reasons why better, just different. For lack of a better word, the divorce that ensues in “Marriage Story” is infinitely Charlie and Nicole love each other, written down by both of them as an assignment “realer” than the divorce in from their separation counselor. “The Squid and the Whale.” Baumbach doesn’t want us to Unlike the latter, “Marriage forget them, even when Charlie Story” is fiercely committed tells Nicole he wishes she were to realism, and its two leads, dead. In a particularly poignant Adam Driver (“Paterson”) and moment, Charlie reads out Scarlett Johansson (“Under Nicole’s reasons for loving him. the Skin”) lose themselves She writes, “I fell in love with him inside of the alternate reality two seconds after I saw him.” A Baumbach creates, and I can’t tear slides down Charlie’s cheek. think of any two actors or any There’s that famous statistic director I’d rather get lost that says that half of all with. marriages end in divorce. In As Driver aptly put it in a all likelihood that statistic is recent interview with Stephen outdated, and it wouldn’t be Colbert, “Marriage Story” is a surprising if the success rate love story, but one that is told of marriages has gotten even through the lens of a divorce. smaller since. Divorce is no Driver and Johansson’s longer the exception, it is the characters, Charlie and Nicole, rule. So why do we even bother? are a married couple and Baumbach seems to have parents to their son Henry his own reasons why. In an (Azhy Robertson, “Juliet, interview with The Guardian, Naked”). Apart from their Baumbach describes marriage son, they are highly involved as “a great act of hope.” But how in New York’s theater scene: can that be possible, how can we Charlie directs, Nicole acts. be hopeful when the chances For a plethora of reasons too of a successful marriage are so complicated to adequately small? Maybe Baumbach wants address here, Nicole decides to us to reconsider what it means divorce Charlie and move her for a marriage to be “successful.” and her son to Los Angeles, Maybe the goal of marriage where she grew up. What shouldn’t be longevity. Maybe it happens next is unpleasant to should be happiness, for as long say the least. as that is possible. Maybe the Divorce tends to bring expectation of lifelong happiness out the worst in people, and only serves to sour the present “Marriage Story” is well moment. aware of that. Charlie and I’ve been thinking a lot Nicole throw words at each about why this movie is called other like daggers. Their “Marriage Story,” not “Divorce passive aggression builds and builds until the point when it can’t anymore, and Story.” We hardly get any glimpse into Charlie and what results will take your breath away. The sheer Nicole’s life together pre-divorce. But perhaps that intensity of their shouting match rivals any battle is the point. Perhaps divorce in the 21st century scene you’ll ever see. Charlie and Nicole, caught is just as much a part of a marriage as the actual up in their anger, transform into something that is marriage itself. Perhaps separation is inevitable, terrifying to witness. Watching Driver scream at or if not inevitable, likely. Maybe that’s okay — Johansson, it is beyond clear that he is no longer “Marriage Story” seems to think so. ELISE GODFRYD
Marriage Story
Charlie and Nicole throw words at each other like daggers. Their passive aggression builds and builds until the point when it can’t anymore. The sheer intensity of their shouting match rivals any battle scene you’ll ever see.
NETFLIX
I watched “The Talented Mr. Ripley” recently, and it was absolutely heartbreaking. Despite the titular character, played by Matt Damon, Tom’s propensity towards violence and the seemingly never-ending string of lies that he finds himself needling over the duration of the film, the core of his character is one riddled with a sense of deep longing and loneliness. He spends the entire story trying to lie his way into a life that’s always just out of reach. The father of a dilettante run off to Italy, Dickie (played by Jude Law), hires Tom (after being led to believe that he went to school with his son) to find said dilettante and bring him back to New York to rejoin his family’s shipping empire. Of course, things do not go according to plan. Tom and Dickie become fast friends, and the former develops an obsessive infatuation with the latter. The rest of the plot is complicated and, hey, that’s what Google’s for, right? The four people reading this article don’t need a synopsis from the likes of me. What matters is that the film fits in squarely with a storied history of queer narratives dominated by a sense of confused desire, at the very least fraught, operating in a landscape of imbalanced power, and often unrequited. These types of films are almost like a right of passage for presumably straight male heartthrobs: Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal (2 for 1 special), Ashton Sanders and now Timothee Chalamet, to name a few, have all joined the Gay for Pay Hall of Fame, and it’s not a stretch to say that all of them have enjoyed a boost in their profile for having done so. Depending on who you ask, this isn’t necessarily a phenomenon worthy of unequivocal condemnation, and my critique isn’t directed towards any one of these actors of even of the movies themselves, but moreso towards an inquiry into the dynamics that create a draw towards these types of narratives and the guaranteed celebre reserved for straight actors who choose to take
on gay roles. According to a report by Lyst, Timothee Chalamet is the most influential man in fashion in 2019. The Vogue article announcing it features Timmy boy in a sequined hoodie from Louis Vuitton by Virgil Abloh, which was apparently commissioned via text. He looks on to the cameras covering the red carpet premiere of The King that he graces with a deadpan expression, fully aware of the power he wields. It’s impossible to imagine this Chalametsteeped reality that we live in without his Elio, which quickly earned him an Oscar nomination and a continued award show/ premiere partnership with both Louis Vuitton and Haider Ackerman, the combination of which has afforded him the kind of internet style icon status that he will be able to cash in on for years to come. This might not have worked in the way that it did had he been openly, “visibly” gay or even speculated to have been in a samesex relationship at the onset of his career. The possibility that an actor might experience same sex attraction, the interest that yields, along with the seemingly enchanting nature of a semi-masculine, young, boyish actor being able to reasonably act out a same sex relationship on screen without showing any evidence that such an impulse may have been drawn from real life seems to be nothing short of catnip for the media circuit. It’s almost as though the concept of homosexuality, particularly male homosexuaity, is more attractive to the masses than actually being homosexual. The profitability, or at least the sheer ability for those expressing genuine homosexual desire to find success in the entertainment industry, is certainly changing, but recent years have provided more than enough evidence to suggest that the curiosity of what might be is more interesting, more consumable, than the real thing. It’s almost like we could be supporting queer art that really says something and supports the communities whose stories they seek to tell, but we’re all collectively opting to see a big budget version of Czech Hunter instead.
COMMUNITY CULTURE COLUMN
Telling versus showing SAMMY SUSSMAN
Daily Community Culture Column
Few works have struck me as much after my first viewing as did “Slave Play,” Jeremy O. Harris’s radical, complex, controversial work at the Golden Theatre on Broadway. As I left the theater this past weekend and began my five-hour journey back to Ann Arbor, I struggled to understand what I’d just witnessed. By the time I’d boarded my f light from JFK, I knew that I wanted to address this work in my next column. But what could I possibly say in a column intended for readers that have not necessarily seen the work, I asked myself. What could I say that this play had not already said? One aspect of the play that I realized had so intrigued and confused me was the naked simplicity of much of the dialogue, with much of the actions taking place on stage and the emotions that propelled characters to take those actions. As I’ve mentioned before, I am currently in the process of co-writing a musical. My co-writer and I frequently discuss the concept of “show, don’t tell,” something that we’ve been told is essential to realistic theatrical writing. It’s something that we consider in our dialogue, our lyrics and our stage directions. In “Slave Play,” however, the opposite was true. Not only did Harris take no steps to make the dialogue subtle; in many instances, I would argue, he took great pains to ensure that the dialogue and plot were entirely unrealistic. This technique was so unexpected that it took me a little while before I could fully wrap my mind around it. The first section of the play, for example, follows three interracial couples as they engage in various sex acts. The three Black characters embody horrific antebellum stereotypes — a female domestic slave, a male domestic slave and a sharecropping overseer — far past the point at which many audience members felt uncomfortable. I found myself incredibly put off by this first section; at points, I almost contemplated disengaging completely from the work, either by leaving the theater or by ceasing to pay any attention. The racist underpinnings of these characters were absolutely revolting, and I couldn’t understand why Harris hadn’t twisted them in some way. Theater audiences, particularly Broadway audiences, are conditionally trained to search for subtlety, for witty conceits and covert nods to larger sociopolitical themes. But Harris had spent the first hour of the play mocking this. He’d staged three simple, dismayingly stereotypical interracial sex scenes in front of a large mirror; the joke, the mirror seemed to say, is not the action on stage but the audience’s reactions being ref lected back at them.
The transition to the next section, however, put everything in perspective. Two doors at the top of the set opened to reveal two therapists/research scientists — the horrific, racist-infused sex acts were revealed to be part of the “antebellum sex therapy” that the three inter-racial couples had enrolled in. Harris’s nearly hour-long first section was so overtly racist, so nakedly offensive, that it had begun to lose almost all meaning. These stereotypes were being unapologetically thrust upon the audience; the results were incredibly upsetting. As the characters on stage left their therapeutic fantasies and reentered the literal world, however, the audience’s explicit knowledge of the racial underpinnings of these characters’s relationships hovered over the scene. It was almost impossible not to view everything that occurred after this point through the prism of race. And for the next significant portion of the play, as the characters struggled to articulate their true feelings in their group therapy session, the audience analyzed every word for its racial submeaning. As the group therapy session evolved, and as the Black characters came to their own frightening understandings of the unequal interracial relationships they shared with their partners, the subtlety of the dialogue turned once again. The racial overtones that the audience had sought so diligently to pull out of the frequently humorous dialogue of this second section were painfully overt once again. I found that I almost had analytic whiplash at this point — I’d spent so much energy trying to understand the implications of the past half hour of dialogue that I was completely overwhelmed by the obviousness of this new dialogue. I read recently that an audience member got in an argument with Harris during a talk-back after the play regarding its treatment of white people, specifically white women. Harris responded by thanking the woman for her great “performance,” describing it as “Slave Play, Part 2.” And while his statements were no doubt intended as a joke, it’s hard not to take them seriously. The woman’s angry, profane rants about the marginalization of her and other white woman would normally have been humorous — after this incredibly conspicuous play, her statements seem fitting. It was another instance of overt controversy in a work mired in overt, explicit statements about race and sexuality. Harris’s explicit methodology, I began to realize, is part of his message. In a country in which we frequently tiptoe around conversations about race, Harris reminds us of how explicit and racist the forces behind our conversations can be. Life is much more obvious, he seems to tell us, than the dialogue that we frequently see on stage. When it comes to race, he suggests we must tell, not show.
Arts
6 — Friday, December 6, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
TV REVIEW
‘Merry Happy Whatever’ is more jolly than it lets on MAXWELL SCHWARZ Daily Arts Writer
The holidays aren’t always twinkle lights and chestnuts roasting over open fires. For some, it’s a hard reminder of things lost. For others, it’s a difficult warning of what’s still around. Some of us are lucky enough to call someplace “home” when the snow falls and the bells come jingling. But even for the lucky ones, being home can be stressful. Boyfriend Matt (Brent Morin, “How to Be Single”) and girlfriend Emmy Quinn (Bridgit Mendler, “Good Luck Charlie”) travel from L.A. to Emmy’s native Philadelphia to spend the holidays with her family. There, Matt intends to make a good impression on the rest of the Quinns, but his plans get snuffed out early by Emmy’s patriarchal father Don (Dennis Quaid, “A Dog’s Journey”), a sheriff whose jurisdiction covers not just Philadelphia, but his entire family, too. Don’s a traditionalist, to say the least. He lives by a set of rules that he ensures his family follows to a tee.
No drinking, Mass on Sundays and Christmas lights up for no more than with new-fangled ideas of equality. Even Don, the center of their steady, 10 days “because it isn’t Las Vegas.” Naturally, there are complications cautious universe, is having difficulty pursuing a new romance after this Christmas. Emmy’s sister Kayla (Ashley Tisdale, “The Suite Life being widowed for the better part of his adult life. of Zack and Cody”) is getting a divorce. Her other sister Patsy (Siobhan Even the in-laws struggle. Expressing themselves and their opinions is a constant Murphy, “Schitts Creek”) is having trouble conceiving. Her brother Sean balancing act (Hayes MacArthur, “Super Troopers with managing 2”) lost his job, and Don refuses to to stay under Don’s radar. The give Matt a chance. Just another best of them is Christmas as far as most Netflix of us are concerned. absolutely Joy If the plot sounds (Elizabeth Ho, Streaming Now “Disjointed”), like it could border on whose wit the generic — perhaps even the conservative and charm — you would be only effectively even half-right. There are moments in the first episode, and out the rest of the cast’s frantic attempts to restabilize their continuallyeven the rest of the season, that champion traditionalism. swaying boat. An early interaction with an elderly lady that at first seems These plaid-and-Carhartt-clad Quinns mean business. to be endearing quickly takes a sharp turn, but she handles it with a kind Men are men and ladies decorate the tree. Sure, it is a fish- of confident, yet self-deprecating grace. out-of-water family plot. Yes, some of the jokes encroach Some may be turned off by “Merry Happy Whatever,” and I on outdatedness. But I don’t think that “Merry Happy understand that. A laugh-track was an interesting choice. In the end, it Whatever” gets at anything other than what it’s like to live doesn’t really offer any answers or solutions. But there aren’t ever any in a traditional, blue-collar family. And that includes the satisfying conclusions to family trouble. We bumble our way through it. bonds that ultimately come with this kind of family. We say some things we probably shouldn’t say. In the end, those who The first episode is not representative of the entire show. love us forgive us, accept us and wake us up on Christmas Day by playing NETFLIX The traditions established early on quickly get ruptured, “Jingle Bell Rock” as loud as they can at 5 a.m. “Merry Happy Whatever” and not even by the newly arrived boyfriend. Being a family is difficult, is about neither the “merry” nor the “happy.” It’s all about the “whatever” and there are natural fissures that erupt in between traditions. Some that we ultimately managed to get caught up in. It’s gross. It’s sweet. It’s family members struggle with trying to recognize their sexuality, others just another Christmas, Hanukkah or December at home. It’s family.
Merry Happy Whatever
MUSIC NOTEBOOK
From your Nano: A brief history of streaming services DIANA YASSIN Daily Arts Writer
As of right now, I am writing this with my iPod Nano stowed away in the bottom drawer of my bedroom dresser. I could sift through it the way I would sift through that drawer and revisit just as much of my 11-year-old interests. I trace my world back to 2010 with my parents’ references to the deaths of the CD and the radio. Somehow, 2020 seems like a return to form with digital sales of music all but entombed. I cannot fathom a music world untethered from the streaming world. My interests are far too deep, shamelessly imposed by the algorithms of a streaming service. I lived through a time where MTV and award shows had the same influence as Spotify’s “Today’s Top Hits” playlist, but the transition between the two is as fuzzy as fiction to me. The span between Frank Ocean’s 2013 Grammy win and 2017 Grammy protest measures a history I have yet to understand. Either way, the inception of Apple Music was the beginning of my appreciation for Ocean, too. The modern magic of music streaming services are comfortably contemporary, but their ancestry can be traced back to the era of Britney Spears’s ...Baby One More Time. Napster was envisioned by two teenagers in 1999. “Napster” flowered from co-founder Shawn Fanning’s online username into the world’s first music streaming platform. His partner Sean Parker took an interest after Fanning shared the idea of a software powerful enough to stream shared MP3 files. With the combined efforts of Fanning’s programming and Parker’s investment strategies, Napster was launched in May 1999. By October of 1999 it had over four million songs in circulation. By March of 2000, the Napster community had over 20 million members. This registered a new millennium with the first-ever dip in global record sales. Major record labels went into a frenzy and subsequently called for a summit among their various executives. Litigation for Napster crossed every angle as companies and acts from Metallica
to Dr. Dre pelted them with breach of copyright lawsuits. Napster was effectively shut down with 50 million members in 2001 as a result. Napster lingers by virtue of its liquidation and obvious influence on streaming services like Soundcloud, Apple Music and Spotify. Parker and Fanning actually attempted to alter Napster into such a platform in its last breath before bankruptcy, but couldn’t secure the licensing. Regardless, the idea of a subscription plan turned many listeners off from the brand — mail-in money orders simply didn’t have the same efficiency as digital, paperless billing. With the looming risk of lawsuits still in the air and the technological restrictions of 2001, a replacement for Napster never took its place. Perhaps it was the plug-in nature of technology at the time or the greater value attributed to physical possessions, but the status quo for music consumption stuck around. CD sales and airplay were still the primary factors for music exposure and success. The same goes for music genre popularity: alternative rock and pop music reigned. This trend carried on into the early 2010s, even with the EDM trend that gripped the pop sector. Teen pop made a resurgence with popular Disney and Nickelodeon shows like “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “Big Time Rush.” But as the world took a turn toward music streaming, hip-hop quickly eclipsed other music genres. Rock music’s position as the most consumed music genre for over 50 years was usurped by hip-hop. Despite the rise of music streaming in the mid-2010s, Spotify and Soundcloud were established in 2006 and 2007 respectively. Their rise and expansion, sans the teen success story, mirrors that of Napster. Both centered in Stockholm, they paved their way to popularity in Europe before becoming international mammoths. This was the very beginning of streaming’s influence; in 2010, Spotify was making more money for record labels in Sweden than any other brand. By the end of 2011, its subscriber base doubled to two million. It doubled yet again by the end of 2012 with over four million paid users and a whopping 15 million active users in general.
I trace my world back to 2010 with my parents’ references to the deaths of the CD and the radio.
As of 2019, Spotify has 26 million paid subscribers and 191 million total active users worldwide. Apple Music’s global 28 million paid subscribers also comprises a huge chunk of the streaming market. But how exactly does this tie into the rise of hip-hop? According to a 2017 report by Nielsen, hip-hop’s surging popularity was powered by a 72 percent increase in on-demand audio streaming. None of this is to suggest streaming media did all the work on its own. Hip-hop’s artists, producers and labels did the heavy lifting in terms of making the genre what it is. Between the rise of massive artists like Drake and Kendrick Lamar and the influence of hip-hop labels like Cash Money Records and Top Dawg Entertainment, hip-hop built itself as force worth reckoning. The dynamic of streaming really comes down to its radar of exposure. With over 50 million songs under their grip, Apple Music and Spotify have the power to expose listeners to music they otherwise wouldn’t have discovered with their algorithms. With this, the roles of award shows, airplay and television broadcasting carry less weight. Listeners now have more autonomy to curate more unique and expansive tastes in music without popular bias and money enforcing as many constraints. Despite record labels adjusting seamlessly to the sway of streaming, they no longer prevail as primary determinants of success for an artist. Artists can distribute their work directly to listeners without sacrificing their style to appeal to labels. This specifically boosts hip-hop in two senses: one, more mainstream means of exposure never gave the genre the recognition it deserved, and two, hip-hop has more of an experimental element to it than other music genres. Whereas pop leans more on a label to produce for an artist, hip-hop is more fixated on an individual’s skills with production. The effect is two-fold with streaming and music simultaneously shaping one another. Hip-hop specifically grooves with these shifts as it takes to more experimental routes. Subgenres like emo-rap and trap especially gain benefits as they thrive on platforms like Soundcloud. Music and production bounce off one another with more ease and individual control now than they have in the past. Streaming works to further this relationship through the platform’s individualized attention to the tastes of listeners. The platform takes into account factors of music the listeners themselves wouldn’t have considered to tailor music interests with more unique turns. There is less conformity to any particular genre, leading to more exposure and collaboration we haven’t seen popular in the past.
TV REVIEW
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SAYAN GHOSH Daily Arts Writer
Release Date: Friday, December 6, 2019
Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle
HELP WANTED
Edited by Rich Norris and Joyce Nichols Lewis
ACROSS 1 Skip 7 Say good things about 11 Umami source, briefly 14 City grid feature 15 Detective’s need 16 “So there it is!” 17 Street stand with full permits? 19 Filch 20 Tee preceder 21 Sufferer cleansed by Jesus 22 See 35-Down 23 “Who wants to visit Muscle Beach?”? 26 AFC South athletes 29 Sen. Warren, e.g. 30 “... for none of woman __ / Shall harm Macbeth” 31 Receipt 37 Got ready to binge-watch ... or a hint to phonetic changes in four puzzle answers 40 Shutterbug who bugs 41 Brewer’s kiln 42 VW Golf model 43 Considered to be 45 Dumps litter in the woods, e.g.? 51 Stout choices 52 Violate a truce 53 Onetime part of Portuguese India 56 Drug injector 57 King’s pulse, BP, etc.? 60 Tokyo-born artist 61 Group with pledges 62 “Quit it!” 63 Was the boss of 64 Numbers game 65 Pinball wizard’s reward
7 Where to claim a W-4 headof-household allowance 8 Author Gide 9 Airborne mystery 10 Palme __: film award 11 Super __ 12 Cut off 13 Gothic architecture feature 18 56-Across prefix 22 Fitness training apparel 23 Superior positions 24 Port SSE of Sana’a 25 Source of tweets 26 Culinary meas. 27 “Field of Dreams” locale 28 Vacation option 31 “__ who?” 32 Hatchet relative 33 John in Albert Hall 34 Steakhouse order 35 With 22-Across, proud parent’s cry
Ken Burns strikes again: ‘Bars’
36 Low mil. ranks 38 Old PC monitors 39 ’60s musical 43 Sommelier, e.g. 44 White weasel 45 Steam, for one 46 John Paul’s successor 47 Element from the Greek for “strange”
48 Indo-__ languages 49 “Peachy!” 50 128 fl. oz. 53 Conquest for Caesar 54 Lingerie brand 55 Grayish 57 ’60s A.G. 58 Natural resource 59 Word with dollar or dog
ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:
DOWN 1 Farm storage unit 2 First name in couture 3 Categorizes 4 Carrier with Tokyo HQ 5 In a dark mood 6 Winning slot By Jeffrey Wechsler machine line ©2019 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
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ANNOUNCEMENT
12/06/19
I, VIKRANT Yadav, hereby notify that my son Aarav born on 1st March 2014 has changed his name to Aarav Yadav. Henceforth, his surname on the passport be Yadav and given name by Aarav.
Question: What goes great with your morning coffee?
Answer: 12/06/19
michigandaily.com
What makes a good documentary? And why watch a documentary in the first place? By my own measure, if I can come out of watching one feeling a mixture of touched and hopeful, yet hopelessly enraged, I’d consider it pretty successful. Lynn Novick’s PBS documentary series “College Behind Bars” (produced by the legendary Ken Burns) is one of the few I’ve seen that accomplishes all of them. Through four one-hour episodes, Novick gives viewers a look into the Bard Prison Initiative, a program run by Bard College in a few prisons in New York state that allows a select few inmates those institutions to pursue associates and/or Bachelors degrees, identical to those given to students at Bard’s main campus in Annandaleon-Hudson, New York. Through interviews with several of the students enrolled in the BPI program as well as its administrators and other officials, Novick fully captures the sanctuary that the program provides amid the chaos of the prison yards, as well as the efforts made to disrupt and prevent the spread of those sanctuaries. Much has been written, unfortunately, for decades now, about the disgraces of our civil justice system (i.e. Michelle Alexander’s excellent “The New Jim Crow”), a conversation that is intimately tied into the failings of the American prison system. While not necessarily unique on a global scale, yet repulsively backwards for a “developed” country, the cruelly punitive streak of our country’s prison system is a point reiterated by many of the interviewed students. They emphasize how while the idea of incarceration involves an obvious denial of liberty, the prisons they live in add insult to injury in a variety of dehumanizing ways, one of which is the constant artificial disruptions such as mandatory headcounts that make pursuing any form of education that much more difficult. Novick also makes the audience look inward, and truly examine where this punitive streak derives from. One of the more surprising revelations is that programs such as Bard are nearly entirely privately funded. Why not
publicly? She shows evidence of a (quite bipartisan, mind you) concerted effort by politicians to whip up public resentment against those “evil felons” and deny them any sort of benefit while they are incarcerated. Who cares if that money is being spent instead to lock more people up in the first place (perhaps to do hard labor) and harass minorities? It’s not hard to blame the students when they rightly ridicule the idea that the time they serve is meant for “rehabilitation.” Another common thread that runs through all the interviews with the students, professors and administrators of the BPI program is just how beneficial it is to every single person involved. I’d be surprised if even the most ardent supporter of extra-punitive punishment would not waver a bit on their views after watching “College Behind Bars,” and the best outcome of the series would be more public support for programs like BPI that let the multitudes of incarcerated people in the country gain an opportunity for a better life.
College Behind Bars PBS Miniseries
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, December 6, 2019 — 7
Breaking down Michigan’s bowl destination Juwan Howard readies for first Big Ten clash MEN’S BASKETBALL
ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor
As much as it feels like Michigan’s season ended with that performance against Ohio State last Saturday, there’s still one more game — a consolation bowl, somewhere sunny and warm. Get hype! Until Sunday’s selection show (or rather, an hour or so before the selection show, when someone inevitably leaks the placements), it’s a guessing game where the Wolverines will go and who they
of selection for Big Ten bowls goes as such: Citrus, Outback, Holiday, Gator, Pinstripe, Redbox, Quick Lane, Armed Forces. But in order to make its matchups a little more exciting (read: in hopes of avoiding Michigan playing Florida for the 28304982th time), the Big Ten has a more specific set of rules about which teams bowls can select. The gist of it is that no bowl is allowed to take the same team as it did the year before (this doesn’t affect the Wolverines, since the Peach Bowl is a Playoff bowl this year and,
been a lot of smoke lately that the bowl wants the Wolverines, which would make sense given that the fanbase travels well. The Citrus Bowl could pick Michigan even if Wisconsin gets left out of the New Year’s Six — and there would be a precedent for that, with the Outback Bowl picking the 8-4 Wolverines over a 9-3 Michigan State that beat them in 2017. Should Michigan head to Orlando, it would face a team from the SEC, which, if the latest College Football Playoff rankings are to be believed, would be … Alabama.
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
The Michigan football team will play in either the Citrus, Holiday or Gator Bowls after a 9-3 regular season.
will play. But as championship weekend approaches, the picture has begun to come into focus. For any team that doesn’t make a New Year’s Six bowl (yes, this includes Michigan), there are a set of bowls that are obligated to select Big Ten teams. They essentially “draft” teams in a predetermined order, and unlike New Year’s Six bowls, are not obligated to take teams based on their records. Instead, bowls usually select teams based on a combination of two factors: how big the fanbase is (a bigger fanbase means more money for the bowl) and which matchups would drive eyeballs to TVs (again, money is a bowl’s main determinant, and anyone who tells you otherwise is lying). The order
well, Michigan isn’t going there) and that all bowls must take five different teams over the six-year span from 2014-19. That means the Outback Bowl, which has had Iowa twice in that period, can’t select any team that has played in it since 2014. That includes the Wolverines. We’ll also get this out of the way: Michigan isn’t going to the Pinstripe, Redbox, Quick Lane or Armed Forces bowls. Too much earning power. Now, let’s break down where the Wolverines actually could go. The Citrus Bowl The Citrus Bowl, which is on Jan. 1 in Orlando, has its pick of Big Ten teams that aren’t good enough for the New Year’s Six. There’s
So. Ready to relive the 2000 Orange Bowl ad nauseam, then witness another season-ending blowout? To be fair, this isn’t a foregone conclusion. The Crimson Tide could make the New Year’s Six, which would probably end with the Wolverines playing Auburn (though that matchup doesn’t inspire a ton more confidence). And if a Big Ten team (likely Wisconsin) makes the Orange Bowl, the conference will be forced to hand over its spot in the Citrus Bowl to the ACC. Or, the Citrus Bowl could surprise us all and decide to pick the Badgers. That would make Michigan’s most likely destination… The Holiday Bowl
The Holiday Bowl is on Dec. 28 in San Diego, and the only time the Wolverines have ever played in this bowl was in 1984, when 6-5 Michigan had to play against undefeated, top-ranked BYU. (It lost, while the Cougars were named national champions.) This bowl would love to have the Wolverines, especially because its opponent would be a Pac-12 team — and not just any Pac-12 team, but probably USC, which would be a perfect opportunity for the bowl to sell ’80s Rose Bowl nostalgia. The confounding factor here is Iowa, which, due to the Big Ten’s aforementioned rule about repeat bowl appearances, cannot go to the Outback, Gator or Pinstripe bowls. So selecting Michigan for the Holiday Bowl would mean the Hawkeyes getting majorly screwed with a trip to the Redbox Bowl. Of course, the Holiday Bowl doesn’t really care if Iowa gets screwed, but the Big Ten — which has the final say in all bowl selections involving its conference — might. If it doesn’t want Iowa getting bumped, the Wolverines could find themselves in… The Gator Bowl The Gator Bowl is on Jan. 2 in Jacksonville (#DUUUUVAL). The last time Michigan played in this bowl, they got blown out so badly Rich Rodriguez was fired. So, the bar is low. Should they find themselves here, the Wolverines would play a team from the SEC. There’s less clarity as to what that team would be than there is with the other bowls, but recent projections have offered up Tennessee, Kentucky and Mississippi State — all teams that finished 6-6 or 7-5. That would seem to be the easiest destination for the Wolverines, matchup-wise, but consider that whichever middling SEC team got matched with Michigan would have hell of a lot more motivation than the still-reeling-from-OhioState Wolverines. Michigan’s bowl destination fate is out of its hands now. All that’s left to do is see what the selection committee says.
CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer
Juwan Howard had some summer homework to attend to. He had just been hired as the new coach of the Michigan men’s basketball team, and somewhere among his laundry list of new responsibilities was getting to know his opponents. And so he got to work, scouting the other Big Ten programs the Wolverines would have to face this season. “I’ve looked at the big picture as far as what I’m up against, what our goals are and what we’re trying to achieve,” Howard said. “I knew this summer that I would have to get into some of the teams we’d normally face throughout the conference.” That process will finally be put to use on Friday night when Michigan opens up Big Ten play against Iowa at Crisler Center. Having seemingly worked through the schedule sequentially, Howard scouted the Hawkeyes before anyone else. “I have a lot of notes written down that I’m reflecting on now to prepare for tomorrow’s game,” Howard said. “This wasn’t something I started a few days ago.” Put on Iowa’s tape from this season though, and it’s strengths are rather evident — shooting and size. Coming off the back of a road win at Syracuse, the 6-2 Hawkeyes enter Friday averaging 79.1 points per game while shooting 35 percent from beyond the arc. “They have great outside shooting and it comes from one through five,” Howard said. “It’s not just one guy that shoots the ball well, it’s all five guys in their starting lineup.” As for their size, imposing 6-foot-11 junior Luka Garza is averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds. Cordell Pemsl and Ryan
Kriener are also lanky options off the bench. The Wolverines’ impressive start to the season has launched them from a team predicted to finish in the middle of the pack, to now one of the conference favorites. As Howard knows though, the Big Ten features a number of solid, experienced teams like Iowa that Michigan can’t overlook. “It’s a super-competitive, physical conference,” Howard said. “A conference that on any given night if you don’t bring your A game, you’re getting beat. “That’s what I can remember from my time playing here. That’s the reason I chose the Big Ten. Nothing against the ACC, Pac-12 or the Big East, but I just always thought the Big Ten fit me. I wanted to be a part of that atmosphere and that level of competition.” Howard now gets a second stab at competing for a Big Ten championship — the only exception being this time, it’ll be from the sideline as he goes head-to-head with some of the best coaches in the country. Thankfully for Howard, alongside a veteran-laden roster he has an experienced coaching staff. Associate head coach Phil Martelli has been around the block a few times, assistant Howard Eisley is familiar with high-level competition and Saddi Washington, the lone carryover from John Beilein’s staff, has now spent three years coaching in the Big Ten. “It’s great to have Saddi Washington, who’s familiar with every opponent we’re going to face,” Howard said. “He has experience and he’s helping guys like myself, Howard (Eisley) and Phil (Martelli). At the end of the day we have a great staff that’s been very active wherever they can to help us prepare for tomorrow.”
Wolverines prepare for pivotal O’Hara is ready for her moment series against No. 6 Penn State ROHAN KUMAR Daily Sports Writer
Earlier this week, Mel Pearson answered a phone call. The caller talked about how the Michigan hockey team (5-92 overall, 1-6-1 Big Ten) has looked good at times this year, and that it would be nice if it can get a split this weekend in the home series against No. 6 Penn State (11-4-0, 6-2-0), the leader of the conference. Such a statement did not sit well with Pearson, who expects more from the Wolverines. “And I said, ‘What?’ ” Pearson said. “ ‘What? Excuse me?’ We just play one at a time. We’ll show up Friday, and hey, they’re the favorites. Nobody expects us to beat them. We’ll see what happens Friday.” There’s validity to the caller’s comments. The Nittany Lions are an imposing group. They returned their top five scorers from last season and have scored 4.6 goals a game, which ranks second in the nation. Last year’s team had similar offensive success but was tarnished by one of the nation’s worst defenses. A lot has changed since then, though. Penn State is ranked 19th in goals against, allowing 2.4 a night — a substantial difference from 3.56 last season. And with that improvement, Michigan is slated for a challenging weekend. Fortunately for the Wolverines, their defensive unit has been one of the lone bright spots throughout this season. They’ll need to build off that to make the most out of the series. “This year overall we’ve been doing a really good job limiting teams to chances and goals against,” said senior defenseman Griffin Luce. “So I think just continuing to do what we’ve been doing all year. But making sure, especially getting pucks out, making sure that they definitely get deep
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Senior defenseman Griffin Luce says Michigan has done well limiting chances.
in their zone so that we don’t have those transitions on the turnovers. We just got to make sure that we don’t give them any free opportunities to use the offensive instincts that they have.” Most of those instincts stem from Penn State forwards Nate Sucese and Evan Barratt — the team’s top-two point scorers. They are joined by many other proven players, such as forwards Liam Folkes and Sam Sternschein, who leads the team in goals. “They have an abundance of guys who can burn you,” Pearson said. “So you just have to be really aware of that. But then you just got to go play, too. You gotta respect them, but you can’t fear them.” Pearson hopes that his team can possess the puck consistently this weekend and force the Nittany Lions to play without it. He mentioned that they are able to get a lot of pucks on net while sending bodies, too, who take advantage of bounces when they come. Thus, it’s quite important for Michigan to limit the turnovers — which have been a problem of late. Playing with the lead has been a challenge for the Wolverines a few times this season. Michigan has lost after reaching a two-goal lead in three games so far. If the team can get ahead early against Penn State, it’ll have to put
extra focus on maintaining the margin. “I don’t think any lead is safe,” Pearson said. “I think that’s a good way to put it, against a team like them, because they can score in bunches. You have to be aware of that.” The Wolverines split both series last season. The Nittany Lions showcased their offense, scoring 17 goals throughout the four games. In one of Michigan’s victories, though, it held Penn State to just one goal. That contest was the only one at Yost, and the Wolverines are quick to say the home crowd helped. Michigan has been historically good at home against the Nittany Lions. The overall rivalry is close, with the Wolverines leading 15-12, but Michigan has won nine of 11 at Yost. If the Wolverines can stay strong defensively this weekend and value the puck on the attack, perhaps Pearson could show that caller what he sees in his group. “I think we have a pretty good record against Penn State at Yost, which is good,” said senior forward Will Lockwood. “So I think we have a lot of confidence going into this weekend, even knowing that they’re a top-10 team in the country. We have a lot of confidence, and I think those two wins would be absolutely huge for us.”
KEEMYA ESMAEL /Daily
Senior Maggie O’Hara suffered injuries in her first three seasons at Michigan, and is looking to get back on the mat.
ABBIE TELGENHOF Daily Sports Writer
Maggie O’Hara thought she’d broken the floor. As she punched out after a near perfect round-off back handspring she thought she’d hit a dead spot. The wood must have broken beneath her. Instead, she had torn her Achilles tendon — a season-ending injury. O’Hara was warming up the first pass in what would have been her career debut on floor — as a junior. Typically she competed on beam, but her teammate, then-senior Emma McLean, was suffering from a shoulder injury and was unable to compete. After an exhibition performance against Alabama, O’Hara was ready, stepping into the role without a second thought. “We needed someone to step in,” O’Hara said. “I was like, ‘You know what, I can push through like one routine.’ ” O’Hara is not unfamiliar with injury. During both her freshman and sophomore season, she suffered from concussions: the first after a bad mount on bars resulted in a fist to the head, and the second after a poor overshot ended with a whiplash into the mat. O’Hara’s days of competition were over for the time being. With continuous recovery programming, O’Hara eventually got better — only to have her dreams of getting back to competition derailed once again at the end of her sophomore year.
“It was really frustrating, the first one was definitely a learning experience,” O’Hara said. “I was super excited to get back into my sophomore year and I had been working hard all summer. The second one was just kind of like another punch in the stomach.” Before O’Hara’s struggles with injury came her passion for gymnastics. After following in her brother’s footsteps, swimming, and playing basketball and soccer, she ended up in a dance class. After a suggestion from her teacher to try tumbling, she was hooked. “I went to the gym just solely to learn how to (tumble) and I was like, ‘I’m done, I like this better,’ ” O’Hara said. O’Hara grew up in Lexington, S.C. and because her high school was without a gymnastics team she attended Southeastern Gymnastics — a club in Wettington, N.C. “I lived two hours away from my gym so I spent four hours in the car every day and still went to a public high school, but it was amazing,” O’Hara said. “I went to a pretty prestigious club gym and it was just constant competition within the gym which made gymnastics both fun and competitive.” O’Hara’s early commitment to gymnastics has proven to be vital in her collegiate years and allowed her to keep a positive mentality through the grueling years of recovery. “I think a lot of just mentally putting myself in the place of one more day, it’s one more day,” she said.
This positive mentality was sparked by her former teammate Olivia Karas. Karas had torn her Achilles at approximately the same time the season before. Additionally, two other Michigan teammates have torn their Achilles. “Getting back into it, they were like, just keep reminding yourself it’s going to come back,” O’Hara said. “It’s fun to have someone who’s gone through it just because they are constantly motivating you and reminding you that it’s possible, and it is going to come with time.” Along with her teammate’s support, O’Hara’s family has played a crucial role in her collegiate career. Her sister Gracie, who was born with several health issues and is also a gymnast, has been O’Hara’s inspiration. “She’s a constant motivation for me,” said O’Hara. “She’s always like, ‘Hey look what I did in the gym today,’ and I’m like, ‘You know, if she can do it so can I.’ ” After three long years of continuous recovery O’Hara is ready to get back to competition — especially for her senior season. She’s returning to the team as a senior leader with a renewed passion for gymnastics. “I’m super excited, we have a really strong team this season and I love gymnastics if not more than I have in the past,” O’Hara said. “The thought of being in front of fans again and being with my team is so motivating. Excited is an understatement.”
Sports
8 — Friday, December 6, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Nick Blankenburg maintains connection to late grandfather BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer
There’s a railing on the left side of the second f loor at Yost Ice Arena, overlooking the ice. It’s in the corner, tucked away just off the staircase and next to the stands on the short side. It’s where Nick Blankenburg stands before every practice and every home game. Every single one of Michigan’s players has a particular spot for his pregame routine, whether it’s Jack Summers — who wears No. 6 — sitting on the sixth seat in the stands or Jake Slaker laying in the back hallway by the locker room with his legs up the wall. But for Blankenburg, this railing is his spot. When the sophomore defenseman played his first game at Yost last October, he wasn’t sure where he was going to stand to stretch and visualize before the game. He gravitated toward the left side of the building, and he found the railing over there. And then he looked down and realized his grandfather — Richard Orkisz, better known as Pops — had the seats just below the railing, in the corner, on the glass. Blankenburg could wave hello or send a wink down to his grandfather before each game. He knew then that he’d found his place. For as long as Blankenburg’s mom, Karin — Orkisz’s daughter — can remember, her dad was the definition of a rink rat. Any time one of his grandchildren had a hockey game or even a practice, they could count on Pops to be there. As Blankenburg got older and progressed from AAA hockey to high school hockey, his grandfather was a constant presence at the rink. Romeo High School was only about five minutes from Orkisz’s house. Sometimes, he’d get to the
games even before Blankenburg did. When Blankenburg would pull into the parking lot, he’d see Orkisz’s car parked in the handicapped spot. Both Blankenburg and Karin are quick to clarify that Orkisz wasn’t handicapped in the traditional sense, but his heart wasn’t the best and walking long distances was difficult for him. “My dad would just be sitting at a table eating a hot dog and a bag of chips and a pop,” Karin said. “Waiting for Nick.” When Blankenburg moved from playing for metro Detroitbased Victory Honda to playing for the Okotoks Oilers in Alberta, Canada, Orkisz could no longer attend every practice and every game. But that didn’t stop him from keeping up with his grandson every time he stepped onto the ice. Orkisz kept Oilers’ 201718 schedule at his house, painstakingly filled out after every game with the score and whether Blankenburg got any points in the game. Finding that schedule showed Karin everything she needed to know about her dad’s relationship with her son. “I don’t think I had anyone that was a bigger fan than him,” Blankenburg said. When Blankenburg came to Ann Arbor on a visit, Karin decided to tell her dad the secret that they weren’t sharing with many people — that Nick was visiting Michigan and may play hockey for the Wolverines. Orkisz’s jaw dropped. No one in the family ever expected Blankenburg to end up at Michigan, and it was a dream come true for the whole family when it happened — especially Orkisz. “He couldn’t get tickets fast enough,” Karin said. “And he was, I don’t want to say handicapped, but he was older, so it was harder for him
COURTESY OF KARIN BLANKENBURG
Nick Blankenburg started standing over a second-floor railing at Yost because his grandfather would sit below.
to get up and down the stairs. So, when those glass seats were available, considered handicapped seats, that was perfect because we dropped him off right by the door, he got his hot dog, used the bathroom and then was cozy in his seat for the next three hours.” And when Blankenburg realized his grandfather sat right below the railing on the left side, he decided to stand there before each game and give Orkisz a wink or say hi. When Karin came to her first Michigan game, a few weeks into the season, her dad couldn’t wait to tell her all about their pregame moments. And in warmups, Blankenburg always made eye contact with his biggest fan — a brief shared moment for grandfather and grandson among the chaos before a game. Blankenburg was at the Mall of America on a Thursday morning in March when he got a call from his mother. He instantly knew it was about his
Pops. Orkisz’s health had begun to decline in January after heart surgery and ensuing complications, and the family knew the end was coming — but Blankenburg didn’t expect to get the call so soon. Orkisz had been suffering from the f lu and Karin took him to the hospital. It looked as though things were trending in a positive direction, and Karin was preparing to quit her job and move in with her dad to take care of him as he regained his strength. “The day that he died, I saw him,” Karin said. “I was there from like — I went there after work. I stayed with him from like three to five, I brought him some soup, and then I just went home. I had something to do. “And like two hours after I got home, my phone rang, and it was the hospital. I thought like, ‘Oh! They’re releasing him.’ … They told me that he was in cardiac arrest for like 45 minutes and they were trying
to revive him and what did they want me to do.” Both Nick and his older brother Alex — then a goaltender for the University of Nebraska-Omaha — were on the road with their respective teams. After Orkisz passed on the Wednesday night, Karin didn’t want to call her sons and distract them. But then their oldest sister found out, and Karin knew she had to tell them before someone else did. So, standing in the middle of Nordstrom with four of his teammates, Blankenburg answered the phone and heard Karin at the other end of the connection. He told her he was at the Mall of America, hanging out with his friends. “Yeah, don’t really have good news for you,” Karin said. “What? Is it Pops?” Blankenburg replied, and his mom told him what had happened. “Pops would have never wanted you to come home or stop playing hockey or
whatever,” Karin said. “Just stay where you’re at. Pops would want you to play.” The Great Lakes Invitational Tournament last December was the last time Orkisz saw Blankenburg play hockey in person. When Michigan’s first home series rolled around last January, Blankenburg looked down at the spot his grandfather always occupied and found it empty. His health wasn’t good enough for him to travel to see his grandson play. But Blankenburg stood at the railing anyway, just as he always had. And when he took the ice for warmups, he looked again at that seat in the left corner. Instead of making eye contact or throwing Orkisz a wink, he skated over and touched his knuckles to the glass in front of where his grandfather always sat. When he returned to Yost this fall for the first game of this season, Blankenburg continued his usual routine at the railing. It’s a part of his pregame preparation now, and he has no intention of changing it just because his Pops doesn’t sit underneath it anymore. “I feel like it was nice knowing that he was up in heaven with my grandma and they were both looking down on me, watching over me,” Blankenburg said. “I was happy to know that he was in a better place, and he had the best seat in the house.” Blankenburg still gives Orkisz a knuckle touch through the glass before every game. It’s his way of remaining connected to the man that was always his biggest fan and strongest supporter. Orkisz was at every game, every practice, everything he could be for Blankenburg’s entire hockey career. And Blankenburg knows he’s still there every day.
Out of the blue
Michigan stages comeback late in fourth quarter, tops Syracuse in overtime, 84-76, for first power-conference win BRENDAN ROOSE Daily Sports Writer
Michigan’s players looked up. Two minutes remained in overtime. They led Syracuse by five. They could have dug in their heels, played drop-back defense and waited for the clock to bleed down. But there would be no waiting in this game. Senior guard Akienreh Johnson jumped on a bad pass by guard Teisha Hyman, broke to the basket and picked up an andone. The Wolverines didn’t look back on their way to an 84-76 win over Syracuse. Even getting to overtime took a near miracle from Michigan. Midway through the fourth quarter, the Orange held a ninepoint lead, and Michigan’s offense was reeling. It had only hit one field goal in the quarter. In desperate times, the Wolverines needed a spark, and it was their defense that provided it. Coach Kim Barnes Arico dialed up a full-court press in hopes of forcing turnovers, and it paid dividends. Starting with a quick bucket after a steal from sophomore forward Naz Hillmon, Michigan scored eight of the next 10 points — all of which came off Syracuse turnovers. “It was Naz at the front of that press, and (sophomore guard) Amy (Dilk) and (Johnson) right behind her,” Barnes Arico said. “They’re so long and disruptive, and they were so tough. From the beginning, it was clear the game would be a nailbiter, with both teams reaching double digits before the first TV timeout. Junior forward Hailey Brown set the tone right away, driving past the Orange defense and drawing a foul less than 15 seconds in. She sunk both free throws. Every time one team made a big play that felt like a turning point, the other side would come right back with a quick bucket of its own. Much of this came
from Syracuse’s high-volume performance from beyond the arc, especially early on. In the first quarter alone, it buried 5-of10 triples, three of which came from Hyman, who had previously made just two 3-pointers all season. But the Wolverines’ adjustments on defense — and Hyman sitting out with foul trouble — meant Syracuse couldn’t quite maintain that same pace from downtown later in the game. Michigan’s press continued to fluster the Orange’s shooters, forcing poor passes and hurried shots. They made just five 3-pointers in the second half. “We tried to keep switching defenses on them,” Barnes Arico said. “We tried not to stay in the same thing so they couldn’t get comfortable.” Offensively, senior forward Kayla Robbins was the biggest difference-maker for the
Wolverines. She led the team with 23 points, including a layup with just over a minute left that gave Michigan a one-point lead. Once overtime started, it was all Wolverines. They outscored Syracuse, 13-5, in the extra period, making almost no mistakes and sinking a number of crucial free throws to seal the victory. Going in, Michigan knew that Syracuse’s zone defense could cause problems — especially with the turnover woes that the Wolverines have endured this year. But they took care of the ball, found holes in the zone and picked up a signature win along the way. “We focused on worrying about ourselves, because as much as we focused in on their defense and their offense, they have to also worry about us,” Hillmon said. “So we just played our game. We knew that something would come to us.”
KENT SCHWARTZ Daily Sports Writer
Down by 10 with eight minutes left, Syracuse had all the momentum. Two straight 3-pointers appeared to put daggers in Michigan’s hopes as the game slipped out of reach. Then a shooting foul gave freshman guard Michelle Sidor a chance at the line. She sank both of them. A scramble for the ball 30 seconds later in the backcourt gave sophomore forward Naz Hillmon an easy layup to bring the game within seven. “When we got down 10, we knew we were gonna have to turn it up,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico after a game her team came back to win, 84-76, over Syracuse in overtime. “I think you just saw the spark in Hillmon, and Hillmon coming alive in the front of the press. Nobody wants to face that. Her
(6-foot-7) wingspan, and that’s really what she has, was really tough for their point guard.” Never mind that, the Orange would do what they did every time the Wolverines attempted to claw themselves back into the game — hit threes. Instead, a trap from sophomore guard Amy Dilk on the far side of the court gave Michigan the ball back. Senior forward Kayla Robbins, playing with four fouls, forced a turnover and put up a layup. It was a five-point game. Syracuse made it halfway up the court before senior guard Akienreh Johnson forced a turnover, found Robbins streaking down the court for an easy layup — the deficit now three. The Orange scored again. They turned the ball over again, the Wolverines scored again. For once, Michigan wasn’t the team giving up possessions.
OLIVIA CELL/Daily
Senior forward Kayla Robbins led Michigan with 23 points against Syracuse in the Wolverines’ 84-76 win on Thursday.
There was no room for Syracuse to breathe as the Wolverines executed a nasty press. The Orange committed seven turnovers in the fourth quarter and five in overtime. They gave up 31 points off turnovers — 21 in the fourth quarter and overtime. “It’s all with the top line,” Robbins said. “When you have (Hillmon’s) length up top, with her length in the press when we’re down, she’s done it plenty of times before — no one can stop it. No one can get through our first-line defense when we’re down.” Added Hillmon: “But it doesn’t work without the second line being there with the traps, so that’s another thing of everybody working together, knowing what spots they’re supposed to be in and even when it did break down a couple times we didn’t put our head down, we got right back into it and still tried to get those stops.” For a minute, the game looked to sit back into the normal rhythm. Like it did in the third quarter when the Wolverines forced an abundance of turnovers to bring the game within three, only to lose it just as soon as it began. There were two minutes where Michigan dominated the glass, gained rebounds, forced turnovers, only to miss its shot. But Syracuse was impotent and turned the ball over again. The Wolverines worked their way into a one-point lead off a Robbins layup with just a minute left. Michigan calmed down, and when it was unable to trap the Orange in the backcourt, it swarmed the arc — Hillmon and junior forward Hailey Brown a brick wall in the paint. To start overtime, Syracuse committed a turnover. And then another. The Wolverines were up by four in a flash while the Orange were drowning. Up by 10 with a minute left in overtime, the momentum was all with Michigan. Two free throws put a dagger in the heart of Syracuse.