2024-09-11 by The Michigan Daily

Trump and Vance ramp up Michigan campaigning following DNC

As Nov. 5 draws closer, former President Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, are turning their attention to the seven swing states that could decide the trajectory of the election, including Michigan and its 16 electoral college votes.

In the 2016 presidential election, Trump beat out former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Michigan by fewer than 11,000 votes — less than half a percentage point. In 2020, Michigan flipped back to the Democrats when Biden won the state over Trump by about 3 percentage points. Following the 2022 midterm elections, Michigan Democrats took control of the state’s House, Senate and governorship for the first time since 1984. The presidential race is expected to be close, though recent polls of Michigan show Harris taking a slight lead over Trump. While Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, accepted their party’s nomination at the Democratic National Convention, Trump made a campaign stop in Howell on Aug. 21. In his remarks, Trump focused on his dedication to supporting law enforcement officials and ensuring safety for Americans.

“Our policemen and women have the backs of law-abiding citizens every single day,” Trump said. “They take care of what they have to do in some very adverse conditions. And when we go back to the White House, you’re going to see support the likes of which you haven’t seen certainly in four years.” He also criticized the DNC, saying he felt Democrats avoided discussing the country’s most prevalent issues.

“The crime in America, the fact is, is out of control,” Trump said. “I watched last night in amazement as they tried to pretend that everything was great, the crime was great, the border was great,

there wasn’t a problem at all. No inflation, no nothing.” Vance also took the stage in Michigan. In a campaign event in Big Rapids on Aug. 27, he criticized Harris for her role in the Biden administration.

“As much as fake Kamala wants to pretend that she now agrees with Donald Trump, we’ve got to remind her, she’s the vice president right now,” Vance said. “Stop talking about what you’re going to do. Start talking about what you are going to do right now because you’re the vice president.”

In an appeal to working-class voters in the state, Vance criticized the North American Free Trade Agreement. NAFTA, signed into law by former President Bill Clinton in 1993, has become a talking point for Republicans as a cause for the loss of American jobs.

The tangible impact of NAFTA is debated, with most Americans viewing it favorably while it was in effect. Although Harris was not in Congress when NAFTA was passed, she did vote against Trump’s replacement for the deal — the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement — which replaced NAFTA in 2020.

“Remember, Kamala Harris supported the reauthorization of NAFTA, which has been terrible for the state of Michigan, the state of Ohio and the state of Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “Proud towns became ghost towns. Dignified American workers became dependent on the government and families, including a lot of families like mine, fell apart under financial stress.”

Vance also criticized Democrats’ focus on joy at the DNC, pitching Trump to voters as the candidate

of hope.

“While Donald Trump is the people’s president and Kamala Harris is running on a fake joy, Donald Trump is going to offer something very, very different,” Vance said. “He’s going to offer a very real hope for the future of this country. Hope that we can reignite our economy and bring back prosperity. Hope that we can raise our kids in secure neighborhoods with safe borders. Hope that we can renew the patriotism that binds us together as one nation under God.”

Trump returned to the state on Aug. 29 for an event at Alro Steel in Potterville focused on the economy and manufacturing jobs. He criticized Harris for her role in the Biden administration, highlighting high costs and inflation, which he promises to reduce if he wins reelection.

“She does not care about the middle class struggling over inflation, the cost of gasoline, electricity, and she doesn’t care about the cost of food,” Trump said. “She does not care if you lose your job, or cannot find another comparable job. She doesn’t care. She does not care if you have to run up your credit card to levels that are unsustainable. She does not care if you and your family are struggling. And she did absolutely nothing to fix it.”

Brian Pannebecker, founder of Auto Workers for Trump 2024, also took the stage in Potterville. The group formed in opposition to the views of the United Auto Workers union, which endorsed Harris after previously endorsing President Joe Biden. The UAW came into the political spotlight after their strike last fall against the Big Three

automakers: General Motors, Ford and Stellantis. Pannebecker said he was worried about the potential economic impact of increased production of electric vehicles on manufacturing jobs.

“Listen, Chrysler and General Motors have already gone bankrupt once, but if we allow electric vehicle mandates to be put on this industry by the federal government, they’re going out of business again,” Pannebecker said. “We (have) got to fight against that.” In an interview with The Michigan Daily, LSA junior Kyle Brown, chairman of the University of Michigan chapter of Young Americans for Freedom, said he felt some young conservatives had reservations about Trump going into election season.

“I think a lot of people just want a fresh start on both sides with their respective candidates,” Brown said. “The liberals were successful, conservatives not so much. There are certain parts about Trump that people are excited about, certain parts that they are not so excited about, but you can’t get everything you want from a candidate.”

Brown said while some conservatives may not agree with all of Trump’s stances, he believes most would still prefer him to Harris.

“I think true conservatives are choosing between two candidates that they are not really the biggest fans of but, all things considered, they’d rather have Trump than (Harris),” Brown said. “Trump’s going to have to do a lot more moderating to actually start pissing conservatives off to the point where they won’t vote for him.” Democrats have also been focusing their efforts on Michigan; Harris made a campaign stop in Detroit on Labor Day to speak alongside national union leaders. Gwen Walz spoke at an event for the Michigan Education Association on Wednesday. Biden is set to take the stage in Ann Arbor tomorrow at the United Association Local 190 Training Center to give remarks on his Investing in America agenda.

The University of Michigan Black Student Union announced on Friday it would withdraw from the TAHRIR Coalition, a group of more than 90 proPalestine student organizations, citing concerns that Black voices and identities are not valued within the coalition.

The BSU emphasized continued support for Palestinian liberation in its Instagram post announcing the withdrawal, reaffirming its call for the U-M administration to divest from companies profiting off the Israeli military campaign in Gaza.

“The genocide in Gaza is intolerable, and the complicity of the University of Michigan through their investments in companies facilitating that genocide is inexcusable,” the statement read. “Our support and allyship with the people of Palestine, and our advocacy for a free Palestine remains unshakeable.”

According to the statement, the BSU made the decision to leave the coalition after repeated instances of members of the Black community being dismissed and criticized by other coalition members.

“However, it has become increasingly apparent that Black identities, voices, and bodies are not valued in this coalition, and thus, we must remove ourselves,”

the statement read. “Members of our organization and our community have dedicated their time, energy, and wellbeing to the continued existence and strength of the coalition — despite repeated instances of being erased, belittled, and berated.”

The BSU also emphasized the intersection of the Black and Palestinian struggles but said they will not take part in an organization where they are not valued or respected.

“The BSU’s solidarity with the Palestinian people is unwavering, but the integrity of the TAHRIR Coalition is deeply questionable,” the statement read.

UMich finds new MDen contractor after owner declares bankruptcy

Legends Global Merchandise takes over the management of the MDen as part of a 10-year partnership with the University BUSINESS

Nearly a month after MDen’s previous contractor, Heritage Collegiate Apparel, declared bankruptcy, the University of Michigan Athletic Department began a new partnership with Legends Global Merchandise. The deal, announced Aug. 31, includes a 10-year partnership with the contractor, which will sell U-M branded merchandise under the University’s name.

Athletic Director Warde Manuel announced in a press release that this new relationship with Legends will allow the sale of U-M branded apparel and merchandise to continue.

and

MDen was originally co-founded in 1976 by David Hirth and Doug Horning, two Ann Arbor businessmen and friends who bought the shop — previously known as Stein & Goetz Sports Goods.

“Our partnership with Legends will provide our fans with a fully integrated retail experience both in-venue and online,” Manuel wrote. “Fans will be able to purchase a comprehensive assortment of licensed products from a bestin-class retail partner that focuses on a holistic customer experience. We are excited to begin this new venture with Legends.”

The company became the University’s official retailer in the early 1990s. With the exception of 2009, when their contract ended for a year, MDen has been the go-to store for all apparel and merchandise for many U-M fans, students and athletes. Scott Hirth, son of David Hirth and former Heritage president, filed for a chapter 11 bankruptcy on Aug. 16. Amid piling

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Former President Donald Trump speaks at the Turning Point Convention in Detroit.

City Council awards

$3M to improve Washtenaw County’s Border to Border Trail

The nonmonetized, accessible pathway spans 35 miles currently, but will gain 10 miles with the new budget

Washtenaw County runners and bikers may soon be seeing improvements along the county’s Border to Border Trail. On June 27, the Ann Arbor City Council approved its 2025 Fiscal Year budget, allocating $3 million to support the development of the trail. The money will be given to Huron Waterloo Pathways Initiative, a nonprofit organization that, along with the Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission, leads the funding and construction process of the B2B Trail.

Spanning 35 miles long and 10 miles wide, the B2B Trail is a nonmotorized, accessible pathway that connects the borders of Washtenaw County, from the Pinckney Recreation Area in the northwest to Ford Lake in the southeast. When completed, the trail is expected to be 45 miles long, passing through the cities of Chelsea, Dexter, Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.

In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Kiff Hamp,

Diag

executive director of HWPI, described the B2B trail as unique because of its impressive length and increased pathway accessibility for walkers and bikers across the county.

“We’re talking about 45 or 35 miles of continuous nonmotorized trail, and the neat thing about it is you can use all of it,” Hamp said. “If you’re a bike enthusiast and want to bike nine or eight miles, you can do that in a safe way. … But on the flip side, it also goes through three cities. It goes through townships, it goes through three metro parks, many other nature areas. It goes by two of the biggest hospitals in the state, two huge universities.”

According to Hamp, funding for the B2B Trail initially came from county millage dollars, voted upon by citizens during local elections. The two types of millage are the road commission millage — 20% of which is allocated to nonmotorized trails such as the B2B — and the county parks millage. The funding from the Ann Arbor City Council provides a new avenue of financial and governmental support for the B2B trail. Hamp said the money will primarily be used to aid the construction of a new

segment that will pass through the Barton Nature Area and Bandemer Park.

“(The funding for the tunnel) is split one-third, one-third and onethird between HWPI or nonprofit county parks and the city of Ann Arbor,” Hamp said. “So it is a huge, huge deal that they’re doing that. It’s a very expensive project, over $6 million.”

Hamp said the tunnel will complete the Barton-Bandemer segment, the plans for which have been in development for more than 20 years. Currently, pedestrians and bikers must pass over the railroad, owned by the Michigan Department of Transportation and managed by Amtrak, which passes between the Barton Nature Area and Bandemer Park. This method is not only dangerous but also illegal. Instead, the two areas will be connected with a tunnel passing underneath the train tracks.

“This tunnel literally opens up the entire county in a nonmotorized way that has never existed before,” Hamp said. “I would say it’s the single biggest project we’ve had and — difficult and beautiful (as) everything else is — … none of that would matter either if you didn’t

have this tunnel that was able to connect in a safe way.”

Peter Sanderson, project manager for Washtenaw County Parks and Recreation Commission, spoke with The Daily about the challenges associated with the construction and development process for the trail. Sanderson said the city aims to disturb the surrounding habitats as little as possible and said the portion of the trail between Ann Arbor and Dexter is particularly challenging because of the railroad, roads and natural features that make up the area.

“The county is primarily natural features; the Huron River runs right through there,” Sanderson said. “You have the road, Huron River Drive. You have the Detroit to Chicago Amtrak line that runs through there, a lot of private property. So that leaves very little land available to construct the trail. And in addition to that, because it’s next to the river, you have a lot of environmental considerations that need to be diligently thought through about how you’re going to approach that.”

vigil honors 6 Israeli hostages killed by Hamas

‘Each

one represented a light in the depth of darkness’

About 250 University of Michigan students and community members gathered on the Diag Tuesday evening for a vigil honoring the lives of six Israeli hostages recently killed by Hamas.

The six hostages — Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Ori Danino and Almog Sarusi — were among the 251 total taken by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023. According to the Israeli government, approximately 60 living hostages are still being held in Gaza, along with the bodies of 37 people killed by Hamas in its initial attack. Since Oct. 7, 117 hostages have been freed.

The vigil was organized by Wolverine for Israel, the U-M chapter of J Street U, the Jewish Resource Center, the Chabad House of Ann Arbor and Michigan Hillel. It featured speakers from all five organizations, with a combination of remarks and prayers in both English and Hebrew.

The six hostages were killed shortly before their bodies were found, according to the Israeli Ministry of Health. In a speech opening the event, LSA senior Evan Cohen, co-president of

Wolverine for Israel, said the purpose of the vigil was to honor their lives and call for the safe return of those still being held by Hamas.

“These six former hostages were all murdered by Hamas less than 48 hours before being found,” Cohen said. “Each one represented a light in the depth of darkness. We’re here to mourn the losses of these bright lights and to cherish their wonderful lives. To the remaining hostages:

Be strong. Survive.”

The discovery of the hostages’ bodies on Sunday sparked outrage across Israel, with protesters blaming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s unwillingness to accept a cease-fire deal for their deaths. In a speech at the event, LSA senior Ryan Silberfein, president of Michigan Hillel, said she hopes those in power can reach an agreement to bring peace to the region to prevent any more loss of life.

“We continue to hope, pray and do the work that we can so that other innocent civilians, no matter their religion or nationality, do not face the same thing,” Silberfein said.

“We wish for an end to this war and peace in the region, and we understand how difficult this weekend and the past year in general have been for everyone.”

UMich reacts to changes to student statement of rights and responsibilities

‘It is inevitable and probably intended that students will be afraid to protest’

The University of Michigan Board of Regents unanimously voted to change the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities, which outlines U-M policies on non-academic misconduct, on July 18. These updates came into effect Aug. 26, altering the complaint and resolution dispute process to take less time and involve fewer individuals in the appeals process. These changes came after months of pro-Palestine protests on campus, and most recently after a protest at the University of Michigan Museum of Art was met with police force and, soon after, the Gaza solidarity encampment on the Diag was removed by U-M law enforcement.

The changes to the SSRR include giving the University the ability to act as a complainant against students. Before this

change, all complaints had to be filed by an individual student, faculty or staff member. The changes also created a 45-day timeline for the resolution process to conclude once the respondent is notified. Previously, there was no distinct timeline. A Resolution Officer, an individual who issues decisions on the hearing process, is now required to arbitrate disputes when the respondent and complainant cannot agree on whether a Student Resolution Panel or RO should arbitrate to reach an equitable solution for both parties.

Previously, the appeals board was composed of a student appointed by the Central Student Government, a faculty member appointed by the Faculty Senate and an administrator appointed by the University President. Now, the board must be approved by a Resolution Coordinator. If the RC does approve the appeal, the Vice President of Student Life or a designee will serve as an appeals officer who will make

a final decision on whether to keep or reverse the finding of responsibility, modify sanctions and order a new hearing.

The University Board of Regents did not consult with the Senate Assembly’s Student Relations Advisory Committee about changing the SSRR. In an email to The Michigan Daily, Rebekah Modrak, Art & Design professor and Senate Assembly Chair, said the U-M administration did not make an attempt to discuss changes with SRAC despite it being a year SRAC would normally review and make suggested amendments to the SSRR.

“Article VIII, Section J of the SSRR stipulates that the Statement will be reviewed for changes every three years and that ‘the Board of Regents has provided the SRAC of the Senate Assembly with primary oversight of the review,’” Modrak wrote. “SRAC was scheduled to review the Statement for changes in the 2024/25 academic year. Yet, this summer, the University made no effort to either inform or engage

SRAC in discussion about their revision of the policy.”

In an email to The Daily, University spokesperson Colleen Mastony wrote that the University has the authority to make changes to the SSRR without consulting SRAC or the Office of Student Conflict Resolution and Central Student Government under the Michigan Constitution.

“The Board of Regents has the authority to amend the U-M Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities (SSRR), as it does any other university policy, consistent with its duty to lawfully govern the university under the Michigan Constitution,” Mastony wrote. “This process is separate from the amendment process detailed in the SSRR, which occurs every three years and is overseen by the Student Relations Advisory Committee in coordination with the Office of Student Conflict Resolution and Central Student Government.”

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City Council addresses antisemitic flyers and discusses new housing

The Ann Arbor City Council addressed the recent postings of antisemetic and anti-Israel messages left in residential neighborhoods

Arbor has undergone over the past 200 years.

League, a neo-Nazi hate group.

Ann Arbor City Council met at Larcom City Hall Tuesday evening to unveil Ann Arbor’s new flag, address recent antisemitic and anti-Israel messages left in Ann Arbor residential neighborhoods and provide updates about future housing plans in the Washtenaw Avenue area.

Mayor Christopher Taylor opened the meeting by revealing the chosen design for Ann Arbor’s new flag, along with its creator, Ann Arbor resident Dennis Scherdt. In celebration of Ann Arbor’s 200th anniversary, the city announced a contest for a new flag design in September 2023. In May, five finalists were put up for selection through a public vote. Taylor said the decision to redesign the flag symbolizes the changes Ann

“We are 200 years old, at least, dated on back to when the village was incorporated back in 1824,” Taylor said. “That is the beginning of the history that we were counting with respect to our bicentennial. And we have a lot to reflect upon, and a lot to be excited by, and a lot of pride in our city. And everyone also knows that a great city deserves a great flag.”

During the public hearings section of the meeting, Rabbi Asher Lopatin, director of community relations at the Jewish Federation of Greater Ann Arbor, spoke about flyers left in Ann Arbor residential neighborhoods Sunday morning following the killing of six Israeli hostages in Gaza. According to Lopatin, the flyers were allegedly placed around Ann Arbor neighborhoods by members of the Goyim Defense

“Sunday morning, as the Jewish community began to absorb this shock and this heartbreaking news, residents of multiple Ann Arbor neighborhoods woke to find antisemitic flyers left on their driveways by member of a small network of virally antisemitic provocateurs called the Goyim Defense League,” Lopatin said.

Lopatin thanked the council for denouncing those who spread antisemitic messages in the flyers and called for a united front among the community against such actions.

“We’re so grateful for the City Council that you have condemned that behavior,” Lopatin said. “But I hope that our City Council can once again call on the good citizens of Ann Arbor to reach out and love one another and be sensitive to one another and feel the pain and the vulnerability of Jews and non-Jews alike and condemn these vicious acts

of hatred that have no place in our community or our society.”

City Councilmember Ayesha Ghazi Edwin, D-Ward 3, condemned the messages in the flyers and expressed hope that the Ann Arbor community will remain strong in the face of division and hate.

“I condemn the antisemitic events to its fullest extent, horrifying to hear,” Ghazi Edwin said. “I condemn all hate to the fullest extent. And I think it’s really tragic right now to see the pain that’s being felt by our Jewish neighbors, by our Palestinian neighbors. I hope that we can come together when things like this happen, to really show support for each other.”

City Council then moved to discuss an ordinance that would rezone 59 land parcels on Washtenaw Avenue, East Stadium Boulevard, Manchester Road and Platt Road. The ordinance, which passed unanimously, would designate the

rezoned land as Transit Corridor 1. The corridor will create space for new housing developments to be situated in the area and will achieve goals outlined in City Council’s Comprehensive Plan, according to City Councilmember Lisa Disch, D-Ward 1.

“TC-1 better achieves a variety of different goals that are listed in the current Comprehensive Plan than the current zoning does, and the overarching goal is for already developed areas of the city to work more efficiently and for a broader range of customers,” Disch said.

Disch emphasized the anticipated positive environmental impacts of TC-1, including a move away from the car-centric infrastructure.

“Features of TC-1 include enabling higher density land use and requiring smaller footprints, so greater efficiency to support pedestrian-friendly landscapes,” Disch said. “There are shorter

distances between destinations, and those distances can be more comfortably crossed by foot than the existing large parking lots from a previous era.” City Councilmember Linh Song, D-Ward 2, expressed her support for the rezoning. Song emphasized how the expansion of housing density space will allow commuters to relocate to Ann Arbor.

“It gives us options to understand how people, who are now commuters or service workers, can live closer to work in a more affordable area, close to transit,” Song said. “I would hope that we can capture a generation of folks who would be considering living in the city and staying in the city, and not waiting for the parcel owners to figure out how to reimagine it. We can reimagine it to be more timely and be more responsive.”

UMich researchers use nanoparticles to treat tick-borne red meat allergy

UMich teams up with University of Virginia to address alpha-gal syndrome, which currently has no cure

induced by lone star tick bites, causes a person to become allergic to alphagal, which is a carbohydrate found in most mammals.

A new strategy of using nanoparticles to prevent a tick-borne red meat allergy has shown promise, according to a study by researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Virginia. The paper, which was published in Frontiers in Allergy in early August, shows that intravenous injections of nanoparticles into mice can stop them from having allergic reactions to red meat, which could help develop a treatment for humans with alphagal syndrome. This syndrome,

A person with AGS could have severe allergic reactions to mammalian meat and products. It can take anywhere from three to six hours to see symptoms of an allergic reaction appear for those with AGS. Though there are treatments available to mitigate the symptoms of AGS, there is no cure.

Jessica O’Konek, co-author and William Chandler Swink research professor, explained how in an allergic reaction, the human body attacks different proteins or sugars, even though they pose no threat.

“The reason that you have an allergic reaction, or even an autoimmune reaction, is that your immune system is targeting things that it should ignore, (that) it should be tolerant to,” O’Konek said. “These (nano)particles are a way that can induce this tolerance that someone has either not gained or that they’ve lost, that’s causing the disease.”

Lonnie Shea, co-author and Steven A. Goldstein collegiate professor of biomedical engineering, described how researchers tested the effect of nanoparticles in mice that were sensitized to alpha-gal through ingestion of beef extract. They found that the nanoparticles significantly reduced their response to alpha-gal.

This was measured through multiple immune system factors, including reduced activation of basophils, a type of white blood cell, and decreased release of histamines, a chemical used as part of the allergy response.

“Essentially, the particles really attenuated any sort of response to the alpha-gal,” Shea said. “We were able to really attenuate the response quite substantially.”’

Rackham and Medical student Michael Saunders explained that the nanoparticles, which contain allergens, are taken up by immune cells. Because they lack other molecules that red meat would contain, they prevent a T-cell response.

“The particles themselves are taken up by antigen-presenting cells in your body,” Saunders said. “The T-cells recognize that antigen, and then they become reactive, but they need the right molecular context to become active. … The antigen is presented on the surface of the cell without the other co-stimulatory molecules that prompt T-cell activation. So because of that, you actually promote T-cell deactivation, and then it also promotes regulatory T-cell induction, and regulatory T-cells are basically cells that help knock down antigen specific immune responses.”

In the study, the nanoparticles did not have the same effect in all of the mice, and Shea suggested that this was because the alpha-gal allergy is typically varied, which could have caused different reactions in the mice. “We saw some mice that were really profoundly improved, and other ones that were not quite as improved,” Shea said. “We think it is the heterogeneity within the model. It might be something as simple as mice that are so reactive could use one or two more doses of the particles. It could be that the basis of the disease might be a little bit different in terms of the immune cells, and those are both great questions for us to continue looking into.”

This franchise specializes in European desserts and opened on South Fourth Avenue in August

visiting the Dearborn location.

“(The franchise has) another location in Michigan,” Debek said.

co-founders of the business.

A new location for House of Chimney Cakes, a franchise specializing in European desserts, opened its doors in Ann Arbor on Saturday. Defined by its bright pink interior, the Ann Arbor location on South Fourth Avenue is the first cafe in the dessert house franchise. While this is not the first House of Chimney Cakes in Michigan, the Ann Arbor location differs from its Dearborn counterpart in that it offers a broader range of desserts and drinks. The franchise gets its name from its specialty chimney cakes, a hollow and cylindrical Hungarian dessert typically coated in sugar and cinnamon. Amanda Debek, co-franchisee of the House of Chimney Cakes Ann Arbor location, said in an interview with The Michigan Daily she wanted to join the franchise to help it branch into new areas after

“I saw it and fell in love with it. … I wanted to expand that (franchise) because I’m the first cafe in the brand.”

LSA senior Emily McNichol visited the cafe on its opening day and said she felt excited that House of Chimney Cakes cafe offers a menu distinct from anything else in downtown Ann Arbor.

“They’re offering something that you can’t get at any other place downtown,” McNichol said.

“And the more variety you have, the more it feels like an actual city, which I feel like is part of the draw, because Ann Arbor is like a city, but it’s not that big. So I love when (businesses) do stuff like this.”

Before joining House of Chimney Cakes, Debek had a career in event planning. Debek said her experience inspired the cafe’s pink aesthetic, which was enthusiastically accepted by Szandra Szabó and Omar Lara, the

“(Lara) actually told me that (Szabó)’s dream (was) to create that pink cafe, and ‘You’re fulfilling her dream,’” Debek said.

“It was so nice, and that’s why I guess they allowed me to do it because that’s something they wanted for themselves. So it was really exciting for me.”

Dozens of people streamed in and out of the cafe throughout the opening day to try one of their 15 signature chimney cake creations, including “Oreo Overload,” an Oreo crumb-crusted chimney cake filled with vanilla ice cream topped with Oreo pieces, and “Everyday Birthday Cake,” a chimney cake filled with Strawberry Dole ice cream and topped with a mini cupcake. Debek said she plans to have a suggestion box for visitors to place new ideas for flavors in hopes of reflecting what the community wants.

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UM-Flint student Shea Court chants into a megaphone at a pro-Palestine protest on Baker Road Friday.

JOSH SINHA/Daily

PHOTO OF THE WEEK

In 2013, legendary cinematographer Gordon Willis (“The Godfather”) was interviewed by Craft Truck about his filmmaking process.

In the hour-long discussion, Willis said something that has stuck with me: “People don’t get the elegance of simplicity. … Don’t get simple mixed up with simplistic.” In other words, less is more, and less is not vacant. “Good One,” the feature directorial debut of India Donaldson, embodies that quote.

The plot of “Good One” is simple: College-bound Sam (Lily Collias, “Palm Trees and Power Lines”) tags along on a camping trip with her pragmatic dad Chris (James Le Gros, “Safe”) and his chatty buddy Matt (Danny McCarthy, “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs”). The three go through the motions of a typical camping trip, staring aimlessly at trees and talking about their favorite colors to disrupt the white noise of silence. Nothing of great plot significance happens in the first act, leaving us subject to benign, ephemeral tangents between middle-aged, divorced men. Every time Chris and Matt talk, we expect to hear something relatively important, which doesn’t occur. At

one point, the awkward trio crosses paths with some college campers and nothing crazy happens then either. No drama, no crass comments and no plot development. In the act’s most significant conversation, Chris proposes that Sam should hike across China with him, to which she timidly agrees — there isn’t a direct follow-up to that proposal anywhere else in the film.

All this meandering is a wonderful and simple diversion tactic, one in which our impatience for drama disguises the fact that Donaldson has been slowly putting us into Sam’s shoes. Sam is our young audience surrogate, a mostly quiet observer, anxious both to have fun and to get back to her digital devices — especially in the presence of rambly old men. The film gives us her perspective directly and formally. We are more often than not privy to what she does when she is alone, whether that’s changing her tampons or texting her friends about how much she misses them (if there is any cell signal). Throughout the film, cinematographer Wilson Cameron (feature debut) embeds Sam’s perspective in the film’s visual language. As Sam is a short 17-year-old girl, we experience “Good One” at her eye level, always looking up at taller people, admiring nature a few inches below the average person. When

the trio converse with those college campers, we follow Sam’s darting eyes, as both she and the audience are eager for different company and excitement.

It’s vital that Donaldson eases us into Sam’s perspective, as “Good One” isn’t really a story about a girl, her dad and his friend — it’s not even about nature. That’s all a red herring. The film’s core is a brutally casual scene at the one-hour mark. In it, Sam is emotionally betrayed by Matt, who says something inappropriate. Donaldson neither uses a close-up to emphasize what Matt said nor music to underscore it. Matt just says it and the scene ends. Later on, Sam is even betrayed by her own dad, and the film treats that moment with even less gravity — Donaldson plays it in a dispassionate wide shot. Her patient deference to Sam’s perspective, as the only woman in the entire film, puts the focus on the actual message: The insidious and unexpected ways misogyny rears its head. This scene with Matt is so innocuous yet effectively discomforting that it forces a reassessment of every prior “casual” scene. Were Chris and Matt bantering or were they ignoring Sam? Was Matt actually curious about Sam’s favorite color or was he just condescending to a soon-to-be adult woman?

Admittedly, the last leg of “Good

The Michigan Daily Crossword

One” leans too hard into metaphor and theatrics to truly stick that landing. Those probing, contextual questions get answered, but Donaldson opts for a rather dramatic last few scenes, which disrupts the film’s grounded and realistic tone in the hour prior. However, the trio of actors still sell the film to the end. Collias, in her sophomore effort, delivers a rousing introverted performance, one in which she almost exclusively acts with facial expressions. Veteran actor Le Gros

Everywhere All at Once" actress

37. *Something to pick up after a night of drinking

41. Palindromic boy's name

43. Slang for inter-company transaction, or a phonetic hint to this puzzle's starred clues

45. Soul singer Gray

46. *Tree with a thick trunk

49. Member of a pod

52. Rapper ___ Milli

53. Apple tablet

55. *Rubber duck's home, maybe

57. Save the Children or Doctors Without Borders, for short

60. Marshmallow treat

62. Cunning

63. Default font when opening a document, often

65. Mars' partner in the group

Silk Sonic

67. Dr. of Tv

71. *Cop's baton

73. Give ___ (run after)

74. Notices

75. Pear type

76. Song segment

77. To and ___

78. Colors

79. Word with peek or attack DOWN

1. Lends a hand

2. Octagonal sign

3. ___ Royal (national park in Lake Superior)

4. Bit of Halloween decor

5. That's the limit!

6. Cartoonist Goldberg, namesake for whimsical machines

7. Starting lineup

8. Whip's dance counterpart

9. FedEx alternative

10. "___ sesame!"

11. Airplane section

12. It can be naked or ugly

16. Cain's brother

19. Dance-based fitness program

21. Title for Julie Andrews

24. "Succession" family name

26. Bishop's robe

28. *Nincompoop

29. Sephora competitor

30. Spanish kitty

31. *Comedian Saget

33. Pitcher's asset

36. Water, chemically speaking

38. Roosevelt's successor

39. Rights advocacy org.

40. *Initialism on some party invites

42. ___ Wan Kenobi

44. *Texter's "one sec"

47. Put on, as a coat of paint

48. Modern term of endearment

50. "The ___ of Amontillado" (Poe story)

51. Georgia's capital: Abbr.

54. Send out troops

56. -

57. Catches, as a criminal

58. Woe

59. Player from a certain 27-Across team

61. Remote button

64. Too

66. Basics

68. Turtle's opponent in a fable

69. Rae of HBO's "Insecure"

70. Vegetable in potato soup

72. Ingredient in many calming oils, in short

73. Big name in pharmacies

Coco Mellors burst onto the literary scene in early 2022 with her wildly popular debut novel “Cleopatra and Frankenstein.”

Riding on the heels of a Moshfegian renaissance, Mellors’ melancholic and visceral “Cleopatra and Frankenstein” found instant success among the circles of self-proclaimed “sad girls” and enjoyers of the uncomfortable. Mellors has been quick to capitalize on this powerful start to her career with her latest project “Blue Sisters.”

“Blue Sisters” aptly studies the collapsing lives of the three remaining Blue family sisters after the untimely death of their sister Nicky. The oldest sister, Avery, is a neurotic and controlling lawyer living in London with her therapist wife, Chiti. Beneath her “perfect” facade lies the inner turmoil of a recovering alcoholic and heroin addict who, in her sobriety, now faces new ruinous temptations. The middle sister, Bonnie, is a former boxing champion who fled her life in New York to move to California after a humiliating defeat in the ring on the night of Nicky’s death. The youngest sister, Lucky, is a troubled partygirl model teetering on the edge of total self-destruction who can best be described as an ode to “Kate Mess” and literal heroin chic. When the Blue sisters’ mother notifies them that their family apartment in New York is going to be sold — which had been most recently inhabited by Nicky — the estranged sisters are forced to confront themselves, each other and the overbearing cloud of Nicky’s death.

The novel is written with shifting points of view, jumping from one sister to the next with each chapter. This structure allows the reader to gain insight into the sisters’ conflicting perceptions of each other. While helpful in shaping our understanding of the sisters and their dynamic, this multidimensional structure also creates the unfortunate issue of underdeveloped storylines. In the three narratives we’re

granted, we are also introduced to an abundance of side characters and subplots. While potentially interesting and meaningful within each main sister’s development, together they create a rather confusing and half-baked reading experience. Whatever happens to Bonnie’s friend, Peachy? What is the significance of Chiti’s brother, Vish? What exactly is Chiti’s relationship with her mother, Ganishka? Mother Blue living upstate, Father Blue in a residential rehab facility, Lucky’s relationship with Riley, Lucky’s musical talents and ambitions — it all leaves something to be desired, leaving us with more questions than answers.

Mellors’ writing is well-crafted and flowing, keeping the reader interested through the intertwined plots. Mellors’ ability to capture sisterly dialogues is excellent, masterfully balancing the biting fights and loving exchanges all sisters can relate to. Scenes range from touchingly emotional to soppily sentimental and selfimportant. Every sentence or word seems thought-out and intentional. Regrettably, the caveat here is of wanted importance and undeserved meaning — the author seems intent on making this book matter when it is not something that is up to her to decide.

As I write this review, I am faced with reality: People will largely enjoy this book. I would not be surprised if, besides me, the novel garners high praises and becomes a favorite among the “weird” literature crowd. In fact, despite my critiques, the book is objectively not bad. Mellors is a talented writer — she knows who she is writing for and executes it well. Perhaps this is my problem with this book and the genre it caters to as a whole. “Blue Sisters” is tepid. In the echo chamber of angsty, unwell women-lit, “Blue Sisters” pushes no boundaries. Yet, for some reason, it thinks it does. In falling into the archetype of troubled, gross, privileged and morally-ambiguous young women, all the shock that Mellors tries to execute becomes safe. It is written for commercial and critical success. People will enjoy and praise this book; I encourage them to consider what it delivers beyond pretty words and edgy sex scenes.

This image is from the official trailer for “Good One” distributed by International Pigeon.

Will India ever unban Dev Patel’s beastly, blessed dialectical directorial debut ‘Monkey Man’?

Before I was ever introduced to Superman or Spider-Man, or even any concept of any superhero at all, I had one idol, one figure whom I wanted to be more than anything: Hanumanji. I would try to replicate his godly feats of strength, would climb anything I saw to imitate the ape demigod and even broke my collarbone trying to leap through the air like him. Dev Patel (“The Green Knight”) similarly broke his hand in the first week of filming “Monkey Man” doing exactly what I did: attempted godhood.

Patel’s directorial debut starts with the story of Hanumanji, narrating with a picture book how the son of the wind god preceded Icarus by mistaking the sun for a fruit, pursuing it until the sun was swallowed whole. For this challenge to nature’s hierarchy, Hanumanji was cast down back to Earth and stripped of his godhood. That’s not exactly the story I was told growing up, but that’s OK. “Monkey Man” is defined by these challenges and contradictions, growing instead in the conflict that would threaten to break other movies.

Perhaps the most salient metaphor for the duality of representative forces is the underground Mumbai fighting ring helmed by a white South African organizer, where Patel’s protagonist, Kid, is a heel. The white man stands between primeval, animal aspects of Hindu culture: the snake king Vasuki, the bear god Jambhavan and the aforementioned monkey demigod Hanumanji. He then not only announces them as and reduces them to Western categorizations — the Marvel villain King Cobra, Rudyard Kipling’s Baloo, King Kong — but also opposes them against each other, using their animalization as further

degradation. It is this same force that heightened Indian caste tensions and discrimination. It is this same force that buries Hinduism’s historical representations of Queerness by constraining it to Western heteronormativity. It is this same force that cherry-picked the incredibly expansive canon of Hindu gods and chose Sri Ram as the fascist Hindutva movement’s — one focused on establishing a Hindu hegemony in India — hypermasculine figurehead; this makes Sri Ram’s undocumented absence from the eponymous “Ramayana”and Hanuman-tributing “Monkey Man” is all the more meaningful. But, let me correct this bit of a generalization first. When citing the origin of issues in India like casteism, Queerphobia and fascism, there’s another dialectic created between attributing these original sins to either colonialism or the cultures they colonized. It is, of course, not as simple as blaming everything on colonialism or pointing fingers at original Indian cultures (like we can for India’s long-documented history of Islamophobia): It’s a dialectic that “Monkey Man” aims to resolve. The very existence of “Monkey Man” is as dialectical as its title: a film set in India released for American and European audiences, a bilingual blur through its English and Hindi scripting, taking as much inspiration from the modern Western action blockbuster as it does from eastern Bollywood spectacle and Korean revenge thriller. However, introducing a dialectical political analysis through structure is one thing; how does the story resolve it? “Monkey Man” has been criticized for a lack of political subtlety and nuance in its script, but in some part, these comments miss “Monkey Man” for what it is. While it’s true that Hindutva attempts at appropriating chants like “Jai Bajrang Bali” still direct violence against oppressed groups

in the name of religious motivation, this somewhat misses the intent of “Monkey Man” as a political action movie. The action film’s text is indeed used to allude to modernday political issues in India. But, much more of the movie’s meaning is encoded in its action, the same way the songs in a musical are.

The famed choreographer Bob Fosse (“All That Jazz”) explains the extraneous actions of a musical thus: “The time to sing is when your emotional level is too high to just speak anymore, and the time to dance is when your emotions are just too strong to only sing about how you feel.” Action films work the same way: When tensions are too much to just speak, then punch, and when tensions are too much for one punch, fight. So where other films would criticize, “Monkey Man” chooses instead to brutalize.

The film’s antagonistic forces are stratified with its immoral religious leader, a puppet fascist party prime minister candidate, their government’s corrupt cops, the criminal underbelly’s sex traffickers and scores of nameless thugs. As Kid takes each one down, the film imparts a tangible sense of regret over his violence that lessens as he steps up the hierarchy and further annihilates it, as he moves away from fighting men whose bodies are being trafficked the same way this organization’s prostitutes are. Two of these leaders are Queenie (Ashwini Kalsekar, “Andhadhun”) and Rana (Sikandar Kher, “Monica, O My Darling”), the latter of which translates to “King” in Hindi. Above them is someone holier, the aforementioned “holy” man Baba Shakti (Makarand Deshpande, “Sarfarosh”), whose name translates to “Father Power.”

Even though the religious zealotry he commands is a very clear real-world parallel to India’s reigning Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, the movie takes steps to hide that fact. It swaps the BJP’s

claimed secular saffron coloring for red, it uses lion symbology in place of the BJP’s lotus, and — as previously mentioned — their usual figurehead Sri Ram is nowhere to be seen, even as “Monkey Man” references the epic that bears his name and displays murals of his battles with evil alongside Hanuman. So what effect is produced here? The levels of evil rank from thugs to soldiers to kings — especially pertinent with the fascist party’s symbolic king of the jungle — but what’s a king to a god?

“Monkey Man” is defined by dichotomy, starting with its own title’s beast: human dialectic. It’s only when the protagonist meets the hijra, India’s community of individuals who exist in a superposition of masculinity and femininity — where the title “transgender” wouldn’t fit as well when hijra predate the Western gender binary — that the movie reveals it doesn’t deal in duality, but in resolving its dialectics with divinity. They pray to a unified idol of the god of

destruction, Shiva, and his female half, the goddess of growth, Parvati. Even when the film’s fascists try to claim otherwise and assert their authority, the hijra are holy; they are warriors and divine in their own right. The unnamed hero claims the only name he can as the hijra’s and his country’s savior: the avatar of Shiva. He becomes a persona full of paradoxes: both a man and a monkey, a mortal and a god, a destroyer and a grower. Hanuman. In doing so, Patel illustrates an India in “Monkey Man” that is set on reclaiming its Queer culture from colonization, on liberating its working class from fascist tyranny and its narrative, gods and representations from Hindutva ideology. This includes Sri Ram, who even in his undocumented state, can have his meaning reappropriated by the invocation of the “Ramayana.”

Despite crucial moments of self-censorship by Patel, “Monkey Man” still has not been released in India, which only further shows the power the film has in a restricted state. Just as

not appearing in “Monkey Man” attempts a unique reappropriation in his absence, the absence of “Monkey Man” in Indian cinemas alludes more to its power than further attempts at a censored release ever could.

Patel has used the structure of a revenge thriller to swing the arm of vengeance toward an entire system that has wronged his characters rather than just one individual. Sometimes the only way to destroy a fascist’s false sense of superiority is with fists. In casting his antifascist action in the canon of modern tributes to Hinduism, but one specifically opposed to Hindutva, Patel has created a holy imperative to fight back against injustice. Demons, fascists and false prophets all bleed the same. Injustice is not inevitable, it is enacted — so injustice’s opposite is indeed inevitable. The need for justice is primal, even, as the karmic cycle turns its wheel once again.

Longing for childlike wonder? Pick up a children’s book

SARAH PATTERSON Daily Arts Writer

When I was five years old, I read

“The Foot Book” by Dr. Seuss to Mrs. Murphy’s kindergarten class.

I sat on her very special stool, locking eyes with the teddy bears on the walls. I had more enthusiasm to read to my classmates than I did to turn six, despite my birthday being my favorite day. A formative experience for no one else in that class but a tiny Sarah with bangs and tiedyed leggings, to be sure. I reflect on this moment a lot, as it reminds me of my childhood hunger for more words. Whether it was a sign on the drive home from cheerleading practice or a Bible story, I needed to know more.

The next year, I sat on my purple square on the rainbow carpet listening intently to Mrs. Miller read “The Magic Treehouse” series by Mary Pope Osborne: Jack and Annie had taken their Magic Tree-

house to Camelot. These afternoons watching this all-knowing woman rock back and forth slowly in her rocking chair meant more to me as a child than I knew how to express with words. It felt like I was being let in on a secret that I was too young to know about yet: chapter books.

efore I knew it I was in elementary school. In mine, they had a lifechanging concept where you could go to the library by yourself whenever you wanted to. Before this, when I finished my library book as soon as I got home from school, there was no hope. I had to patiently reread until it was my time of the week to go to wonderland again. The elementary school had books and books and books — more than I had ever seen in my life. I was reading constantly. I often went to the library twice a day to switch out books. Geronimo Stilton dominated my reading log, and biographies, mysteries and fantasy followed quickly after I finished off his shelf. wThese unadvanced novels

often go unnoticed as the carriers of the book industry, but without “The Foot Book” I would not be able to read “The Poisonwood Bible,” a novel that changed the course of my adult life. Without these picture books and beginner chapter books, your favorite author would never have been able to form the words of the novel you love so dearly. So why

Superstitions

for me. Growing up, mistakes were sometimes held against me, and they felt more like a poor reflection on my competency rather than a teaching opportunity. My parents noted “silly mistakes” in particular, and the phrase became a trademark in our household.

Don’t make silly mistakes on your exam.

I see what you did. That was a silly mistake.

Ah, I remember doing that. I made such a silly mistake.

Be careful to avoid silly mistakes

To this day, I loathe “silly mistakes.” They’re the type of mistakes in which you look back and quickly realize what you should or could or would have done. “Silly mistakes” are so painful because they feel easily avoidable and, at the same time, not. Life happens and, for as much as we try to control it, there will always be some stubborn thing beyond our grasp. Essentially, a “silly mistake” is always waiting to happen, and there’s little we can do to prevent it: It’s inevitable. This bothers me. I can’t exist comfortably knowing that there are invisible forces hiding from me, trying to thwart my every move. At least have the guts to look me straight in the face! From this angle, I wish that I could take superstitions more seriously. The way that I look at it, superstitions offer some sense of control over one’s fate. Believers can have some confidence that they are knowingly putting in effort to prevent misfortune: Simply don’t cross a cat on the street! On the other hand, I, as a non-believer, am less confident in my ability to ward off undesirable consequences for myself. Without some rulebook like a compilation of one-sentence superstitions, I feel as though I can barely make sense of myself and my fate.

Once, in my rush to pack my lunch and work bag, I took the 7:45 a.m. bus to my job, which is 35 minutes away. It took me 10 minutes into my commute to realize that my shift starts 20 minutes earlier than my mind led me to believe. I sulked and bounced my leg frantically, annoyed with myself. I thought about how I was going to be late for my third day of work. One of my coworkers was probably impatiently waiting for me, watching the clock and the door for my arrival. When I got off the bus, I ran across the street to the clinic. I looked around nervously, and to my surprise I learned that my anxiety was all felt in vain. I learned that the start time of my shift was flexible as long as I arrived 20 minutes before the first patient’s appointment, which I did. So, no misfortune followed

my mistake. For all the stress I experienced in that 35-minute bus ride, I felt embarrassed. In my hot frenzy, I had imagined and sculpted my own misfortune as a default response to making a silly mistake. My tendency towards anxiety and pessimism reminds me of my mom’s dark attitude towards sneezing upon departure. Even though I make fun of and don’t believe in superstitions, I subconsciously assume the worst of my future, like my superstitious mother. It feels as though we are both pawns in a larger game, stuck in routine, forced into paranoia. My fear of making mistakes traps me. It makes me freak out about and nitpick everything. While this may seem reasonable for things like being a good employee, it quickly becomes impractical when it comes to matters of less consequence.

During the times I would visit and stay home with my parents, I become panicky when my friends spontaneously. I let them know nonchalantly that I’ll confirm later that day, but I’m already feeling flushed with cortisol. I’m worrying about telling my parents, how I will commute to this hang-out, if I need to rearrange my schedule, whether I have enough money and time. Concerned with the fine details and the planning and the logistics, I stress about doing the wrong thing. For context, my family thrives on planning. There is no such thing as impulsivity or spontaneity. Everything from matters of consequence to inconsequence must be discussed thoroughly. There must be options available to deliberate over and a rigorous group assessment of strengths, weaknesses, resources and preferences. In such a world, “silly mistakes” merely reflect a lack of oversight. So, it stresses me out when I try to manufacture a beautiful plan in utmost sophisticated fashion, and one little thread comes loose. I am in anguish over small trip ups because they make me feel incompetent. That’s why I can’t be impulsive: I am too nitpicky for my own good. I fear leaving anything up to the universe, convinced that it’s out to get me. At best, I can fool myself into believing that I am capable of outsmarting the unpredictable. It’s difficult for me to accept that I have no sixth sense or third eye. For all my overthinking, my mind and body are just as unpredictable as that which I am trying to outsmart. Except for the weather channel (and let’s be real, even then!), it is impossible for me and anyone else to foresee anything in the future. I confess that being on edge and high-strung

That’s Enough

has fatigued me. Secretly, even a little ashamedly, I wish I could lean into my impulses from time to time. I am not afraid of black cats or other superstitions, but I am afraid that my incessant fussing over what I did and didn’t do will prevent me from really living my life. Like superstitions, worrying, I think, holds me back. It makes me hesitant to place a little faith in myself. Perhaps, if I took a chance and faced my fear of the unknown, then I could start to believe that everything turns out okay in the end.

I’ve made efforts toward becoming a little more impulsive while living alone in college. I abandon my papers and pencils and walk around campus, paying little attention to the time. If I feel like it, I walk to the ice cream shop and get a scoop, not caring that I might’ve used this $5 for groceries on another occasion or that I could have spent this hourlong excursion doing laundry. I try to let go, telling myself that everything is and will be fine.

The world wasn’t created using a fancy-schmancy blueprint, hard hats and safety manuals. It came to be — randomly, suddenly, quickly — and it certainly will not fall apart if I let the leash off my brain for just a little.

I tried to do this when I was running late to work on the bus.

I stopped watching the clock tick past 8 a.m. Instead, I leaned into my music and focused on the cool morning wind rustling my hair. Yeah, I was late. It was a “silly mistake” that could have been avoided, but I was not able to this time. I accepted my mistake rather than fight it, and surprisingly, I found contentment in this mindset. I looked out the window and really breathed in the air, letting myself relish the peace of being at the hands of time’s passage. When I don’t let myself worry and obsess, then I see clearly how the world forgives and smoothes over mistakes. Planning and restraint can be beautiful at the right time, but we are forever susceptible to mistakes, mishaps and shortcomings. For all our obsession with misfortune, there is such a thing as fortune! We simply tend to convolute it into something far more dooming. I see the good fortune in superstitions on the rare occasion that they feel like waking up on the right side of the bed. After my younger brother and I fight, whether physically or verbally, my parents make us gently hit our heads together twice. Without fail, every single time. According to my parents, if we didn’t bump heads twice, then we would fight again.

I live my life with each of my parents on my shoulders. Their influence seeps into every decision I make, from what I choose to do in my lifelong career to the clothes I wear when we go out to dinner. Life revolves around the family: My parents crossed oceans, moved to a foreign country with so little to their names in order to create a better life not just for me, but for the family they left behind in India. While this origin story is shared by a number of different cultures, there exists a key parenthetical, an unspoken rule that accompanies this familial veneration: Your family transcends even yourself.

I saw this proven true time and time again within my community. Divorce is considered a taboo topic and an unspeakable action. In my entire community, comprised of

hundreds of Indian families, I have heard of one divorce in my life. The same sentiment goes for things like therapy, medications for mental illnesses and the manner in which the children of a family dress. The children of a family are expected to put aside their own desires, even if doing so infringes on their identities or beliefs — for the sake of their family and its reputation. Children are raised to put aside their wants if it differs from their family’s beliefs in the name of respect. On first read, this isn’t a crazy idea; its premise is selflessness. My family made sacrifices for me, changed their lives for me, raised me, loved me. Of course I owe them. But how much can you owe someone without stripping yourself of your own personhood?

I recently attended my cousin’s graduation with her sister and her friend. Toward the end of the ceremony, my cousin and her friend stood up on the bleachers and held signs up over their heads,

bold messages demanding the University of Michigan to divest from the ongoing genocide in Palestine. I watched as my parents, my aunt and uncle and their friends all turned a blind eye. They gave small, close-lipped smiles and skirted around discussing it, instead aimlessly asking my younger cousin to “come take a picture” without directly looking at her. When a young man came up to my cousin and her friend, calling them terrorists, they weren’t looking. They made no mention of it in the hours or days that followed, content to let their children fend for themselves in the name of upholding blissful ignorance. What struck me wasn’t necessarily the lack of anger. It was the degree of disregard — the way in which the adults’ demeanors changed to absolute indifference. It wasn’t a “You need to stop doing this!” followed up by an argument, it was, “What you’re doing is so shameful that the only way I can

deal with it is by pretending you’re not doing it at all.” This is all to say that there are very firm, hard lines when it comes to what is acceptably “loud,” and this rings especially true when it comes to expressions of morality and beliefs.

When I spoke with my graduated cousin, she rationalized this phenomenon by loosely paraphrasing one of IndianAmerican comedian Hasan Minhaj’s sets. He talks about a divide between generations: Our parents’ generation, who immigrated here from India, grew up being taught never to rock the boat, to be happy with what they have and never draw attention to themselves where it’s not absolutely necessary. In part, this is because they had already committed the ultimate act of “rocking the boat” by immigrating to America, a country that they had only heard of by word of mouth and sensationalized TV depictions. They were told that America was the solution to their hardships, and that they should be grateful to even be there, in the “land of the free.” For my parents, this wariness of drawing attention to themselves was a survival mechanism, because they came here without choice — their lives, their family’s lives and their children’s lives depended on their success. There was no alternative. To do anything to jeopardize this success was unthinkable, and this extends into how my parents believe morals should be expressed: quietly and compliantly.

In contrast, the principles I grew up being taught were completely different from those that my parents were taught. I grew up being sold an idealized version of what it is to be “American”: the fundamental right to free speech, freedom of belief,

freedom to protest and the pursuit of happiness. I think of being taught of events like the Boston Tea Party and the American Revolution — defiance in the name of beliefs, in the face of moral injustice. I have learned over time that there is a subtext to these lessons, the contingency that defiance is only palatable in the name of a white American belief. But no matter how my views on these teachings change, this is what I internalized in my childhood: I have the right to act in the name of my beliefs. Whether I actually have this right or not is irrelevant — I find that the institutions that are deeply engrained in my daily life uphold a set of beliefs that push my own to the sidelines.

The beliefs that American institutions adopt aren’t rooted in compassion for those that struggle against oppression, but rather in the mentality of the American nationalist. Take, for example, the responses from American universities to solidarity encampments that arose in response to the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Universities across the country sent militarized police forces to brutally remove protesting students and tear down the encampments, the symbols of belief that these students had built simply because the sentiment underlying the encampments did not align with what our government has deemed the “American” belief: an unwavering support for Israel. The same government that supposedly supports the individual right to uphold personal beliefs brutalizes my peers for doing so. However, I still fundamentally believe that I hold the right to defiance, regardless of whether or not it is met with acceptance or disdain.

This is where I, as the child of two Indian immigrants, have to grapple with the divide between myself and my parents. When does it become a sacrifice of my own beliefs to stay quiet in the name of my parents’ beliefs and wishes? It also begs the question of necessity: if my family’s fate no longer hinges on my success (or lack thereof), there is no value to me in continuing to “not rock the boat.” My parents sacrificed their voices and kept their heads down precisely so that I don’t have to — I have a voice, and I have a right to use that voice. Again, the question of whether I actually possess this right or not arises; it seems as though the very institutions that taught me to be unwavering in my beliefs seek to suppress them at every turn. And this in turn forces me to consider why my beliefs were shaped against the grain of what America’s institutions believe, despite being raised by them at every stage of my life. As someone who constantly tries to find a balance between two identities, being American and being Indian, I frequently wonder why, even though I am American, my beliefs seem to veer in the opposite direction of the American mainstream. I find that it’s precisely because of my two identities that my beliefs differ — solely American beliefs serve solely American interests. The American identity, by itself, will only hold beliefs that consider the American welfare. But when I have another identity to consider, when I have 20 years of Indian heritage behind me and generations of struggle in my lineage, every single issue becomes a matter of consideration.

ANUSHI VARMA MiC Columnist

SIYA MODI MiC Columnist

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Design by Anushi Warma

Jovanna

SHANIA

Maximilian

Who is the ‘we’ at the University of Michigan?

JOHN CARSON Associate Professor & Opinion Contributor

I read, with some incredulity, the statement sent out on Aug. 31 to the University of Michigan community by University President Santa Ono, University Provost Laurie McCauley and Martino Harmon, the University’s vice president of student life. The message represents their attempt to define the parameters of permissible protest on campus and to justify shutting down a recent pro-Palestine demonstration on the Diag, which resulted in four arrests.

I was not particularly surprised that this message didn’t mention that one of the four individuals arrested, the 16-year-old child of a U-M professor, ended up in the emergency room because of police mistreatment. Nor was I surprised that the authors of the message saw no irony in clamping down

on protests while simultaneously trying to kick off the University’s so-called “Year of Democracy and Civil Engagement.”

Instead, I was struck by their insistent use of the pronoun “our” throughout the statement, and wondered who that “our” really was. It was certainly not the “our” of the U-M community. The collective voice of that community — faculty, students, staff and alumni — rang out loudly and sharply against measures changing the rules on engagement and protest when the University first tried to institute the Disruptive Activity Policy last spring.

I could only conclude that the “our” in the message referred solely to the upper U-M administration and the U-M Board of Regents — the ones who unilaterally imposed new rules and regulations for public demonstrations and gatherings in the middle of the summer without consulting or discussing with the community. Thus, I concluded that these are not “our” rules and

regulations; rather, they are “theirs,” imposed on members of the U-M community without consultation or consent.

In my mind, “our” rules remain those that have long guided the University through many tense circumstances. “Their” rules reflect a desire to clamp down on legitimate disagreement and protest, and they seek to do so in a manner reflective not of a democratic polity but, sadly, of an authoritarian state.

New regulations have been promulgated with no broad input from the community. Armed police have been used to suppress any dissent that the administration or even unnamed individuals with no real connection to the University deem “inappropriate.”

Basic protections for those accused of some violation of the new regulations, including the right to an impartial hearing before the community and with an advisor, have been removed.

The ballot box and CSG: Did students get what they deserved?

TYLER WATT Opinion Contributor

After reading the comment section on the recent New York Times article about the gridlock that followed SHUT IT DOWN’s victory in the recent University of Michigan Central Student Government elections, many commenters view the student body as “getting what it deserves.”

Those elections, in which only 18.5% of the student body voted, resulted in SHUT IT DOWN winning an effective plurality in the general assembly. Now that SHUT IT DOWN is sticking to its campaign promise to functionally shut down CSG, one is left to wonder: Is this what students deserve? Is any attempt to revive CSG’s key programs antithetical to the democratic process?

Some commenters would say, “Yes.” One commenter specifically said, “Hopefully, the students are learning that in a democracy, you get the government you deserve.”

Another said that the student government “is going to get a taste of what it means to think that winning a majority of votes among a vast minority of students does not mean you have a mandate.”

With respect to these keyboard philosophers, I dissent. University of Michigan students deserve better, and those with power in student government, regardless of party affiliation, should do all they can to serve students, even amid attempts to shut the system down.

Students deserve a representative government that promotes academic freedom, fosters fellowship and guarantees a public forum for student expression. Such rights are guaranteed in the preamble of the Constitution of the U-M Ann Arbor Campus Student Body, which SHUT IT DOWN representatives swore to uphold.

Beyond these rights, students expect CSG to provide hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding for student organizations and resources that make our student tuition worthwhile. Just because a few thousand of our peers voted to deprive the student body of these opportunities does not mean we don’t deserve them. Indeed, all three branches of CSG, including the judiciary, have an affirmative duty to safeguard student rights.

If this argument is unavailing, let the numbers demonstrate that SHUT IT DOWN has no democratic mandate to deprive students of anything. Less than half of the voting students chose SHUT IT DOWN as their first choice for CSG’s presidential slate. As such, less than half of the elected assembly members were SHUT IT DOWN candidates; presently, less than one-third are still in office. Statistically, therefore, a majority of students voted for parties that pledged to keep CSG operational. The popular opinion among those who voted in the March elections was not to shut down student government, and the mandate is that CSG should keep serving students.

If there was truly a strong mandate to bring student government to a halt, each college’s council would have closed its doors. But they haven’t: Not a single student council has halted its activities in support of SHUT IT DOWN.

The University is welcoming a cohort of thousands of students, including first-years in both undergraduate and graduate programs and a host of transfer students. These newcomers don’t deserve to enter a campus without an effective forum for student representation. During my freshman year, I remember how excited I was to get involved with student government after serving on student council throughout high school. The first-years of

today won’t have those same opportunities thanks to SHUT IT DOWN.

Because students deserve better than a shuttered student government, any attempt by CSG officials to revive its key services — including student organization funding, AirBus, scholarship programs and lighthearted campus events — is consistent with the democratic process. It’s a shame that we can’t rely on the Assembly to take up this mantle, but I have seen firsthand how hardworking members of CSG have fought to provide services for students.

Not only are certain assembly members working for students who didn’t even vote in March, but they are also providing services to those who voted to shut the government down. Perhaps it’s telling that leaders from hundreds of student organizations — including several that endorsed SHUT IT DOWN — have inquired about when CSG’s key services will be restored this year. CSG will hold its next elections this November to fill a dozen or so seats currently occupied by shortterm appointees. These elections should prove themselves to be a real referendum on real student priorities. Although those

lauded and encouraged.

From The Daily: The administration is turning its back on student rights

On the afternoon of July 18, University of Michigan President Santa Ono and the University’s Board of Regents quietly voted to approve new amendments to the Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities. The changes are, in short, disastrous.

The statement, which lays out campus rules and possible disciplinary actions against students who violate those rules, is subject to routine revision at least every three years. But these particular revisions, the context within which they were adopted and the consequences they will have for students are unprecedented — and representative of the administration’s growing infrastructure to silence dissenting voices.

Ono and the Board passed the amendments in only 40 seconds without any public comment or input from members of the campus community. They did so in clear violation of U-M policies, many of which are described by the Office of Student Conflict Resolution and, ironically, in the statement itself.

The OSCR website explains that the statement is meant to be “revised and approved by students, faculty and staff.” The body of the statement provides even more detail.

“Campus community members are encouraged to participate in the (revision) process,” the text states.

“SRAC (Student Relations Advisory Committee) will review the proposed amendments and consult with the Office of General Counsel.”

An Aug. 20 internal letter from the Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, the executive arm of the Faculty Senate (within which SRAC operates), reveals that the University made no effort to either inform or engage SRAC about these revisions at all. Moreover, SACUA writes that the amendments “deprive students of the right to due process and fair hearings with faculty oversight, curtail freedom of speech and expression, and radically increase administrators’ power to prosecute students and limit inconvenient forms of free speech.” This Editorial Board agrees. Still, the University continues

to claim — including in an Aug. 21 email from Ono — that it values and celebrates protest. The University is lying. The revisions to the statement give Ono and the Regents the power to arbitrarily dictate what speech is acceptable on campus and what speech is not.

The most pertinent changes are as follows:

This change upends decades of U-M precedent. It effectively dismisses the need for any proof that actual harm has occurred before disciplinary proceedings are initiated. The University claims this revision was only intended to clarify and confirm its right to submit a complaint, but such a right has no basis in U-M history.

At no point since the statement’s inception has the University itself been able to act as the complainant in a conflict resolution case. That right was afforded solely to students, faculty and staff — the only possible recipients of individual harm.

With this amendment, the University has contrived the authority to punish students for supposed harm against their peers or superiors even when neither party has alleged it. If no student, faculty member or staff member is willing to file a complaint, it is likely that no complaint is warranted.

Effectively, the administration can now direct its judicial resources wherever the whims of the moment take it, regardless of the facts. An administration concerned with its public image, for instance, could contend that a group of students camping outside of the president’s house, protesting the University’s handling of sexual assault survivors, disrupts student life — without any corroboration from students that such a suggestion is true. Other amendments to the statement limit the options for recourse for those who find themselves in such a situation.

The removal of this portion of the statement eliminates the right of accused students to discuss and understand their punishment before accepting responsibility for a statement violation. This lack of clarity puts students in a lose-lose situation. They can either enter into a plea deal with the University, which is no longer obligated to provide the specifics of that deal, or they can pursue a hearing. This makes an

already intimidating moment for students even more uncertain, and it absolves the University of any responsibility to inform students about the actual stakes of their decision.

This revision was one of many aimed at packing the conflict resolution process into only 45 days. For appeals — of which there are likely to be many — this truncated timeline halves the period within which students can consult with an adviser and craft an argument in their defense. The University claims the purpose of this amendment was to make the “process move swiftly and without delay,” but this Editorial Board doesn’t buy it. If swiftness was the goal, the complainant’s timeline would also be shortened. It wasn’t. They still have up to six months (or more, if OSCR gives them an extension) to make an allegation. By limiting the rights of the accused, but not of the accuser, the University has created a massive imbalance. This, however, was not the only amendment that fixes the appeals process against students.

The members of the Appeals Board, informed by their unique campus roles, were equipped to deliver nuanced and fair judgments — unlike a solo highlevel administrator. Their position formed an important check on U-M authority. With the July amendments, the University dissolved that check.

The new system gives the vice president for student life, a senior employee clearly partial toward the administration, the power to unilaterally determine whether to uphold the original punishment. In essence, the defendant is forced to make their appeal to the prosecution. This isn’t how presumption of innocence works, and it isn’t how this institution is supposed to work.

In the past, the Appeals Board would recommend dismissing frivolous cases. That safety net is now gone. Given the assortment of possible sanctions the administration can choose from — up to and including expulsion — this Editorial Board believes an independent body is necessary to ensure that no student suffers undue consequences. The University disagrees. In whole, the amended document entitles the University not only to

act as plaintiff, but also judge, jury and executioner (or in this case, expeller).

Ono, in his message to the Board asking that they adopt the amended version of the statement, expressed a need for “more efficient student disciplinary processes.” Let us be clear: The revisions discussed above do not represent, as Ono argues, a well-intended attempt to increase efficiency. The Ono administration’s secrecy, rule breaking and subsequent campus outrage have put that myth to rest. Rather, these revisions are just one more thread in the University’s anti-free speech web.

The first entry in this series came on Jan. 16 of this year, when Ono and the Board adopted the Principles on Diversity of Thought and Freedom Expression.

This Editorial Board took issue with these principles, arguing that the vague language was left primarily up to the reader’s interpretation, making effective implementation more difficult. We called on the University to engage in good faith with students as it turned the guidelines to action.

A few months later, the University revealed that it had no interest in good faith, releasing a draft Disruptive Activity Policy that took an obviously hostile stance toward student protest. Once again, this Editorial Board expressed concern, along with fellow U-M

students, faculty, staff and even the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan. These groups warned that the policy gave the University carte blanche to crack down on even the mildest disruptions to campus life, no matter how peaceful and orderly they were. Seeing the outrage, Ono and the Board axed the DAP. The amended statement, however, entitles them to the same powers and more.

At every step, the campus community has responded to the University’s attempts to limit dissent with a clear message: stop. Each time, the University turned its back on this demand.

Even before revising the statement while students and staff were home for the summer, the University revealed that its objective was to suppress free speech on campus. The smoking gun came in the form of a consulting firm called Grand River Solutions and a man named Omar Torres.

Amid the pro-Palestine protests last academic year, the University reached out to Grand River Solutions about dealing with the campus uproar. They settled on a contract: Omar Torres, a “student conduct professional” at GRS, would be paid $235 per hour to act as the complainant against several of the demonstrators.

There was one main issue: This arrangement violated University

policy. The version of the statement in use at the time required the complainant to be a student, faculty member or staff member. Torres, a resident of Georgia, was none of these things. The University hired an out-of-state consultant to initiate disciplinary proceedings against students, paying him more than the professors, lecturers and graduate student instructors who educate those students. Perhaps this is why this knowledge was only discoverable through a Freedom of Information Act request. The sum of these actions can only be interpreted as a deliberate attempt by the University to silence dissenting voices. The changes to the statement are only the latest and most severe gambit along those lines. As the University grows increasingly distrustful of the student body — and increasingly distant from the values it claims to represent — its anti-free speech infrastructure will only expand.

This is not what the students, faculty or staff want, and it shouldn’t be what Ono and the Board want, either. The standard, three-year amendment cycle dictates that the statement be open for revision later this academic year. When that happens, we hope the University will heed the complaints of the campus community and undo these dangerous changes.

ARUSHI SANGHI/Daily

The post-truth Era: How institutional trust evaporated

SETH GABRIELSON Opinion Analyst

In a world where information is more accessible than ever, I, like many Americans, find myself increasingly skeptical of the news I consume. Once-trusted sources of factual reporting now feel tainted by bias, sensationalism and ulterior motives. This distrust is not born out of cynicism, but is instead rooted in the troubling evolution of how society produces and disseminates the news.

The decline of trust in news organizations is driven by a broader issue: the infiltration of advertising and money into journalism, which has transformed the news from a public service into a commodity. This transformation, driven by the desire for free access to information, has culminated in what some have coined the post-truth era — where facts are malleable and institutional trust is eroding.

In its early days, network news functioned as a public good, a way to provide people with unbiased, factual information. Congress provided news organizations with free access to the airwaves, with the understanding that news outlets would use this privilege to provide one hour of information broadcasting each night. This was the beginning of what we now know as the nightly news.

However, this model was flawed from the start. Congress, ignorant of the powerful influence television

would come to have on the public conversation, did not stipulate that the hour should be free from advertising. As a result, the news quickly became intertwined with commercial interests. To remain profitable, news organizations turned to advertisers, and content began to shift. The focus on delivering important, factual information gradually gave way to sensationalism and entertainment. After all, sensational stories attract more viewers, and more viewers yield higher advertising revenue.

This shift had profound implications. News organizations depending on advertising dollars blurred the line between news and entertainment. Stories more likely to capture the public’s attention — often those that were more shocking, controversial or emotionally charged — began to dominate the airwaves.

The consequence was a news landscape increasingly driven by what would sell rather than what was important or true.

The internet only amplified these issues. It promised to democratize information, making it accessible to everyone; however, the reality was more complex. As traditional news outlets moved online, they brought with them the same reliance on advertising that had plagued network news. The race to attract views led to a proliferation of clickbait headlines and sensationalist content, further eroding the

quality of news.

Moreover, the internet introduced a new dynamic: the ability for individuals to curate their own news sources. This phenomenon has given rise to online echo chambers, where people seek out information that confirms their existing beliefs while ignoring or dismissing anything that challenges them. In these echo chambers, bias is not only tolerated, but often reinforced, leading to an increasingly polarized public. The consequences of this new paradigm are far-reaching. When individuals are only exposed to information that aligns with their views, they become less willing to engage with differing perspectives. This not only deepens societal divides, but also undermines the very notion of objective truth. The internet, rather than being a tool for enlightenment, has become a breeding ground for misinformation and confirmation bias.

If the internet amplified the problem, social media, specifically, has taken it to new heights. Social media platforms, driven by algorithms designed to maximize engagement, have cultivated environments where sensationalism thrives. These algorithms prioritize content that is likely to elicit strong emotional responses — like anger, outrage and fear — because such content keeps users engaged longer, which in turn generates more ad revenue

for the platforms.

The result is a social media landscape where misinformation spreads like wildfire. In such an environment, it is increasingly difficult to discern fact from fiction. The constant bombardment of biased or outright false information has led to widespread distrust, not only in news organizations but in institutions more broadly. People are more likely to question the legitimacy of the news they consume and,

by extension, the legitimacy of the institutions the news represents.

This erosion of trust has profound implications for society. In a world where individuals are increasingly unwilling to trust anyone they do not know personally, the very fabric of social cohesion begins to fray. Without trust in our institutions — whether they be governmental, educational or media-related — the ability to engage in meaningful dialogue and democratic processes is severely compromised. Hence, we now find ourselves in the post-truth era. In this era, objective facts are often less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief. The term “post-truth” reflects a reality where truth has become subjective, and where the lines between fact and fiction are increasingly blurred.

MARY-KATE MAHANEY Statement Columnist

Content warnings: Mentions of domestic violence, gun violence and sexual assault

“That bitch was at 21+ clubs all the time with a fake ID when she was 16. most dudes probably had no clue.”

“I think she’s doing it on purpose.”

“I tend to not believe a thing that comes out of her mouth.”

“She has had a lot of crazy shit happen in her life but she is also documented to milk said crazy situations for attention for far longer than necessary.”

All of these comments are in reference to Tana Mongeau’s allegations against Cody Ko, in which she claimed they engaged in sexual acts when she was 17 and he was 25. Mongeau is a popular YouTuber who found fame by posting “storytimes” in which she theatrically detailed botched hair salon trips, getting arrested in London, accidentally sexting the wrong person and other tales of the same wild variety. Mongeau’s latest endeavor is her podcast, “Cancelled,” in which she and her co-host, Brooke Schofield, famously dish out celebrity gossip. As a longtime viewer, the appeal of Mongeau’s work is its outrageous nature; there is a thrill in hearing about reckless Hollywood antics that I will most likely never experience. However, when Mongeau went on camera to discuss assault allegations, YouTube audiences struggled to believe her. Mongeau built her career and made millions of dollars off superficial, tonguein-cheek acts like pretending to marry Jake Paul in 2019. As a result, viewers now seem unable to accept that she is also human, susceptible to genuine suffering like the rest of us.

In Mongeau’s case, it is clear that she has been discredited by the “perfect victim” myth: Victims must be morally righteous before and after an instance of sexual assault. Otherwise, they can be rightfully subjected to doubt, harassment or even punishment. Fan Yang, a research assistant at the University of Chicago and co-author of a recent study examining perception of victims, found that people steadily

MICHELLE WU Statement Columnist

Throughout my years living at home, my mom would call me from my room to do chores like washing the dishes, sweeping the floors, vacuuming the carpet and wiping the dinner table. Come spring and summer, there’s a chore I did more than any other: gardening. Specifically, plucking weeds and trimming dead leaves in our yard. As long as it wasn’t raining outside, even if the heat index was in the high 90s, I was responsible for keeping our garden in pristine condition.

Now, you must be thinking, my mom must have sat at home reaping the fruits of my labor without having to move an inch. In reality, she’s spent the past few years fixating on how to design the perfect yard. She took it upon herself — self-conscious that we appeared less well-off than our neighbors — to embark on a home improvement project. After I came home from school this summer, I watched her spend her free time planting roses, hydrangeas and calla lilies, trying her hardest to fill the empty spaces where tall trees once stood. She would stay out late pulling weeds in the backyard and come back in the house with poison ivy stings. She left the front yard to me since there wasn’t any poison ivy there (an interesting way to show motherly love). Rather than seeing the red marks on her wrists as nuisances, she wore them as battle scars

STATEMENT

Bitches are victims, too

reserved compassion solely for those who they viewed as having good moral standing and status. Reading this study for the first time, I couldn’t imagine that I would play a part in perpetuating standards that are against my own values of inclusion, equity and listening to those in need.

I have never publicly shamed a victim for coming forward or questioned their pain, so how could I be a part of the problem?

But saying you support Christine Blasey Ford and Anita Hill or agreeing that a member of a fraternity who has committed a violent act should be removed from Fraternity & Sorority Life is the just tip of the iceberg. It is the day-to-day interactions and the thoughts you keep to yourself that quietly help the myth of the “perfect victim” stay afloat. In high school, a girl who made rude, impossibleto-forget comments about my appearance was deeply distressed by her parents’ divorce. She was combative with teachers, failing tests and clearly not getting enough sleep. In her eyes, you could see she was yearning for a hug and comfort. Upon hearing the news of her parents

parting, I remember thinking, that sucks but I don’t care; she’s a bitch. The Germans even have a word for situations like this: “schadenfreude,” or “a feeling of pleasure or satisfaction when something bad happens to someone else.” Now, I certainly wasn’t celebrating the divorce of my high school foe’s parents, but I was choosing to ignore the emotional impact it had on her despite clear evidence of her pain. As I reflected upon my complicated relationship with that “bitch” in high school, I couldn’t help but wonder if something devastating — beyond parental divorce — had happened to her, would I have reached out?

Would I have believed her? We always want to think of ourselves as doing the right thing when the time comes, but as Yang’s aforementioned studies show, I most likely would not have been an ally. My 14-year-old self saying, I don’t care, she’s a bitch, in my head causes no direct, external harm. It does, however, create minuscule cracks in the sisterhood. To me, sisterhood is a synonym for community and solidarity among cisgender women, transgender women

and those facing oppression for their space on the gender spectrum (most often, those who are feminine-presenting). The power of sisterly solidarity lies in the equitable access to care and opportunity. Yet when women engage with name-calling and categorizing others, cracks begin to ripple through our community, allowing apathy to seep in and contaminate all our sympathetic impulses until we too buy into the “perfect victim” myth.

The woman who is the “perfect victim” will never be a reality, but the men who remain in positions of power because of her rumored existence surround us every day.

Shaun Varsos, an abuser and murderer, initially roamed free despite his wife, Marie Varsos, contacting authorities multiple times with evidence of abuse, including walking into the police station an hour after Varsos strangled her until she was unconscious. She had bruises on her neck and an audio recording for proof. Additionally, the local police gave Marie a Lethality Assessment Protocol test which evaluates the likelihood of serious and fatal injuries for domestic violence victims. Marie’s answers

Garden of imperfections

to signify her dedication to her garden.

Despite the nasty reputation that weeds have — weeds can actually play a crucial part in enhancing the health of gardens. They’ve been cited as a way to improve soil health by adding biomass, diversifying the ecosystem and controlling pests. It is commonly said that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and our perception of plants might also be applied to this. The widespread ads that praise monocultures of vibrant and verdant grass suggest anything that looks unwanted must be exterminated. Ironically, most times what we deem as undesirable can actually turn out to be something beautiful. Placed in another light, weeds could be seen as the opposite of a nuisance, with their versatile uses in herbal medicine and their role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem. A great example of the utility of weeds is their significant role in pollinator gardens, which are designed to attract pollinators and exist to combat the decline of pollinators, whose populations are threatened by environmental destruction, disease and parasites. Commonly touted plants to grow in these gardens include charming flowers like lavender and anise hyssop. Surprisingly, what’s often neglected in the “how to cultivate a pollinator” guides are common weeds, which are also the easiest to incorporate into the garden (because they’re always there). The dandelions, clovers and ground ivy you once tried so hard to get rid of could be key to

attracting nature’s beautifying agent: pollinators.

For the average college student living in an apartment or sharing a house with five or more roommates and no allotted free time, gardening seems like a relatively unrealistic hobby to have. I’ll concede that much. What I will argue instead is that maybe we, as natural critics, should be a little nicer to our gardens and ourselves.

In a funny way, my mom’s care of her garden is similar to how people treat themselves. Peer pressured by our neighbors, my mom found bothersome imperfections that never seemed to stand out before. Likewise, we don’t usually see a problem with ourselves until social media posts or advertisements point it out. After all, there’s no question about the detrimental effects of media advertising in the beauty industry, especially on teens and adolescents. Oh, and what about the medications people are taking these days for cosmetic purposes? Qualities that used to be perceived as “normal” now stick out to us like a sore thumb.

The way my mom obsessively pulls out weeds and buys new bags of mulch every summer reminds me of the way I handle my flaws: by picking them out or attempting to hide them, trying to blend into a crowd defined by unclear norms. When I first started getting acne at age 11, I either picked at the marks or hid them underneath my greasy bangs (which only seemed to exacerbate my tragic situation). When I was insecure about

how fast my legs were growing compared to the rest of my body in middle school, I wore bigger and longer hoodies that went almost down to my knees. When I felt academically behind my peers in high school, I motivated myself by imagining the worst possible scenarios and guilt tripped myself with the sunk-cost fallacy. Even now, as a 20 year old going into my third year of university, my main coping mechanisms for my insecurities are (unfortunately) either to shove them out of sight or pretend they don’t exist.

I know I’m not alone in this; studies show that the average American feels insecure five times per day. With an abundance of self-help resources like YouTube and books offering a step-by-step guide to self-improvement, it’s increasingly easy to put “the best version of yourself” on a pedestal, trying to weed out perceived flaws. I’m all for personal growth and finding a “better me”; however, if interpreted the wrong way, these resources can become insidious promotions for the human version of weed killers. By framing ourselves as projects, our flaws become ugly problems to deal with, not a feature of our humanity. And what are we even getting out of doing all that work to unwire our quirks? Losing the parts of ourselves that build character, resilience and empathy? Even worse, losing an element of our lives that keeps us humble?

It’s a little cliche to say that you should “love yourself” and embrace your imperfections, so I’m going to put a twist on this

The ripple effect and societal consequences go beyond domestic violence. In the context of American medicine alone, women’s overlooked pain results in greater health care costs and a maternal death rate that surpasses every other developed nation. Women of Color, particularly Black women, disproportionately face higher maternal death rates. Correspondingly, the rules of the “perfect victim” are more roughly applied to women of Color. A recent example is the domestic violence case involving Megan Thee Stallion and Tory Lanez, who was charged and subsequently found guilty for shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot.

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indicated she was very likely to die at the hands of her husband. Yet, Varsos remained free and Marie went home unprotected. Marie needed a sympathetic ear, a community beyond the family home she fled to. She needed to be believed. Not a single member of her community — especially those in the bureaucratic systems she turned to — went up to bat for her. A month after Marie went to the police, Varsos murdered her and her mother, Debbie Sisco.

In her last moments, Marie was still searching for help. She stood on her neighbor’s lawn talking to 911 dispatchers while she attempted to defend herself from her husband. Nevertheless, in death, Marie continues to be an imperfect victim because she receives criticism for her course of action. One online comment says, “You can’t just go hang out at your mom’s house if your ex threatens to kill you.” Years of qualifying sympathy for others in our heads — tallying reasons why one is not deserving of our kindness or consideration — eventually erodes care for those in our community until we are so callous to one another that no woman is safe.

Megan Thee Stallion told Vogue how important the outcome of the trial was, saying, “It was more than just vindication for me, it was a victory for every woman who has ever been shamed, dismissed, and blamed for a violent crime committed against them.” Nonetheless, the media still gives undue attention to jokes and conspiracy theories that claim she was never actually shot. Most recently, members of Nicki Minaj’s fanbase, the Barbz, use Megan Thee Stallion’s squabbles with Minaj as a justification for their insensitivity toward Megan Thee Stallion’s trauma. One fan tweeted, “There is absolutely nothing Nicki Minaj, the greatest femcee ever, wants from Megan, a bitch who has to sell herself as a victim to get respect.” Megan Thee Stallion might be a “bitch” to Nicki in the eyes of her fans, but this does not mean she deserves a complete lack of support in the aftermath of domestic violence. I would be lying if I said I do not live in fear that one day I will not be seen, heard or helped by the community around me in my time of need. More than a violent situation itself, I fear the lethality of not being believed. A sisterhood with fierce, unremitting sympathy could change the trajectory of — and save — the lives of many. A simple start is seeing those around you with their full humanity, even if they are bitches — because chances are you’re a bitch from someone else’s point of view, and one day you might need them to see you, too.

often-repeated mantra. I don’t think we should be complacent with ourselves, but obsessing over perfection isn’t healthy, either. Although perfectionists tend to be more motivated and self-conscientious, they also have a higher risk of experiencing anxiety, depression and burnout. A strategy that has worked for me, a once self-conscious teen who has (for the most part) overcome perfectionism, is to support my insecurities by leveraging the qualities I’m proud of.

This past summer, I worked my first internship and learned a lot about myself, both personally and professionally. Before the internship started, we had to take an OutMatch development test that analyzed our strengths and weaknesses in the workplace. I didn’t think much of it when I took the exam, mindlessly clicking through behavioral options that resonated with me, but when I got my results back in a document, things started to click into place.

Some areas of improvement that the test identified were scenarios when I was required to voice my opinion and be flexible. Rather than showcasing these traits as obstacles that were hindering my ability to be a functioning human in society, the test used the data it gathered to advise me on how to work on situations where I struggled.

For instance, I wasn’t good at articulating my thinking or public speaking, but I was good at interpersonal communication. I wasn’t very adaptable in a rapidly changing dynamic workspace, but I was really good at crafting

routines and staying organized. Instead of using my strong suits as shields to hide my weak spots, the test suggested that I take advantage of them to help me become a more well-rounded worker. Had I tried to hide my flaws like my mom did to her weeds with stones and randomly themed garden gnomes, they probably would’ve sprouted to haunt me later in life.

I’m not trying to endorse laziness and letting the issue spiral. I’m also not arguing for the eradication of weaknesses by simply “letting your strengths shine.” I guess what I’m trying to say is, don’t let your anxieties get the best of you, and know that there are productive ways to slowly work on them. As humans, we’re growing, blooming and fending off pests, just as gardens do. While it is true that weeds can sap resources and nutrients from other plants and make your garden look unkempt, you don’t need to pluck every single weed from the ground. Maybe, the few clumps of weeds you thought were trash could be repurposed sustainably to create medicine, teas or even foods like salads and stews. Just like in gardening, where herbicides intended to kill weeds may damage the surrounding ecosystems, focusing too much on yourself and abolishing all your imperfections can harm your relationship with yourself and those around you.

Progress always starts somewhere, so let’s nurture every little part of our gardens, not just the pretty parts we want others to see.

AUDREY HOLLENBAUGH Statement Columnist

I’ve spent a lot of time sitting in people’s backyards, near a dying bonfire, watching fireflies blink on and off in the distance. It wasn’t always this way — I used to see them every single night in the summer, run after them and catch them. I noticed the change the summer after I graduated. Now, I only see fireflies during an afterparty or a barbecue or something, when I start to feel like I’ve been there too long and I’m starting to wish I had brought bug spray; I find myself turning to the dim tree line as an escape from the humidity and overlapping voices of the people around me, searching for comfort in the distant flickering. The far-off trees always turn the same grayish-blue, broken up by those brief little flashes of light. Someone might offer up the idea of trying to catch them.

I haven’t caught one in years. I don’t remember how we did it so successfully as kids, night after night, catching firefly after firefly, watching them blink around inside a jar on my dresser until I fell asleep. Now, as I watch them blink on, blink off, I can’t seem to get close enough. I stand where, just a moment ago, one lit up a pocket of the damp air, but somehow when it lights again, it’s moved even further away.

No one catches fireflies anymore.

I find it remarkable how easily they give up; everyone returns to their chairs by the fire after only a few minutes, leaving me in the grass, neck craned up towards the sky, wishing that just one little bug would drift down to meet me.

I grew up on a farm in southeastern Michigan. We had a big grassy yard and acres of property comprised of fenced-in pastures, fields of flowers and rocks and winding paths shaded by trees. It was a perfect place to grow up. I had more nature at my fingertips than I ever knew what to do with.

In the winter, I dug snow caves in the ditches bordering our driveway and built 5-foot-tall snowmen with my dad. In the spring, I picked cornflowers and buttercups and threw fuzz from tall brown cattails into the wind. In the fall, I walked paths encased overhead with brilliant oranges and reds and plucked crab apples from the trees in our furthest fields. It was idyllic.

In the summer, my sister and I would run outside to find dozens

MIKAELA LEWIS Statement Contributor

I hate my gym rival.

Most mornings, she and I face off as the only two women in the swarming cesspool of testosterone known as the weight room. I sip my protein shake from its designated pink bottle and stare at her as she gears up with her wraps and chalk. On days I want to sleep in, the thought of losing to her pulls me out of bed and into the gym. But I’m the only one playing the game. This girl doesn’t know my name and I don’t know hers. Frankly, I doubt she’s ever noticed me or is even aware I view her as competition. I don’t compare myself to the men that surround us — their capabilities are easier to dismiss due to the copious amounts of creatine and testosterone coursing through their veins. When it comes to her, though, I cower when I see her warm up with weight that I struggle to move. Between sets, I find myself on Instagram engrossed in the posts of female models, influencers and bodybuilders. These women — flexing their post workout pumps under perfect lighting — dwarf even my rival. I drop my phone and turn to face the mirror to perform my next set; this time focused on how scrawny I look in my baggy clothes.

When did you stop chasing fireflies?

of fireflies floating on the tops of meadows, scattered across where the Earth met the starry sky, calling us to come catch them. I would scoop the bugs off of blades of grass, pull them from the cool air or just watch them flicker and shine all around me. I had all the time in the world to admire those twinkling lights. My mom or my dad sat on our back steps in the warm glow of the doorway with a big glass jar, waiting for us as we ran back and forth into the quiet night with more and more in our tiny, innocent hands. I don’t remember when, or why, we ever stopped.

That part of my life feels like a completely different world than the one I live in now — and in a way, it actually is. Fireflies are disappearing, which honestly hits me like a truck. There really is no going back.

We moved off the farm and into town when I was 11, and since then, the years have gone by in a blur. When I was young, I remember reading that as you age, each year of your life feels shorter than the one before. The theory is that as you get older, a year becomes a smaller fraction of your life. For example, one year at age 5 is 20% of your life, while one year at age 40 is only 2.5% of your life. Therefore, you perceive each new year as more brief than the last, despite the same amount of time passing — it’s an exponential decrease in the amount of time you have left. Every time someone mentions how quickly time flies, I think of that theory. It’s been stuck in my head ever since I first read about it. It just makes so much sense, which is simultaneously satisfying and devastating. Every single second, every passing moment of my life, is shorter than the last. We think that we have time to do more, to be more, but the years ahead of us are shortening into hours, minutes, seconds — our perception constantly accelerating under a construct that we are helpless to stop.

It makes me want to panic. I feel like I should become more and more productive to compensate for the forever quickening passage of time. And being on the University of Michigan’s campus, surrounded by people who are becoming engineers or doctors or star athletes, studying in the footsteps of successful alumni, does not lessen this pressure. I think that many students, especially at high-caliber universities like this one, feel the same way.

At the beginning of the summer, I made a list of things I wanted to do before coming back to school. I wanted to get back into running, draw more, write essays, read, work, learn piano — make myself into someone worthy. Aside from trying to measure up to the amazing people I met during my first year at the University, writing out my goals for the summer was my attempt to cope with the seemingly endless number of weeks that stood before me. I hugged my friends goodbye at the end of April and sobbed in the halls of West Quad for hours, which felt like minutes, marveling at how daunting the next four months felt. Now, with the new semester in full swing, I feel like summer has slipped right through my fingers. Time’s ever-increasing speed still manages to surprise me. Time doesn’t just seem faster because of the proportion theory. A more modern theory suggests that we might feel this way because we don’t pay attention to our lives anymore. When we’re growing up, exciting things are happening constantly, like starting new schools, having our first kiss and

graduating. Especially when little kids, everything is new and thrilling. But as we get older, we fall victim to routine. The things we usually love become empty; repetition desensitizes us to everyday beauty.

It’s easy to not notice how much the fireflies we cup in our hands are worth, and by the time we do realize, there are no more chances to go back and catch them. From this moment on, I’m going to choose to pay attention. I am going to fill myself with so much gratitude that I tear up just thinking about how lucky I have been. In doing so, I believe that time will slow down. I’m not going to find more years by searching through the childhood behind me or the career ahead of me. I’m going to find them by sitting around with the friends I’ve found here, laughing on their porch late at night and reveling in all of the stupid things we get to do together. Time is tucked into my salad at lunch and folded into my favorite clothes sitting in my closet. If you make a conscious effort to be excited by even the simplest joys in your life, you start to control time rather than letting time control you.

I’m not upset about how my summer has gone. While I didn’t touch a piano, finish an impressive amount of books or publish any of my work, I did do a lot of laughing. I took time to linger in doorways where I could chat with my little brother and sat in parks with my eyes glued to pink sunsets. I bookmarked beautiful moments in my mind, not just knowing, but appreciating how fleeting they were. And at the same time, I read a bit, worked a lot and did go on a few good runs. It wasn’t what I had planned, but it was enough to make myself proud. Some weeks ago, I woke up early and walked downtown with my mom to watch a parade. I used to hate moments like that — walking with my mother to go see an arguably crappy parade — but this summer, I loved the simple joy of it all. I’ve grown a new appreciation for it. My heart feels more open to home, to my mother, to my flawed little town. There used to be a bitterness in my chest, like I wasn’t truly home and never would be again, and I let it infect everything.

I didn’t cherish the things I should

When did gym culture get so toxic?

have because I didn’t see the value in them. I just wanted to go back: to the farm, to the grass, to the fireflies and especially to the feeling that I have plenty of time to waste. I’ve learned to love the reality that time will pass no matter what I do, and I can’t return to all of those years that I have spent so much time missing. They were beautiful, but they’re gone. Still, accepting this fact delivered me to a present full of standards and expectations I’m not familiar or comfortable with yet. There’s a tricky balance between slowing down and moving forward. I tend to forget that I can lean too far either way. Now, I’m trying to learn how to have both. Standing in a meadow from my childhood won’t make the years slow back down, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have time to kill. I’ll make the effort to feel time pass through me as I hold my life in my hands, knowing that, despite the pressure of this school and of this world, I don’t need to be and do everything right now; knowing I have all of these beautiful seconds to live through and I can make them whatever I want.

One standard for so-called “gym rats” is achieving a bench press of 225 pounds. The “gymfluencers” flooding my Instagram feed move this weight without breaking a sweat. Yet, if you were in a room with 100 adult men who have been weight training for one year, only one of those men would be able to bench 225 pounds. If you were in the same room of men who have now stayed consistent for five years, only 32 would be expected to accomplish this feat. What about the general population? In a room of 1,000 American men and women with varying experience, statistics indicate that less than four people are likely capable of benching 225 pounds. Needless to say, the standard to consider oneself a gym rat is actually a major achievement. Take me, for example. I’ve been training consistently for several years and played a Division I contact sport. Yet, I am nowhere near capable of lifting 225 pounds off my chest.

Social media content is desensitizing the public from what should be considered impressive.

The fact that there will always be somebody stronger is not only harming the egos of these influencers’ audiences, but also encouraging dangerous behavior.

Social media has distorted my view of what is attainable for the average gym-goer. What I consider to be my pinnacle of athletic performance is considered a cakewalk to others. Bodybuilders and fitness influencers are focused on showing off their unrealistic physiques as a marketing tactic to sell their latest supplements. Fulltime students with part-time jobs don’t have enough hours in a day to sculpt their bodies in the gym, let alone the discretionary income to afford a membership to a facility with state-of-the-art equipment or fancy supplements sold by influencers.

I’ve made peace with the fact that I will never bench press more than one-and-a-half times my body weight, but this isn’t always the case for young, impressionable athletes. Rather than going to the gym to workout, many young people turn to “ego lifting” in an effort to seek validation from their peers.

Not only is ego lifting dangerous, as it increases the risk of injury as a result of poor form, it is also entirely ineffective. Being able to join the 1,000 club by injuring your back does not equate good health or being considered in shape; frankly, it just makes you look stupid.

When social media pages flaunt enhanced super strength, it raises the bar of what should be considered the standard for strength — one that is already unattainable. Imagine if runners were considered subpar because they couldn’t keep up with the best of the best; if Noah Lyles’ sub10-second 100-meter dash was considered the norm; if you only earned a medal for a marathon if you managed to run the 26.2 miles in less than two hours, like Eliud Kipchoge.

In my life post athletics, I am striving to mend my relationship with the gym, shifting my mindset from striving for improvement to one that satisfies my desire to stay active. While I’m not constantly hitting personal records anymore, I now view the gym as an easy way to make my day feel more productive. When it comes to running or weightlifting, the effort is exhausting and not exactly enjoyable. The reward is being done, being able to stop

and relax, enjoying the sense of accomplishment, knowing I have pushed myself to my own personal limit — even if my limit didn’t “beat” that of my imaginary rival.

Having massive muscles or visible ab definition doesn’t represent the pinnacle of health. Most physiques displayed on social media are impossible to maintain year round. Bodybuilders live in a vicious cycle of bulking up through extreme caloric intake to lift incredible mass, then cutting down their diet to reveal their new muscles. As a matter of fact, the only thing visible abs or muscle striations indicate are a low body fat percentage, which is only attainable by living in a caloric deficit. On the day of their shows, bodybuilders are not fit and strong; they are depleted and starving.

Ilona Maher, U.S. women’s rugby bronze medalist, recently took to social media to speak out about varying body types in the Olympic space. Maher, standing at 5 feet 10 inches and 200 pounds, is considered overweight on the body mass index scale. Thus, she continues to advocate for body positivity for athletes, reminding her audience that she is in optimal athletic condition and earned her spot on an Olympic roster for a reason.

The greatest athletes around the world don’t come in one shape or size for good reason. Benching 225 pounds would not help Simone Biles land her double back layout with a half twist. Katie Ledecky’s muscle striations aren’t always visible because she needs to refuel her body following intense training sessions in order to

maintain her gold-medal status. If Maher restricted carbs to have a more aesthetic physique, she wouldn’t have the energy to make tackles or plow through defenders.

The body I wake up with changes the moment I eat breakfast or even take a sip of water. When I was lean enough to flex my abs, I felt like I was in the worst shape of my life — constantly exhausted and starving. Bodies are required to fulfill biological needs in order to function. Restricting calories or overtraining to look healthy is not healthy at all. Normal people who want to work out do not always have access to a nutritionist, unlimited time to train or steroids, so they should not expect to look like those who do. Going to the gym should be in the interest of one’s health, not obsession over appearance.

Design by Vivien Wang

Texas dominates third-down battle against Michigan in blowout win

NOAH KINGSLEY Managing Sports Editor

Forty seconds into the game on Saturday, the No. 10 Michigan football team had No. 3 Texas in an immediate third-and-13 situation. Between a false start, an open-field tackle and a hurried incompletion, the Wolverines were in position to force an early three-and-out, setting a tone for the game right away.

Then, amid the roar of a raucous Michigan Stadium, Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers calmly dropped back and launched the ball down the right sideline. There, he found receiver Isaiah Bond waiting for a 33-yard reception, moving the chains and rapidly sucking the air out of the stadium.

Texas didn’t score on that opening drive, but it still set a vastly different tone than the one Michigan had the chance to on that play. All afternoon, the Longhorns had their way on third down on both sides of the ball, converting 10-of-16 third downs en route to a 31-12 win, while allowing the Wolverines to convert just three of their 12 chances.

“We didn’t have many negative plays, tackles for losses, so we just kind of stayed ahead of the chains,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “And then the third-down conversions were huge. … Holding them to 3-for-12, we got off the field there as well.”

Of the 16 third downs that Michigan forced, the Longhorns only had 10 or more yards to go on 5 of them. They consistently stayed on schedule, making sure that Ewers rarely had to force throws down the field to have a shot at moving the sticks.

Even when Ewers did have to get some extra yards, he calmly handled the Wolverines’ defense.

On a third-and-10 on Michigan’s 37-yard line in the second quarter, with four rushers surrounding him, Ewers stepped up in the pocket and hit receiver Matthew Golden for a 20-yard completion. Suddenly, a potential 55-yard kick turned into a near-chip shot, all but guaranteeing points when

the Wolverines — down 14-3 at the time — desperately needed a stop if they wanted to regain a semblance of momentum.

“(Ewers) stepped up in the pocket a lot when our rushes went high,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “He did a good job maneuvering in the pocket on third downs, and that’s what really kept drives alive.”

The Wolverines didn’t fare much better on third down once Texas got near the goal line, either. Both Golden and running back Jaydon Blue caught touchdowns in third-and-goal situations, capping off lengthy Longhorns drives once Michigan was already tired.

And for as many struggles as the Wolverines’ defense had getting off the field, its offense had just as much trouble staying on it.

“You can’t convert on third downs, you can’t move down the field, and you can’t sustain drives and score points,” senior quarterback Davis Warren said. “And then you can’t give our defense time to come off the field and rest. So it falls on me as a quarterback to keep us moving on those third downs.”

Warren, admittedly, was far from perfect on third downs. He missed on three of his first five third-down passes, including an interception in the second quarter that set up Texas deep in Michigan territory. He also regularly threw the ball in front of the sticks, leaving the Wolverines short even when he completed a pass.

But Warren also didn’t have much help on third down. On

GRACE LAHTI/Daily

Michigan’s first drive of the third quarter, Warren threw a pass to sophomore wideout Semaj Morgan that, while not exactly where it needed to be, hit off Morgan’s hands. On the Wolverines’ final drive of the first half, Warren found junior tight end Colston Loveland with some room to run, before Loveland promptly fumbled the ball without being touched.

“We gotta make plays,” Moore said. “Pass catchers gotta make plays. You have some third downs, you drop one, you miss one from the route … so we gotta make plays for the quarterback.”

Twice, Michigan didn’t even get the chance to make a play for Warren. On third-and-3 with 14:13 left in the second quarter, during the Wolverines’ best drive of the half, Michigan elected to bring in junior quarterback Alex Orji for a read option. Threatening to score on thirdand-5 late in the third quarter, Michigan tried it again.

Both times, the Longhorns knew exactly what was coming the second that Orji stepped onto the field. They stuffed him at the line of scrimmage twice, forcing a field goal and handing the ball right back to their offense.

Whether Orji or Warren took the snap, though, Michigan regularly failed to convert on third down, while Ewers constantly made plays to keep his offense on the field. With each Wolverines turnover and Texas conversion, the Longhorns drained away Michigan’s energy, and with their energy went the Wolverines’ chances of staying in the game.

Michigan secondary overwhelmed by Texas receivers in loss

As the final whistle blew and the No. 3 Texas football team trotted off of the field in Ann Arbor with a comfortable, three possession victory, attention was focused on the performance of Longhorns quarterback Quinn Ewers.

With three touchdowns, 246 yards and no turnovers, Ewers was Texas’ motor the entire afternoon, and his lightning quick receivers were the gas that powered him. But at the same time as Ewers and his receivers guided the Longhorns, Michigan’s secondary presented as a faulty safety protocol.

All afternoon as Texas’ offense methodically picked apart the Wolverines’ defense, Michigan’s secondary struggled mightily to clamp Longhorns tight end Gunnar Helm and receiver Isaiah Bond. And even when they did limit Ewers and his receiving corps to short, check-down throws, they struggled to make the necessary open-field tackles to limit Texas from picking up important yardage.

“It was definitely open-field tackling,” graduate Michigan safety Quentin Johnson said. “A lot of those hidden yards came from missed tackles, so at the end of the day you’ve got to take care of the little things. The pillars, executing at a high level, tackling and getting guys on the ground.”

For the vast majority of the

contest Saturday, the Wolverines missed those small details against the Longhorns’ passing attack. That started from the very beginning when Texas was pushed up against a third-andlong in its first series. Michgian got caught flat footed as Bond outpaced sophomore defensive back Jyaire Hill and caught a 33-yard bomb over graduate safety Makari Paige.

However, it wasn’t just deep shots that capsized the Wolverines’ defense — it was the checkdown and out-of-rhythm passes Ewers fired off that Michigan’s secondary couldn’t keep pace with. For instance, of Ewers’ 24 completed passes, eight went to running backs and seven went to tight end Gunnar Helm. Texas didn’t need to stretch the field, in fact Ewers often threw behind the line of scrimmage, and the Wolverines’ secondary still struggled to get there.

The struggle with open-field tackling contributed to all facets of Michigan’s meltdown. The secondary’s tackling issues allowed for the Longhorns to excel on third down. Tackling issues bolstered the Longhorns’ running game, at one point allowing for a 55-yard end around followed directly by a short screen pass that three defenders couldn’t prevent from ending up in the end-zone. It was tackling issues that kept Texas continually moving the chains while the Wolverines stagnated. And it was tackling issues that put points on the board for the Longhorns.

“For us on defense, it’s tackling (that we have to fix),” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “We’ve got to make sure we wrap up because they had 135 yards after contact. Those little things, you fix those, it’ll put you in a better position. But you can’t do those against a good team.”

Whether it truly was just little things, Ewers was able to find what he wanted in the passing game consistently, and Michigan’s secondary couldn’t stop him. On deep balls Ewers had open receivers, on mid range throws his tight-ends overpowered the Wolverines and when he had to scramble, his receivers exploited soft spots and made space. Texas’ passing powered its offense, and nothing the Wolverines’ secondary did could defuse it.

“(Ewers) got it to his checkdowns, he got it to our guys in space and then when those throws were there down the field he was able to make some of those plays as well,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said of Ewers.

While Ewers’ ability to find his receivers was impressive, how open they were was caused by the Wolverines’ soft coverage. The speed of Bond and fellow receiver Matthew Golden combined with the power and sticky hands of Helm burned Michigan. And as the Wolverines got burned Texas’ receivers were hot, and sagging on coverage and missing open field tackles, Michigan’s secondary was unable to cool them down.

‘An ally of the goalkeeper’: Tori Christ and the art of leading with empathy

On a soccer field in Buffalo, N.Y., seven-year-old Tori Christ raised her hand. After a year of playing in the field, she finally had the opportunity to put the goalkeeper gloves from her bag — provided by her former hockey goaltender father — to use. With the usual goalkeeper out with a broken finger, Christ’s club coach put the lone volunteer in the net. While most kids don’t desire to be in a position to be shot at by the ball, the now-Michigan women’s soccer assistant coach instantly fell in love.

“I honestly loved the position,” Christ told The Michigan Daily. “I loved the pressure associated with the position, and I think I had such a passion for the game from a young age. I loved flying around in the goal. You get field players who are like, ‘I don’t want to be shot at,’ and I think it’s so fun. I love the feeling of just moving through the air.”

And in her years leading up to college, she continued to fly — soaring past all the obstacles of the sport, including those who doubted her. As a smaller goalkeeper, many coaches responded to Christ’s aspirations of playing at the collegiate level with discouraging remarks, stating she was simply too small to play at the Division I level. But even with the noise of pessimism surrounding her, Christ’s push toward her dreams never stopped.

“There were certainly moments (where) your confidence and your belief wavers,” Christ said. “… I think if you fall back on the things you can control and you find the right fit for the time, you end up in a good spot.”

Through controlling the controllables and keeping her love for the game on center stage, Christ landed herself in a great spot: just

a few hours east of Buffalo, on the Cornell women’s soccer team. For Christ, there wasn’t a specific moment that made her suddenly want to pursue a professional soccer career. Rather, it was the culmination of events leading up to the end of her time with the Big Red.

Despite only seeing sporadic playing time in her first two years with Cornell, Christ’s positive attitude shone through from the beginning. Over time, that dedication and spirit eventually paid off. At the beginning of her junior year, Christ became the starting goalkeeper for the Big Red, and it was those last two collegiate years that really “lit a fire” into the idea of a professional playing career. During her senior year, Christ attended an open tryout for the Boston Breakers — a team in the National Women’s Soccer League at the time — and got an invite to their preseason training camp. There, she trained with elite players, like current U.S. national team goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher, inspiring Christ all the more. Through these relationships she built and the experiences she gained, Christ fell deeper in love with the game.

Amid a second preseason training camp in Boston, Christ found herself with a yearning for a more solid role on a team. And shortly after attending a combine in California, she received a call from a Swedish soccer club, Västerås BK30, hoping to sign her as their starting goalkeeper.

“It sounds dramatic,” Christ said. “But (it was) the call that kind of changed my life.” Christ then spent two seasons halfway across the globe: one in Sweden in 2015, and the other with the Finnish club Rovaniemen Palloseura. As the only American on both teams, Christ had to navigate language barriers while continuing to instill confidence in herself as a professional player.

Despite the many challenges, Christ overcame it all and flourished in ways she never could have envisioned. Not only did Christ see herself become a more well-rounded goalkeeper, she also learned much about herself as a person from the two life-changing experiences.

After two years abroad, Christ felt it was time to transition into a new phase of her career. She thought back to her time at Cornell, where she was involved in youth coaching. And she thought about one of her college coaches who told her that she’d be a great coach one day.

“I thought, ‘You know what, I did the thing that I really wanted to do. I played professionally and now it’s kind of a cool next chapter to start coaching, where I played, and to give back to that program,’ ” Christ said. “… I came back, and that’s when Cornell called.”

Two years later, in 2019, former Boston University head coach Nancy Feldman was in search of a new assistant coach when a resume with a familiar name reached her desk. The name jogged a memory for Feldman, as she remembered the passionate, determined goalkeeper that attended a soccer camp held by the Terriers as a high schooler.

By then, Christ had already completed two seasons as an assistant coach at her alma mater. Feldman quickly realized that Christ was the one for Boston University after receiving “rave reviews” from past coaches. And those “rave reviews” undoubtedly held up.

“She was everything, I would say, everything and more when she did come and start working for us,” Feldman told The Daily. “She makes people around her feel good, feel valued, feel loved. And that’s her. She has a lot of great qualities but that really is the number one quality that comes across.”

While Christ led with these qualities through all the drills in practices and pivotal points throughout games, they extended well beyond the walls of the stadiums. Feldman recalls the times when she’d have a “low moment” and “needed a lift,” and she’d often find a card sitting on her desk with Christ’s name signed on it.

And that empathy undoubtedly took center stage in Christ’s coaching philosophy — it’s a quality that held the utmost importance to her as a goalkeeper coach. With only one goalkeeper on the field at all times, most college goalkeepers don’t get regular playing time until their final years. Thus, for the many who spend years on the bench, it’s a position that requires a lot of patience, one where it’s sometimes difficult to feel valued and attended to. But with Christ, it’s a different story.

“Being attentive to the individual needs of the goalkeepers is a huge part of what I believe in,” Christ said. “I love relationship building … I think it’s really important to fundamentally get to know your goalkeepers, how they respond and what they need.”

Christ saw qualities of herself in all of her players. Whether it was the starters who finally got their moment to shine in their last years or the players pawwtiently waiting for their turn, grasping onto those occasional moments on the big stage, she was once in their shoes.

“She was a starter and she was also a backup,” Feldman said. “She had disappointments in her career and she had achieved great achievements … She knows what those girls are going through. She coaches everybody equally. Tori is not going to be uber-focused on the starter because they were the starter and they should have more attention. It’s just not how she rolls.”

Through every stage of her own playing career, Christ made sure to instill that much-needed confidence

and belief in herself, and now she does the same for her players.

In her last season with the Terriers, Christ coached a topranked goalkeeper lineup that aided Boston in capturing the Patriot League regular season championship. And while Christ looked to start a new chapter at the close of the season, the success she helped create caught the eye of Michigan coach Jen Klein, who was looking to fill an assistant coaching vacancy.

After one conversation with Christ, Klein knew her decision would be easy. Because, while the records and coaching accolades were what initially piqued Klein’s interest, Christ’s “dedication to people,” as Klein puts it, along with her strong work ethic were what sealed the deal.

From Cornell to Boston, and now to Michigan, Christ has seen many changes in her coaching career, but the empathy and dedication she provided to all her relationships has remained constant. On Aug. 18, 2022, then-graduate goalkeeper Izzy Nino stepped between the goal posts on the U-M Soccer Stadium field, overlooking a field dotted with a mixture of her teammates and opponents. After years of waiting, this was Nino’s moment to shine, and a new face was on the sidelines cheering her on in her first full season as a starter. Christ, who had just begun her tenure as an assistant coach at Michigan, had only worked with the team for a short time before that season opener. Yet, she was already making waves in her routine ways.

“I just remember going into that game just nervous,” Nino told The Daily. “… We hadn’t had a lot of time together to work on technical things, but the biggest role she played for me in that game was just reinforcing, ‘Hey, you deserve to be here,’ (and) reinforcing my confidence.” Nino’s stellar performance in the 2-1 victory,

which Christ regards as one of her proudest moments as a coach, was also a testament to Christ’s ability to uplift her players, no matter how long they are under her tutelage. That ability did and continues to radiate onto the team, both on and off the field.

“First and foremost, Tori sees people as people first,” Klein said. “She really tries to get to know them as a person, and what their ‘Why’ is. What motivates them? What are their stressors? Or what are things that create some anxiety? … And so because she knows that about people, she really knows how to help, support, but also stretch them.”

That evening two years ago marked just the start of Christ’s impactful time with the Wolverines. It marked the start of years to come where she continued to touch many with her love for the sport and her relationship-building mindset. And, perhaps, show an extra bit of affection for the position that she fell in love with back in Buffalo.

“My staff here gives me a hard time because I’m such an ally of goalkeepers,” Christ said, cracking a smile. “It’s the first thing I think about. Then they’re always like, ‘Here it goes, Tori with the goalkeepers.’ ” While her “ally of goalkeepers” title may lead to the exchange of some humorous remarks, it’s also emblematic of her coaching philosophy. Because, though they may appear disconnected, that relationship-building piece that Christ puts front and center in her philosophy heavily intertwines with the position she feels so passionately about. The individual and diverse needs that come with each goalkeeper are always met with Christ’s will to make sure each and every one of them is seen and valued. Because Christ sees herself in them.

ANNABELLE YE Daily Sports Writer

CHARLIE PAPPALARDO Daily Sports Editor

TEXAS

31 | MICHIGAN 12

Michigan no match for efficient Texas offense in beatdown

REKHA LEONARD Managing Sports Editor

The record-breaking streak is over.

After 29 straight games of regular-season domination, the No. 10 Michigan football team was bested by No. 3 Texas on Saturday. The Wolverines were the underdogs for the first time in over a year, and they showed exactly why.

The Longhorns’ offense operated like a well-oiled machine, providing a stark contrast to Michigan’s middling attack. Unable to overcome Texas (2-0) on either side of the ball, the Wolverines (1-1) lost their first regular-season game since 2021, 31-12.

“That’s a loss,” Michigan coach Sherrone Moore said. “We haven’t had one of these in a long time, so you definitely feel it. Our kids feel it. They feel it more than anybody, so definitely feel bad for them and how they feel. But

we know on all sides of the ball, all three phases, we got a lot to work on.”

The Longhorns’ opening drive didn’t end quite as planned, but it simultaneously showed what they were capable of. Texas converted on 3-of-4 third downs, the lone miss on a 24-yard touchdown pass that was nullified by a holding penalty. The Longhorns subsequently failed to convert on the replayed third down and missed its field goal attempt, giving the Wolverines a lucky break. That luck didn’t transfer to the other side of the ball, though, and Michigan’s first offensive drive ended after a threeand-out. To make matters worse, the Wolverines’ punt took an extreme bounce in Texas’ direction, handing the Longhorns fantastic field position. Starting on their own 44-yard line, it only took them six plays to find the endzone, as quarterback Quinn Ewers hit tight end Gunnar Helm for a 21-yard touchdown. Michigan responded with a solid

drive of its own, highlighted by a 22-yard flea-flicker pass from senior quarterback Davis Warren to graduate receiver C.J. Charleston. But after failing to convert on third-and-short, the Wolverines settled for a field goal, making the score 7-3.

On the other side, Ewers drove his offense down the field with ease. He picked apart Michigan’s defense drive after drive, racking up 203 yards in the first half alone.

“I thought he played really efficiently,” Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said. “He got completions. I didn’t feel like there was a throw that got forced today. We knew we wanted to take care of the ball. We knew that we just did not want to give these guys a short field, and we wanted to make them drive the length of the field.”

The Longhorns’ strategy was especially effective because the Wolverines mostly struggled to drive the length of the field. Michigan’s offense even helped Ewers’ cause,

shooting itself in the foot multiple times.

On consecutive drives in the second quarter, Warren threw an interception and junior tight end Colston Loveland fumbled, setting up a Texas field goal and touchdown, respectively. Fumbling with one minute left in the half not only prevented the Wolverines from narrowing their hefty deficit, as the Longhorns’ subsequent touchdown drive extended their lead to 24-3.

Michigan’s offensive woes continued in the third quarter, and the Wolverines once again stalled out on a decent drive. Warren and Loveland connected for a 24-yard pickup on third down, but Michigan promptly failed to convert its next third-down attempt, setting up junior kicker Dominic Zvada’s 52-yard field goal to cut the deficit to 18 points.

“They gave us some opportunities,” Warren said. “We had a good beat on what they were going to do defensively, and we didn’t capitalize on it. So it falls on me to find the open man and assess what they’re doing defensively and

get the protection right and then find the guy who’s running the route that’s going to beat that coverage.”

The Texas offensive machine quickly emerged to show up the Wolverines. Longhorns receiver Ryan Wingo ran a jet sweep for 55 yards, and Ewers sealed the deal with his third touchdown of the day.

Then, Warren answered with his second interception of the day caused by a miscommunication with Loveland. Texas coasted through the rest of the game, having already sealed Michigan’s fate. The Wolverines’ only touchdown of the game — a 31-yard pass from Warren to sophomore receiver Semaj Morgan with two minutes left — was too little, too late.

And finally, with the 31-12 loss, Michigan’s impressive string of regular-season victories came to an unceremonious end.