The Observer, Volume L, Issue 26, 4/19/19

the

Case Western Reserve University volume L, issue 26 friday, 4/19/2019

Observer

Show me the money

Club sports seek portion of Student Activities Fee funding SOURCES OF ICA FUNDING

$120,575 $9,275 $9,275 $46,375

ALLOCATION BREAKDOWN 2.6% 4.8% 2.6% 4.8% 6.2% 6.2% 6.5%

23.4%

16.1% Current

25%

7.0%

7.0% 39.4%

REQURIEMENTS FOR PASSAGE

38.9%

20.9%

of undergraduate population to vote and then

simple majority

13.1%

needed to pass referendum

Proposed

Interfraternity Congress/Panhellenic Council

CHANGE IN ALLOCATIONS

$55,650

39.4% 23.4% 16.1% 5.3% Current

Nathan Lesch

Undergraduate Diversity Collaborative

38.9%

Class Officer Collective

20.9%

University Program Board

13.1% 4.8%

Intercollegiate Club Athletics

Proposed

Undergraduate Student Government University Media Board Reserve Funding Graphic by Ryan Yoo/Observer Dollar amounts based on 2018-19 SAF allocations

From April 17-30, Case Western Reserve University undergraduate students will have the opportunity to vote on a referendum that would allow club sports to join the Student Presidents’ Roundtable (SPR). If 25 percent of all undergraduate students vote and a simple majority of that percentage votes in favor of the referendum, then the Intercollegiate Club Athletics (ICA) board will be created and receive 6.5 percent of the total Student Activities Fee. Funding for existing SPR organizations would decrease to make room for the proposed ICA board.

The University Media Board (UMB) will see the biggest decrease in funding if the referendum passes. The referendum will cut approximately 19 percent of UMB’s Student Activities Fee allocation.

USG will see an approximately 11 percent decrease in funding, and the Class Officers Collective will see a 9.4 percent decrease. The University Program Board (UPB), currently the largest recipient of Student Ac-

tivities Fee funding, will see a 1.3 percent decrease.

Dan Hopkins, a fourth-year student studying macromolecular science and engineering, is one of the main proponents of the referendum. Hopkins has participated in club sports during his entire time at CWRU and previously served as the president of Club Ice Hockey.

“Playing ice hockey at CWRU has been the highlight of my undergraduate experience, and it would mean a lot to me if I could leave knowing that many more Spartans can have the same experience I did,” Hopkins said in an email.

Hopkins stated that club sports should not continue to apply for funding from USG because club sports form a group that is unlike the majority of USG’s over 200 recognized student organizations. Instead, club sports are asking to form their own board. Hopkins believes that becoming a part of SPR is the next logical step for club sports and that club sports have done as much as they can on their own to ensure consistent funding.

According to Hopkins, “The reasons for club sports wanting to start the Intercollegiate Club Athletics (ICA) board were based off of years

of growing frustration with the way our space and money were secured in the past, and the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) was a part of that.”

According to SPR’s Chair Ammar Abidi, the decrease in funding of SPR organizations is one of the largest effects of the ICA board joining SPR. “Ensuring that the boards whose base allocations would be decreased are still able to contribute to the campus community effectively [would be a major ramification],” said Abidi. “This would especially be a challenge for COC and UMB due [to] the large percentage decrease in their funding.”

Advocates of club sports joining SPR note that USG’s decrease in funding will not negatively affect the funding of other USG organizations because club sports currently receive more funding from USG than the decrease USG funding would experience if the referendum is passed.

Abidi also sees another potential problem with club sports joining SPR. Abidi believes club sports’ scope needs to be reconciled with SPR’s mission.

“SPR is an organization focused on the CWRU campus as a whole,

and Club Sports as it currently exists now largely serves a subset of students,” said Abidi.

Hopkins, however, believes the benefits of club sports joining SPR outweigh the potential costs.

“I really believe this can benefit the vast majority of the campus,” said Hopkins, “and hope that the club sports program finally gets the recognition and support that a lot of us feel it deserves, especially because so many students are already involved.”

News

A&E

Opinion

Sports

pg. 2 Clune named Guggenheim

pg. 7 Rocker returns home

pg. 8 Referendum process flawed

pg. 12 Track teams set more records

Staff Reporter

The Observer is a member of the University Media Board and is affected by the results of the referendum.

For the Editorial Board’s thoughts on the referendum, head to pg. 8

news CWRU professor named Guggenheim Fellow Maryam Iqbal Staff Reporter Michael Clune, a Case Western Reserve University professor in the department of English, was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow. The fellowships, according to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation website, are “intended for individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts.”

“I feel grateful to be in that company,” Clune said. “This year they chose 168 out of 3,000 of the most talented scientists, composers, philosophers, poets and historians in the nation. So it’s an honor.”

Born in 1975, Clune spent his early childhood in Ireland before moving to the U.S. He was first in his family to get a college degree, receiving his doctorate in English from Johns Hopkins University. He came to CWRU in 2010. While discussing his experience at CWRU, Clune mentioned that despite having other opportunities, he stayed at CWRU because he loves his work and the atmosphere that encourages studying and appreciating the humanities.

Clune most recently published the creative memoir “White Out: The Secret Life of Heroin,” named a “Best

Book of 2013” by The New Yorker, and the academic work “Writing Against Time.” “White Out” came about after Clune decided there was a difference between his own addiction recovery experiences and the works he was seeing, so he sat down to rectify the issue.

“Writing is like turning a microscope on experience; through this method, I came to believe that addiction involves a special distortion of time in the brain of the addict,” said Clune. “I then collaborated with neuroscientists, and analyzed the work of writers from John Keats to Marcel Proust to learn more about how time works in the mind. I published this as my academic book, ‘Writing Against Time.’”

“To me, creative and academic writing are two sides of the same coin,” said Clune when asked about his creative process. “I believe creative writing is a powerful way of discovering new aspects of experience.”

Although he initially was going to throw the letter announcing his fellowship away mistaking it for a rejection, after reading it slowly he realized he was chosen to be a Guggenheim Fellow.

“The way I learned about it was kind of funny,” said Clune. “They sent me this letter that looked just like a rejection letter, and was worded in this strange way so that at first I didn’t realize they were telling me that I’d

won. I guess they had to be kind of roundabout in their wording because we weren’t allowed to announce it publicly until they did their press release.”

For Clune, this is a once-in-a-lifetime career opportunity. Clune said that he will use the funds received from his fellowship to complete his new book, “A Defense of Judgment.” The book deals with understanding how we, as a society, have gotten scared of making value judgments.

“I want to explore what gives an English professor, for example, the right to be able to tell students that certain books are more worth their time than other works,” said Clune. “Exploring this gets at the heart of how art

works in our lives.”

This academic book will be a companion to his creative book, “Gamelife,” which explored how the “strange art of computer games” worked in his early life.

Due to his fellowship, Clune will be on sabbatical for a semester or two. He mentioned how he will be sad to leave his students, who have taken well to ideas of literature from different perspectives.

“I really love teaching Case students; their intelligence and curiosity is a constant inspiration to me,” said Clune. “I think of my classroom as a kind of laboratory, where we expose literature to different perspectives, and test its capacities to change our minds.”

Courtesy of CWRU English Department Guggenheim Fellow, Professor Michael Clune

Israeli moon mission fails, hopes to invigorate interest in space travel Lev Pearlman Staff Reporter

was $100 million. For reference, all the Apollo missions combined cost $125 billion, adjusted for inflation.

The event symbolized a coming tide of cheaper space travel.

On April 11, Israel’s first moon lander mission ended in failure when the lander crashed into the moon.

On February 22, when Israel launched the mission, Case for Israel, Case Western Reserve University’s Israeli culture group, hosted celebrations to mark the event. The lander was named Beresheet, a Hebrew word meaning “in the beginning.” Case for Israel partnered with The Cleveland Hillel Foundation to host a watch party for the historic event.

Members of both organizations and several prospective CWRU students attended the party.

The project was co-developed

by SpaceIL, an Israeli non-profit founded by Yariv Bash, Kfir Damari and Yonatan Winetraub and supported by billionaire Morris Khan. The project launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

NASA attributed the low cost of the mission to the long route the rocket took, writing on their website, “The lander separated first from the rocket, taking the long route to

The event was especially historic because the total cost of the mission

the Moon to save fuel by employing gravitational forces to propel itself.

Beresheet slowly widened an elliptical orbit around Earth until it was captured by the Moon’s gravity and ultimately commanded to descend.”

The lunar lander was carrying a digital time capsule with “details about the spacecraft and the crew building it; national symbols, like Israel’s Declaration of Indepen-

dence, the Torah, Israel’s national anthem, ‘Hatikvah,’ and the Israeli flag;” as well as many other items of importance.

However, on April 11 as the lander was making its final descent, the main engine failed, causing the lander to crash into the moon. As it was making its final descent, the lander took a selfie.

Second-year student Lena Rosen and third-year student Jake Roth, the president and treasurer of Case for Israel, respectively, said, “As sad as we were to see the landing fail, the achievement of being the seventh nation to orbit the moon and the cheapest mission to the moon ever should not be understated. We look forward to Israel’s next attempt.”

They may not have to wait long.

Kahn announced plans for Beresheet 2 on April 13.

Courtesy of NASA Picture taken by the Beresheet as it crashed on the moon

“The mission we started, I hope we can complete. This is my goal,” he said. “As for my message for all the youngsters—if it doesn’t work at first, stand up, and complete it. And this is what I’m doing, and what I wanted to tell you this evening.

Thank you.”

news

observer.case.edu

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CWRU faculty involved in nuclear forensic research Anna Giubileo Staff Reporter

So you’ve found some uranium— now what?

This question was posed by Christine Duval, an assistant professor in the department of chemical and biomolecular engineering. Her presentation on nuclear forensic research was the final in a series hosted by the Case Western Reserve University Science and Human Rights Coalition.

Nuclear science is a rapidly advancing field. Only 44 years separate the production of the first X-ray image from the ability to weaponize nuclear technology.

Duval’s talk touched on these historical advancements, as well as the history of the atomic bomb and weapon detonation during World War II and the Cold War, before moving onto nuclear technology today.

There has been much talk in recent years about the possibility of countries developing nuclear technologies. This threat spawned the rapidly advancing field of nuclear forensics, which Duval has been a part of for several years.

Diana Zavela, a second-year student, helped coordinate Duval’s talk.

“I really liked hearing about what

happens when nuclear material is found. We often hear in the news about nuclear material being detected or confiscated, and it was super interesting to hear what happens behind the scene[s]. I had no idea how we detected nuclear tests or found illegally smuggled material.”

Professionals in the nuclear forensics field work to intercept and analyze unused nuclear dust or debris left over from nuclear events.

“Our goal is to determine the com-

IAEA Imagebank/Wikimedia Commons Christine Duval gave a talk titled “So you’ve found some uranium, now what?”

Cleveland Botanical Garden wins lawsuit over land use Abigail Wells Staff Reporter The Cleveland Botanical Garden (CBG) recently won a lawsuit pertaining to the use of its Wade Park property. Jeptha Wade, one of Western Union Telegraph’s founders, gifted 63 acres of land—now known as Wade Park—to the city of Cleveland to use as a public park in 1882.

Descendants and beneficiaries of Wade claimed the botanical garden misused the land by fencing in outdoor gardens and charging admission and parking fees.

According to the terms of the original Wade Deed, the land must be used as a public park and fencing not along the western and southern borders must be wrought-iron. The deed stated the land must be “open to the public at all times” and used “for no other purpose than a public park.”

Judge Sherrie Miday ruled on the side of CBG, stating the concept of

position of the material, its origin, and potentially the trafficking routes being used,” Duval explained.

One of the ways illegal nuclear testing is discovered is through environmental monitoring. Nuclear tests produce environmental stressors, such as artificial seismic waves and atmospheric sound waves. Radioactive mapping and radionuclide climate research are also used to measure increased radioactivity, indicating the presence of illegal test-

a public park is “forever changing.”

Miday adjudicated that charging for admission and parking does not violate the deed’s terms.

“CBG’s charging of admission fee and having specific hours of operation does not mean that the property is ‘closed off’ to the general public,” Miday wrote in the opinion.

Additionally, CBG argued that only adjacent landowners can enforce the fencing terms outlined in the Wade Deed. Miday agreed with the botanical garden’s justification.

In the past, the Wade Deed has threatened the construction of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History’s Perkins Wildlife Center. The plans for the project included an eight-foot wooden fence that potentially violated the deed; however, Cleveland’s Planning Commission ultimately approved the design.

University Circle Inc. (UCI) and the city of Cleveland were both named in the lawsuit, because the city owns and leases the land gifted by the deed to UCI and CBG.

The Observer is looking for contributors!

If you would like to write, take photos or serve on the public relations committee, email us at observer@case.edu

ing.

According to Duval, “The interesting part occurs when you actually find the uranium.”

First, the material undergoes a nondestructive assay, a test to determine the content or quality of a metal ore, to ascertain whether it actually is a nuclear byproduct and not another substance. After that, it undergoes a destructive assay to determine its composition and origin, before the results are compiled and studied.

Despite the existence of several treaties on nuclear technology, the U.S. and the majority of the other signatory countries have not officially ratified any legislation. The signing is treated as an act of goodwill rather than a binding legality.

Even positive uses for nuclear technology, such as nuclear power, come with issues.

The U.S. is currently not repossessing the nuclear waste that comes from its power plants—waste which includes weapons grade uranium— in an effort to be a role model for other countries. However, the issue of what to do with the waste and where to put it remains a problem that no one currently has an appropriate answer for.

Duval encouraged all attendees to get involved in the field in a variety of different ways. She explained, “everyone has a stake in nuclear power and its legacy.”

fun

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fun page | 9

Ken Ken

The aim of the puzzle is to fill the whole grid with numbers. The only numbers you are allowed to use are 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. No number may repeat in a column or a row. Each “cage” (or a shaded box) contains a target number and the arithmetic method needed to be used to obtain the target number.

Normal

Difficult

Horoscopes Signs as real “Florida Man” headlines

Aries

Florida Man arrested outside Olive Garden for shirtless, drunken pasta-eating

Taurus

Florida Man used tractor to stop his wife from leaving with ‘his stuff’

Gemini

Florida Man attacked, killed by ‘world’s most dangerous bird’

Cancer

Florida Man in ‘Don’t take life so seriously’ shirt arrested on attempted murder charge

Leo

Florida Man grabs alligator, chases customers in store while on beer run

Sudoku Normal

Virgo

Florida Man attacks neighbors with frying pan, lamp pole, deputies say

Libra

Florida Man arrested for speeding told deputies, ‘the car is a Ferrari and it goes fast’

Scorpio

Florida Man shoots woman with water gun filled with his own urine

Sagittarius

Easy

Difficult

Florida Man arrested for burglarizing cars in jail parking lot moments after being released

Capricorn

Florida Man swung machete around in traffic, hit car with child inside

Aquarius

Florida Man who reportedly bought an $8 million island arrested for alleged Kmart theft

Pisces

Florida Man arrested in golf cart with five bottles of Fireball

We’re looking for contributers!

If you would like to write, take photos, create illustrations, or serve on the public relations committee, email us at observer@case.edu.

arts & entertainment Cartoons, “Catch-22” and hand turkeys

Courtesy case.edu

Yvonne Pan

Arts & Entertainment Editor “Comics are miraculous. They are immune systems. They are transport systems. They are time traveling devices.”

Lifelong friends and fellow cartoonists, Lynda Barry and Matt Groening came together at Maltz Performing Arts Center for the William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage Series, on Tuesday, April 16.

Barry and Groening met at Evergreen State College when Groening heard Barry had written to one of his favorite authors, Joseph Heller, and received a response. Barry wrote about how much she loved his novel “Catch-22” and asked him to marry her. Heller wrote back, “I’d like to marry you, but I don’t want to live in the dorms.”

Barry has since had a career spanning more than three decades. She has written 17 books, including “What It

Is,” a graphic novel that won the 2009 Eisner Award for Best Reality-Based Work. Her work earned her the Wisconsin Visual Art Lifetime Achievement Award in 2013 and she was inducted into the Eisner Hall of Fame in 2016.

Groening’s fame stems from his cartoon “Life in Hell” and the animated series “The Simpsons,” among other works. He has won a variety of accolades as well, including 12 Primetime Emmy Awards, the National Cartoonist Society Reuben Award in 2002, a British Comedy Award in 2004 and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2012.

Brad Ricca, who earned a doctorate in English from Case Western Reserve University in 2017, and is a SAGES Fellow and professor of writing and comics at CWRU, was supposed to introduce the speakers. Ricca is also a writer and filmmaker, and his works have won the 2014 Ohioana Book Award for Nonfiction, the St. Lawrence Book Award, a Silver Ace Award

and a Cleveland Arts Prize for Emerging Artist in Literature.

Instead of an introduction however, Ricca welcomed us to Cleveland, reasoning that we were probably familiar with both speakers. “Our state color is overcast, ” Ricca said. “Cleveland is a ‘cartoon comics town.’”

Ricca briefly discussed Barry’s and Groening’s respective works and asserted that Groening “drove a stake into culture and popular culture that will never be removed.” After a powerful introduction, despite assertions the speakers needed none, spectators were greeted by a colorful presentation that evoked many questions.

“Is creative concentration contagious?” is one of many questions Barry brought up in her presentation, hidden among comfortable banter between her and Groening and comics done by the two.

The pair also discuss their influences. Groening explains that although “The Simpsons” is not autobiographical, the names of the members are in-

spired by his own family, except for Bart’s name.

Groening admits his mother wasn’t fond of the depiction of Marge’s hair in the sitcom, but his father Homer liked it, despite telling him “you’ll never make any money on your drawings,” during the early stages of his career.

Groening soon proved him wrong.

“The Simpsons” is the longest-running American sitcom and has earned 33 Primetime Emmy Awards, 32 Annie Awards and a Peabody Award.

Groening also shared a question a college professor asked him: “You do what you do adequately well, is it worth doing?” Groening admitted he grapples with this question daily.

This is a critical question to consider, especially as college students. Is our degree worth the work we are adequately doing?

On a less cynically philosophical note, Barry encourages us to keep drawing, even if we are “bad” at it.

“When four-year-olds are afraid to draw, we are worried, but we dismiss it when forty-year-olds are,” she said.

Barry worries we are stomping out creative expression.

Barry showed us a slideshow of drawings done by children and scientists respectively. She noted the crooked lines and sloppiness and said she often hears people say “my drawing looks like it was done by a fouryear-old.”

“What if this is what a line looks like when it’s giving you an idea?” she wondered. That may certainly be the case as people easily develop theories, often through haphazard scribbles on any available surface. She recounted students writing on both sides of the glass at the University of WisconsinMadison where she teaches.

Both Barry and Groening left spectators re-examining their lives. William N. Skirball Writers Center Stage promises other inspirational speakers as Pulitzer Prize-winner Jennifer Egan takes the stage on May 1.

Giggles galore

One of IMPROVment’s last shows proves just as funny as previous ones Claudia Jazowski Contributing Reporter There are giggles galore on Saturday nights at the Eldred Theater Blackbox with Case Western Reserve University’s own improv comedy troupe, IMPROVment. With only two performances left, this comedy show is one you do not want to miss.

The shows start at 11 p.m. on April 20 and 9 p.m. on April 27. Be sure to arrive early because seats fill up quickly.

Last weekend, IMPROVment did not let the cold stop their blazing performance. With hilarious back-toback acts, there was not a single dull moment. As a first-time attendee, I

did not know what to expect from the show. Would it be a cheesy college show with awkward jokes that fell flat? Although I’ve seen shows like that before, this was an entirely different experience.

The performers used audience suggestions for parts of the acts. For one act, they took song suggestions.

When an audience member first suggested a song that began with “girl” but quickly switched to “Helter Skelter,” third-year student Jack Routhier combined the two suggestions. He merged the songs to create “Guuuurl, Helter Skelter,” because they “always need to take the feminist approach.”

IMPROVment members incorporated audience suggestions regardless of how absurd or odd they were

and succeeded in making a smooth show that gave the feel of a well written script, despite its spontaneity.

I was amazed and could not believe they had no idea what was coming beforehand.

One of the highlights of the show was when they played a game in which they created jokes out of random topics. In one scenario, they had to create drill sergeant pick up lines.

My favorite was, “Would you kiss me with that mouth, soldier?”

Another topic was, “What do Case Western [Reserve University] kids do for fun?” Fourth-year student JP Peralta sat down on the ground, and I giggled, thinking to myself, “Yeah, we really do nothing.” He then announced: “The shelter has now been

lifted.” There was a roar of laughter.

The best part about IMPROVment is that these are CWRU students who just want to make the audience laugh. They know how hard the classes are, how bad the food can be at the dining halls, the pain of fire alarms and a hundred other things only CWRU students can know. IMPROVment uses all these things to create comedy that directly relates to all of us.

The IMPROVment show made for an excellent Saturday night, and I wish I had gone sooner. Take your friends, take your mom or even take your Tinder date. IMPROVment shows provide a comedy-filled hour that you will not regret.

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“Ventura” combines best of Anderson .Paak Playlist of the Week Chris Heerman

Social Media Editor If I could only use one word to describe Anderson .Paak’s new album, it would be “Groovy” with a capital G. With “Ventura,” .Paak returns to the mellow tones that gained him his initial audience. While his albums “Oxnard” and “Malibu” had a certain appeal, their sounds were different from his early content.

“Oxnard” especially relied on excessively suggestive lyrics that turned away many of his earliest fans. .Paak’s talents shine better in his works as a producer and instrumentalist, rather than a rapper, and having an album rely on his lyrical ability is a risk.

The new album’s solution to this is by having short breakdowns within several songs where a featured rapper delivers in a mesmerizing solo. “Come Home” provides a rare Andre 3000 feature. His unique flow over the smooth beats and quick percussive hits are distinct from the rest of the song, and his rate slowly accelerates until it culminates with a return to the instrumental.

Another song that really stands out is “Reachin’ 2 Much” featuring Lalah Hathaway. The easygoing beat combined with spirited drum hits

and sweet singing exudes an incredible vibe. It has a strong resemblance to “TINTS” featuring Kendrick Lamar from .Paak’s album “Oxnard”— which is a good thing.

“TINTS” is one of .Paak’s most popular songs. “Reachin’ 2 Much” taking after “TINTS” is both a blessing and a curse.

In “King James,” .Paak celebrates black activism. The title is a reference to Cleveland’s own LeBron James who, besides bringing the Cleveland Cavaliers a championship, started several community programs for at-risk youth.

The song also references former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, known for protesting police brutality and an apparent blacklisting from league owners.

Throughout the song .Paak does not change his tone or flow. Listeners may do a double-take when .Paak talks about children dead in the streets in the same cheerful tone he discusses fighting for equality. It is an interesting choice and brings the song a fresh feel on every listen.

“Ventura” is an elegant fusion between Anderson .Paak’s original style and his more experimental albums. While some of the songs are outstanding and the album overall is good, it is nothing special. It is worth at least one listen, if not more.

“Ventura” is, indeed, “Groovy.”

Jackson Rudoff Opinion Editor

Rapper Kendrick Lamar is in the midst of a phenomenal artistic peak. Most notably, he was awarded the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first artist outside of jazz or classical to do so. Unfortunately, Lamar himself claimed he wouldn’t be coming out with a new album in 2019. To help deal with this Lamar deficiency, we’ve prepared a playlist of five artists who we could call Lamar-adjacent. They each resemble his style in some other way, while also demonstrating the vast depth of talent in the modern hip-hop scene.

Waves—Joey Bada$$

Aside from having one of the best names around, Joey Bada$$ is one of the most underrated artists in any genre. “Waves” is a track from his 2012 mixtape “1999,” which was met with acclaim at the time of its release and holds up even better today. The kit-beat with synth-organ chords dancing around in the background is a great foundation for his seamless lyrics. The vibe of this track is similar to the first half of Lamar’s “Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst” from “good kid, m.A.A.d city,” released the same year. Bada$$’ style has departed a bit from his mixtape days, so revisiting some of his earlier work is generally an interesting look into his progression as an artist.

Free Lunch—Isaiah Rashad

Isaiah Rashad’s first studio album,“The Sun’s Tirade” just happened to be produced on Top Dawg Entertainment (TDE), the once-underground label Lamar championed. Rashad’s production often incorporates a mixture of unorthodox flows, rhythms and melodies. Like “Waves,” this track uses basic, low-key production with some backing instrumentation. While he has definitely carved out his own niche, his artistic moves are highly evocative of his TDE forefathers, using voice and tonechange elements that morph with the mood of the song.

Self—Noname

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With the release of her first studio album in 2018, Noname broke into the commercial scene with one the highest rated albums of the decade. Her beats are jazzy and unique, taking a trend that Lamar popularized with his much-acclaimed 2015 album “To Pimp a Butterfly.” Noname is also one of the best lyricists and MCs around, hitting complex rhythms and packing an album’s worth of meaning and depth into single tracks.

On “Self,” Noname reflects on everything from her own accomplishments and career to the power, effect and role of women in rap. It’s a remarkable track and will take at least three or four consecutive listens for all of it to sink in. Noname challenges us without fear of alienation, with lines like “A heaven before the heathen no reason for you to like me.” She is a force of nature and it’s up to us to decide if we like her, not for her to pander to our own interests. We can guarantee that she is well worth the effort.

PROM / KING—Saba

Saba established himself in 2013 with his feature on Chance the Rapper’s song “Everybody’s Something.” Saba’s second studio album, “Care for Me,” was widelyacclaimed for its honesty and raw emotion, especially in narrative tracks like “PROM / KING.” As the penultimate track on the album, it provides a sense of closure going into the concluding “HEAVEN ALL AROUND ME,” which serves as an epilogue of sorts. Saba is another artist that gets overlooked far too often, but “PROM / KING” is a great gateway into his conscious catalog, although listening to it in context with the rest of the album is a must.

It may end our playlist, but it shouldn’t end your exploration of the artists it contains.

Find all these tracks online with our weekly Spotify playlist at observer.case.edu All photos courtesy pluspremiers.us, genius.com, directlyrics.com, and wikipedia.com w

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Aaron Lee Tasjan rocks Beachland Ballroom

Sunayana Jampanaboyana/Observer Aaron Lee Tasjan performed at the Beachland Ballroom & Tavern on April 14.

Aaron Lee Tasjan pulled out a blank page from his notebook and a black Sharpie, titling the page

Henry Bendon Staff Reporter

When “Game of Thrones” first aired on April 17, 2011 it was groundbreaking in several capacities. The immense production, from its enormous cast size to its globe-spanning filming sites, instantly set “Game of Thrones” apart from the rest of television and the show became more than just another HBO program.

Over the course of its first seven seasons, “Game of Thrones” has become the most awarded television series in history with 314 wins in 506 nominations and has established a worldwide following.

Its refusal to ensure the survival of any of its characters has made the viewing experience an emotional rollercoaster, a trip that began again on Sunday, April 14 with the premiere of the eighth and final season.

[If you haven’t seen the show and are planning on it, stop here.]

“Game of Thrones” season eight begins by connecting all of the pieces that have been scattered across Westeros, and the narrow sea, for the last seven seasons. After years of separation, the surviving Starks have returned to Winterfell and brought with them a new queen, a massive army, two dragons and a ton of emotional baggage.

Jon Snow returned from his trip south at the end of season seven, having pledged the north to his aunt Daenerys Targaryen, a decision that proves to be instantly unpopular, especially with his half-sister Rhaenys Targaryen.

Although the closest we get to violence

“Cleveland Rocks.” He then casually posed a question to bassist Tommy Scifres: “Hey Tommy, what do you think we should open the show with?” They decided that “The Rest is Yet to Come” was the perfect opener.

jan took to the stage with Scifres and drummer Mark Stepro. Opening for Tasjan was the Nashville-based husband and wife duo Smooth Hound Smith, who captured the audience’s interest with an energetic set created at the intersection of folky blues and rock ‘n’ roll.

Tasjan refined this energy into crooning melodies and impressive guitar riffs. “It’s a smokescreen scene and nobody knows what’s real,” he sang, alluding to not only the current political climate but also the perfected images that so many of us seem to present on social media.

“If not now, then when?” he asked and expanded on the futility of trying to be better than everybody else in “Success.” In lilting tunes, Tasjan sang while playing the piano and finally closed with “Ready to Die” from a previous album “Silver Tears.” Walking off the stage, Tasjan yelled to the audience, “I love you and you’re all good people.”

“Ultimately, [in “Karma for Cheap”] I guess I’m trying to say something without being all too pretentious or precious, to say that s--sucks,” he explains. “And I guess I hope it’s reassuring in that you can find some reason to keep your chin up.”

Winter is here in Winterfell is a battle of the wills between Sansa Stark and Daenerys, the season premiere hinted at future problems this season.

The first episode was dedicated to bringing people together and setting up the final act of the show, and as a result, the episode was fairly mellow in “Game of Thrones” terms. No major characters died, although the death scene of young Ned Umber, who’d been killed and displayed on a wall surrounded by a spiral of limbs, was a potent reminder that the winter has indeed come to the seven kingdoms.

Most of the first episode was spent in the north, but it would hardly be an episode without an appearance from the current occupant of the Iron Throne, Cersei Lannister. During the episode, the north is primarily concerned with the approaching army of the dead, while also trying to grapple with Snow’s decision to bend the knee to Danerys. In the south, Cersei is focused on keeping her throne after the battle with the White Walkers. She’s also out for revenge against both of her brothers, and is surrounded by selfserving allies in King’s Landing.

There’s a lot more happening around the seven kingdoms, with the potential fallout from Snow’s revelations about his lineage, and the omnipresent threat of death from the White Walkers looming over the entire universe of “Game of Thrones.”

Given the brutal nature of “Game of Thrones” to this point and the lack of any shocking deaths in episode one, next Sunday feels more and more like an impending bloodbath—unless we’re killed by the Night King before it comes out.

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Sunayana Jampanaboyana Staff Reporter

He walked onto the stage dressed as a “cartoon sandwich condiment,” in a red floral shirt and a red vest under a mustard yellow jacket, and sat down at the piano to explicate that in fact, the rest was yet to come.

Promoting his most recent solo album, “Karma for Cheap,” released last August, Tasjan has been traveling since January with his road band, with a recent stop at Beachland Tavern on Sunday, April 14.

“Karma for Cheap” is a far shift from Tasjan’s previous two albums, embracing the influences of classic rock in conjunction with psychedelic British pop and his own unique style. The Beatles, Tom Petty, David Bowie and even Jakob Dylan, who Tasjan listened to in the back seat of his mom’s car, influenced the album.

Although he first picked up a guitar in New Albany, Ohio, Tasjan resonates more strongly with Brooklyn, New York where he really created himself as an artist. Now, Tasjan is based in Nashville, Tennessee and continues to explore his sound while ironing out other influences. Tasjan expresses that there was nothing more to making the move to pursue a career as a solo artist than just wholeheartedly giving it a shot.

Returning to his birthplace, Tas-

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opinion

4/19/19

opinion Editorial Student government elections are unfortunately often overlooked on this campus. This year though, a referendum may potentially nudge us out of this pattern. In addition to the usual positional elections, we are now able to vote on a measure affecting how funding from the Student Activity Fee is distributed in the coming academic year.

The referendum would grant Club Sports a Student Presidents’ Roundtable Board called Intercollegiate Club Athletics.

As a member of this blanket organization, the ICA would receive 6.5 percent of the total student activities fee, meaning that some other members of the SPR board would see a decrease in their share of the funding. For more details, read our news story on the referendum itself.

In theory, this will solidify the financial stability of club sports on campus. This justification, however, doesn’t capture the depth

Referendum strikes out of how significant and inefficient the policy change is.

The referendum re-allocates money at the expense of other organizations, and deciphering exactly how these cuts operate is difficult from how the referendum is structured on the ballot.

This leads directly into the most glaring flaw of the referendum: the campus really doesn’t entirely comprehend it, and was not given nearly enough time to do so. Through the past week, numerous members of the Editorial Board spoke with friends who didn’t know how they were going to vote. This was not because they were caught between sides of the debate, but rather because the effects of the change were ambiguous to them. Some who had picked a side, or even already voted, wanted to flip their vote after discovering they misunderstood what the referendum mandated.

This confusion makes sense since the petition was only sent out a couple weeks ago. It rapidly

progressed from potential measure to legitimate policy. There was very little communication from SPR throughout this process, with the referendum first being referenced in an email sent out by USG this past Tuesday. Beyond its inclusion on this year’s ballot, no other information was given as to what it would entail until the day of the elections.

There were a number of students aware of the goals and effects of the referendum, but only if they received emails from their other organizations explaining them. One member of the staff recalled hearing that one of his friends’ organizations sent information regarding the referendum to other club members.

Meanwhile, a person in the same room said that they had received entirely contradictory information from another member of their own club. Neither person had a complete understanding of the situation, nor what exactly they were expected to make an informed decision about.

This is the hazard of introducing important policy changes through a referendum, and why you should pay attention to who initiates them.

They may put direct control over the policy’s fate into the hands of the student body, but you should also ensure that these students are well-informed about the issue. In this case, we left a complicated fiscal measure to be unraveled by those it affects. The problem is, there was not nearly enough time for them to complete this task, as facts and figures will still filtering through the student body.

It’s important to provide financial security for large clubs at CWRU. But we must do so in ways that don’t strip other organizations of their funding or rely on votes from an unprepared electorate.

The Observer, as a member of the University Media Board, is affected by the results of the referendum. See the news article for more details.

What does it mean to be brown at CWRU? I Spit My Truth And It’s Brown

Viral Mistry Last week, I opened the links to see all of the letters of intent for the Spring 2019 Undergraduate Student Government (USG) elections, and I couldn’t help but notice the sizeable number of brown people who are running.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term “under-represented minority,” or URM, which refers to people in the U.S. who are of African-American, Hispanic/ Latinx, Native American or Pacific Islander origin. They are numerically and structurally underrepresented in institutions like Case Western Reserve University. URMs make up approximately 32 percent of the U.S. population but only about 12 percent of the student body at CWRU. I would like to posit another term in contrast: overrepresented minority, which I would argue describes South Asian students at CWRU. While the specific data for South Asians at CWRU is lacking, Asians more broadly make up seven percent of the U.S. population but make up 20 percent of the undergraduate student body here.

As I write this, the USG elections have not occurred yet. However, there is a distinct possibility that four of the six main executive positions within USG will be occupied by South Asian American students. Six of the 11 candidates for these positions are brown.

Thirty-one percent of the College of Engineering candidates and a whopping 52 percent of the College of Arts and Sciences candidates are of South Asian descent. Talk about a brown come-up.

I’m sure there will be people who will see that and say “yeah, but who cares about USG?” After all, their own former VP of Student Life admitted to The Observer last year that since only about 30 percent of campus participates in the elections, they do not have a meaningful mandate. And while I wholeheartedly agree with that, it does not change the

fact that to the university administration, USG is the face of the student body.

Regardless of whether a substantial number of students participate in the elections, the body will very likely be disproportionately South Asian.

I do not believe in hard racial quotas.

The issue goes deeper than just raw numbers. After all, CWRU’s URM population is already incredibly low, especially for African-Americans, who have remained approximately five percent of the student population for years.

I’m not arguing that South Asians should not be allowed to make up more than a certain percentage of the student population or of the student government.

I am, however, pointing out the massive over-representation, and questioning what the South Asian students who wield this disproportionate influence plan to do with it.

South Asians in the U.S. are on average the wealthiest ethnic or racial group by household income. We are the most likely to graduate college and the most likely to possess graduate degrees.

We have not faced the same kinds of institutional racism and segregation that our black and Latinx peers have. We

overwhelmingly live in suburbs built by and for a white majority.

Yet, we are inescapably different from white folk. Our language is different, our names are different and our skin is different.

Vijay Prashad, in his book “The Karma of Brown Folk,” reflects on this complicated social position. If W.E.B. Du Bois, the author of “The Souls of Black Folk,” said the existence of blackness in the U.S. was to be a problem, then Prashad argued that the existence of brownness is to be a solution. As an upwardly mobile “model minority,” we can be weaponized as a cudgel against black and Latinx folk, demeaning them for failing to succeed as we have. In return, we get to live safely in white neighborhoods, go to white schools and universities and roleplay “The West Wing” while in student government, as long as we don’t challenge the status quo in a meaningful or substantive way.

This academic year, at least one brown person has served on every single Student Presidents’ Roundtable organizations’ executive board. I would know, I am one of them. The same cannot be said for black or Latinx students here.

We have a strong collective voice here at CWRU. What do we use this authority for? Are we using it to protect a power structure designed by and for the dominant group? Or are we using our positions of privilege and our proximity to whiteness as a doorstop to open up opportunities for our fellow formerly colonized brothers and sisters?

What organizations are we partnering with? What stories are we telling? What issues are we championing?

I believe we can be a strong force to advance the cause of all marginalized people. By the time this article runs, elections will be over, and there will almost certainly be brown people elected to serve in USG next year. They collectively have a choice to make.

Will they be advocates or opponents of change?

Most critically: will they be a problem or a solution?

Viral Mistry is a fourth-year biology and cognitive science double major who is also minoring in chemistry, history and philosophy. This fall, he will be moving to North Chicago to pursue a Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

opinion 9

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Governor DeWine, you are pro-death In Case it Matters

Jordan Reif My mentor throughout high school had a friend—a nurse anesthetist in Florida— who was a traditional conservative Republican. He is a Catholic, was an Air Commando in Vietnam and a former San Antonio police officer. Yet on one of the most controversial issues, he crosses the aisle to the other side.

One night in the early 1970s, while on call in a hospital in upstate New York, he was summoned to the operating room (OR) for an emergency exploratory laparotomy—an incision into the abdomen to determine the cause of pain or another existing problem. During a preoperative examination, the patient was noted to be a teacher in her mid-twenties who had become pregnant and—as this was the pre-Roe era—was forced to seek a back-street abortion. She was in the OR that day because the abortion had been botched, leaving her uterus and abdomen perforated: whatever tool had been used to try to terminate the pregnancy had pushed through her uterus and into her abdomen.

As the nurse anesthetist prepared to induce the patient’s anesthesia, she stopped him, looked up and begged him not to let her die. He responded, promising to help save her.

This young African-American teacher, who was shaping the lives of children and trying to improve the world the best she

could, would die on the OR table.

The nurse anesthetist, years later, said to my mentor, “I am a pretty conservative man. But I will fight like a bastard to prevent another young woman from dying as she died. Consider me pro-choice.”

This man, disregarding the historical terminology of abortion rights, is pro-life.

He cares about the life of the mother and the fetus, certainly more than any of those who call themselves “pro-life” by today’s standards. This includes Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine.

Last Thursday, DeWine signed the “heartbeat bill” into law, banning abortions after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. Since its famous 1973 decision, Roe v. Wade has been a divisive and highly partisan issue across the United States. Under progressive politicians, the sovereign right of a woman to control her body expands, and under conservative leaders, restrictive, anti-abortion policies are pushed through.

As a result, states that are consistently “red,” such as Texas, Alabama and Arkansas, have very strict abortion laws and do everything in their power to restrict a woman’s right to choose. Ohio can now be added to this list. Many of these states are also hoping that, with the recent appointment of Justice Brett Kavanaugh on the bench of the Supreme Court, Roe v. Wade will be overturned, giving states the right to completely outlaw abortion.

As Roe v. Wade is still a constitutionally protected decision, conservative states have to be more creative in their efforts to restrict women’s reproductive rights.

States intimidate physicians and patients, close clinics that offer women’s health services and limit insurance coverage, on top of an abortion ban after about 20 weeks of gestation. Ohio, among these states, was nicknamed the “hotbed innovator of abortion rights restrictions” by a senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union Reproductive Freedom Project.

Last week, DeWine helped Ohio live up to its nickname by banning abortions as early as six weeks into the pregnancy, before many women even realize they are pregnant. Obstetricians will often not even see women to confirm pregnancy until eight weeks.

When we introduce anti-abortion policies into our states, we are signing death sentences for hundreds of women.

Restrictive policies will not stop women from terminating a pregnancy; rather it will put their lives at higher risk. Conversely, expanding abortion policies by regulating abortion services and ensuring proper qualifications of the provider will not increase the number of abortions performed. The Guttmacher Institute, a non-governmental organization dedicated to researching sexual and reproductive health and rights, found that for 1,000 women aged 15-44, there were 37 abortions in countries with restrictive abortion laws versus 34 in countries with accessible abortion services.

However, analyzing the tendency of abortions only in these two ways is an oversimplification of the issue. Criminalization of abortion

exacerbates economic hardships and the destabilization of families. Women who have been denied an abortion also face worse mental health and psychological stability, have a more negative outlook on their future and are potentially putting themselves and their children at greater risk if they have to stay with a violent partner. Meanwhile, women who have access to abortion services are able to devote more financial and emotional resources to their children.

I know some people, even close friends and family, who are adamantly opposed to abortion. And, with this, I have no problem. The problem arises when they try to use their voice and actions to restrict someone else’s.

While signing the fetal heartbeat bill, DeWine said, “The government’s role should be to protect life from the beginning to the end.”

If our governor truly meant those words, then he would dedicate time and resources to women’s health, contraceptives and a holistic sexual education in public schools. He would ensure basic health care as a right, including coverage of birth control and abortion services, provide daycare, perinatal and maternity services to recent mothers and children and fight for a fair educational system.

If he truly wanted to protect all life, he would fight beside us for justice on all of these issues, and more, to balance the scale and provide all children and mothers with basic rights.

As long as he continues to fail at all of these things, DeWine is pro-death.

The importance of telling stories Editor’s Note During an interview for an engineering internship, I was asked if writing was my true passion. I’d been talking about my time at The Observer as a writer and an editor, trying to differentiate myself from other potential candidates. I thought my best course of action would be to assure the interviewers that I really did like engineering as much as I liked writing.

So, I, like all other interviewees, embellished the truth. I said that my passions were equal, that I even liked engineering more. That’s why I am majoring in it, right?

Last week, the University Media Board celebrated its groups’ achievements with the fourth annual Correspondents’ Dinner, an event with food, tears and a keynote speech.

The speaker for the evening, former managing editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer Thom Fladung, spoke about the importance of storytelling

in media. It is both the media’s job and its responsibility to tell the stories of all people, from the politicians to the students.

Just three years earlier, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jim Sheeler spoke about a similar topic at the same event. Storytelling, why it was important and how to do it right.

At the time of Sheeler’s speech, I was just a first-year staff reporter. I had covered the volleyball beat, wrote reviews of a TV show (RIP “Agent Carter”) and featured students and clubs in the sports section. I had three more years of editing and reporting ahead of me, but I never considered doing this full time.

I spent more time working on The Observer over the last two years than probably anything else. More than school, work, friendships or other clubs. And I honestly never stopped to ask myself why. Why have I stayed for 10 hours every Wednesday night?

Why have I spent so much time on a collegiate newspaper, when it’s not even going to be a future career?

I think back to Sheeler’s speech

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and Fladung’s speech. I want to tell the stories of the campus.

Each year, over 5,000 undergraduate students, over 6,500 graduate students and about 6,800 faculty and staff gather on this campus. Every single person has a story. It’s our responsibility as the only newspaper covering this area of Cleveland to tell those stories.

Who else will write about the men’s soccer team going far in the national tournament? Who else will feature a staff member who’s been here for more than 30 years? Who else will describe the student impact of new food distribution requirements or the two-day closure of the entire university or shootings on campus?

No one.

That’s why I put so much time and effort into this paper. To tell the stories of this campus that no one else would.

So, I would like to thank everyone involved with the production of the newspaper this past year for helping me do that. I would list them all, but the staff box beneath this note has their names already. Good luck to the staff next year, especially to Matt Hooke,

the new executive editor. Matt is talented, driven and experienced and will lead The Observer to heights I couldn’t dream of reaching, telling even more stories on campus.

Unlike most departing executive editors, I still have another year left on campus, thanks to co-op.

I may occasionally still pop up in these pages or online to tell even more stories. I just won’t be editing anyone’s work or telling people what to cover.

I ended up not getting that internship, the one with the question about my true passion, probably because the interviewers could see straight through me. I now know what I’ll respond with the next time I’m asked that question.

Writing isn’t my passion; telling stories is.

EDWARD J. KEREKES

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10 opinion

4/19/19

To be the rock in rough waters Dastardly Liberal Schemes Steve Kerby The best piece of theater from the past year was a pantomime puppet show I saw at the Lookingglass Theatre in Chicago.

The show was “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” and told the tale of a tin soldier’s journey to find his way back home after being lost. It might sound juvenile, but a moral suddenly arises at the end of the show and beautifully stitches together every thread; the antagonists, while they might have seemed mindless and evil, have their own stories. The scheming rat and the conniving jack-in-the-box only seem one-dimensional because we don’t know their scars. If we understood them a bit more, they might not appear so vile.

There are numerous opportunities in our daily lives for productive and healthy discussion of pertinent political and cultural issues, but there’s very little evidence that those important topics receive the examination they deserve.

When the face of public debate is talking heads shouting on Fox News or members of Congress taking cheap shots at Americans, it’s no wonder most people avoid strenuous rhetorical exercise. I’ve noticed a few simple steps that can make difficult conversations more bearable and perhaps entice the disenchanted back to the table to share their point of view.

There is nothing easier than imagining

that the antagonists of your life are blackhearted villains. By highlighting their many personal flaws, their ideas can be discarded immediately as unworthy because the people presenting them are terrible. Especially in the current charged atmosphere, debate across the aisle, or even across the dinner table, can be instantly derailed by viewing opponents as monsters.

Consider Hillary Clinton’s famous “basket of deplorables” gaffe; it revealed a disdain for American citizens that is unbecoming of a presidential candidate.

Perhaps more importantly, our current president, Donald Trump, portrays members of the news media as “enemies of the people” simply for doing their job.

These derogatory characterizations never support honest discussion. To support useful debate, discard any approach that begins with personal attacks. No one’s views on a controversial topic were built in a day. Rather, they were constructed from various experiences and stimuli over an extended period of time. Treating your opponents like vermin will only harden their resolve and resentment, but extending a hand in friendship leaves open the possibility for slowly rolling back their viewpoint and possibly changing their mind.

Just as personal attacks should be avoided, so too should exaggerated caricatures of opposing points. Take a hotbutton issue like abortion, for example.

In modern debates on abortion both in the

Reboot culture limits creativity and stifles new voices Zhu’s Clues Caroline Zhu In the past decade, more and more blockbusters have been either reboots or remakes of old films and franchises. It raises the question of not only why this is happening, but whether or not these films have any value to offer to popular culture beyond pure nostalgia.

Although it is difficult to pinpoint when this trend took hold, we can point to Disney’s “Alice in Wonderland” from 2010 as the first of many remakes from the company. Adjacent to the Disney remakes of their earliest animated features in liveaction, other franchises experienced reboots, most notably Disney’s third trilogy of the “Star Wars” franchise, beginning with “The Force Awakens” in 2015. Both of these ventures were wildly successful, in no small part because of advanced special effects and stunning visuals.

Going back to my first question of why these movies have monopolized the box office in recent years, profitability from nostalgia seems to be a clear answer. As film production firms see a generation of children raised on Disney classics and “Star Wars” grow into adulthood, recreating the same films makes profits quickly based almost entirely on childhood memories people have of the originals.

However, perhaps a more important question to examine is whether these remakes represent any meaningful contribution to popular culture. By definition, a remake tells the same story as its source material, while reboots often fall into the trap of telling the same story slightly reframed.

Consider the Empire and the Rebel Alliance in the original “Star Wars” trilogy and the First Order and the Resistance in the “Star Wars” reboot, almost identical in nature and in story. In choosing to tell the same story over and over again, the film industry effectively stifles new voices and

new narratives.

Until recent decades, the filmmaking world was largely dominated by white, male narratives—something which has largely changed—but reboot culture tends to reinforce this status quo. From the “Transformers” series to the “Batman” trilogy, reboots of franchises many adults remember from their childhoods tell the heroic story of a white man facing impossible odds.

Alternatively, consider more recent, original films. Films such as “Us,” “The Shape of Water,” “Moonlight” and “Crazy Rich Asians” were all created by filmmakers who had never seen their stories told on screen and were able to showcase their narratives to significant success.

These remarks are not meant to judge films based on quality. Rebooted films have been released to much critical success, while some more original, unique films have floundered at the box office and in reviews. The issue with reboots is not that they represent bad movies; the issue is the perpetuation of a cycle of profitability.

Production companies can see that source material was successful in the past and choose to produce remakes. These will invariably lead to box office success, reinforcing a false dichotomy that original content made by marginalized filmmakers is unprofitable.

It is time we give more space in cinemas to a greater variety of films to pave the path for filmmakers to create more unique content. When asked about creating films with white leads, director Jordan Peele made the most succinct argument for his filmmaking choices, and for the argument for more original content: “[It’s] not that I don’t like white dudes, but I’ve seen that movie.”

Caroline Zhu is a first-year computer science and economics major with a deep and abiding love for Shakespeare. She is currently asleep and cannot take any messages.

media and in our daily lives, the starting positions of the debate are often mired in hyperbole. Accusations of wanting to kill babies or erect a “Handmaid’s Tale”esque dystopia are fired from the hip.

This instantly raises the volatility of the debate to incendiary levels and prevents respectful discussion. If both positions can agree that infanticide or an Orwellian regime are off the table, there is a much greater chance that sane discussion can prevail. Even if neither side budges from their initial position, it will be apparent that both sides are interested in serious discussion.

It is also important to agree ahead of time on the nature of the discussion.

By this I mean that all participants must agree whether the goal is to create a policy proposal, learn more about other viewpoints or formally debate a point.

Each of these cases invokes different rules and conventions. Policy proposals will require compromise; learning about other views is inherently non-confrontational.

Open debate needs structure and pacing to be productive and requires outside moderation and fact-checking.

If one side approaches a discussion as a political process, but the other as a winnertake-all verbal brawl, nothing productive will emerge. We saw this in the scarring hearings during the confirmation process of Justice Brett Kavanaugh, where the Republicans’ and Democrats’ different goals caused tempers to flare. Agreeing ahead of time to maintain a certain style

can foster civilized engagement on a level playing field.

Perhaps your opponent does not seem ready to take the first steps toward fostering healthier discussion; why then should you let your guard down and accept a position of reconciliation when they seem ready to go for the throat?

Maybe they aren’t going to join you in mutual tolerance, but if no one takes that first step, if no one is going to take a leap of faith, our public dialogue is doomed.

In the current atmosphere of suspicion and hostility, real cultural dialogue will not begin until spontaneous acts of generosity open the door.

In summary, I think this stall in our civic dialogue could be resolved if we choose to “love thy enemy,” even if your enemy holds a disturbing position.

Discarding arguments based in hyperbole and refraining from personal attacks prevents eruptions of anger or flipped tables.

Agreeing to meet on an even playing field and engaging openly can keep discussion alive. Taking that first step to “love thy enemy” is an extension of the famous golden rule and shows that important respect for the dignity of fellow citizens and humans.

Steve Kerby is a fourth-year physics and astronomy major who is going to Penn State University to pursue a doctorate in astronomy in the fall. His favorite musician is David Bowie.

Reflecting upon Avicii a year after his death Case Embraced Christian Reyna I was in high school when it happened.

I had just eaten lunch and was ready for the second half of my school day. One of my friends in my next class called my name. She said, “Hey, you like Avicii, right?” I said yes. It was then that she told me that he had just died.

A million thoughts raced through my head. How did he die? Was it a car crash?

Alcohol intoxication? Drug overdose?

How did my favorite artist who changed the scene of electronic dance music (EDM) with his memorable melodies— ones that got stuck in my head—die so young?

I later found out that it was an apparent suicide.

This all happened on April 20, 2018; about a year ago today.

For those of you who don’t know Tim Bergling, who went by the stage name Avicii, he was a Grammy-nominated Swedish EDM producer and DJ whose songs include “Wake Me Up,” “Hey Brother,” “Without You” and the club classic “Levels.” He produced electronic songs that were different in terms of style and lyrics and left a mark on me as someone whose songs I can go to whatever my mood might be.

Avicii had been through a lot during his music career. Ever since he released “Levels” back in 2011, his life was filled with constant touring until eventually he quit DJing all together in 2016 for health reasons. It was then that I realized that something was wrong with him not just physically but mentally.

It was clear that his lifestyle was affecting him in a negative way. No matter how rich or famous you are, one person can only handle so much stress and work. Suicide was his breaking point.

One year later, I am still devastated about his death. His death reminds me that not everyone is perfect and that even if someone looks happy on the outside, he or she may be struggling on the inside.

Depression and anxiety do not care about your class, wealth or success, they will affect you regardless.

A year of reflection has made me a better person and has made me realize how big of an issue mental health is. If someone like Avicii, who had retired from touring to help with his health and had immense popularity and fame, can still struggle internally, then clearly we all need to increase awareness of mental health issues.

A lot of questions were left unanswered about his mental health when he died.

Fortunately, some of those questions may be answered.

His final studio album is being released in early June and is simply titled “Tim.” This new album may reveal his thoughts before he committed suicide. The lyrics will have a different meaning as we try to figure out what was going on through his mind in his final moments.

His family also created the Tim Bergling Foundation to help raise awareness for mental health and suicide prevention.

Yes, I miss Avicii a lot. But I know that his music and his legacy will live on forever. We could not prevent his death, but we can prevent others from committing suicide by reaching out to those in need.

Seeking help should not be frowned upon. We must all do our part to ensure that everyone feels as great as they can be.

Christian Reyna is a first-year biomedical engineering major who is also minoring in Spanish. He absolutely loves dogs and probably procrastinated in writing this article.

Have hot takes on issues of the day? Write for the opinion section! Contact observer@case.edu for more details.

sports

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11

Athlete Spotlight

Second-year softball player learns from failures

Niko Kamlet Staff Reporter

Sydney Wagner is a second-year infielder and outfielder on the Case Western Reserve University softball team. Currently, she boasts a .268 batting average with 71 at bats, along with eight runs batted in. Softball has changed her life as it gave her something to be passionate about. Outside the diamond, she is pursuing her degree in accounting and loves to be artistic through design.

What is your favorite part of being on the softball team? Why? Having my closest friends with me.

Playing softball in college has given me an automatic support system and my closest friends. I love the time we spend together, especially when traveling. We are an extremely close team with unbelievable chemistry. The love and respect that we have for each other is remarkable. I have never been on a team with this much heart. Every girl on the team makes me a better person.

Where did you get your passion for softball? Any good stories?

Watching college softball when I was younger made me want to play in col-

lege. To me, it was the ultimate goal throughout middle school and high school. I think that watching the strategy of the game gave me the urge to continue to learn everything I could about it. I think that learning everything I could about the game made me want to coach. I will be assistant coaching a travel team for the second summer this year. Teaching young girls about softball fills me with so much joy because I know how life-changing this sport has been for me.

Do you have any games that you remember being particularly special?

Why? My favorite game occurred during [the] postseason (regionals) last year. It was during our comeback through the losers bracket against St Mary’s, and I threw out one of their runners at home to keep our one run lead, Dusstyn Reynolds fielded an amazing bunt for the final out of the inning and then Nicole Carty led off the next inning with a homerun.

It was such a momentum changer and it propelled us forward to win that game and eventually take regionals.

Also, winning the final game of [NCAA] Super Regionals against Hope College. When we won that game and hoisted that Super Regional trophy over our heads, it was like a dream. I had watched countless Division I teams do the same thing on television for many years prior. In that moment, it felt unreal

that we were competing for a national championship.

Aside from softball, what else are you involved in on campus? Clubs, student orgs, Greek life? Can you explain what you do in them?

I am a part of the theater department on campus. I work in the costume shop helping to build costumes for the campus shows. I also design for other shows on campus usually during the fall. I have been doing theater most of my life, and I love having the opportunity to design on campus and continue to keep that creative aspect during my college experience. I am also a member of Kappa Alpha Theta. I am a part of two committees in Theta, sisterhood and marketing.

I love being able to be more involved with events as a part of these committees.

Why are you majoring in accounting? What interests you about it?

I am majoring in accounting because of the amount of opportunities it can provide. I am not quite sure what exactly I want to do

Courtesy of CWRU Athletics with my major after but I know that with this degree from CWRU, I have many pathways I could take. To me, accounting is very regimented and it fits perfectly with the way my brain works. I also appreciate the curriculum of the business school because it is very wellrounded.

What is your favorite quote or what inspires you?

With relation to softball, I would say my favorite quote is “fail fast,� courtesy of my dad. In a game built on failing, failing quickly allows you to make adjustments and not dwell on the mistakes.

It also allows you to learn from them.

Baseball loses series at Emory

Sanjay Annigeri Staff Reporter

The Case Western Reserve University baseball team faced a tough series against Emory University, winning one game 4-1, while losing the other three 8-7, 13-3 and 10-6 between Friday, April 12 and Saturday, April 13.

CWRU started the first game strong, with dominant pitching by second-year righty Matt Levine and third-year pitcher Scott Kutschke.

The duo allowed one run and five hits.

The Spartans started their scoring in the top of the third inning when third-year outfielder Noah Mehrle scored on a single from second-year shortstop Jacob Lott. The next inning, second-year designated hitter Benjamin Stawicki brought secondyear catcher Jake Ryan home on a two-out single.

The Spartans also scored a third run in the fifth inning, but conceded a run immediately in the sixth inning. Ryan added an insurance home run in the seventh inning to give the Spartans the victory.

The second game featured more drama; the Spartans attempted a furious comeback by scoring four runs in the top of the eighth. However, Emory won on a run scored in the bottom of the inning.

The Spartans held an early 1-0 lead, but the game would slowly turn into a slugfest in the sixth inning after Emory plated three runs

and another four in the seventh.

Then the Spartans went on a hitting spree when fourth-year third baseman Jacob Kucia was hit by a pitch and Stawicki connected on a basesclearing pinch-hit double. However, a late run scored by Emory handed the Spartans the loss.

In the third game, the Spartans were completely outplayed.

They started the game with a three-run first inning, with a double by first-year designated hitter Nathan Shapiro and a two-run single by fourth-year catcher Tyler Wypiszenski. After that, Emory plated 13 runs, including four runs in the bottom of the second and five runs in the bottom of the third. CWRU lost in seven innings.

In the final game, Emory scored first for the first time in the series.

The Eagles scored in the bottom of the first, but the Spartans answered back with a single by Mehrle and a sacrifice fly by first-year outfielder Cole Jarrett. The Spartans pushed the advantage by scoring two runs in the third inning to bring the score to 4-1. Emory answered back with five runs in the fifth inning.

Emory answered every Spartan run and was able to pull away in the end.

The team finished the week with one win and three losses, bringing their overall season record to 18-11 and conference record to 5-5.

The Spartans will next play a home-and-home series on Thursday, April 18 and Sunday, April 21 against the College of Wooster, with a game at Heidelberg University on Saturday, April 20 splitting the two.

sports Individual wins lead to team success for track and field Teams to host first home meet in 12 years on Saturday Claire Nordt

The Case Western Reserve University track and field teams traveled to Delaware, Ohio to compete at the AllSports Editor Ohio Outdoor Championships. The men’s and women’s competitions each had a total of 20 teams competing, and the Spartan men placed third, and the women placed fifth.

Graduate student Cassandra Laios and third-year teammate Abbey Waltz both set program records at the competition.

Laios earned All-Ohio honors as a result of her firstplace finish in the hammer throw. Laios had a mark of 55.05 meters, which bested her previous school record of 54.52 meters. Laios also took second in the shot put with a mark of 13.29 meters, as well as in the discus with her throw of 42.08 meters. These finishes earned her two more All-Ohio honors. Waltz placed third in the pole vault with a mark of 3.55 meters, besting her previous school record of 3.52 meters.

Additionally, four other Spartans earned titles at the meet.

Second-year student Trey Razanauskas took first in the 10,000-meter run, and third-year jumper Domonic Oddo claimed first in the long jump. Also taking first were second-year runner Kiera Olson in the 10,000-meter run and fourth-year thrower Shannon Carroll in the javelin throw.

Spartans who finished with a top-three place also earned All-Ohio honors. These finishers include fourth-year hurdler Olivia Newman in the 400-meter hurdles and five Spartan men. Fourth-year jumper Ananth Suresh took second in the triple jump, third-year runner Grant McCarthy finished second in the 10,000-meter run and third-year runner Michael Hradesky claimed second in the 800-meter run. Third-place finishes for the men also came from third-year sprinter Jonathan Haling and third-year runner David Hall.

Chris Heerman/Observer The Spartans claimed numerous top-eight finishes, all of Second-year sprinter Julie Hines races in which contributed to the teams’ overall scores. the 400-meter dash. She finished fifth.

The teams will next compete at the CWRU Invitational,

Chris Heerman/Observer

Second-year runner Olivia Battistoni competes in the 5,000-meter run.

which will be hosted by the teams. The invitational takes place on Saturday, April 20 at DiSanto Field. It will be the first outdoor track meet on campus since 2007.

Tennis falls to ranked opponents Spartans lose series to Brandeis Claire Nordt Sports Editor

Both the men’s and women’s tennis teams traveled to Illinois last weekend to face Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) and the University of Chicago. The competition proved stiff; both teams suffered a pair of losses.

The men’s team started the weekend with the match against No. 6 WashU. The Spartans started the match with an early lead following doubles play, with wins at second and third doubles. The Bears fought back in singles play, winning the first two matches and taking the lead.

Second-year Spartan Jonathan Powell evened the score with his win at fourth singles, which was his 13th-straight singles victory. Unfortunately, the Spartans were defeated in the last three singles matches, falling 6-3 to the Bears.

The team then faced secondranked Chicago, who quickly took the lead with wins at all three doubles matches. The Spartans were unable to come back in singles play, losing all six of the matches. The match concluded in a 9-0 loss for the Spartans.

The women also started the weekend with a match against No. 15 WashU, followed by a match against No. 11 Chicago.

Against the Bears, the Spartans found themselves behind after falling in two of the three doubles matches. The lone victory for CWRU came at first doubles, when second-year teammates Madeleine Paolucci and Nicole Cardwell defeated their opponents.

The Spartans fought back during singles play to take the lead after the first two matches, but losses in the following four singles matches resulted in a 6-3 loss against the Bears.

In the second match of the weekend, the Maroons quickly gained the lead over the Spartans after doubles play, with wins in all three matches.

A sweep of the singles matches secured the 9-0 win for the Maroons, leaving the Spartans winless for the weekend.

As a result of the losses, the men dropped to 15-8 overall this season, and the women dropped to 7-9 for the season. The Spartan men will return to action next weekend, competing against Oberlin College on April 19 at the Carlton Courts. The women will play next at the University Athletic Association Championships beginning on April 25.

Andrew Ford Staff Reporter

In its first road action of 2019, the Case Western Reserve University softball team lost three of four games to Brandeis University on April 12 and 13.

The Spartans won the opening game of the series, 4-2. Third-year pitcher Ilissa Hamilton threw yet another complete game, striking out 10 en route to her eighth win on the season.

CWRU scored first thanks to a third inning single by second-year catcher Dusstyn Reynolds. After another Spartan crossed the plate in the top of the sixth, Brandeis tied the score in the bottom of the sixth, putting the pressure on the Spartans with one inning left.

Then, an error by the Brandeis defense brought second-year outfielder Arisa Cleaveland home and third-year outfielder Melissa Cuellar drove in Reynolds to extend the lead to 4-2. Hamilton held Brandeis scoreless in the final inning to secure the victory.

However, CWRU struggled in the remaining games of the series. The Spartans’ bats froze up during the second contest on Friday. Brandeis held CWRU to one hit and no runs, eventually winning 5-0. First-year designated player Liv Thomas recorded the

only hit of the game with two out in the seventh inning.

The following day was more like the latter game than the former. In the first contest, Brandeis secured a 4-1 win. The Spartans collected seven hits but could not produce more than one run. Cuellar had the lone RBI in the fourth inning, which actually put CWRU in the lead. Brandeis scored their four runs in the bottom of the fifth and didn’t look back.

Finally, Brandeis emerged with a walkoff victory in the series finale, 3-2, securing the series victory and sending CWRU back to Cleveland with just one win.

The Spartans opened the scoring in the second inning, but Brandeis tied things up in the third. Later, Cleveland stole home in the top of the fifth to take a 2-1 lead. Yet again, Brandeis tied the score in the subsequent inning. In the bottom of the seventh, Brandeis hit a sacrifice fly ball to score the gamewinning run.

On Wednesday, April 17 CWRU defeated Heidelberg University in a two-game non-conference series. The team beat Heidelberg 8-0 in the first game and 9-4 in the second.

The Spartans return to University Athletic Association play April 19 and 20 at home against Emory University.

April 20 is also Senior Day for the Spartans.