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Volume 56, Issue 13 | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
Clarence Thomas delivers lecture at ND Supreme Court Justice says world is “race-obsessed” in talk about upbringing, American society By HELINA KASSA News Writer
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas spoke at the Debartolo Performing Arts Center Thursday for the 2021 Tocqueville Lecture Series. Currently, Thomas is the Senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court. Thomas spoke about growing up in Georgia, his interpretation of race theory and gave advice to students interested in law. He described his childhood in Georgia in the 1950s and 60s as a very different world and suggested that time created the “race-obsessed” world of the current day. “The world where I grew up was quite different from the world of the day; that is obvious,” Thomas said.
Thomas is the second Black justice to sit on the supreme court. Born in the Pinpoint area — close to Savannah, Georgia — on June 23, 1948, he studied at Conception Seminary College from 1967-1968 and then graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the College of the Holy Cross in 1971 with cum laude distinction. He later started at Yale Law School in 1974. He began practicing law in Missouri in 1974 and eventually became the assistant attorney general, an attorney with the Monsanto Company and the legislative assistant for Sen. John Danforth. Thomas moved up in ranking from working in the Capitol, state department and the appeals court of the District of Columbia until see THOMAS PAGE 3
MAX PETROSKY | Observer
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks as part of the Notre Dame Tocqueville Lecture series at Leighton Concert Hall in the DeBartolo Preforming Arts Center on Thursday, Sept. 16, 2021.
Professor discusses anti-immigration law By CLAIRE LYONS News Writer
The Klau Center for Civil and Human Rights hosted Dr. Robin Jacobson who spoke on anti-immigration legislature for its online lecture series, “Building an AntiRacist Vocabulary” last Friday. “Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary” is led by Dory Mitros Durham, associate director of the Klau Center and leader of the
Keough School of Global Affairs’ Racial Justice Initiative, as a response to the acts of police brutality against George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbey, and Breonna Taylor in June 2020. The program’s goal is to provide “students, faculty, staff, and alumni of the University of Notre Dame with sustained, critical engagement on interdisciplinary topics related to understanding systematic racism, and committing to the
daily work of anti-racism.” Jacobson, a graduate of Johns Hopkins University and the University of Oregon, is the chair of politics and government at the University of Puget Sound. She is also the author of “The New Nativism: Proposition 187 and the Debate over Immigration” which delves further into the content of the lecture. Jacobson began the lecture by discussing the shift in attitudes
toward immigration between the George H.W. Bush administration in 1980 and the Donald Trump administration in 2016. She argues that immigration issues started long before Trump’s campaign in 2016, focusing on “the historical development [of anti-immigration legislation] by looking at a moment in between 1980 and 2015 and that’s Proposition 187.” Proposition 187 was a 1994 California voter initiative designed
to deny undocumented immigrants access to vital Social Services. The law would have employees of government services — i.e. health care workers, schools, etc — ask anybody who they suspected as an undocumented immigrant to prove their status. If they couldn’t, the suspect would be reported to federal agencies. The law passed with 60% see LAW PAGE 4
Center for Spirituality director considers faith Rev. Daniel Horan began his term as the new director of the Center for Spirituality and professor in the departments of religious studies and philosophy Aug. 16. Since coming to Saint Mary’s earlier in the semester, he spoke about how he felt a unique connection to the campus community because of his upbringing. “I grew up in a Catholic family in upstate New York and went to Catholic schools
my whole life,” he said. “I’m the oldest of four boys. So, it’s quite a cool experience to be a faculty member and a director at a Catholic women’s college because I didn’t grow up with sisters, so now I feel like I’m making up for lost time with this wonderful community of higher education.” Discussing his journey to become a Franciscan friar, Horan explained the impact of his college experience on his decision to enter the faith life. “I went to St. Bonaventure University, and there, it’s a
Franciscan school — much like Saint Mary’s and Notre Dame are in the tradition of Holy Cross, St. Bonaventure is in the Franciscan tradition,” he said. “And there I met the Franciscan friars and at that point, I was already doing some discernment about whether or not I felt a call to religious life into ordained life and getting to know the Franciscans and studying theology. As time went on, I became more and more aware of the fact that I think I was being called to join the Franciscan community.”
Horan noted that after college graduation he did not expect to be serving in the roles that he is today because of what he studied. “After I graduated from college, I joined the Franciscans,” Horan said. “I didn’t think that I would go into higher education. I didn’t think I’d be a professor. I didn’t think that was my path. When I was in college, I studied theology, but I also studied journalism.” Ref lecting on his journalism career, Horan described his passion for sports photography.
“I worked for four years on my college newspaper and at the time, sports photography was really my focus,” he said. “So, I thought I was going to become a Franciscan friar who specialized in photojournalism.” Explaining the Franciscan tradition, Horan said he had a lot of options in his career path, even after he was ordained. “Franciscans can do lots of things,” he said. “They can be parish priests, they could be
News PAGE 4
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By GENEVIEVE COLEMAN Saint Mary’s News Editor
see FAITH PAGE 3
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Irish football fans gather in the parking lots in front of Notre Dame Stadium before the rivalry matchup against Purdue. The Irish beat the Boilermakers 27 - 13. After this victory, head coach Brian Kelly now ties legendary coach Knute Rockne in total wins.
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Monday
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Friday
Fr. Zahm’s Dante Collection Exhibit 102 Hesburgh Library 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. Exhibit on Dante collection.
Kroc Institute 35 Year Celebration Hesburgh Center Quad 5:30 p.m. - 6:30 p.m. Light refreshments will be served.
Commuter Meet and Greet Commuter Lounge 4:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. Meet fellow SMC commuter students.
Resume Clinic 114 Spes Unica Hall 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. Stop by and perfect your resume. First come, first served.
An Evening with Matthew Morrison DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m. Tickets required.
“Building a Healthy Economy from the Bottom Up” 101 DeBartolo Hall 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. Energy Week lecture.
ISSLP Info Session Geddes Hall, McNeill Library 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. Learn about summer service opportunities.
Portuguese Language Table 334 Bond Hall 7 p.m. - 8 p.m. Practice Portuguese with food and music.
Harry Potter Trivia Night Legends 9 p.m. - 11 p.m. Test your knowledge and win prizes!
Ultimate Laser Tag Stepan Center 8 p.m. - midnight Run around and hide from the other team to protect your base.
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elementary school teachers, they could be college professors. They could be people who work in a restaurant. The vision that Francis of Assisi had was living the Gospel life together as a community of brothers or a community of brothers and sisters.” Horan recalled the support from his mentors that led him to further his education in theology. “When I was in graduate school studying to be ordained, I fell in love with theology even more than I did when I was an undergrad, and my community, my province and my professors saw some potential in me and encouraged me to think about going on for further studies,” he said. “I taught for a year at Siena College in Albany, New York, in religious studies department there, and then went on to do a PhD at Boston College.” Horan explained his goals for the Center for Spirituality as he begins his tenure. “The first is to not only continue the good work that’s already been begun by my predecessors and by the 37-year-long history of the center, but to strengthen
ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | The ObserveR
those programs [and] those offerings,” he said. “And then the second part with the center is to expand it to see how the Center for Spirituality can have a greater impact in the best ways on campus, among the tri-campus community, but also beyond the colleges themselves into the community and nationally and beyond.” As an author of several books, Horan also discussed how he grew into his role as a writer. “I really got into writing because writing is the best way to help me to learn,” he said. “It’s the best way to help me to understand what I think and what others think and to engage that in a deep way. I love to talk — I’m an extrovert [and] I like being around people. But there’s something about the slow process of having to think and ref lect and to write that can’t be replicated and you can’t speed it up.” According to Horan, there are many topics that he is interested in, such as systematic theology and Christology. “My PhD’s major area of concentration is what’s called systematic theology and so, that is doctrinal questions ... I wrote a dissertation on the theology of
creation, so I’ve one been interested in those sorts of questions. I’m working on a book right now on Christology — in particular, the reason or the motivation, the divine motivation for why God became human in the Christian tradition,” he said. Horan also noted his recent passion for exploring issues of social justice. “I’m also very interested in issues of social justice [and] issues of peace,” he said. “And so, in the past, I’ve written a lot about nonviolence and the importance of nonviolence. More recently, I’ve been engaging a lot more in questions of systemic racism and the realities of white privilege and white supremacy, and what does it mean, particularly from a kind of a religious perspective, but also more broadly from a societal or cultural perspective.” Because of his prior experience in photojournalism, Horan was recruited by Saint Mary’s athletics to take photos of varsity games, in addition to his official responsibilities. He expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to go back to his roots. “I’ve been very, very fortunate,” Horan said. “I’m really grateful to the athletic Paid Advertisement
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department, to Julie, the athletic director, and [Sports Information Director] Sarah, for allowing me and inviting me to be a part of this very important aspect of the Saint Mary’s community, which is the wonderful athletic teams that we have here.” Horan noted that he was invited to speak in several religious studies classes at the College in the past and was honored to return to a place rich with tradition. “It’s very moving and humbling to think about, so to come back to this space where I visited years ago as a speaker, and to be able to be in a position to help support and to continue that legacy — that’s what drew me so much to this position.” Speaking on his hopes for the College, Horan wants to highlight the strengths of the College. “There’s so much to be proud of, that if there’s one thing I hope for, it’s to contribute to being sort of a booster or a cheerleader for Saint Mary’s,” he said. “We need to go out there and tell the world how awesome this place is.
he was formally nominated onto the Supreme Court in 1991. During his talk, Thomas shared his experience of being the only Black student in seminary and higher education. He also spoke on race and its implications in American society. Thomas noted the partisan divide in America, and the struggle to compromise in government and society. Speaking on the Declaration of Independence, Thomas addressed “one glaring contradiction” the legality of slavery. Thomas said he believes the country’s leaders were so ashamed of owning slaves they chose not to use the word slave in the declaration. In the Declaration, he said the equality of all men has always been present. “The Declaration of Independence remains our national North Star,” Thomas said. He continued to speak on what he said is a pessimism he sees in the U.S. today — including citizens who “cancel [the country’s] founders” — yet he said he believes there is a large majority who still hold faith in the original values of America and the
Contact Genevieve Coleman at gcoleman01@saintmarys.edu
see THOMAS PAGE 4
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NEWS
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SMC Office for the Common Good rebranded By CRYSTAL RAMIRES Associate News Editor
This semester, the Office for the Common Good (OCG) is back with community-based and civically engaging campus initiatives, but with a new name. The office, formally known as the Office for Social and Civic Engagement, is a unique resource center, which exists for the Saint Mary’s College community, including students faculty and staff. OCG works specifically on service and advocacy both on campus and within the South Bend community. The office has led annual initiatives such as SMC Votes, which aims at increasing voter turnout and engaging young Americans. OCG director Rebekah Go said this is not the first time the office has seen a name change. This is the fourth time the office
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of California voter approval but wasn’t implemented due to an unconstitutional ruling. Jacobson pinpoints Proposition 187 as “a turning point in racial politics” because it became a “code for a certain racialized form of anti-immigrant lawmaking.” Jacobson’s interviews with supporters of Proposition 187 show that nativists “easily move back and forth between
has “rebranded,” she said. The office was founded in 1991, and it was officially started as a student organization, with no professional staffing at all. Go noted that it was not until later that the office became staffed and officially made the Office for Social and Civic Engagement. Now, 20 years later, the office is facing another change. Rebekah spoke to the purpose and meaning behind the name change in addition to what she hopes this rebranding will bring to the office. “One of the major contributing ideas to sort of why we are rebranding, is because of the lack of clarity of what our office does to both students and other campus partners, like faculty and staff and as well to the community,” Go said. Go elaborated more on the lack of clarity between the office and those it serves in addition to the process of rebranding.
“People weren’t clear about what we did, and so Kris [assistant director of the Office for the Common Good] and myself met with our Interim VP Molly Gower starting in February of the spring 2021 to talk about clarifying our mission and vision,” Go said. “And as a result of those conversations, we decided to rebrand the whole office. A lot of what we decided wasn’t changing actually the programming aspects of what we do, not a lot from the student [side] of things will change. It is just a name change, but it does help us to know where our primary focus is versus what other offices on campus are doing… through that clarification,” she said. In further discussion of the name change, Go discussed the language behind the common good — how it is specifically Catholic but also how it is understood by people who are
not Catholic. “Know that what we do is [that] we are working towards promoting things that benefit all people… so it is kind of this idea of all ships rising, but that means that we are always working on things that will benefit all people… so we aren’t just doing it for some but it is because we believe what is good in this world should be enjoyed by all in this world,” Go said. The office rebranding has been in effect since the start of the fall semester, and Go said she has found the rebranding to be received well and has served the purpose she hoped it would. While the office is undergoing a name change, their initiatives have not changed much, with a couple of new programs and initiatives kicking off this fall, one of which is the Faith in the Vaccine movement. “We have lots of stuff going on,… Faith in the Vaccine is a specific
initiative [within] the community with faith leaders to promote vaccine access and encourage people who may be vaccine-hesitant to get the vaccine,” Go said. “It actually started in the summer. We received a grant to run the program and we really quickly had to hire eight vaccine ambassadors. So we were really fortunate to get a lot of applications for the ambassador positions… and we ended up being able to sort of narrow it down to Saint Mary’s students and one recent grad,” Go said. The office is working on many more initiatives this semester. Go said the OCG is hopeful this rebranding helps students better understand the mission of the office and engage with other office initiatives, programs, and opportunities.
‘undocumented immigrants’, ‘Latino’, and ‘Mexican’. “They’re interchangeable terms,” she said. “[They] can’t possibly know a person’s documentation status. All they see is brown skin and hear Spanish.” This aspect, Jacobson argues, is what makes Proposition 187 and other anti-immigration laws racialized issues. As immigration has become an increasingly polarized issue, the use of racialized language has become more aggressive. Jacobson discusses “dog whistles” which she
uses to describe “implicit racial appeals - ones that could be made with plausible deniability to talking about race.” This covert “color-blind conservatism” has now shifted into overt racism. Durham mentions a woman’s comment from Jacobson’s book, which discussed the implications of racism. “She said in response to her own defense of Proposition 187, ‘If this makes me a racist, fine. I don’t care. I’m here to defend my country,’” the book said. Jacobson attributes this shift
from covert to overt racism — from the dog whistle to the whistle — to the intensifying political polarization in the United States and the work of activists and scholars in “naming implicit racism.” Students pointed out that during COVID-19, they perceived “a shift in the way that we talk about and think about immigrants.” Durham says students “felt this was a moment in which there was still anti-immigrant sentiment and it was pretty explicit, but that we found new groups to be angry with and new groups to target with bias.” Jacobson claims that “the racial dynamics are pretty similar,” between nativists and their targets,
regardless of if they are Latino or Asian. This changing target of anti-immigration sentiment towards Asian Americans and Asian immigrants may suggest that that anti-immigration is more of a racial issue than a documentation issue. If students, faculty, alumni or Notre Dame fans are interested in hearing more from upcoming speakers at the “Building an Anti-Racist Vocabulary” lecture series, they can register online at https://klau.nd.edu/initiatives/ building-an-anti-racist-vocabulary/.
Thomas
Court does] anything other than our job.” Another student asked whether Thomas believed more “regular” Americans should read court opinions. Thomas explained the primary audience is his “fellow citizens,” and clerks work to make the opinions more readable. He recalled one instance that touched him when a man ran up to him and asked him to sign one of Thomas’ court opinions. Throughout the lecture, Thomas emphasized the importance of always seeing the best of people and being careful with assumptions. “We just seem like we keep dividing stuff into subcategories of differences and emphasizing those differences. So, I think you look for the good in the people around you, even if others around you don’t do things properly, you still try to do it,” Thomas said. To close off the lecture, Thomas shared words of wisdom for any student interested in the legal world. “Do not lose sight of what’s good and good people,” Thomas said. “We’ve gotten to a point in society where we’re really good at finding something that separates us from others.”
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progress of the nation. “There are many more of us that, I think, feel that America is not so broken, as it is adrift at sea,” he said. While Thomas was speaking, two audience members protested by standing up in the auditorium with signs that said, “I stand with Anita Hill.” Hill was a former employee of Thomas who accused him of sexual harassment during his 1991 confirmation hearing. The protestors were removed from the room shortly after standing up with their signs for half of the lecture. After the protestors were escorted out, Thomas took audience questions during a moderated Q&A. One student asked if there were times Thomas has had conflicting interests between his Catholic faith and the legal cases he was required to resolve, which Thomas said was difficult to navigate. “There are some things that conflicted very strongly with my personal opinion, my policy preference, and that was very, very hard, particularly early on,” he said. “I don’t think a single person will ever tell you that [the Supreme
Contact Crystal Ramires at cramires01@saintmarys.edu
Contact Claire Lyons at clyons3@nd.edu
Contact Helina Kassa at hkassa@nd.edu
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The observer | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
By ROSE ANDROWICH Scene Writer
“We will never again take for granted the opportunity to perform in front of a crowd,” said Daniel Stowe, director of the Notre Dame Glee Club (NDGC). On Sept. 17, the NDGC performed at the much anticipated Triennial Reunion Concert, which took place at DPAC. The event brought 170 to 200 Notre Dame alumni back to perform with the current student members. The Glee Club concert occurred as the NDGC celebrates its 106th anniversary, but some things — like the community — will stay the same. According to Pat Ostrander, class of ’84, the Glee Club is still the same fellowship it has always been. The community of the Glee Club, members suggest, is the type that keeps you coming back, and the friends you make are the ones who will be in your wedding. The moment that best highlighted that shared sense of community was the Ave Maria. The Ave Maria had the alumni in the audience standing up and singing from the balcony. In addition to being a beautiful song, it was the favorite performance of Ostrander — who found the club’s rendition both incredible and moving — and
By MEG SLUZAS Scene Writer
I’ll be the first to admit that, despite being on the campus dining plan, I am a specialty grocery store junkie. Typically, when I would feel homesick here, all I had to do for a taste of snacks from home was take a car ride with my roommate to the local Fresh Thyme or Whole Foods to stock up on produce. That being said, Trader Joe’s was never a store I frequented, as I always believed it was overpriced and overrated. I cannot, however, drag my busy roommate out in the car every week, so when a new Trader Joe’s opened within walking distance of campus, I decided that I would take a walk, open my mind and see if my prejudices were wrong. Sure enough, Trader Joe’s does offer a pleasant walkable location for unique novelty snacks and prepared meals, including gluten and dairy-free options. However, their produce section left me disappointed. The first things about the new Trader Joe’s that I noticed when walking through the doors were the store’s impressive natural light and extremely airy atmosphere. When I go to a specialty store, I expect an experience that doesn’t include overbearing fluorescent light and white linoleum floor — in that regard, at least, Trader Joe’s understood the assignment. With mint-colored walls and cute check-out stations, Trader Joe’s makes shoppers’s experiences relaxing. Additionally, walking to the store from campus, while a bit of a hike, is an extremely pleasant stroll down Eddy Street. It’s also an easy drive if you have a car and want to
Matthew Pond, a junior at Notre Dame. In addition to the “Ave Maria,” Glee Club classics of “Passing By,” “The Halls of Ivy” and “The Long Day Closes” were performed as well. The event concluded with the Notre Dame “Victory March,” also known as the best fight song in America! Although we’ve all seen the YouTube videos of the Glee Club performing the Fight Song, being there elevates the feeling somehow; this feeling of community is something that epitomizes the Notre Dame we love, as well as the school’s rich history. According to Ostrander, even though the musicians of today are better, the community remains the same. And at the triannual reunions, Ostrander is reminded of what he felt as both a Glee Club member and as the club’s eventual president. Ostrander recalls his experience running for president, saying that “[he] wanted to give something back, kind of a ‘pay it forward.’” The concept of “paying it forward” came from the upperclassmen in the Glee Club. According to Pond, the Glee Club upperclassmen are people you learn to trust and rely on, especially given the way the club operates. Before each Glee Club performance, there is practice almost every day, but in the Glee Club, you learn
as you go, meaning that underclassmen often turn to seniors for help. “The learning curve is tough,” Pond said, but “once you get it, you get it.” Part of what contributes to this learning curve is the way that the Glee Club tends to sight reads their pieces, forcing members to “figure it out” as they go. But being a part of the Glee Club is worth it. When Pond found out he had been accepted, it felt very special to him, and he considered it a valuable opportunity to build community as a Gateway student. Pond wanted a way to ensure he had a good group of people to hang out with once he got to Notre Dame, and joining the Glee Club carried the added bonus of validating his abilities. Although the members of the Glee Club all love music and the community, the group has a diverse amount of majors, most of which aren’t actually related to music. For those who don’t get any music education in class, the Glee Club provides the opportunity to have a relationship with the art form. The bottom line? Whether students like listening to music or performing it, the Notre Dame Glee club has something for everyone to enjoy.
take one, but I prefer to get some fresh air and take advantage of the time before the permacloud. Before my trip, I had long been skeptical of Trader Joe’s novelty foods. Store items contain some interesting flavor combinations — pumpkin tortilla chips, for instance — that definitely raise an eyebrow. I chose to pick up some pickles, turkey summer sausage and tamari brown rice crackers with the intention of putting together a classic “college charcuterie.” As it turned out, I was impressed with all of the snacks I bought. The crackers rocked my world, and are almost impossible to ration. Whoever thought of tamari sauce on a rice cracker should get a raise. The kosher pickles beat out anything that I can get at Target, and the summer sausage was delicious. While I did not want to completely obliterate my wallet, I also viewed the frozen foods and prepared goods. If you are a student and want to treat yourself to food that is not from the dining hall, I would say look no further than Trader Joe’s prepared foods. There are refrigerated soups, cold chicken breasts marinated in lemon sauce, and frozen meals that would add a fun burst of flavor to a dull study session. In terms of gluten and dairy-free food, Trader Joe’s does have options, but shoppers have to hunt for them among the regular items, as there is no specific section for dietary restrictions. I also noticed that other stores, such as Whole Foods and Fresh Thyme, have a greater selection of dairy-free yogurts, as well as chocolates and frozen desserts without allergens. While Trader Joe’s excels in prepped meals and snacks,
I find the store’s produce section to be lacking. I am a fruit junkie, and with the limited amount of fresh fruit on campus, I have to get my necessary supply of berries elsewhere. I was thrilled to see that Trader Joe’s had around five different sizes of blueberry bins, but when I tasted the blueberries at home, they tasted soapy; this is odd, considering they were organic. The grapes I purchased were also okay, but the produce I find at Fresh Thyme in Mishawaka is much tastier. While their veggies, such as broccoli slaw and coleslaw, are delicious, their subpar fruit quality unfortunately keeps me from recommending Trader Joe’s as a “one-stop shop” for grocery goods. Trader Joe’s is good, not great. I would have to try more of their prepared foods to make a better-informed decision on how much it lives up to the hype, but for now I say: Go for the novelties, but don’t stay for the fruit.
Contact Rose at randrowich01@saintmarys.edu
Contact Meg Sluzas at msluzas@nd.edu
Trader Joe’s Location: 1140 E. Howard St. South Bend Style: Grocery store Favorite food: Rice crackers, multiseed with tamari sauce (gluten and dairy-free)
DOUGLAS ABELL| The Observer
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The observer | Monday, September 20, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
Inside Column
Lovesick Crystal Ramirez Associate News Editor
It is that time in the semester where I find myself contemplating my relationships and feelings. I have never had the best of luck with love and my vocal “I hate men” agenda — which is true 90% of the time — doesn’t help. So I thought, what better to do than expose the shitshow that is my love life to hundreds of strangers and to those of you who know me — no you don’t. I won’t bore you with the high school tales of heartbreak, cheating and firsts: first kiss, first love, first break-up up and more. Instead, I’ll bring you up to speed. My first year I met a guy — it is important to note that it started with us following each other on social media. Now, first-year me is so far from who I am today, and I don’t know what led me to this, but I texted him. A couple of texts later, trying to get to know each other, and I had made a friend. A cute one at that. I was excited, my first year was rough and now it was the spring semester and I was talking to a cute guy who I got along with. That was, until COVID-19 hit. I got sent home in the spring and after some text and one inperson encounter, we stopped talking. I think it was for the best, because this boy was a flirt. While that’s not that big of a problem, bestie was problematic. As much as I tried to look through the field of reg flags, I kept coming back. It was a risky game because, to this day, I don’t know if he had ever had a girlfriend — oops. Don’t hate me, I really didn’t know and let’s just say things were toxic, but guess what … We are good friends now. He had a 360 degree turn, I promise. And we truly did have things in common and liked being together — it just wasn’t in my best interest to date someone so self-centered and a bit chaotic, since I am content with the own chaos of my life. To sum up this experience, it made me wary of guys: Were they all this stupid and arrogant? Am I just too much of a raging Taurus to handle? Whatever it was, this left me lovesick, and I didn’t think about guys or dating for a hot minute. A couple of months later and I’m on a date. I know, I could have eased into things a little more, but I was back for the fall semester: new aesthetic, new hair and no feelings for anyone else. To my surprise, it was a guy who messaged me first and asked to go out. Yes, I know, “stranger danger,” but this guy was in a meeting I attended once — at least that’s what he said — and it was pretty convincing because I ended meeting up with him for lunch. It was all going great: He was older, smart, tall, handsome and we had similar interests. Things were looking up for me, I was doing well in class, enjoying my sophomore year and talking to a good guy — who, from what I knew up to this point, was good. That lasted a total of three weeks. We had been texting here and there but had not met up again due to our busy schedules. One day during finals week I get a text saying “I have to tell you something,” a hundred possibilities ran through my head of which maybe two were bad — I was too optimistic. I come to find out that night that he had a girlfriend, and he didn’t think it was important information that I should have known until then. Easy to say I was enraged. He obviously wasn’t “the one,” and we were very much not official, but if my boyfriend asked another girl to hang out alone, obviously trying to hide it, and was texting her for a couple of weeks, I would not be OK with it. I was not about to be in the middle of a couple’s fight, even worse be the cause of it. I blocked him, and to this day have not spoken to him — hope y’all are still together bestie, promise I’m not manifesting your downfall. This brings us up to speed, and with this update, I think you will start to see a reoccurring theme in my love life. I mean, I don’t think I’m the problem, how am I supposed to know — I think this goes to prove men are the problem. I recently began talking to this guy that I had come to meet this year. He was tall and handsome — like every story goes — but he and I were very different and didn’t have many interests. We both enjoyed one another’s company, and I’m not gonna lie, I was starting to like him. He was really sweet and caring, which seems to be rare around these parts. Neither of us had asked one another about our relationship status but I took his flirtiness as being single, as I thought he took mine as well. Well, to my surprise, he had a girlfriend. You have got to be kidding me; I’m two for two and maybe three for three if I ever find out about the first guy. This was the last straw for me — what is it with me and guys who are taken? I don’t even know what to say. Yet again, I have been bamboozled by a guy with a girlfriend and, yet again, I am left lovesick. I am gonna have to see how long I stay away from men this time, and see if the next guy I happen to like also has a girlfriend. Knowing my luck, he probably will. For now, I am living my best life men-free, because here, we hate men, but I’ll leave y’all with some tea. The first guy I mentioned, who also happens to be the only one who hasn’t confirmed his relationship status with me — reached out this semester. So, who knows? Maybe I’ll just have a heart-to-heart with him and maybe things will work out. I’m not here to scare you or say that love isn’t real, because I know many people and have friends who are in great relationships. What I am saying is my love life sucks — and men are trash. You can contact Crystal at cramirez01@saintmarys.edu The views expressed in this Inside Column are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Who owns the world? Trevor Lwere On the Other Hand
As I followed the commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terror attack on the U.S., I was struck by the similarity in outlook of both the U.S. leadership and the al-Qaida leadership. Defense Secretary Gen. Austin’s remarks during the commemoration reiterated the readiness and determination of U.S. troops to defend the “American way of life.” This theme reverberated in the remarks of most other speakers of the day including former president George W. Bush. The BBC documentary on the 9/11 attacks indicated that al-Qaida had justified their attack on the U.S. as retaliation for the U.S. occupying some of their holy lands in the Middle East. In sum, both Americans and the al-Qaida were fighting to preserve their way of life. This similarity in outlook reminded me of an idea I heard from professor Achille Mbembe of the University of Cape Town in South Africa. In his keynote address during the Pan-African Youth Conference in March, professor Mbembe argued that the key question of the present epoch is the question of “Who owns the world”? I agree with professor Mbembe that this is the central tension characterizing our world today. This tension characterized the colonial and imperial epochs. Arrogant Europeans, convinced of their superiority, felt obliged to fulfill a self-appointed mission of civilizing African and other peoples who they considered barbaric for simply being differently from them. Europeans felt that they owned the world and therefore had the right to shape it in whatever way they wanted to. It is the same tension that today fuels the patronizing feelings of Europeans and North Americans towards Africa and the parts of the developing world. It is the same tension that is fueling U.S. paranoia over a rising China leading to the AUKUS pact, which seeks to contain Chinese power in the Indo-Pacific region. America seeks to maintain a world system that allows it to secure and preserve its way of life. This is what the political theorist, Carl Schmitt, called the “concept of the political.” The question of who owns the world plays out as a fierce battle between competing civilizations intent on preserving their unique ways of life against those who would like to have it destroyed. As civilizations clash, the weaker ones are defeated and subjected to a world shaped on the whims of the victors. In a word, it is a zero-sum game. One question that arises, however, is whether this must be
the case. Should we be contesting for ownership of the world in the first place? In my view, no, we should not be contesting for ownership of the world. But why are things playing out the way they do? In my estimates, the problem can be traced back to around the 15th century. Modernizing Europe laid foundations for a modern world premised on plunder, exploitation, expropriation and oppression of the exoticized ‘other’ — Africans, Asians and Indigenous peoples. As such, the development of Europe by those means meant, necessarily, the underdevelopment of the victims of their ownership of the world. Coerced into such a system, these nations could only develop through two ways. First, by getting permission from the overlords i.e., the reigning power at the time: Britain in the past and America in the present. Such permission is given for strategic reasons, such as containing a regional threat. Countries that arguably developed through this route include South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. America, seeking to establish solid influence in Asia, permitted and played a significant role in the transformation of these societies. The other way societies could develop was through beating the reigning world powers at their own game. This is what America did in the 18th century, it is what the Soviet Union did in the early 20th century and what China has been doing since the late 20th century. So, what are we to do as young people inheriting this absurd setup of things? We must seek to be different. Politics, international politics, does not have to be a zero-sum game. We must be prepared to do whatever it takes to put an end to this system and build on its ashes a new equitable international dispensation. We must shun all forms of chauvinism. This is true especially for those of us in the developing world. We cannot resign ourselves to being purged from history. It is not enough that we are willing to fight in defense of ourselves and our way of life. We must also build capacity to fight in defense of that. Let us not tempt aggressors and self-interested actors with our weakness. Trevor Lwere is a senior from Kampala, Uganda, studying economics and global affairs with a minor in Philosophy, Politics and Economics. He is currently studying abroad at SOAS University of London. He is a dee-jay in his free time and can be reached at tlwere@nd.edu or @LwereTrevor on Twitter. The views expressed in this column are those of the authors and not necessarily those of The Observer.
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The observer | Monday, September 20, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Notre Dame should change its COVID-19 testing policy It all started with a sore throat on Thursday night. By Friday morning, my condition had worsened. The sore throat became a dry cough, and my body just wasn’t feeling right. I didn’t know what it was, but I suspected something. I called University Health Services (UHS) and told them how I felt. It wasn’t enough for a test, they told me. The person in charge recommended I take cough syrup and give them a call back if I developed one of the three key symptoms: difficulty breathing, high fever or a loss of taste or smell. I only developed some of these symptoms after three full days of sickness. I am writing this during the last days of my isolation period. I am happy that right now I can read and write without much of a problem. Friends, family and professors have taken care of me, sent me love and supplied me with the necessities to help me get through. But a week ago, I was in a bad place. I had severe sinusitis, fever, chills, headaches, body pain and an intermittent dry cough. It was a breakthrough case of COV ID-19. Isa, my wife, was by my side, trying to work while taking care of me, and also breathing my air in. She was exposed. But we didn’t know it because I didn’t have access to a rapid test. Notre Dame, essentially the only place in my area where rapid tests can be scheduled for free on the same day, refused to test me on time. They told me it was their policy. So, I scheduled a test at a CVS, the nearest I found: Nappanee, Indiana, about 45 minutes away if you have a car, which a lot of us international graduate students don’t. CVS only had PCR tests available at 10:20 a.m. Saturday — the next day. To get there, I still had to go through one of the worst nights: I drenched the bed in sweat, had chills, body aches, I couldn’t breathe from the congestion and to top it off my face ached from the pressure caused by the sinusitis. I wanted to take a COV ID test because I had my doubts, although I was inclined to think it was not COV ID. The UHS representative had told me: “difficulty breathing, high fever, loss of taste or smell.” I had none of them. My fever was mild, and if I couldn’t breathe, it wasn’t because of my lungs, but because of my congested sinuses. I told myself: “It’s just a severe case of sinusitis, you’ve had this before many times, it’s nothing else.” Besides, some friends went through similar symptoms and tested negative. “It’s the f lu coming from backstage, where it had been relegated. Nothing to worry about.” The test results came Sunday night, when I was already feeling better. We were watching a movie in the living room. Our roommates had been around the whole day: cooking, doing laundry, coming and going. The day before they went to the beach with other members of our department,
so Sunday they stayed home. We were still cautious, almost unconsciously: They didn’t get too close. You never know. Things had started tasting weird. But I had also felt that before: The metallic taste that a strong cold can cause. During the movie I had been checking the CVS MyChart app. It had been more than 36 hours since the test and I was beginning to feel anxious about it. It was almost midnight, but I decided to give it one last try before bed. I read the results as if on autopilot: positive. After reading it for the fourth or so time, I put my shirt around my mouth and showed Isa my phone. She turned pale. Had I gotten tested Friday morning, when I called the UHS, my isolation could have started that same day. That would have meant two days less of extremely high exposure for my wife. We wouldn’t have had to drive 45 minutes to Nappanee to get a test at a drive-thru while I was feeling like, well, you know how. The whole circle of exposure would have been diminished if the three magic symptoms were not the only way to get a rapid test at Notre Dame. W hat if I really was just so convinced that it wasn’t COV ID until Monday, when things went from tasting funny to simply not tasting at all? W hat if my roommates and Isa were already infected and had gone to the W hite Sox game we had tickets for that Sunday? The South Bend Tribune has reported that the South Bend area is experiencing a shortage in rapid tests due to the Delta variant. That means that my case is far from unique. You can see a similar phenomenon every where: You feel bad, but probably not what-you-think-is-COV ID bad. You can’t get a rapid test. You have to schedule a PCR, you wait for the results and it turned out that you are positive and didn’t self-isolate, but were walking around for a couple of days, being a vector for the now twice-as-contagious Delta variant. I can’t stop thinking about the many surveillance tests I took last semester. Every two weeks, without exception, I was spitting in a little tube, even if I was feeling as good as it gets in grad life. W hat changed? Oh, sure, the vaccination blitz. It is, indeed, something big enough to change the testing policy. I just can’t imagine how bad it could have gotten if I wasn’t vaccinated. Isa wouldn’t have gotten a negative test, and she would be sick right now. Even my roommates, who were not in such close contact, would probably be sick too. And some other people who I met before developing strong symptoms, or who my contacts met over the weekend. So, I do thank taxpayers of the world for the vaccine. And I appreciate Notre Dame’s effort in creating such a great vaccination rate on campus. But having the vaccine doesn’t mean that we have to send everything else down the sink. Breakthrough cases, like mine, are something to
worry about, and they likely merit a lot of it. “The whole notion of herd immunity from two vaccine shots is f lying out the window very quickly with this new variant,” said Harvard epidemiologist Michael Mina in an interview with New York Magazine. And according to this article from NPR, the Delta variant has dropped the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing symptomatic disease. Sure, Notre Dame has a very high vaccination rate, so let’s say I did pass it on to at least one other vaccinated graduate student: It wasn’t that bad, isolation for 10 days and you’re good to go back to not wearing a mask. Case closed? But what about the right to not be sick at all? To be taken care of by those who have to? And what about other people in South Bend? Or St. Joseph County, where vaccination rates are only above 50%? The unvaccinated waiter at that cafe I could have gone to Friday morning? Aren’t we also responsible for the people around us? Didn’t we learn the hard way that rapid testing and isolation were also great tools for fighting the spread of this deadly virus? We changed the testing policy because of the high on-campus vaccination rate, but forgot about the low rate in the broader territory we share. To me, that’s only widening the already gaping wound between Notre Dame and the South Bend community. It tastes of “we really don’t care much about what happens beyond Angela Boulevard.” A sort of metallic taste. I really hope that Notre Dame changes its testing policy. It seems like changes are already on track, or at least you could tell that from the numbers available in the COV ID-19 dashboard: Testing has gone up from 955 tests during the first week of class to 1,494 last week. Or are people just lying their way in on the symptomatic test request form, which is the only way to get a test if you would like to be responsible but not already several days into the symptoms? If that number of tests is available, why not test someone who might be infected, but has only mild symptoms, precisely to be safe? W hat the representative from the UHS said over the phone had an impact on what I perceived I was feeling. I repeated the mantra to myself: “difficulty breathing, high fever, loss of taste or smell.” I spoke to a health professional who told me there was nothing to worry about. I was vaccinated, and I didn’t have any of the three magic symptoms. She was following the procedure. A triage algorithm. The procedure, I see now, is f lawed. But it can be easily fixed, so as to bring us closer to that part of Notre Dame’s mission about creating “a sense of human solidarity and concern for the common good.”
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Jose Castellanos PhD student, Spanish Sept. 16
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Sports
The observer | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
Sports Authority
Sports Authority
Money still buys wins David Kramer Sports Writer
Bennett Miller’s quintessentia l baseba ll f ilm “Moneyba ll” remains one of t he most honest looks about transformative t hink ing and cognitive biases in t he rea lm of sports. Peter Brand, Jona h Hill’s wonderf ully depicted assistant to Billy Beane, places t he narrative under t his lens t hroughout t he f ilm. But perhaps most def initively, t hrough his antiestablishment v iew point among a group of lifelong baseba ll traditiona lists, Peter Brand frames t he game of baseba ll under a purely ana ly tica l lens in ways t hat deser ve to be rev isited in today’s game. In one of t he most critica l scenes of t he f ilm, t he f ictiona l Brand reduces t he Oa k land At hletics’s problem of replacing t he former “big t hree” of t he Coliseum — Johnny Damon, Jason Giambi and Jason Isringhausen — to a quest to buy w ins. Look ing beyond t he mere optics of t he game, t he philosophy is simple: The A’s needed to buy w ins, and in order to do t hat, t hey needed to buy runs. W hile revolutionar y at t he time, t his idea is commonplace today. In today’s game, however, MLB players show a propensit y for pick ing and choosing when to adopt t his philosophy when it becomes convenient for t hem. The MLBPA has recent ly proposed t he implementation of a sa lar y f loor under which MLB team ow ners must satisf y a minimum annua l pay roll to avoid being f inancia lly pena lized by t he leag ue. A longside t his shif t, t he MLB would introduce a more stringent lu xur y ta x t hreshold. Current ly, teams t hat spend over $210 million in one year of pay roll are ta xed 20% in overages. This pena lt y increases to a whopping 50% as teams surpass t he t hreshold in more consecutive seasons. Under t he latest proposa l, t he t hreshold would ta x v iolating teams at 25% for t heir f irst excess of $180 million. Undoubtedly, t he MLBPA w ill never approve of a plan
Let’s Overreact 2.0 Tom Zwiller Sports Writer
like t his one. High-sa lar y players hold more t han enough leverage to oppose t hese market restrictions under t he notion t hat t heir sa laries would be reduced so as to ma ke more room for lowsa lar y players under t he t hreshold. Most critica lly, t he MLBPA won’t like to ack nowledge who t his proposa l rea lly benef its. It won’t protect t he potentia l sa laries of elite players seek ing mammot h contracts, nor w ill it protect high-pay ing powerhouses t hat f lirt w it h t he t hreshold annua lly (Dodgers, Yankees, Mets, Astros). The plan does, however, incentiv ize sma ll-market team ow ners to invest. Plain and simple. Organizations like t he Pirates and Orioles struggle to f ind consistent success amidst t he sea of big-time spenders in t he NL Centra l and A L East, respectively. It is not as if t he ow ners lack t he cash — f inancia l prowess is an undisputed prerequisite for team ow nership. But t he incredibly t hin margins of a sma ll market team leaves ow ners t hreatened by operating at a loss if t he team f lops. They feel litt le motivation to invest in t heir players and, most likely, generate success. Oh, how t he negative feedback loop, well, loops. MLBPA players and media opponents of t he dea l arg ue t hat a free market structure should set t he annua l payrolls of teams. They w ill point to successf ul sma ll-market teams like t he current Rays, t he 2015 Roya ls or t he 2016 Cleveland team. They won’t point to t he fact t hat nine of t he last 10 World Series champions have pay rolls well over t he leag ue average, and t hey certainly won’t point to t he troves of correlation ana lysis bet ween pay roll and w ins. The heav ily muted trut h begs t he question: For a leag ue t hat is meant to encourage fair play, why should an unfair free-market g uide baseba ll?
Last week I w rote about the crazy opening weekend: The Titans’ cra zy game against the Cardinals, the Brow ns’ great show ing against the Chiefs, the Saints rolling the Packers and the Steelers locking dow n the Bills. I think I did prett y well. The Titans’ offense bounced back against the Seattle Seahawks, and the Brow ns seem to be rolling along offensively. The Saints came back dow n to Earth, and the Bills put up 35 on the Dolphins. A code I live my life by is “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So while week 2 wasn’t nearly as cra zy as week 1, I still think it’s worth exploring some instant reactions from the week and seeing if they merit freaking out.
Contact David Kramer at dkramer2@nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
Wanted
Saints 7 @ Panthers 26 Panthers’ Reaction: Sam Darnold is the franchise QB. As a Panthers fan (gotta get the bias out of the way now) one calendar year ago, the idea of Darnold being MY franchise QB would be simply laughable. But in his two games as a Panther, Darnold is 50/73 (68.5%), netting 584 yards, three touchdowns and just one interception. He has looked good and has improved from game to game. Overreaction: Every part of me that loves all things Carolina sports wants to say Darnold is a franchise QB. I am not going to say it just yet, but I think he is on the right track. I have maintained since the trade that Darnold need only be a Tannehill, not a Mahomes. Darnold looks to be well on his way. Saints’ Reaction: *confusion* I was stunned by this one. After the win last week against the Packers I was worried for Sam Darnold and the Panther’s defense. Now, after this week, I have no idea what to make of the Saints. Jameis threw two interceptions, was sacked four times, passed 50%, and had 80 net yards. The Saints’ rush
game had a mere 48 yards on almost 20 attempts. Overreaction: The Saints entered Bank of America Stadium down eight (yes, eight) assistant coaches because of a COVID outbreak. They had an (in my opinion) flukey week 1 outlier win against the Packers; this is their flukey outlier loss. My view on the Saints is officially reset to neutral.
Bills 35 @ Dolphins 0 Bills’ Reaction: *offensive confusion* Much like with the Saints, the Bills have now shown us two very different results on offense. So, which is the one closer to the genuine Buffalo offense? Reaction: This is the real deal. I am inclined to think it is this performance. The Steelers were able to hold the Vegas Raiders to 26 points which kept them in the game. Like I said last week, the Bill’s performance was a testament to the Steeler’s defense. Now, I’m not saying you can expect 35 from the Bills each week, but they ought to do better than 16 like last week. And I am genuinely concerned about Allen’s accuracy and turnovers thus far. But I think he is going to continue to improve throughout the season.
Patriots 25 @ Jets 6 Jets Reaction: Zach Wilson is in major trouble. It was a long day for rookie QB Zach Wilson. He dropped back to throw 33 times and completed 19 times. While he did get 210 yards on those 19 completions, he had zero touchdowns and an astounding FOUR interceptions. So yeah, not a good day for the young rookie. This performance comes on the heels of a 14-19 loss to the Carolina Panthers, in which he had a 54% completion percentage on 37 attempts. In that game, he had two TDs and only one INT, so it was significantly better. The last Jet’s QB to have a four-interception game was Sam Darnold, now in Carolina. His replacement, of course, was Wilson. Not an Overreaction: I want to be upfront here; I have never believed in Wilson, and I have been skeptical of him
as a franchise-saving QB, and I was against the Jets as the number two pick in the draft. I’m just letting you know because that genuinely could be coloring my opinion. But if I had to pick a QB in this draft class that was a bust, it would be Wilson. In defense of the guy, he is playing for the Jets. As Sam Darnold proves, you likely aren’t seeing a QB’s full potential in New York: They simply don’t have enough to support a young rookie QB. Trevor Lawrence corrected his errors from his game one performance, and Wilson seemed to worsen. I could be wrong considering that Wilson is playing the Patriots, and I have been saying all offseason that the Pats could have the best defense in the league. But I think this performance is indicative of a more significant problem.
Vikings 33 @ Cardinals 34 Cardinals’ Reaction: Kyler Murray continued his MVP caliber campaign. Last week, after Murray dominated the Titans, I said the idea that he could be the MVP was not an overreaction. This week, Murray proved me correct. Murray completed 29/36 passes, which is incredibly good! He also had 400 passing yards and three touchdowns. He was sacked three times and threw two interceptions but made for it with his 31 rushing yards and touchdown. I have been impressed with Murray so far in the season, and I do not think he will slow down anytime soon. He is simply incredible, and I think after last night’s Chiefs-Ravens game, better than Lamar. This season, he will be tested, seeing that he has to play both the Rams and the 49ers twice. The first matchup against the Rams comes in week 4, and the 49ers in week 5. If he plays well in those games, he should emerge as the MVP frontrunner. Contact Tom Zwiller at tzwiller@hcc-nd.edu The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
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You’ll see me in hindsight / Tangled up with you all night / Burnin’ it down / Someday when you leave me / I bet these memories / Follow you around / Say you’ll remember me standing in a nice dress / Staring at the sunset,
babe / Red lips and rosy cheeks / Say you’ll see me again / Even if it’s just pretend / He’s so tall and handsome as hell / He’s so bad but he does it so well / And when we’ve had our very last kiss / My last request is. . .
DAILY
ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | The Observer
Crossword | Will Shortz
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Horoscope | Eugenia Last Happy Birthday: Assess your life. Develop a plan to improve your mind, body and soul. The decisions you make will encourage you to follow your heart and achieve personal and spiritual growth. It’s time to put yourself first and to take responsibility for your happiness. Let go of the past, live in the moment and pursue a brighter future. Your numbers are 9, 15, 22, 31, 33, 38, 49. ARIES (March 21-April 19): Speak up, gather facts and armor yourself with information that will enable you to make sound decisions. Push others to reveal secrets that will give you the inside scoop regarding something you are considering. Knowledge will give you the power to succeed. TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Indulge in something that brings you joy. All work and no play won’t satisfy your needs. Get responsibilities out of the way quickly and make plans with someone you love. A personal change will lead to new possibilities. Romance is favored. GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Refuse to let emotional manipulation interfere with your plans. Focus on what you can do and what’s best for you. Keep an open mind, a practical point of view, and put your time and effort where they bring the highest returns. CANCER ( June 21-July 22): Look at the logistics of what you are considering. Getting involved in something for the wrong reason won’t help you get ahead. If you want to change, do something that reflects who you are and what you want. Romance is featured. LEO ( July 23-Aug. 22): Address money matters before you agree to a joint venture. Take a pass if the cost is not within budget or reasonable. Making unnecessary changes will set you back. Focus on what’s important to you, not pleasing others. Avoid undue stress. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Take the plunge by trying something different, new and exciting. An adventure will get you thinking about the past and help you make better decisions moving forward. A romantic gesture will encourage you to be forthcoming about the way you feel. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Spend more time at home and less galivanting or spending unnecessarily. Take pride in what you know and how you use your intelligence to add stability to your life. Roll up your sleeves and put some muscle into home improvements. SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): A cozy environment will add to your peace of mind. Keep life simple, be moderate and spend time with people who put a smile on your face. Take responsibility for your happiness, and you’ll ease stress. Romance is encouraged. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): Take a pass if someone tries to manipulate you. Prepare to head in a direction that offers mental stimulation and the chance to grow personally or spiritually. Use your intelligence to overcome emotional interference, temptation and loss. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): An offer will deserve your time and effort. A change at home will be a life-altering experience that will encourage you to do things differently. A skill you have used uniquely will bring in unexpected cash flow. Romance is favored. AQUARIUS ( Jan. 20-Feb. 18): Look inward and consider what you can do to improve the way you look and feel. Getting into a routine that encourages fitness, diet and a healthy lifestyle will give you the energy you need to perform at your optimum level. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): You are overdue for a change. Update your look. Change the way you approach work, handle your money and what you do with your downtime. You will discover a lifestyle that makes you happy. Romance is favored. Birthday Baby: You are kindhearted, open-minded and benevolent. You are unique and trendy.
Sudoku | The Mepham Group
Jumble | David Hoyt and Jeff knurek
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The observer | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
Hamilton Continued from page 12
Irish stood up to an explosive Purdue offense exceptionally well, allowing the Boilermakers to reach the end zone on only one occasion. In his post-game inter v iew, Hamilton made it know n that he is not the only member of the Irish defense that deser ves credit. “Guys like [senior safet y] DJ Brow n really stepped up, [senior cornerback] TaRiq [Bracy], [sophomore cornerback] Ramon Henderson, really ever ybody on the back end was just really tight today,” Hamilton said. “Didn’t really give up too many big plays, attacked the ball when we needed to. I think that just goes to show how deep we are as a secondar y and as a whole defense — I mean there’s a couple guys who get a lot of the praise on defense but I feel like we’re really strong as a unit.” Hamilton was able to make plent y of plays that changed the dy namic of the game, like pinning
the Boilermakers perfectly on their ow n one-yard line on special teams early in the fourth quarter. But Hamilton put the game on ice w ith just over t wo minutes remaining. The Boilermakers had gotten inside the Irish 15 when Purdue’s junior quarterback Jack Plummer dropped back on second dow n, eyeing the goal line. He fired a bullet to his tight end in the end zone, but the ball bounced off the intended receiver’s hands. Hamilton jumped up from the turf w ith his third interception of the season in hand and epic celebration already in motion. Hamilton made the play that defined the game for the Irish, but the support the rest of the Irish defense lent him was the best we’ve seen this season. DJ Brow n pulled dow n an interception a few drives later to really put the game on ice. Graduate student defensive end My ron Tagovailoa-Amosa and junior defensive lineman Isaiah Foskey combined on a big sack that built some Irish
momentum early on in the fourth quarter. And, while they may not have stuffed the stat sheets, players like junior defensive end Nana OsafoMensah, senior defensive tack le Jayson Ademilola and junior cornerback Cam Hart all contributed plays that, had they not been made, might have made this matchup against the Boilermakers a different stor y. With this new found sense of securit y on defense and an Irish w in, Hamilton w ill be satisfied for the time being. Even his head coach, Brian Kelly refused to sell his star safet y short of the praise he believes he deser ves. “I would pay to watch him play,” Kelly said of Hamilton after the game. In this new era of NIL, the star safet y w ith the same last name as the first United States Secretar y of the Treasur y would be remiss not to hold his coach, w ith fairly deep pockets of his ow n, to his word. Contact Jimmy Ward at wward@hcc-nd.edu Paid Advertisement
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traveling down to South Beach to face off against Miami. The Irish will face a gauntlet of an ACC schedule going forward with the conference having four
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contest was as close as the one goal scoreline indicated. Still, the Dowd and the Irish defense held strong and came out with a clean sheet. The match did finish with a flourish of action, as some lastgasp time-wasting efforts by Notre Dame as the final seconds ticked off the clock were not taken kindly to by the Wolfpack squad. This led to a small confrontation after the final whistle. But ultimately, aside from some general trash talk lobbed in both directions, there was little actual fighting that occurred in the ensuing post-match cluster. Notre Dame will now hit the road for their third Big Ten showdown of the season, as they head up to Ann Arbor on Tuesday to square off with the Wolverines. The Blue and Yellow are 3-3-1 on the year, but similar to the Irish, their record is somewhat deceiving. Like Notre Dame, Michigan loaded up their schedule with
teams currently ranked in the top 10. Those four are Florida State at No. 1, North Carolina at No. 2, Duke at No. 4 and Virginia at No. 7. In their most immediate game, though, the Irish take on U Miami. The Canes take home-field advantage on Sept. 23 at 5 p.m.
ranked matchups to test their side, and their three losses have all come to top twenty-five opponents (0-1 to No. 24 Duke, 0-1 to No. 12 New Hampshire, 1-2 to No. 8 Maryland). Leading the Wolverines will be their towering 6-foot-6 center back Jackson Ragen, who already has posted five goals on the season in just seven games. A dominating force in the air, Ragen will likely give the Notre Dame defense all they can handle on set pieces. Graduate student Marc Ybarra and senior Kevin Buca should also factor in as key pieces in the Michigan midfield, with the former posting two goals and six assists and the latter three goals and three assists on the season. Freshman forward Matthew Roou will lead the way for the Irish attack, as the team’s leading scorer with three goals. Catch the Irish taking on the Wolverines on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in what will be Notre Dame’s final power five out of conference match of the season. The match will be broadcasted on ESPNU.
Sports
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half, he was the leading receiver in yardage, gaining 43 of the 107 passing yards. Coan however, was sacked later in the quarter as well. Tight end Michael Mayer recovered the ball, but it was not enough to put the Irish in a place to score. Jay Bramblett was utilized fairly regularly in the quarter. Several players on the defense had big plays early on. Hamilton took down junior wide receiver Milton Wright when the Boilermakers faced fourth and one, ending a drive before Purdue could get close enough to the end zone. After the offense retook the field and Coan threw a 19 yard pass to Davis, freshman Tyler Buchner stepped in at quarterback. He immediately got his legs going, pushing past defenders to gain five yards on his first attempt. Notre Dame quickly made up for not having scored in the first quarter. There was a collective gasp of excitement in the stadium on a 4th and 3 attempt when Williams realized he had a wide-open field in-front of him after catching a slant. Coan fired the ball into such a narrow window that it forced the Boilermaker defenders to collide and let Williams escape.
ndsmcobserver.com | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | The Observer
He easily made his way into the end zone for the first Irish touchdown of the day. Buchner continued to impress with his agility and speed. He maneuvered his way through defenders to gain 20 rushing yards, setting the Irish up for a potential scoring drive. After another sack against the graduate student quarterback, Coan found Davis for a 16 yard gain. Despite Austin, Jr. being available, Coan’s passes continued to just overshoot him. Graduate student kicker Jonathan Doerer instead nailed a 28 yard field goal, putting the Irish ahead 10-3. By the end of the half, Notre Dame had gained 151 yards, compared to Purdue’s 97. Doerer started the second half kicking off at the 20 to account for an Irish penalty that was called at the end of the first. On Purdue’s first drive, the Irish got the stop, and the Boilermakers were again forced to settle for a field goal (10-6). Another audible crowd moment happened when Mayer was slammed by a defender, causing him to take a moment in getting up. However, despite getting the wind knocked out of him, he quickly rebounded, and soon after Coan found Davis again for a third down, 62-yard passing touchdown to extend the Irish lead to 17-6.
The Boilermakers responded in kind; despite getting stopped on an important third down, Purdue took it to the end zone to make it 17-13. When another attempt at a touchdown went awry for Notre Dame, Doerer’s field goal attempt was good to make the score 20-13. A tough moment for the Irish came when Coan found Lenzy for a what would have been a wide open touchdown pass, but the senior dropped it, pausing to put his head in his hands. To add salt to the wound, Coan was sacked on the next play. When the Irish punted however, there was a perfect pin by the Kyle Hamilton to set up Purdue at their own one yard line. The centerpiece of the night, however, was a one play, 11 second, 51 yard rushing touchdown from Williams (27-13). He shot out of the line, continuing to dodge Boilermakers until he galloped into the end zone. Coming off of this high, the defense took the field with renewed enthusiasm. However, on a Hamilton hit, Purdue junior wide receiver David Bell was floored, taking nearly ten minutes to make it off the field. He walked to a cart that took him off, seeming in okay condition as the stadium fell silent. Despite a challenge on a first down call, a final pick from Hamilton sealed Purdue’s fate, Paid Advertisement
and the Irish took home the win. They did not give up a point for the final 22 minutes of the game, a drastic change from their play the past couple weeks. Irish head coach Brian Kelly commented on the play of his defense play in his postgame interview. “I thought we executed better,” Kelly said. “I thought we tackled better. Not great, but better. We still have to continue to leverage the ball a little bit better.” The defense focused on finishing strong, and that clearly translated to the field against Purdue. Kelly also mentioned that the offense saw some improvement, especially with regards to the dual-quarterback method and not having major players like Mayer and Austin Jr. to lean on as much. “I think the good thing is we have diversity on the offense relative to the way it’s set up. If you’re trying to take Mike [Mayer] away, we can get the ball to other players. I thought we did,” Kelly said. “I thought Tommy [Rees] did a great job of finding ways that brought a lot of pressure. It was a chess match, and I thought Tommy did a great job of figuring it out and finding where we could get some matchups. So, yeah, there are enough guys to go around that we can still be a really good
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offense if you take Mike Mayer away.” On the quarterback situation specifically, Kelly reaffirmed that Buchner is their strategy when the team gets locked up. The reason he did not see the field later in the game was due to the fact that he had a tight hamstring, and as a runner, they did not want to risk any injury with him. With this win, Kelly ties Knute Rockne as the winningest head coach in Notre Dame history with 105 victories. Though this is a momentous achievement for him, Kelly acknowledged that he could not have gotten to this moment alone. “Consistency, leadership, alignment, all these things have to come together to get to this point,” Kelly said. He also compared his career to those of the coaches of rival USC, and how it is this consistency that put him in this record-breaking position. “This is not to smear them at all,” Kelly said. “I’m just saying it requires consistency to get to these marks. We have it with our leadership, our athletic director, and we’ve had it in the coaching because we have alignment. And because of that, that’s helped a lot in being consistent and winning football games.” Contact Emily DeFazio at edefazio@nd.edu
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The observer | MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2021 | ndsmcobserver.com
WOMEN’S SOCCER
MEN’S Soccer
Squad takes down Syracuse 4-0 at home Observer Sports Staff
The Notre Dame women’s soccer team (7-1-1) shined on Saturday night in their ACC opener, beating the Syracuse Orange (4-3-1) by a demanding 4-0 score at Alumni Stadium. The Irish dominated the game from start to finish and outshot the Orange 27-1 in the game. The Irish also did a great job of keeping possession throughout the game and putting pressure on the Orange in their defending (Irish attacking) third of the field. The Irish drew first blood early in the one with graduate student midfielder Sammi Fisher scoring for the Irish in the seventh minute. Fisher was assisted on a cross by defender Katie Coyle, who sent the ball in near the penalty marker. Fisher scored off of a volley that went off the post and in. Fisher is the leading scorer for the Irish on the season. The Irish would strike again in the 37th minute of the game to double their lead. This goal was created with junior
Irish beat NC 1-0, prep for Michigan showdown
defender Waniya Hudson sending a perfect ball into the box to junior forward Audrey Weiss. Weiss then headed the ball to junior forward Kiki Van Zanten who sent the ball past the keeper. That goal was good for Van Zanten’s second of the season. The Irish would take a 2-0 lead into halftime. Katie Coyle added another goal for the Irish in the 60th minute to make the lead that much more comfortable for the Irish. Coyle’s goal came after winning a 50-50 ball against an Orange defender. She then sprinted past another defender and pushed it past Syracuse’s keeper to take a 3-0 lead. The Irish would tack on another goal later in the game with freshman Sophia Fisher taking advantage of a failed Syracuse clearance. Fisher was on the edge of the box and struck the ball beautifully, sending the ball past a diving keeper. The Irish will be in search of ACC win number two next Thursday with the team see W SOCCER PAGE 10
Observer Sports Staff
RYAN VIGILANTE | The Observer
Irish senior forward Jack Lynn pushes through two Spartan defenders during Notre Dame’s home loss to Michigan State 3-4.
Football
see M SOCCER PAGE 10
FOOTBALL
Hamilton shines out but gives credit to teammates
ND improves in win over Purdue
By JIMMY WARD
By EMILY DeFAZIO
Associate Sports Editor
Associate Sports Editor
On a day that saw few offensive fireworks, a Notre Dame defense that spent most of the day bending but not breaking deser ves a large share of the credit for the Irish w in over Purdue. That defense had a vast array of contributors, but junior safet y Kyle Hamilton sealed the w in for the Irish on Saturday. The free safet y played like a free safet y, allow ing the defense in front of him to play freely and cleaning up any of their mistakes. Hamilton combined w ith junior linebacker JD Bertrand for 22 total tack les accounting for a quarter of the 86 Irish tack les on the day. The
The Irish were in for a battle against Purdue from the very beginning of the game on Saturday. The matchup went on to be one filled with statement plays rather than steady progression on either side. The Irish didn’t have a scoring drive for the entirety of the first quarter. Graduate student quarterback Jack Coan was sacked immediately on the first play of the game, and the loss of nine yards set the tone for the quarter that lay ahead. Though there were some good throws from Coan, a decent amount of his passes were incomplete. Running back Kyren Williams had a few carries, but the attempts ultimately proved futile until quarter two. Instead, it was the Irish defense that made an impact. Unlike during the game against Toledo — which was full of longer runs by the Rockets — there were always defenders on hand
see HAMILTON PAGE 10
Friday night Notre Dame men’s soccer picked up their first conference victory, taking down the North Carolina State Wolfpack 1-0 at Alumni Stadium. It was a tense match, with both teams splitting possession and each getting a fair share of chances to take the lead. But it was the Irish who buried their last chance when it mattered most, with graduate student forward Dawson McCartney receiving sophomore forward Daniel Russo’s pass across the face of the net and firing into the back of the net with a clinical finish. McCartney is now second on the Irish roster with seven points, with two goals and an assist on the year. Notre Dame’s sophomore goalkeeper Bryan Dowd was only forced into one save on the day, but the Irish net and defense were kept plenty busy by North Carolina State’s attack squad. Led by junior forward Kuda Muskwe, who took a team-high three shots and NC State’s only shot on goal, the Wolfpack made sure the general
MAX PETROSKY | The Observer
Irish junior safety Kyle Hamilton celebrates his interception with teammates JD Bertrand, Houston Griffith and Clarence Lewis.
after a Purdue pass to shut down the play at the earliest opportunity. The combination of junior linebacker JD Bertrand, graduate student defensive end Myron Tagovailoa-Amosa, and graduate student mike linebacker Drew White proved effective for the Irish, with all three posting tackles to halt the Boilermakers advance. Junior safety Kyle Hamilton was also a force to be reckoned with; in his first drive on the field, he nearly caught the opening interception of the day. Though the ball slipped through his fingers, he still broke up the play, and Purdue was forced to make a field goal attempt to put them ahead 3-0. Graduate student wide receiver Avery Davis had a career day, proving himself to be a consistent option for Coan. With usual targets like senior Kevin Austin, Jr. tied down, Davis became instrumental in the offensive play. In the first see FOOTBALL PAGE 11
