The Tufts Daily - Tuesday, October 30, 2018

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Jonah Hill’s ‘Mid90s’ grinds on teen struggles, rebellion see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

FIELD HOCKEY

Tufts advances to NESCAC semifinals

Wild and free: ‘Studio 54’ explores rise and fall of New York icon see ARTS&LIVING / PAGE 4

SEE SPORTS / BACK PAGE

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VOLUME LXXVI, ISSUE 37

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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

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Tufts’ Jewish community grapples with anti-Semitism at Tree of Life memorial service by Daniel Nelson

Executive News Editor

Mourners poured into the Granoff Family Hillel Center Monday to remember the lives of the 11 Jews murdered during Saturday’s mass shooting at the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh, Pa. The attack was the deadliest single targeted act of anti-Semitism ever committed on American soil, according to the Anti-Defamation League, and of a violent nature that American Jews have grown accustomed to hearing out of France or Germany — but not the modern United States. Its aftermath sent pangs of fear, shock and uncertainty through the American Jewish community, and Tufts was no exception. Rabbi Dr. Naftali Brawer, Tufts’ Jewish Chaplain, led the late-afternoon ceremony. He opened with a reflection upon life, which, like the yahrzeit candles he invited students to light for the victims, he said can be whisked away in a single moment. “When we light a candle in memory of those who passed on, it’s a meditation on the fragility and the beauty of human life,” Brawer said. “In some ways, it invites us to mourn the life that has been extinguished and to cherish the life all around us.” Brawer explained that he learned about the attack after sundown Saturday, once Shabbat, a day of rest on which observant Jews abstain from electronics, had concluded. He and the

other members of the Tufts chaplaincy quickly began to coordinate a response. “We wanted to do something that would honor the memory of those who were murdered and bring comfort to the community,” Brawer said. Part of that effort came through a Sunday night vigil hosted by the Chaplaincy in the Goddard Chapel, according to University Chaplain Reverend Greg McGonigle. Brawer and Rabbi Tzvi Backman, director of the Rohr Chabad House serving Tufts, organized Monday’s memorial service. Backman grew up in Squirrel Hill, the neighborhood where the Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation is located. He retains close ties to the area through his mother, who still lives there, and his daughter, who attends a nearby yeshiva high school. “Her high school building is just a few blocks from where this all happened,” Backman said. “It struck very close to home.” Backman also described the emotional toll that Saturday’s shooting had on his mother. “I spoke to my mother yesterday and she said to me she’s getting calls — people wanting to know if she’s okay,” Backman said. “She said, ‘Well, I’m alive, but I’m not okay.’” Backman said that Pittsburgh is a closeknit community where neighbors look out for one another and where Jews can go to synagogue and pray without fear of persecution or retaliation. He lamented the loss of that sense of security.

Former representative, Tufts alumna discuss guns, politics

by Noah Shamus Staff Writer

community at Tufts, and we stand against the anti-Semitic hate that fueled this tragedy. I urge all members of the Tufts community to remain committed to working toward positive change that prevents further incidents of violence targeting any identity group.” Reverend Greg McGonigle told the Daily in an email that the Chaplaincy, which coordinated the Sunday vigil, is fearful of the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the United States. “We were devastated to hear of this unspeakable attack against the Jewish community,” McGonigle wrote. “It is the latest in a series of anti-Semitic rhetoric and actions in this country and the latest deadly hate crime targeting a house of worship—a place of holiness, safety, refuge, and community.” The service concluded with a reading of the names of the dead by Rabbinic Fellow Ilana Zietman: Joyce Fienberg, 75 Richard Gottfried, 65 Rose Mallinger, 97 Jerry Rabinowitz, 66 Cecil Rosenthal, 59 David Rosenthal, 54 Bernice Simon, 84 Sylvan Simon, 86 Daniel Stein, 71 Melvin Wax, 88 Irving Younger, 69

by Natasha Mayor

tumor. The most common cause of death for almost all breeds of dogs is cancer.” Clinical Trials Veterinary Technician and Coordinator Diane Welsh said many of the medicines used on dogs are the same ones that are used for humans. She explained the benefits of testing cancer treatments in dogs as opposed to artificially infecting rats with cancer in a laboratory. “[The cancer] is naturally occurring in the dogs, the same way it would naturally occur in a human,” Welsh said. “We’re trying these new therapies out to see if it’s going to work, and then if it does work in the dog population, there’s hope that it would then translate to the human side and be as effective.” Welsh said that patients are often referred to the Clinical Trials Office as a result of emergency room visits, regular oncology appointments or by learning

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Former Rep. Steve Israel, author of “Big Guns,” a satirical critique of America’s gun lobby, poses for a portrait. see GUN CONTROL, page 2

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First-year student Sophia Friedman then led attendees in a recitation of Kaddish.

Cummings clinical trials test canine cancer treatments News Editor

Former Representative Steve Israel and Sarah Ullman (LA ’10), co-founder of the super PAC One Vote at a Time, discussed issues surrounding gun control and how to inspire change at a Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life-sponsored event at 50 Milk St. a small venue in downtown Boston. Israel, a former chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, House Democrats’ fundraising arm, is currently a Tisch College visiting fellow. His satirical take on the gun lobby in his new book, “Big Guns: A Novel,” was scheduled to be the focus of the event. However, much of the discussion centered on America’s current political climate. Lurking over the event were the recent events that took place in Pittsburgh on Saturday. Alan Solomont, dean of Tisch

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“All of the sudden, a senseless act of hatred. All of the sudden, when we walk out of our homes and we go to a space that is safe and comforting and uplifting — and now we think twice,” Backman said. He offered tradition — from the hanging of a mezuzah on a doorpost to the lighting of a candle on Friday night, Shabbat — as a means for Jews to remain resilient. A sense of deep solidarity also flowed through the service. Rabbi Jordan Braunig, director of Tufts Hillel’s Initiative for Innovative Community Building, told the crowd that all of the university’s religious community stands behind those of Jewish faith. “When parents come in with a high schooler and [ask] about anti-Semitism on campus, I’d like to show them this picture,” Braunig said, motioning to the standing-room-only crowd. “I’d like to show them the messages that I’ve received from Muslim students, from Christian students, from Buddhist students, humanist students — this is what it is to feel like someone has your back.” University President Anthony Monaco attended the ceremony. He expressed the university’s solidarity in an email statement to the Daily, in which he called upon Tufts to fight back against identity-based hatred. “It’s heartbreaking to see families and communities torn apart yet again by the hatred and violence of a mass shooting,” Monaco wrote. “We stand with our Jewish

The Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University is running a number of clinical trials on oncology patients, according to Clinical Trials Director and Research Professor Cheryl London. According to London, dogs are the primary patients. She said that many of the trials are focused on dogs not only because they experience a wide variety of cancers, but also because those illnesses are closely related to human cancers. She said the trials are also focused on dogs simply because the veterinarians know much more about cancers in dogs than in other species. “The actual annual incidence rate is higher in dogs than it is in people,” London said. “Generally, one in four dogs over their lifetime will get cancer, and then if they live beyond 10, at least half of them will get some kind of

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Tuesday, October 30, 2018

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Clinical trials center delivers twice for local dog owner

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Sean Ong Caleb Symons Managing Editors Alexis Serino Associate Editor Daniel Nelson Executive News Editor Jessica Blough News Editors Connor Dale Charlie Driver Jenna Fleischer Juliana Furgala Kat Grellman Liza Harris Zachary Hertz Gil Jacobson Anar Kansara Liam Knox Natasha Mayor Cathy Perloff Minna Trinh Hannah Uebele Shantel Bartolome Assistant News Editors Austin Clementi Conor Friedmann Abbie Gruskin Noah Richter

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Veterinary nurses Stephanie Pollen and Michelle Willette look after Angus, a dog diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma and now participating in the ART 207 clinical trial, at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine on Oct. 26.

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about the trials elsewhere and directly inquiring. London explained that for a patient to participate in the trial, the first steps would be to determine their eligibility and to obtain the consent from the owner. She said that each trial is different, with some involving actual treatment and others just involving data collection. Dog owner Rachel Mangan had a dog named Saoirse who had an inoperable laryngeal pharyngeal squamous cell tumor and participated in a clinical trial. She explained that Saoirse was given Palladia, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor, in advance of her chemotherapy and was also prescribed a blinded drug to help with her gastrointestinal issues. Because the trial was blinded, meaning the patient did not know the test information, Mangan did not initially know what the medicine was. It turned out to be so effective that Saoirse continued using it after the trial ended. “[Saoirse] made it 19 months, which was unbelievable, unprecedented, and we were so

excited to have her around. She did really well for significantly longer than they anticipated,” Mangan said. Mangan’s other dog Angus was recently diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma in his toe and has just begun a clinical trial. She said she was informed about the clinical trial options last week and within a couple of days Angus began receiving ART 207 treatment. Mangan said for her, signing up for the trials was an easy decision on both occasions. She said the trials would not only potentially help her dogs but could also help other dogs in the future. “It was almost a no-brainer for me,” Mangan said. “The way I think about it, if obviously the treatment wasn’t working and if you have something that could potentially make a difference in our family’s lives and for Gus … it matters.” Through the lens of One Health, an initiative to encourage global collaborations between different health-based scientific disciplines for the planet and its inhabitants, London said these trials could have meaningful implications on human cancer treatment research. London also said collaboration and teamwork are important in these attempts to fight cancer.

“One Health is the notion that diseases in animals and humans are all connected and that we can really facilitate improving the health and welfare of animals, people and the planet by working together,” she said. She explained that although biology can seem messy and uncorrelated between species, there are actually many connections that people can observe and learn from. “Many of the relevant and important pathways are conserved through both plants and animals,” London said. “If you can do something called comparative medicine, where you compare diseases and therapies across species … maybe you can gain a better understanding of what’s important and what’s really not relevant.” Welsh explained that the majority of the funding for the clinical trials comes from sponsors and from grants. She said there is typically little or no cost to the pet owners who opt into the trials. “This is really exciting work,” Welsh said. “If we can help our pet population, as well, then translate it into the human population, we can find cures for cancer or something to help slow the process down.”

Former representative discusses power of youth vote GUN CONTROL

continued from page 1 College, explained that it was both “ironic and fitting that we are here for this subject.” Julie Dobrow, a senior fellow at Tisch College and the moderator for the event, explained that in the past year, in the United States alone, over 2,300 teenagers had been killed or injured by gun violence. Dobrow, who is also a senior lecturer in Eliot-Pearson Department of Child Study and Human Development, explained the need for a new approach to gun violence. Israel first explained why he entered public office. “I entered elected life because that’s how I believed I can serve my community,” Israel said. “I entered Congress because that’s how I believed I could help my country.” Israel then pointed to the “52 mass shootings in my 16 years of Congress,” saying “I realized I couldn’t really fix [gun violence].” The former congressman touched on a starker reality and said that he turns to satire to make a positive impact.

“I would never be able to write a law that would right this wrong,” he said. “I instead choose to make satire to change the narrative of this debate. Satire brings you into the debate. It makes you think in a subtle and nuanced way. Who really made us examine the ills of slavery? Mark Twain through satire,” Israel said. Dobrow focused on Ullman’s work. Ullman’s super PAC has a connection with film directors to produce high-quality campaign videos at low costs. “We saw an absence of quality video for candidates who are on the state or local levels,” Ullman said. “When a candidate has a good quality video, they are taken more seriously.” Ullman screened an ad her super PAC made for Robyn Vining’s campaign for Wisconsin State Assembly, explaining her work. She explained that it would cost $30,000 to make such a video, a price for a field director, according to Ullman. “Operating in 10 states, [having] 570 videos made, making sure we are complying with election law is complex,” she

said. “We are just trying to get people to feel something.” She said the purpose of the super PAC is to inspire people. “[The objective is] not necessarily to educate, but to motivate.” Israel said that liberal voters often overlook their representatives’ track record on gun control legislation and blindly support their broad progressive platform. “I’ll tell you, progressives … can have a member of Congress who will vote against you on background checks, on no fly no buy, vote against you on cop-killing bullets, they will vote against you to allow cop killing bullets, they’ll vote against you on every issue of concern to you with respect to guns. But you’re still going to vote for that person because they are [pro-choice],” he said. “Progressives are too forgiving on this issue.” Israel added that hope remains, citing youth turnout in the protests following the Parkland shooting. He said that young kids, even though they cannot vote, can push their parents to cast a more progressive vote.


Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Features

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Henry Stevens The Weekly Chirp

P

Parasitism

ut simply, babies are parasites. Don’t believe me? Just look at your own life. For your nine months as a fetus, you sat inside your mom literally doing nothing, not to mention the fact that you were connected to her via an umbilical cord siphoning away all her nutrients. Then you were finally born, but you were still taking your mom’s nutrients because she had to produce all that milk that you sucked out of her chest. And you cried, puked and pooped yourself and didn’t even say thank you. Then you were a kid going to school, and you just used up your parents’ time and money in the form of rides to school and keeping your lunchbox full. Now you’re a big adult, except your parents may still pay for your college tuition, which in this day and age, might be even worse than all those previous things combined. What’s my point? Raising kids is damn difficult. And that’s why some birds just avoid it all together. Brood parasites are birds that lay their eggs in the nests of other species rather than building their own. Evolutionarily speaking, it is an absolutely genius strategy. Why waste time and energy incubating and feeding newborn babies when you could just have some other bird do it for you? Imagine if your mom had just dropped you off at some other lady’s house and that other lady raised you. Then your mom would have effectively succeeded in passing her genetic material to the next generation while expending zero energy in the process. This is exactly what female birds like the brown-headed cowbird do every breeding season following an easy, three-step process: Find a nest, lay the egg(s) and let the offspring outcompete the other babies. Many people hear this and think, “Why doesn’t the host mom get rid of the egg from the brood parasite?” Well, it’s complicated. Some host species are stupid and simply cannot discern the difference between their own egg and the parasite egg. Sometimes, the parasite eggs look so similar to the host eggs that it’s difficult for even the most astute of host parents to differentiate between them. And other species know there’s a parasite egg in their nest, but they just accept it. Some brood parasites will destroy a host nest if they dispose of the parasite egg, and as a result, host species have adapted to simply accepting the parasite eggs because that’s better than having no offspring at all. Once the eggs have hatched, it can get ugly. Many parasite nestlings instinctually murder all the other nestlings in the nest so that they can claim every morsel of food brought to them by the host mom. Even when these mini-massacres occur, the host mom still brings the parasite nestling food — that’s what their motherly instinct drives them to do! Though brood parasitism may be exceptional biologically speaking, it’s terribly depressing from an emotional perspective. Imagine those baby cowbirds growing up without parents. They probably never feel love … And I bet you some of those mama cowbirds wonder if there are more to babies than just plain-old energy depletion. Love, Henry Henry Stevens is a senior studying biology. He can be reached at henry.stevens@tufts. edu. Interested in birds? Email Henry at tuftsornithologicalsociety@gmail.com.


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ARTS & LIVING

James Ray The Starving Aesthete

I

Escaping with the tube

n the rare moments of self-reflection I eke out between bouts of screaming and flower arranging, I find myself puzzled by the fact that I continue to play video games. I generally take it for granted that, in any given week, I’m going to spend at least 10 or 12 hours chipping away at a set of tasks that don’t really matter in a world that doesn’t really exist. But I’ve never really figured out whether something insidious lurks beneath those pixels. I’m no luddite, however; if a majority of people spend a huge chunk of their time staring into screens, I’m inclined to assume they have a good reason to do so. It seems to me that one giant principle behind media in general, and video games to a greater extent, is ego deletion. When you play a game or watch a movie, you give up your goals, surroundings and even your sense of self, and through the exercise of your empathy you substitute in a set of fictional priorities. This is typically called escapism, but it’s only escapism in the substantive sense; you don’t obviate yourself of desire, you just attune yourself to a different bandwidth of it. There’s no change to the form of your thought, only the content. We can conclude from this that, as media consumption rises, people en masse have become less satisfied with their lives. To be human is to experience desire, or so says the Buddha anyway. The experience and fulfillment of desire are the fundamentals of human identity — who you are is conditioned by what you want and whether you have it. So, when I play video games, or you watch “Parks and Recreation” (2009–15), we’re not so much expressing a curiosity about the content of those things as much as a desire to be, for a while, different people. Ultimately, then, it seems to me that the trouble with media escapism only really reveals itself in aggregate. If you imagine for a moment a world in which stories and all their derivative forms don’t exist, you imagine a world in which everyone is tremendously bored. Bored enough, perhaps, to do something interesting with their lives. However, the human mind can only bear a certain amount of lived experience before it starts to snap. And if this means the choice is between a world of extremely motivated lunatics and the relative placidity we live in now — I think I’d prefer to avoid the choice, honestly. So I’ve resolved that the next time I play video games, I’m going to try to be conscious of exactly what it is I’m doing and exactly what life I’m escaping from. I’m not confident that there will be any answers there, but it never hurts to look. It’s not like I’ve got anything better to do. I’ve just been playing video games all afternoon.

James Ray is a senior studying political science. James can be reached at james_m.ray@tufts.edu.

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

DOCUMENTARY REVIEW

‘Studio 54’ delves into mystique of legendary New York nightclub by Yas Salon

Contributing Writer

Drag queens. Actresses on horses. Quaaludes. Donald Trump. All of these things and other equally eccentric, bizarre and mind-boggling ingredients made up the pure liberating madness that was the notorious experimental discotheque Studio 54, one of the earliest cultural touchstones for LGBTQ Americans. Almost 40 years after the rise and fall of the notoriously exclusive nightclub, director Matt Tyrnauer offers not only an invitation, but a front-row seat to its drama. From its genesis, the club was inherently a performance. Built in an old opera house, the designers of the club consisted of Tony-award winning lighting designers and other members of the theater world. The patrons included the hottest, wildest and most famous members of the New York scene, including Elton John, Andy Warhol and Liza Minnelli, all of whom were no stranger to the limelight. But at the center of this documentary are Studio 54’s co-founders: Ian Schrager and Steve Rubell. Having met at Syracuse University, the two New Yorkers “had an intuitive understanding that they were gonna get out and do something big,” as described by a friend. This prophecy proved a gross understatement of the men’s destinies. Throughout the film, the two men ascend humanity; they become gods in their own subversive Garden of Eden. Schrager is introduced at the outset of the film as he sits for a interview, framed by hundreds of new clippings and artifacts from his days as a co-owner of Studio 54. Rubell, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1989, is present in anecdotes and old video clips. The latter of the two is shown as an untouchable, larger-than-life showboat. The former is a reserved but quietly passionate man. They are depicted as effective counterweights to each other, who, together, created an unstoppably dynamic team. The film chronicles the wild genesis of the club, and through pulsating disco played in the background of interviews and old footage of club-goers,

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Studio 54 in New York, N.Y. is pictured on Aug. 14, 2005. the audience is truly able to immerse itself in the unmitigated debauchery that was a Studio 54 party. We see topless women freely parading themselves on the dance floor, celebrities snorting cocaine and couples engaging in public displays of sex. Tyrnauer does a commendable job putting the chaos in the context of American society; disco represented black and LGBTQ culture, something condemned by the general public at the time. By creating an anything-goes stomping ground, Rubell and Schrager provided escapism and liberation for these groups, a sentiment expressed in interviews with clubgoers. Viewers ride the wave of exhilaration that accompanied the club’s grandiose atmosphere for the first half of the documentary. But, as it does with all shows, the curtain finally fell on Studio 54. Caught in one scandal after another, the club hit rock bottom when the Internal Revenue Service investigated Schrager and Rubell for a multimillion dollar skimming scandal. The film follows the duo as they descend from their godlike pedestals, having been sentenced to 13 months in prison and forced to sell the Studio. Their admissions of the humiliation of not being able to vote or buy property in their post-jail lives pulls the viewer closer to the men behind the myths. However, it is only at the close of “Studio 54” that Schrager and Rubell are demystified and the audience is able to see them as vulnerable human beings.

Rubell returns to the house that he bought with Schrager, leading to an overwhelming sense of melancholy when he fondly recalls his business partner and friend. Even more compelling is the revelation of a side of Rubell that remains unseen until the final 10 minutes of the film. Despite the news reels and recollections that portray him as a wild, untouchable braggart, it is revealed that Schrager, in some facets, was a closely guarded man, capable of fierce tenderness. His brother recounts that he was closeted to his family when he died and that internalized shame caused him to refuse to let the general public know that his death was AIDS-related. “Studio 54” immerses the audience in apt and sensual storytelling and does a particularly good job contextualizing the ascendency and death of the club in the broader background of American culture in the 1970s and ’80s. There are some elements of the documentary that leave more to be desired; present-day interviews from some of the stars that frequented the discotheque would provide viewers with a more familiar perspective on the club. Moreover, given that so much of the film centers around Rubell, further glimpses into his current life would consolidate the demystification that finally comes at the end of the film. In all, “Studio 54” employs a well-executed observational approach and provides an inimitable glimpse into one of the most provocative and grand party cultures to ever grace American society.

MOVIE REVIEW

Jonah Hill gives triumphant directorial debut with ‘Mid90s’ by Sofia Zamboli

Contributing Writer

Skater culture has been popular for so many decades that it may seem passé in 2018. For the kids that are followed in the new film “Mid90s,” Jonah Hill’s directorial debut, skating is a

way of life at the heart of the cultural zeitgeist. Stevie (Sunny Suljic), Fuckshit (Olan Prenatt), Fourth Grade (Ryder McLaughlin), Ray (Na-Kel Smith) and Ruben (Gio Galicia) take to the streets and skate to escape the stress of life at home. Skating becomes their main

outlet and allows them to let go of their difficulties, even if only for a short period, and for some even provide a possible future away from the impoverished neighborhoods of Los Angeles that they come from. Jonah Hill engages the see MID90S, page 5


A rts & L iving

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | Arts & Living | THE TUFTS DAILY

5

‘Mid90s’ highlights skating as cross section of teen culture MID90S

continued from page 4 audience with his new film and allows us into the lives of a few kids that might otherwise go unacknowledged by most. The lives of these boys are ruled by bubbling, hormonal testosterone and physical violence, often between Stevie and his older brother Ian (Lucas Hedges). Stevie and Ian fight in the film’s opening scene, and they rarely seem to stop. Yet, he yearns for intimacy with his brother. The camera soon progresses into a montage of Stevie exploring his brother’s room and looking through his records, meticulously ordered hats and t-shirts or magazines. Stevie is clearly a lost, solitary soul. He clearly looks up to the older brother who beats him, even writing down the names of all the music that he listens to when he enters his room. One day, lonely, Stevie wanders the streets of LA and finds a skate shop, where he meets the group of boys that will become his best friends. A coming of age story, Stevie begins to navigate sex, drugs and alcohol as he further befriends these skaters. The group takes him to parties, skate parks and latenight drives. Tempted by all the dangerous exploits of his cool new friends, Stevie begins to spiral. While depicting Stevie’s experience in the new world, Hill also does an exceptional job painting intricate portraits of his supporting cast; none of the other kids’ stories go unnoticed. This friend group is a diverse one: Fuckshit comes from a wealthy part of LA and discusses his summer trips to Paris, but he clearly struggles

with internal issues and drinks heavily because of it. Fourth Grade comes from an extremely poor family and in Ray’s words “can barely afford socks.” Ruben harbors deep anxiety over being rejected from the circle of boys, and Ray struggles to get out of LA and make a career out of skating. Each character has their own unique story within the film, and it is intriguing to see how they all become interwoven as the movie goes on. “Mid90s” would not be the film it is without its exemplary cinematography. The film itself models an amateur skating movie, even becoming one at the end — Fourth Grade films all of the skaters throughout the film and makes a short film, called “Mid90s.” Cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt repeats one consistent shot throughout the film: a sun-enveloped LA street, lined with palm trees. The camera stays in one place, inviting the skaters closer and closer until they whiz by the camera. Here, Blauvelt captures the closeness of the group as they skate down the streets of LA. Some go faster and do tricks and some lag behind, but they skate as a unit and all have smiles on their faces. The film represents the diverse experiences of a particular subculture of youth at a very particular time. Regardless of background, everyone has a passion in life. Everyone has something or somebody they care about. Hill’s directorial debut reminds us that life is not simple, but with the right outlet can become more pleasant and even create opportunities. This story of the friendships that blossoms out of a lonely boy wandering into a skate shop is touching. It will be hard not to leave the theater in tears.

VIA IMDB

A promotional poster for ‘Mid90s,’ written and directed by Jonah Hill, is pictured.


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THE TUFTS DAILY | FUN & GAMES | Tuesday, October 30, 2018

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Monday’s Solution

CORRECTION A previous version of the Oct. 29 article “Men’s soccer suffers shock defeat to Colby, bows out of NESCACs” incorrectly stated the penalties score as 3–1. It was 3–2. The article has been updated to reflect this change. The Daily regrets this error.

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Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Opinion

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OP-ED

Tufts Democrats endorse on Massachusetts ballot questions by Tufts Democrats The Tufts Democrats met to discuss the three ballot questions for Massachusetts last week. The first deals with patient limits for nurses, the second with campaign finance and the third with transgender rights. The following are our endorsements: Question 1: Yes Ballot question 1 limits the number of patients assigned to registered nurses in Massachusetts hospitals, easing the burden on overworked nursing staff and protecting patients. Many members of Tufts Democrats expressed concerns with the potential of patient limits to put additional strain on rural hospitals or exacerbate a nursing shortage. Others were confused

as to why something this technical would be put to public vote. However, our club recognizes the importance of standing up for better working conditions for nurses, as well as demanding increased patient safety. Since implementing patient limits, California has seen better outcomes among poorer patients, as well as increased pay and less burnout for nurses. We also worry that if this ballot measure is defeated, there will not be efforts to address this through legislation with any urgency. For these reasons, we recommend voting “yes” on Question 1. Question 2: Yes Despite having some concerns about the possible ramifications of a constitutional convention, Tufts Democrats believes that the unfettered and untraceable corporate election spend-

ing resulting from Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission drowns out the voices of voters and is corrosive to democracy. We support Massachusetts’ going on the record as opposing Citizens United and putting pressure on politicians to take meaningful action on campaign finance reform. Therefore, we recommend voting “yes” on Question 2, which creates a citizen commission to produce recommendations to eventually pass a constitutional amendment affirming that corporations are not people. Question 3: Yes Tufts Democrats unanimously supports the Yes on 3 campaign to uphold protections for, and prohibit discrimination against, transgender people in public spaces in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. In the Trump era,

which threatens the safety of transgender individuals in this country, people look to Massachusetts for leadership on this issue. Showing dignity and respect for our transgender neighbors is not up for debate or discussion, and we feel strongly that Massachusetts must show its commitment to supporting them. We issue our strongest endorsement of the Yes on 3 campaign. To that end, there will be phone banks happening on campus in support of the Yes on 3 campaign, from 6 to 9 p.m. on Tuesday at the LGBT Center and from 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursday at the Women’s Center. We would ask those who support this campaign to volunteer a few hours before Election Day to make sure it passes. Tufts Democrats can be reached on Facebook at facebook.com/tuftsdems.

before anything else, we’re all human rethink your bias at lovehasnolabels.com

The Tufts Daily is a nonprofit, independent newspaper, published Monday through Friday during the academic year, and distributed free to the Tufts community. The content of letters, advertisements, signed columns, cartoons and graphics does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Tufts Daily editorial board. EDITORIALS Editorials represent the position of The Tufts Daily. Individual editors are not necessarily responsible for, or in agreement with, the policies and editorials of The Tufts Daily. OP-EDS The Op-Ed section of The Tufts Daily, an open forum for campus editorial commentary, is printed Monday through Thursday. The Daily welcomes submissions from all members of the Tufts community; the opinions expressed in the Op-Ed section do not necessarily represent the opinions of the Daily itself. Opinion articles on campus, national and international issues should be 600 to 1,200 words in length and submitted to opinion@tuftsdaily.com. The editors reserve the right to edit letters for clarity, space and length. All material is subject to editorial discretion and is not guaranteed to appear in the Daily. Authors must submit their telephone numbers and day-of availability for editing questions. ADVERTISING All advertising copy is subject to the approval of the Editor-in-Chief, Executive Board and Executive Business Director.


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THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Aneurin Canham-Clyne Red Star

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CARTOON

What socialists want

A

specter is haunting America: the specter of socialism. All of the rulers of America have entered a holy alliance to exorcise this specter: Trump and his fascists, Chuck Schumer and the neoliberals, billionaire ideologues and FBI hacks. In the 2.5 years since Bernie Sanders’ candidacy reintroduced socialism to the American media, the socialist movement has grown dramatically. Socialists have ousted machine Democrats, the Democratic Socialists of America boasts 50,000 members, thousands of antifascists have fought the alt-right in dozens of cities and large strikes and radical unions have breathed some life back into the labor movement. What do the socialists want? To hear the electoral wing tell it, what we want is national health care, a Green New Deal, housing relief, increased benefits and protections for workers and reduced military expenditure. But we want what lies beyond these reforms too: We want economic democracy, we want a systematic program to destroy inequalities based on race and gender. The left wing of American socialism is a revolutionary wing, not content with social democracy and redistribution of wealth through taxation. We want worker ownership of factories, warehouses, dockyards, restaurants, business parks, hospitals and stores. We want popular control of urban planning, publicly directed investment in renewable energy, the closure of oil companies, big banks and health insurance and pharmaceutical companies. We want massive investment in public education and the end of both charter schools and union busting. We want school and residential desegregation. We want human needs and human pain to not be sources of profit. There are other demands, too, more immediate than the transformation of our entire economy: shorter work weeks, higher wages, family leave, rent control, mass public housing, voting rights for prisoners and ex-prisoners and the abolition of prisons. Democracy requires the abolition of the Supreme Court, the Senate, the Electoral College, the end of the two-party system and a new constitution. We aim for workers’ control through legitimate democracy, not rule by the rich — on this the electoral socialists, revolutionaries and trade unionists agree. Socialists want the creation of international institutions to regulate trade and development in a way that doesn’t privilege the developed economies. We also want peace, the withdrawal of American troops from combat theaters, the end of U.S. support for the Saudi siege of Yemen and the Israeli colonization of Palestine. We want a party and government that supports the struggles of workers from Colombia and Brazil to India and the Philippines. Solidarity, not profit, is the heart of socialist foreign policy. It is impossible to build a new world in 500 words. But this list of demands announces the goals of socialism and clarifies that, though we may fight alongside the Democrats, we shall in time outstrip them and bring to birth a just world. I will discuss the socialist view of history and the transformative vision of socialism in my remaining columns. Reality is Marxist, even if you are not. A better world is possible if you’re willing to build it. Aneurin Canham-Clyne is a senior studying history. Aneurin can be reached at aneurin.canham_clyne@tufts.edu.

BY SHANNON GEARY


Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | ADVERTISEMENT | THE TUFTS DAILY

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THE TUFTS DAILY | Sports | Tuesday, October 30, 2018

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Sports

Tuesday, October 30, 2018 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Tufts tops Bowdoin, Amherst to open postseason play FIELD HOCKEY

continued from back page Offense was hard to come by for the remainder of the first half, though, as the Jumbos were only able to get four shots off in the half and only one after Malik’s goal. Their best opportunity to extend the lead in the period came in the 31st minute, when another well-placed corner by Salamone again met the stick of Krikorian, who this time snapped a shot towards goal. However, on this occassion, Amherst senior goalkeeper Katie Savage did not let the shot by her. Luckily for the Jumbos, first-year goalkeeper Andie Stallman and her defensive crew held up their end of the bargain, only allowing two shots in the first half — one missed high and the other was saved by Stallman. The clean sheet was Tufts’ seventh straight first half holding its opponent scoreless. The defense remained sharp in the second half, only allowing one Amherst shot despite a run of convincing penalty cor-

ners in the 53rd minute. Meanwhile, the Jumbos’ offense kicked into gear, getting up 13 shots in the latter period. Their insurance goal wouldn’t come until late in the game, though, when first-year midfielder Claire Foley turned a loose ball into a solo shot into the net five minutes from time to make the score 2–0. “We really wanted to show everyone that we were the No. 2 seed [and] that we are one of the highest ranked teams in the nation,” Malik said. “Amherst got a penalty corner early in our regular season game and scored, so we wanted to make sure that we didn’t let that happen again as well as getting a corner and scoring ourselves within that first five minutes or so.” Meanwhile, the Jumbos’ regular season finale against the Polar Bears was an excellent final test of their abilities heading into the postseason, and the team stepped up to the plate with a 2–1 victory. Krikorian struck early in the first half, sinking an unassisted goal a little over eight minutes into the game.

The rest of the half would go by without an additional score, but not for lack of offense, as multiple shots were saved on both ends in the first 35 minutes. Another unassisted goal by Salamone provided insurance early in the second half, and it came in handy as Bowdoin finally scored through junior forward Emma Stevens in the 66th minute. “It’s funny because I was a little hard on Marguerite Salamone the day before the game about scoring in the post,” coach Tina Mattera said. “Then the next day she did it. I joked with her after the game that I should be hard on her more often. Really though, she’s been a really great player this season so it was nice to see her get the game-winner.” It was too little, too late, though, as Bowdoin was unable to equalize in the final four minutes, securing a 2–1 Tufts victory. While the win didn’t have any implications for Tufts’ NESCAC Tournament seeding, getting a tough victory on the road over a ranked opponent gave the

team a nice boost of confidence heading into postseason play. The semifinals and final of the conference tournament will play out this weekend, as the Jumbos take on the third-seeded Ephs on Saturday. With the top-seeded Middlebury Panthers still in the tournament, the remaining games will be hosted on Kohn Field in Middlebury, Vt. Tufts beat Williams 2–0 in its regular season matchup on Oct. 20, but Williams has responded since that defeat in a big way, recently giving Middlebury its first loss of the season in a resounding 4–2 triumph. “The awesome and terrible thing about the NESCAC is that there are no easy games,” Mattera said. “I really respect Williams as a program and they’re going to be a tough team to beat, but we’re focused on just playing our game because we know we can beat anyone.” The winner between Tufts and Williams will go on to play the winner of Middlebury-Trinity match on Sunday in the NESCAC title game.

Jumbos battle through nor'easter at New England Championship MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY

continued from back page with some runners finishing in wildly different times than anticipated while others unexpectedly claimed top-seven spots. “As you look across results for the meet, a lot of teams’ orders of runners changed dramatically, and different people show up in these high pressure situations that also happen to have bad weather,” Raposo said. Reaney said that he believes the team is determined to keep a positive outlook and to learn from the experience. “I think that yesterday was mostly just a reminder that it’s great that we’ve come this far and we have the potential to succeed,” Reaney said. “But we can’t just assume that it’s going to happen. We need to go out there and make it happen.” Despite the disappointing day, the team remains confident and in good spirits heading into the NCAA regional championship, which will be held on Nov. 10 at Bowdoin in Brunswick, Maine. Raposo said that the team will take important lessons from this race as it prepares for Regionals. “A big part of it is getting focused, knowing what we have to do in two weeks. At the Conn. College Invite a couple weeks ago, we … very much just went and got after it from the gun, and we had five guys in the top 15 for the first two or three miles, [which] was really a big confidence boost for us. Yesterday, we definitely raced a bit more conservatively, trying to let the race pan out,” Raposo said. “I think at Regionals, we’re going to go back to really trying to attack the race and really go at it from the gun. [NESCACs] was very much an off day for us, but truly as a team, we’re not down in the dumps about it … We’re very much on the up-and-up.” Reaney said the Jumbos are hoping for at least fifth place at the NCAA Regionals, which would require beating some of the NESCAC teams that topped them this past weekend, as well as the neighboring MIT Engineers. Reaney said that setting a positive team atmosphere will be a key to the team’s success. “The senior class has talked about this. Our team thrives on positive energy and good vibes,” Reaney said. “So it’s important for us coming off of a meet like NESCACs to not wallow on it [and] instead remember what we’re capable of from the Conn. [College Invite], and move on and just be ready for a great race at Regionals.”

MADELEINE OLIVER / TUFTS CROSS COUNTRY

Senior Andrew Doherty Munro races ahead of the competition at the Purple Valley Classic in Williamstown, Mass. on Sept. 22.


Sports

12 tuftsdaily.com

David Meyer Postgame Press

Tuesday, October 30, 2018

Field hockey begins postseason campaign with win over Amherst

The times, they are a-changin’

I

am tired. I know a lot of baseball fans who are tired. Why are we so tired? Game 3. The third game of this year’s World Series clocked in at an astonishingly long seven hours and 20 minutes. The game was 18 innings long, twice as long as the regulation nine of a baseball game. The game itself was 15 minutes longer than the entire 1939 World Series, when the Yankees swept the Reds in seven hours and five minutes. The game started at 8:09 p.m. and ended at around 3:30 a.m. Even in Los Angeles, where the game was played, it started at 5:09 p.m. and ended the next day. So, along with a lot of other baseball fans, I woke up late to counter my late night viewing. Sports have changed. As of a year ago, baseball games take, on average, three hours and five minutes. Football games take three hours and three minutes. Hockey averages 2:19. Basketball is around 2:15. That is a lot of time. Advertisements, timeouts and other rules have created games that last almost an hour longer than they did 70 years ago. People get angry with baseball’s slow pace, but the NFL has issues too. Both have around 11 minutes of actual action but take three hours per game. Obviously the seven-hour, two-inone World Series game was an outlier. It was just an exaggerated version of the problem, though. Sports want more ad revenue and more in-stadium purchases. Both of those are helped by keeping viewers watching for as long as possible. But when will enough be enough? It is not only a lot to ask of viewers, but players as well. One sport that is good with advertisements is soccer. Soccer goes to commercial fewer times than other sports, with no real stoppages. To counteract, there is added time at the end of each half. The one problem with that strategy is that the time of play is often less than it should be. There was a test done on each World Cup game to see how accurate stoppage time is, and it came up with one conclusion: incredibly inaccurate. Even on the biggest stage in sports, adding stoppage time instead of stopping the game as it occurred meant that games were not being played to their fullest. Instead, they were shorted, on average, by six minutes and 11 seconds. An extra second in sports is precious. Six minutes? Ouch. All of this is to say that sports take too long. Fans must take off entire afternoons or nights if they plan on watching a game. These pastimes are starting to become take-times. We have to cut down on advertisements, either in length or in the amount of times the game is stopped for them. Shorter games mean more time for other activities for those working the games, those playing in them and those watching them.

David Meyer is an assistant sports editor. He is a junior studying film and media studies. David can be reached at david. meyer@tufts.edu.

EVAN SLACK / THE TUFTS DAILY

Junior midfielder Marguerite Salamone possesses the ball in Tufts’ 2–0 win against Williams on Oct. 20. by Ryan Eggers Sports Editor

In one of the best seasons in team history, the No. 4 Jumbos completed their regular season on Wednesday, defeating the No. 12 Bowdoin Polar Bears by a score of 2–1. The Jumbos didn’t have much time to celebrate the season’s success, though, as the NESCAC Tournament began on Sunday after rain delayed the initial Saturday start. The Jumbos were successful in their first postseason game of the season, defeating the visiting Amherst Mammoths 2–0 to advance to this weekend’s semifinals.

With a 9–1 conference record, the Jumbos secured the No. 2 seed in the NESCAC, giving them a matchup against the No. 7 seed Amherst Mammoths (10–6, 5–5 NESCAC). While the seeding would normally indicate a favorable matchup in the first round, there is no easy game in NESCAC field hockey. Even though the Mammoths ended up as the No. 7 seed, the team put up an impressive regular season, defeating the third-seeded Williams Ephs (12–4 overall, 7–3 NESCAC) and narrowly falling to the Jumbos in overtime earlier this year.

As has been the case all year for the Jumbos, controlling possession and getting off more shots on offense was their key to success. An excellent corner from junior midfielder Marguerite Salamone kicked things into gear. In the 11th minute, her corner met senior midfielder and co-captain Fallon Shaughnessy, who laid it off to sophomore midfielder Beth Krikorian. Krikorian then passed left to senior forward Hanaa Malik, who fired her shot past the onrushing Mammoth defenders. see FIELD HOCKEY, page 11

Men’s cross country places seventh at NESCAC Championship, looks to Regionals by Tom Burnham

Contributing Writer

Tufts hosted the 2018 NESCAC Cross Country Championship at Franklin Park in Boston on Saturday, claiming seventh place as Amherst established itself as the conference champion for the second straight year. The Jumbos totaled 159 points, coming just shy of the sixth-place Bowdoin Polar Bears (156 points). Tufts was outperformed by some of its NESCAC rivals, including Williams, Middlebury, Bates and Conn. College, which claimed the second through fifth positions. Amherst dominated the meet, compiling just 60 points from its top five runners. The top performer for the Jumbos was senior co-captain Colin Raposo, who finished 14th overall with a time of 26:07.5, earning second team All-NESCAC honors. “My goal was to get All-NESCAC, which is top 14 finishers,” Raposo said. “My goal going into the race was to get into the top pack of the race and be in the mix and see what I could do.” Finishing behind Raposo was fellow senior co-captain Brian Reaney who

claimed second place for Tufts and 24th overall with a time of 26:21.0. “For me, I was coming off an injury and a week of not running, so I was a bit worried that I was not gonna have enough fitness to perform well,” Reaney said. “I’m pretty happy with my finish. I think I did a pretty good job of moving up through the race and trying to pick people off. But I definitely feel like I have a lot more left in me for the next race.” Seniors Andrew Doherty Munro and Rory Buckman finished together in 37th and 38th places, respectively, with the former finishing a second faster at 26:45.5. Sophomore Peter Horvath rounded up the scoring positions for Tufts with a 47th-place finish of 26:53.2. Wrapping up the top seven were sophomore Patrick Nero (27:02.8) and first-year John Cyprus (27:08.9). Overall, the Jumbos were hoping for more from the NESCAC Championship. The weather was a disrupting factor, but the team still thinks it could have performed better despite the rough conditions. “It was a tough day for the Jumbos,” Reaney said. “We were going into it hoping for fourth or better. I think there were

different things that happened with different people, and we don’t want to make excuses. Obviously, the weather was a factor, but we went it to it focusing on the weather … saying that’s something that affects everyone the same way, so there’s no reason we still can’t perform well.” Reaney described the tough conditions of running during New England’s first nor’easter of the season, although both he and Raposo stressed that the weather was not the reason for the team’s performance. “We stayed on the bus until it was time to warm up because we didn’t want to get cold or wet,” Reaney said. “It was very gray. It was windy — there were definitely some strong gusts. It’s not often in a cross country race that you try to draft people, like letting them take the wind for you, but that was the case in some parts of the course … [Throughout] the whole race, it was hard to make moves because if you accelerated on a lot of parts of the course, you would just slip in the mud and not get the traction you needed to move up.” Raposo and Reaney discussed how the conditions disrupted the expected results, see MEN'S CROSS COUNTRY, page 11


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