Print Edition of The Observer for Wednesday, September 28, 2016
Campus s afety recaps gameday
By EMILY McCONVILLE a ssociate news e ditor
while campus was less full saturday than it was for the football game against michigan state last week, attendance for the duke game was “very high” for an afternoon game, which vice president for campus safety and event management mike seamon attributed to good late-september weather.
“it was the first of our football games that was dry from start to finish,” seamon said.
seamon said the friday pep rally in the Joyce center was at its
capacity of 6,000 people, 1,408 fans attended a public practice at labar practice complex, and the maximum of 50 people attended run club, a saturday morning running tour of campus. additionally, 3,450 golf cart rides were delivered over the weekend.
parking lots were full with plenty of tailgates, which seamon also said was due to good weather.
“we noticed our medics have to deal with a lot more bee stings because the weather hasn’t gotten cold enough to suppress that,” seamon said.
departure from the stadium
and campus was “smoother than michigan state, but that’s expected with an afternoon game versus a night game,” he added.
saturday was military appreciation weekend — active duty members and veterans were recognized before the game.
“it was nice to give another nod to the military,” seamon said.
according to the notre dame security police (ndsp) crime log, an arrest on a charge of illegal possession, consumption or transportation of alcohol took place at cavanaugh hall early saturday morning. additionally, arrests on
charges of possession of paraphernalia, resisting arrest and “drugsmarijuana-other” were made at stanford hall.
ndsp police chief Keri Kei shibata said no “game related” arrests on saturday.
after three home game weekends in a row, seamon said campus safety is looking forward to taking a break as the football team travels.
“it’ll be nice to have a couple of weeks off for the away games,” he said.
Contact Emily McConville at emcconv1@nd.edu
Lecturer addresses politics, religion
By SYDNEY DOYLE news writer
Julie hanlon rubio, a professor at st. l ouis university, spoke Tuesday night at saint mary’s college about relations between catholicism, politics and finding common ground. rubio’s lecture highlighted the obstacle of an increasing polarity brought on by social media influences and the current presidential race.
rubio said that within this country and even within the catholic communities the divide continues to grow.
“it seems the divide is deepening rather than going away,” she said. “we sort ourselves into neighborhoods with people like ourselves.”
rubio said that we as people today tend to accept that people who are part of a different political party are just fundamentally different from us and that the most we can to is to merely tolerate them. w hen rubio asked her students at st. l ouis university if they could befriend a person of opposing political views, she said the majority of them answered no.
rubio said that people need to acknowledge the polarization today actually holds common ground. most of what is spewed out in the media polls are misrepresentations of those who are actually in the middle on the issues, rubio
said.
“Those choices do not capture what people actually think,” she said. “w hen given two choices, you just choose one.”
rubio moved to polarization in the catholic community specifically and said that catholics may disagree on the more political topics but there is common ground once we move past the hot-button issues.
she said on the topic of marriage, while there has been disagreement in areas such as gay marriage and divorce,
catholics can find common ground in that they support marriage. w hile the specifics of those thing might be politically blurred, she said there is hope for common ground.
rubio said that even though politics creates a divide in the catholic community, catholics cannot give up on politics, but must instead find out a way to connect faith with politics.
“The best thinkers today are ok to move from faith to politics in public,” rubio said. “catholics should bring faith into the public sphere.”
rubio said that the catholic communities cannot let go of hope when it comes to politics. w ith politics, catholics must to find the space between hope and realism, according to rubio. even though what some may hope for as catholics never comes true through our political systems and it seems unfair, it’s important for catholics to accept a modest hope and keep it alive, she said.
“we are going to have to accept compromise and defeat,”
see rubio PAGE 3
e mail warning fails to send
Observer Staff Report
a n email notification to students warning them to stay away from g alvin l ife s ciences c enter due to a suspicious package found there Thursday afternoon did not send because the email l istserv, which was supposed to contain students’ emails, was empty, university spokesperson d ennis brown said.
“a s a result, no messages could be delivered,” brown said. “ we’re now working to understand why the list was empty.”
faculty and staff received an email through a separate l istserv notifying them to avoid the area. The notification was also meant to reach students via the empty l istserv, brown said.
police officers responded to a call Thursday afternoon about a suspicious package in the bushes on the south side of the g alvin l ife s ciences c enter. a passerby noticed the container around 1:30 p.m. and contacted notre dame s ecurity police ( ndsp), who roped off the area. s outh b end and state police were called in to assist, and officers finished assessing the situation and reopened the area around 2:15 p.m.
police identified the container as a cooler containing food and beverages.
brown said c ampus s afety decides when, and through what channel, to send urgent messages to students, faculty and staff. i n this instance, the student l istserv — as opposed to the nd a lert system — was used, brown said.
“i n last Thursday’s case, the size and location of the container made it clear that only the immediate area needed to be cordoned off and evacuated, which was done,” he said. “The message to the campus was to notify people to avoid the area.”
ALLISON CULVER | The Observer
Julie Hanlon Rubio speaks at Saint Mary’s College on Tuesday night. Rubio’s lecture considered the relationship between religion and politics in light of the upcoming presidential election.
Scene Desk (574) 631-4540 scene@ndsmcobserver.com Saint Mary’s Desk ncaratas01@saintmarys.edu
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Policies The
Question of the Day:
If you were to combine two animals into a super animal, which would you choose?
Glen McClain senior off campus “shark and hummingbird.”
Matthew Brown sophomore dillon hall
“human being and lion.”
Rachael Mahle senior pasquerilla west hall “a lpaca and butterfly.”
Matthew Morico sophomore alumni hall
“porcupine and eagle.”
Monica Bell sophomore flaherty hall “dolphin and eagle.”
Shannon Leahy junior howard hall “wolverine and wombat.”
GRACE TOURVILLE| The Observer
Sylwia Ptasinska, associate professor of biophysics, speaks during “Plasma: From Lightning to Medical Applications” at the Jordan Hall of Science on Tuesday night. The talk focused on the uses of electrical plasma in industry and medicine.
t he next f ive D ays:
Wednesday
Architecture & Urbanism Lecture: “The Spirit of Cities” Bond Hall
4:30 p.m. - 6 p.m. Open to the public.
Screening: “Thank You for Playing” Eck Visitors Center
6 p.m. - 8 p.m.
Screening to be followed by discussion.
Thursday
Graduate Student
Social Brownson Hall
4 p.m. - 6 p.m.
Open to all Notre Dame graduate students.
ND Theatre NOW DeBartolo Performing Arts Center
7:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.
ND Theatre NOW DeBartolo Performing Arts Center 7:30 p.m. - 9:30
rubio said.
rubio then said that catholics and other christians that donate to their church organizations sometimes worry about how they might be supporting a cause that do not politically agree with.
“we worry how we are connected to these social and structural issues,” she said. a n easy solution rubio brought to this issue was getting to the local level and actually talking with people in the community to find out what is really needed.
“we don’t talk much about the local,” she said. “should we put more energy there?”
rubio said when she was in college she was invited to a conversation discusses pro-life and pro-choice points of view. she said she walked in the room not knowing anyone’s
opinion on the issue and they all had dinner together and then came together in a calm conversation.
“it allowed us to avoid binary thinking,” rubio said. “we were able to ask genuine questions to those on the other side.”
she said the exercise made her realize that there are not just two sides to the issue but a lot of middle ground in which they started questioning what they could do together.
once we can get ourselves out of the framework of government we can explore what people worry about the most and at their base they are usually pretty similar, rubio said.
“people are just frustrated and uncertain about how much is sacrificed to to that.” she said.
at the local level, rubio said if we really care we will take action and participate in the community to make a difference for the better and that is
out common ground.
catholics and people of opposing parties should not give up hope when it comes to participating and finding common ground in politics. she said people cannot stray away when it looks like hope is lost, but communication bust continue.
“we live in-between” she said “w hen we lose and we compromise, people suffer, and that is why we don’t like to compromise.”
politics may seem dirty but talking about it and creating that common ground is ultimately the solution calming this polarization issue both within the catholic community and between all people of opposing political parties, rubio said.
“we need to find space that hasn’t been explored and create conversations with people we never thought we would.” rubio said.
Contact Sydney Doyle at sdoyle01@saintmarys.edu
Students launch online forum
By EMILY McCONVILLE a ssociate news e ditor
This week, a group of students released a beta version of elephant in the room, an online forum where students can post anonymous questions about mental health issues on campus.
The project is through design for a merica (dfa), an organization started at northwestern university that helps students design programs aimed at improving communities. senior Kiely wilcox, a leadership board member and project leader for elephant in the room, said members of notre dame’s chapter form small groups focused on different issues in the community.
senior a li Julian, another project leader, said in the fall of
2015, she and other members of the mental health issues team partnered with the university counseling center (ucc) and began to send out surveys and interview students and employees, aiming to find ways to make mental health issues more approachable.
wilcox said a major challenge turned out to be knowing how to get help.
“The ucc does have amazing resources to offer students, but students are worried and intimidated to make the walk to st. liam[‘s] to get help,” wilcox said.
The group then developed the idea for an online forum, with the refocused goal of helping students access the ucc’s resources.
“most students our age feel the most comfortable in a technological atmosphere,” wilcox said. “we wanted to do something that was online, where people could enter whatever they want without judgement.”
wilcox and Julian are both mechanical engineers, and other project leaders included Kevin mccarthy, a junior chemical engineering major, and danielle partyka, a junior marketing major. since none of the leaders knew how to code, early mockups of elephant in the room were powerpoint presentations with hyperlinks, wilcox said. computer science majors courtney Kelly and Katie schermerhorn later joined the team.
The group created prototypes of the site and made a final presentation video about the project with the help of a film, Television and Theatre major last spring, Julien said. wilcox said the group received a $250 grant from the national dfa to code the site. students have to give their names and an nd.edu email address to sign up for the site, but what they post is anonymous, moderated by the dfa team.
“it’s people who are in your same community, go to your same school, someone you could be walking by on your class,” Julien said. “... you’re more comfortable in the community, so though they’re anonymous, you know they’re your peers.”
wilcox said the dfa team is currently monitoring the site, which runs until fall break, to find out how easily users can interact with it, whether they like its format and responses and what other features they would want to add. she said the group will make improvements and launch the final version before spring semester starts. The team hopes, she said, that other campuses can later have their own versions.
“The goal for the site is that it can be applied to many different schools,” wilcox said.
Contact Emily McConville at emcconv1@nd.edu
paid a dverT isemen T
By JIMMY KEMPER scene writer
once when i was still living in atlanta, i went to see the movie “elysium.” The movie itself was honestly maybe a bit forgettable, but it was worth remembering because of what happened in the movie theatre bathroom after the show. as i walking in, a short guy who i swore i knew was walking out. a s i struggled to figure out who he was — and instead of just asking him — we gave each other the classic ‘sup’ nod and went our own ways. a fter a few minutes, i realized it was usher and was disappointed that i didn’t recognize him immediately.
The usher on his latest album, “hard ii love,” sort of feels like the usher i met (in arguably the lamest celebrity encounter of all time) in that it’s tough to recognize him. for this record, usher has placed himself squarely in the “tough lover” archetype that currently dominates the r&b genre, which is radically different from the usher of 2012’s “looking 4 myself.” he’s singing mainly about the difficulties in loving him, the kind of women he’s looking for and how he’s better than other lovers. To accomplish those ends, tracks on this album can be split into two broad categories: smoother love ballads and bumpier club tracks. w hile most of usher’s work can arguably be placed into one of those two categories, never before have the boundaries been so clearly defined. Take, for instance, album opener “need u,” which begins with usher trying to explain himself before he goes off into a bryson Tiller-esque flow over Kanye west-esque 808 beats. it effectively conveys the point that usher thinks he’s a tough guy and he wants the girl, but it doesn’t do much more
than that.
This type of song is huge right now in the r&b industry, with everyone from Zayn to miguel to drake and even the now-excellent Justin bieber creating some variation of that motif. however, usher is so much older and has so much more experience than those artists that, coming into this record, i was expecting a little more.
lyrically, this isn’t that impressive of an album. a nd the production, while featuring the who’s who of the field — including the up-and-coming metro boomin — feels vague and incohesive, in part due to that broad range of producers.
in spite of these difficulties, usher’s singing is still unparalleled in his field, and he doesn’t need the big complicated trap-style production or vocal effects and enhancements of this album to make his voice heard.
This was made abundantly clear on 2012’s “climax,” where usher’s soaring vocals carried listeners across an intense emotional chasm. “climax” was the centerpiece of “looking 4 myself,” a magnum opus to which every other track on that album could relate. it was critically successful, even gaining the honor of pitchfork’s top song of 2012, and also commercially successful, reaching no. 1 on the u s hot r&b charts.
“hard ii love” does not have a “climax.” it also fails to connect with the 10 weird, critically obsessive kids on campus who actually read scene — and the greater music community.
even the tracks designed to gain some traction at the clubs simply do not have the capability of gripping the audience the way usher has in the past. for example, “no limit” feels pretty limited: even a feature from young Thug can’t liven that song up. as i mentioned in
my review of young Thug’s latest masterpiece, “(no my name is) Jeffrey,” young Thug is one of the top rappers in the game right now with his trippy vocals that exist in some undefined space between hip-hop and pop, and i don’t think usher took full advantage of that weirdness, choosing instead to underemploy his talents on a pretty straightforward track.
“make u a believer,” produced by the aforementioned metro boomin, is probably the best track on the album. it features traditional atlanta trap beats and booming bass thumps, but the production is minimal enough that usher has the space to expand vocally. unfortunately, it doesn’t have the gravitas to justify an entire album surrounding it.
usher has shown us in his previous seven albums that he has the capacity to think forward instead of leaning back on the archetypes that currently dominate airwaves. hopefully on his next album we’ll be able to recognize that usher and give him more than a passing nod.
Contact Jimmy Kemper at jkemper2@nd.edu
“Hard II Love”
Usher
Label: RCA Records
Track: “Make U A Believer,” “Need U”
If you like: Zayn Malik, Miguel, Drake
By KELLY McGARRY a ssociate scene e ditor
This month, “south park” joined the sparse ranks of cartoons to make it to their 20th year. The season opened to a third-grade basketball team’s protest of the national anthem, but in its typical fashion tied together multiple issues that combine to hint at a theme for the season.
The longevity of “south park” is matched by only one comparable cartoon, “The simpsons,” shedding some light on what it takes for a cartoon to stay alive: the combination of timely references and timeless humor. w hile “The simpsons” has declined in popularity, the comparatively more outrageous “south park” has managed to stay on top, and it doesn’t appear to be going down anytime soon.
l ooking back on all the significant “south park” moments over the years, it’s appropriate that the opening episode is titled “member berries.” The talking berries for which the episode is named, at first seeming
random, are used by adults in the show to relax. a s the episode progresses, the member berries ask questions like “‘member feeling safe? ‘member no isis ? ‘member reagan?” clarifying their role in the larger plot.
l ining up with an election year, this significant anniversary has promise of endless material. giant douche ( m r. garrison) runs against a familiar-faced Turd sandwich. some of the most clever aspects of the election are only funny because they’re so realistic. The extremist policy of m r. garrison sounds like a rewording of one of the candidates in the current election. h is horrible comments in a frantic attempt to lose votes only gain him more support.
w hen stan asks his dad, randy, why we pick every year between a giant douche and a Turd sandwich, he answers emphatically, “because we’re a mericans. because this is a merica.” This mix of disturbing and hilarious content is classic “south park.”
but the election demonstrates another effect of the show being around for 20 years. “south park” doesn’t need to refer to familiar events in order for people to
relate — it’s able to sustain itself entirely on self-referential inside jokes. giant douche and Turd sandwich were first introduced in the eighth season. The nonchalant use of the outlandish terms goes unexplained to new viewers, but, for many, explanation isn’t necessary.
The second episode zeroes in on cyberbullying and equates deleting social media accounts to suicide. its closing sequence — a mass breakup set to the dramatic “g ortoz a ran” from the “black hawk down” soundtrack — creates suspense for what’s to come in tonight’s third episode of the season.
so far, season 20 in still in the stages of gathering momentum. l ike “pc p rinciple” in season 19, the driving factors of this season are just beginning to unveil themselves. Trey parker and matt stone will undoubtedly draw material from the events that unfold with the current election, tying it together with humor that will still be fun to watch from a distance years from now.
Contact Kelly McGarry at kmcgarry@nd.edu
e ntering intern season
d uring my freshman year, i rarely concerned myself with “the future”. i t was never anything more than an abstract concept, too far off for me to truly feel any worry about. w henever the thought came up, i simply assured myself of how much time i would have later to think it through and prepare. c areer c enter emails went directly into the trash bin; i ’d have three more years for that. i gnorance was bliss. h onestly, i don’t particularly regret my lack of career preparation freshman year. i didn’t really have an idea of what i wanted to do, and it’s difficult to prepare for a question mark. w hat i was not prepared for was the looming onslaught… s ophomore year, it turns out, is far less detached from the future. e very morning i am greeted by a barrage of emails, each reminding me of an internship i haven’t applied to yet or some workshop that is apparently vital for obtaining any kind of job. The c areer f air was overwhelming in its sheer size alone. The internship application process has brought back unwelcome memories of college applications. a t least with those, a response was guaranteed; internship applications feel like they’re being sent into the void, and hearing back feels hopeless. yes, these internship applications are much simpler, requiring not much more than a resume and a cover letter, instead of dozens of supplementary questions. b ut when reduced to a resume, there’s pressure for every action to revolve around strengthening said resume. i f an activity doesn’t contribute to the resume or further your skills in something relevant to your major, then it seems disposable. a dangerous thought comes to mind: all activities that don’t make the resume should be discarded, or at least discounted.
This unhealthy attitude, which i myself have struggled with recently, is easy to fall into. n evertheless, at the cost of your non-career related passions, you cannot accept this mindset. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do extracurricular activities that relate to your major; after all, you should love what you do for your major, and should want more of it. p reparing for a career is important, and we all have to somewhat play along if we want employment. h owever, it’s imperative that this does not come at the expense of other passions. c ollege should be a formative experience on your terms, not those of employers.
Going with the flow
a ristotle believed that “adaptation” was the result of species being built a certain way. The problem with a ristotle’s view, which is still accepted by many, is that it implies we are perfectly built and intentionally designed to do the things we do. i want to show how d arwin’s argument for an alternative explanation of adaptation, via natural selection, can improve our everyday lives.
The trick is understanding natural selection’s limitations, specifically its lack of foresight. n atural selection is not a conscious agent. This means that it cannot imagine how successful an individual would be in a different environment or at a future time. i t can only work with what increases fitness at the current time and place.
i t is also essential to know that natural selection cannot invent anything new. i t can only tinker with what it has. i t is reasonable to think, then, that there are potentially far better traits for an organism to have in its niche, but because selection is stuck working with the variation we already have, there is no way to get there from here. This means that, metaphorically, natural selection has endowed us with a sharp spoon and asked us to use it as a knife.
To see what i mean, consider the location of our trachea directly above our esophagus. i n other words, the channel for bringing air into our body, the thing we need most to survive, is right next to a channel frequented by objects just the right size to clog it. i t would have made a lot of sense to put these two channels in different places, but instead we are stuck with a handy little flap called an epiglottis, which works well enough (except for when it doesn’t and we choke).
The point is that our bodies and minds were not constructed intentionally to do the things we do every day. n or are they perfectly adapted to be doing them. we are just jerry-rigged creatures trying to exist in a new environment, and to make things even more difficult that environment is constantly changing at an increasing rate. This may sound disappointing, but i am not saying that we are broken
or faulty creatures. we are indeed extremely complex, possibly the most complex life-forms on e arth. w hat i am trying to say, is that sometimes when we feel weird, fall down or get sick, it is not our fault. we are just spoons trying to be knives. a lot of times when you ask existential questions or wonder why you have a this or a that, the answer isn’t because someone “built you a certain way” and meant for you to use your this or that for a purpose; it is simply because having a this or that increased our ancestor’s fitness at some point in history or because it didn’t decrease it enough to get removed, so it has stuck along for the ride. s o does this make us purposeless products of randomness trying to find meaning in the world because our cognitive abilities are maybe a little too advanced for our own good? i t shouldn’t.
a nyone who has ever been “in the right place at the right time,” be it catching a perfect wave during dawn or meeting a future spouse or best friend at a place you almost didn’t go to, knows this to be true. The story of existence is riddled with many things that were not “intended” to happen and probably statistically shouldn’t have, but they did, and that makes them even more astounding. we are no exception. h umankind is another beautiful moment in the existence of planet earth. To the cosmic observer, we are like a moment of stillness on the pond of life, just long enough to catch a glimpse of a reflection before the water begins to move again. The point is that accepting and understanding d arwin’s explanation does not make our lives purposeless or make religion meaningless. n or does it turn mankind into a violent creature fighting day and night to be the fittest. w hat it does do, and it does so beautifully, is help us understand how we got here, why our bodies and minds are the way that they are and why we have a hard time answering these questions in the first place. i t helps us understand why we are really good at some things and not so good at others. p erhaps, most importantly of all, it helps us go with the flow, understanding why things don’t always go like they should, but still accepting and loving every second of it simply because it is.
Contact Matt Williams at mwilli41@nd.edu
Matthew Willis guest c olumnist
Aiden Lewis news writer
Liberty must always supersede security
a couple of weeks ago, o liver s tone’s new film “ s nowden” was released in theaters throughout the u nited s tates. i have not had the opportunity to see the film yet, but i hope it can revive necessary discussion about government surveillance and the sanctity of personal liberty. a fter all, as n ovember approaches and i evaluate each of the major party’s candidates, i have little faith that either of them places much value on the individual liberties of the average a merican citizen. e dward s nowden’s story is perhaps one of the most inspiring a merican tales of our day. w hile many may label him a traitorous villain, s nowden sacrificed nearly everything in the effort to protect millions of a mericans’ g od-given rights. h e did so because, like the f ounding f athers and countless a mericans, s nowden believed we should never sacrifice personal liberty for perceived security.
d espite what the n ational s ecurity a gency may tell you, giving up individual liberty in exchange for perceived security is extremely dangerous and antithetical to the very founding principles of this nation. w hen the nsa was exposed as collecting innocent a mericans’ phone records, they were not only violating the f ourth a mendment of the c onstitution, but also placing
lEttEr to thE EdItor
the citizenry at the will of the government. i nstead of receiving the consent of the people, as any arm of the government must do, the nsa unilaterally decided that a mericans were going to sacrifice their right to privacy. The f ounding f athers would turn in their graves at such a rejection of the c onstitution and of democracy itself.
m any will claim that the nsa , while having information on millions of innocent citizens, never acted nefariously with such information. This assertion is disingenuous, as there is evidence the nsa was using the information to aid in domestic policing and there are even many accounts of nsa employees spying on ex-lovers. h owever, even had the nsa not abused the information, there would have still been a need to condemn the agency. a government agency having unwarranted access to the private information of millions of a mericans is in and of itself a crime. There is no reason we should place our full faith in the prudence of a large government agency with access to a broad range of private information. e dward s nowden once said that it is akin to someone holding a gun to your head and saying, “Trust me, i won’t pull the trigger.” f eeling apathetic towards an encroachment upon any of our liberties is extremely dangerous. l iberty is such a precious good that we should protect it against any attempts of infringement. m artin l uther King Jr. once said, “ i njustice
w hy i am boycotting
Tonight, i have decided to sit a stone’s throw away from s outh Quad and write this article. i have made the decision to forego tonight’s entertainment in favor of more worthwhile endeavors. i could walk outside to hear the rambling voices from the loudspeaker. b ut tonight, i will hear from neither d onald Trump nor h illary c linton. i have developed across the 21 years of my life an aversion to being lied to. i do not know if i am unique in this, or if i am simply more affected, but i refuse to sit in a quasi-celebration of the hate-filled propaganda that has become the hallmark of this election. a nyone who knows me knows how much i enjoy political debate in all its forms. i do not believe, however, that this debate will really be about politics. i know that political participation is a right that people fight for every day. i do not mean to belittle the idea of the electoral debate or anyone’s efforts to become more informed about our two major candidates. i simply will not take part.
“ i am a firm believer in the people. i f given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts.” – a braham l incoln
m y main reason for boycotting this debate is that, like a braham l incoln, i have strong pride in the intelligence of the a merican people and the utmost trust in the democratic system. a nd this debate is decidedly and unapologetically undemocratic in how it favors the major party candidates. The c ommission on p residential d ebates ( cpd ) describes itself in this way:
“The c ommission on p residential d ebates ( cpd ) was established in 1987 to ensure that debates, as a permanent part of every general election, provide the best possible information to viewers and
anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” i believe the same holds true for liberty. a repression of liberty anywhere is a threat to liberty everywhere. i t is my hope that a mericans never give up their right to privacy out of fear or apathy, because that will be the starting point for the deterioration of protected liberty as we know it. l iving in a truly free society involves accepting risk. e liminating all security threats could only be achieved through the elimination of all liberty. w e should never buy into the delusion that security can be paid for with our liberty. o ur liberty is, as the d eclaration of i ndependence says, an “unalienable right.” i t should not, and cannot, be taken from us, under any circumstances.
The nation has made impressive steps towards curtailing the systemic invasion of privacy carried out by our government. p arts of the p atriot a ct have been halted and many politicians from both parties seem to have come out against the behavior of the nsa h owever, the conversation must not stop there. w e must constantly remind ourselves of the immeasurable value of liberty and never stop preventing our government from stripping away such a sacred blessing.
Eddie is a sophomore from Orland Park, Illinois. He is majoring in economics and political science and considering pursuing law school after his time as an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame. He can be reached at edamstra@nd.edu
the presidential debate
listeners. its primary purpose is to sponsor and produce debates for the united s tates presidential and vice presidential candidates and to undertake research and educational activities relating to the debates. The organization, which is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, 501(c)(3) corporation, sponsored all the presidential debates in 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008 and 2012.”
i would like to point out a few crucial ideas here. f irst, they say that they were established to make sure that the debates “provide the best possible information to viewers and listeners.” i welcome any explanation of this statement that justifies excluding a candidate that is polling the highest of all candidates amongst 18 – 25 year olds and amongst military personnel, is polling above 10 percent nationally, is polling above 15 percent in some battleground states, and is the only other candidate present on the ballots in all 50 states.
p lease let that sink in for a second. g ary Johnson, d onald Trump and h illary c linton are the only candidates whose names appear on every single ballot in the united s tates. yet, only one was excluded from the national debate. That is not providing “the best possible information to viewers and listeners.” That is a direct choice to keep the a merican people in the dark.
it would be nice if people all did their own research and decided on the candidates after careful consideration and discussion of all the facts, but that is simply not the case. m illions of people will be swayed by tonight’s debate and the subsequent ones. The reason g overnor Johnson has been excluded is in direct conflict with the second idea from the cpd ’s self-description that i want to highlight. it is the word ‘nonpartisan.’
The cpd appears to be confused about the distinction between ‘nonpartisan’ and ‘bipartisan’. The former describes an institution with no affiliation with any political party, the latter describes an institution that gives no preference for r epublicans or d emocrats but can show both equal favoritism over any other party. The latter also describes the cpd which is made up of current and former r epublicans and d emocrats. o f course they would object to letting someone else crash their debate. e ven w ikipedia recognizes the cpd as “a nonprofit organization controlled by the d emocratic and r epublican parties.” w hich makes it all the more terrifying that they have controlled every single debate since 1988.
The intention of this article is not to promote voting for g ary Johnson. i am in favor of that choice, but i am not so naive as to think that i can properly express in this piece the various nuanced positions that he holds. a ll i can say is that he is a legitimate candidate for the p resident of the united s tates with real experience as an executive and with real beliefs on how to empower the a merican people, not just himself. h e will be on each person’s ballot when they go to vote and the citizens of this country deserve to hear what he has to offer.
it is not simply a slight against g ary Johnson to exclude him. it is an insult to the a merican people and a violation of the principles of a merican democracy.
Eddie Damstra dinner Table Talks
Ben Swanson senior s ept.
This week could decide playoffs
Alex Carson a ssistant managing e ditor
Through four weeks of the college football season, we’ve learned a bit. louisville has jumped from preseason dark horse to the no. 3 team in the country, wisconsin might just be the surprise team of the season and Texas a&m is off to a fast start.
wait, that last thing ain’t much of a surprise, is it?
but by and large, as september draws to a close, we haven’t learned all that much about some preseason favorites. no. 4 michigan and no. 5 clemson are largely sitting in the top five based on august expectations, not in-season performances. That can change this weekend — and that’s lovely.
between friday and saturday, we’ll see three matchups between top-10 teams — matchups with direct playoff implications that could start to help us trim the number of legitimate contenders as the calendar turns to october.
no. 7 stanford at no. 10 Washington like the aforementioned wolverines and Tigers, washington is a top-10 team largely based upon preseason expectations — ones that perhaps came out of nowhere for casual fans. predictive metrics loved the huskies before the season started — their defense was highlyrated last year, and washington returned nearly all of its team from 2015 — but through four games, their best opposition has been a rizona. it took an extra overtime period for washington to get through that challenge.
The cardinal, on the other hand, have at least been challenged a little more, with saturday night’s tight, lastminute win over ucla the key one coming to mind. stanford is, i think, what we all thought it would be: a team that won’t be flashy and won’t always blow people out. a nd sometimes, that’ll come back to bite the cardinal. but fundamentally, stanford should be considered the class of the pac-12 until it’s usurped by someone else. a nd with the way the rest of the conference looks so far, the huskies are the only team that looks particularly capable of doing that. friday night’s showdown will more than likely determine the north division’s winner — and the conference’s one shot at a playoff berth. give me the cardinal in a tight, low-scoring affair at a loud husky stadium.
no. 8 Wisconsin at no. 4 michigan
so, this is a matchup between a team i’m still not convinced is pretty good and a team i need to be convinced is pretty good. Truth be told, i didn’t expect the badgers to amount to much of anything this year. but after wins over lsu and now-no.17 michigan state, it’s time to start considering whether or not they are a pretty good — if not playoffcaliber — team. of course, the badgers don’t have the luxury iowa had a year ago coming out of the big Ten’s west division in avoiding the wolverines and ohio state; they only have to play them in back-to-back contests. if wisconsin is to win the big Ten, and make the playoff at 12-1, it probably needs to win this game. on the other hand, michigan really hasn’t proven much this season. sure, the wolverines have looked good, but their best opponent to date is still colorado. i entered this season thinking 2017 was a better “arrival date” for Jim harbaugh’s team, and until it proves to me otherwise, i’m going to classify michigan as a good, probable 10-2 team for this campaign. i’ll take michigan on the day, but neither is good enough to top no. 2 ohio state down the road.
no. 3
louisville at no. 5 Clemson
To date, saturday night’s showdown is going to be the game of the college football season. The cardinals, once acc dark horses, have suddenly morphed into a favorite for a playoff berth after demolishing florida state a couple weeks back. lamar Jackson is the september heisman winner — though past history (hi, geno smith) shows that doesn’t indicate much success for the last two-thirds of the season — and the cardinals have legitimately been the best team in college football so far. if i had a ballot, based on what they’ve done, i’d vote them no. 1.
on the other hand, clemson looks like a team coming off a title-game loss hangover. winning at auburn should never be scoffed at, but in their most impressive win, deshaun watson and the Tigers didn’t look great. but at the end of the day, the best teams get up for the biggest games, and saturday marks the first “biggest game” clemson plays this season. w hile Jackson’s been the story so far, i like watson and the Tigers at home by double digits. sorry, louisville: the dream season ends this week.
Contact Alex Carson at acarson1@nd.edu
The views expressed in this Sports Authority are those of the author and not necessarily those of The Observer.
mets keep w ild card lead against mourning marlins
ASSOCIATED PRES
miami — w ith time running out in the playoff race, the n ew york m ets set sympathy aside.
n oah s yndergaard struck out eight and allowed one run in six innings Tuesday night, and the m ets totaled 19 hits to beat the grieving m iami m arlins 12-1.
Jay b ruce and yoenis c espedes each hit his 31st homer for the m ets, who began the game with a halfgame lead over the g iants in the battle for the first nl wild-card berth, with the c ardinals 1 1/2 games behind.
The game was the m arlins’ second since the death of ace Jose f ernandez in a boating accident. o ne night after a heart-tugging victory over n ew york filled with tributes to their teammate, emotions were more subdued, and m iami’s bats were too.
s yndergaard (14-9) had a lot to do with that. a fter missing a scheduled start s aturday with strep throat, he threw 93 pitches and lowered his era to 2.60, third-best in the majors. h e’ll return to pitch the regular-season finale s unday at p hiladelphia if needed.
mlb | blue Jays 5, orioles 1
f or mourners at m arlins p ark, there were nudges toward a return to normal. The Kiss c am and organ music returned after a onegame hiatus, but the dugout dancers were still missing, along with the sea creatures that usually race around the warning track. m arlins players were back in their regular uniforms after they all wore f ernandez’s n o. 16 on m onday. b ut each jersey sported a patch with “16” on the sleeve, and the number remained stenciled on the back of the mound.
The crowd was mostly quietly, except for transplanted n ew yorkers. b ruce hit a two-run homer into the upper deck in right field in the second inning, and c espedes hit an even more majestic two-run shot off the home run sculpture in the third.
l ucas d uda hit a threerun double, and c urtis g randerson also drove in three runs for the m ets.
d ee g ordon, who hit a h ollywood-worthy homer in the first inning m onday, again got things going in the first. This time he reached on a bunt, stole second and came home on a single by m arcell o zuna.
That was m iami’s only run. Tom Koehler (9-13) allowed four runs in 3 2/3 innings.
VEt E r A n roCk E d m ets manager Terry c ollins said rhp b artolo c olon was unable to block out the emotions of the occasion when he allowed a season-high seven runs in 2 1/3 innings m onday. “ w e’re going to throw that out,” c ollins said. “There were just too many things on everybody’s mind. i don’t think the true focus was there.”
mourn InG m A rl Ins s lugger g iancarlo s tanton said it’s important that the team pay proper tribute to f ernandez as they grieve. “ i t has nothing to do with baseball,” s tanton said before the game. “ i f you care about life, if you have passion or loved ones or anybody, you can relate to this situation.”
a memorial service and public viewing for f ernandez are scheduled for w ednesday. p layers will attend a m ass on Thursday. f ernandez’s agent, s cott b oras, watched the game with m arlins owner Jeffrey l oria.
sanchez tosses a gem in win over orioles
ASSOCIATED PRESS
T oron T o — Josh d onaldson hit a two-run homer, a aron s anchez struck out 10 and the Toronto b lue Jays beat the b altimore o rioles 5-1 on Tuesday night in the opener of their al wild-card showdown.
e zequiel c arrera also homered as the b lue Jays won for the sixth time in eight games. They lead the wild-card standings by two games over the o rioles with five to play.
b altimore began the day two games ahead of d etroit and s eattle for the league’s final playoff spot.
o rioles slugger c hris d avis was ejected for arguing with plate umpire w ill l ittle after striking out against Joe b iagini in
the seventh, the third time in three at-bats d avis was caught looking. b altimore manager b uck s howalter also was tossed after he came out to argue.
s anchez (14-2) struck out the first four hitters he faced and five of the first six. h e gave up one run and five hits over six innings to win for the first time in four starts. The right-hander walked three and reached double digits in strikeouts for the second time this season.
b atting leadoff in place of injured second baseman d evon Travis (left shoulder), c arrera went 2 for 3 with two rbi s and scored three runs.
h e walked in the first and scored when d onaldson homered off right-hander
Kevin g ausman, his 37th. c arrera connected for an opposite-field drive in the third and drove in a run with a single in the fifth. Two batters later, Toronto made it 5-1 when c arrera scored on third baseman m anny m achado’s throwing error.
g ausman (8-12) allowed five runs, four earned, and seven hits in six innings. h e gave up two home runs for the second straight start.
tr AI n E r ’ s room o rioles: r yan f laherty replaced d avis. ... lhp wade m iley left the team and returned home for the birth of his first child, a son. h e’s expected to return in time for his next scheduled start, f riday or s aturday at yankee s tadium.
bring the energy, the enthusiasm, the passion, the morale [and] the camaraderie. i need those things from greg. That’s what i need. i want our kids to be excited when they step on that field against syracuse. i’ll worry about the implementation, the scheme. i’ll take care of that for him right now. a s [ hudson] gets more comfortable with what we have and what our system is about, then he will be much more involved in what we do.
“but right now, you know, we’ll write the music, and he’ll be the lead singer. i f that’s a — i don’t know if that’s a great analogy — but if that makes any sense. he’s going to be out front, but he just got here. he’s just — in terms of being, you know, assuming this role, he’s learning everything as well.” at his press conference, Kelly also answered questions concerning his postgame remarks following the team’s most recent loss to d uke and responded by saying he did not think he was too critical of his players.
“i don’t know that i was that tough on the roster as much as i was tough on my coaches,” Kelly said. “i think when you tell your coaches that they’re
on a job interview for the rest of the season, that seems to be pretty tough, more so than saying there is a standard of play at a particular position.
“but you guys can interpret it any way you want. it’s my team, and i don’t think that i’m too tough on them. i think there is an expectation that you have at notre dame, and that you need to play that way.”
one player in particular Kelly said he feels needs to step up is quarterback deshone Kizer. Kizer went 22-of-37 for 381 yards passing against d uke, including two touchdowns and an interception.
“[Kizer’s] standard of play is not where we want it to be for him,” Kelly said. “i think i made that pretty clear after the game. There is a standard that is set for a player, and that standard is based upon what he believes and what we believe should be acceptable for him, and turnovers and his ability to continue to grow as a quarterback sets that standard. i f he was a firsttime starter or he didn’t set the pace that he had set last year, maybe the standard would be a little bit lower. but he has set a standard of play that we believe he needs to meet and exceed every time he goes out there.”
Contact Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@nd.edu
paid a dverT isemen T
CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer
Notre Dame junior quarterback DeShone Kizer fires a pass in Notre Dame’s 38-35 loss to Duke on Saturday. Kizer threw for 381 yards in the game, including two touchdowns and one interception.
W Golf
need to keep it progressing and getting better every time we compete,” holt said. “ we’re at a pretty good starting point, and we can definitely build on it.”
holt said sophomores e mma a lbrecht and i sabella d i l isio were impressive in the early season, as both finished in the top 25.
“e mma played really well,” holt said. “ s he had a really good freshman year, and it’s nice to see her being able to pick up where she left off.
“i think i sabella playing three pretty solid rounds was good for her confidence. s he struggled a bit in the spring, and it’s nice to see her kinda getting her game back.”
u ltimately, holt said she
feels her team had a strong showing this weekend and has established a solid starting point to build on.
“i told the girls they’re close,” holt said. “a gain, it just goes back to cleaning things up and doing the little things better. i think each one of them can do that and save one or two shots a round. a nd at the end of a tournament, that could be upwards of 10 to 15 shots. a nd they know that, and i feel pretty confident they’ll do what they can to make those adjustments.”
The i rish will compete next at the Texas state Jim west c hallenge i nvite. The twoday tournament is set to start o ct. 9 at the c arleton woods c lub in The woodlands, Texas.
Contact Molly Murphy at mmurph40@nd.edu
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Westendorf
2-2 draw with s tanford, and a curling shot from the edge of the box that proved to be the game-winning score in n otre d ame’s 1-0 win over m issouri.
westendorf had been a key prospect on the i rish recruiting radar for years, and she committed to the i rish in 2013 while r andy waldrum was still the head coach. i rish head coach Theresa r omagnolo has had praise for her top scorer all season and said she could see right away that westendorf had the ability to make her mark at the start of her first season.
“ i think, in the recruiting process when you watch players, the closer they get to coming to n otre d ame, you start to see what they can do,” r omagnolo said.
“ s he was already at a really high level so we anticipated her coming in and having to make an immediate impact. s he was here this spring as an early enrollee, so it was great to have her already immersed in the team. Jen is a special player — she’s capable of scoring in a lot of different ways.”
westendorf showed what she could do during n otre d ame’s spring season this year, leading the team with four goals and adding two assists. s he said her main challenge currently is keeping up her success on the field while balancing soccer with work in the classroom.
“ i think adapting to the soccer aspect of it is something i got used to in the spring,” westendorf said.
“ b ut now with the season going on and school, i think what’s hard for me is keeping up with my schoolwork
and managing that with everything on the field i have to do.”
a s a strong player with powerful left foot, westendorf has found success in both creating chances for herself and other players. The forward said she believes her style of hold-up play works well with the players around her at n otre d ame.
“ i really like the ball at my feet,” westendorf said.
“ i like to post up on defenders and turn them and lay it off for other people to shoot it. i ’m not one to make these runs, so i think it works well
for my outside forwards that i play with like [junior] Kaitlin [Klawunder], [junior m eghan] d oyle, and [senior] Kaleigh [ o lmsted]. They like to get these crosses in, and i like the ball at my feet. i t works well together.”
d espite westendorf’s early success, r omagnolo said she believes the freshman can still improve as her time at n otre d ame goes on.
“ s he’s still learning,” r omagnolo said. “ s he’s learning how to play the game at this college speed, she’s learning how to hold the ball against bigger, stronger defenders. s o there’s still huge room for her to keep going this season. b ut right now, we can still see these great flares of what she can do, which is exciting.”
westendorf said she is confident in her ability to keep improving upon her early success thanks to her team’s culture of working to improve one another — something she has been able to both take part in and benefit from.
“a s a team, we all accept criticism and helpful tips from each other,” westendorf said. “ s o i ’d consider myself a leader, but i ’d consider everyone else on the team a leader in the same way. we’re always giving each other help on the field and listening too.” westendorf and the i rish will be in action again s aturday when they travel to l ouisville. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at l ynn s tadium.
Contact Daniel O’Boyle at doboyle1@nd.edu
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EMMET FARNAN | The Observer Irish freshman forward Jennifer Westendorf fires a shot during Notre Dame’s 1-0 win over Missouri on Sept. 4 at Alumni Stadium.
‘[the defense] will have more of my stamp’
Kelly
discusses changes in defensive scheme and personnel under new defensive coordinator
By MAREK MAZUREK sports e ditor
four weeks into notre dame’s season, i rish head coach brian Kelly has already made significant changes to his team.
Kelly fired defensive coordinator brian vang order on sunday, replacing him with former defensive analyst greg hudson. i n addition to the coaching shakeup, Kelly said there would be roster changes as well, as he looks to get more out of his defense.
“you can’t take somebody that’s had no reps and give them 70 on s aturday. That’s impossible,” Kelly said. “but what we can start to do is put a depth chart together that gives a young man a look at saying, ‘i got a shot, here. i’m part of the solution.’ i want guys to feel like they’re part of the solution here. There is going to be a lot of those guys that are going to feel like that they now can be part of the solution, both in a defensive standpoint and, in some instances, on the offensive side of the ball.”
w hile Kelly did not say what specific personnel changes he had in mind, he did say he plans to give more players a chance to see the field on game day. Kelly listed junior defensive lineman Jay hayes, junior linebacker greer martini and sophomore linebacker a smar bilal as candidates for increased snaps.
“ we’ve got some guys out there that are dog tired trying to do things,” Kelly said. “They got too many reps and we got too many good players sitting behind them watching, and we’ve gotta get them in the game and we’ve got to trust them and we’ve got to coach them and get them in the game. a nd that’s on me.”
following vang order’s departure, Kelly said the defense for the rest of the season will reflect his personal modifications, with hudson being put into a motivational, cheerleading role as new coordinator.
“[The defense] will have more of my stamp on it,” Kelly said. “greg has been empowered to
Westendorf lives up to hype in freshman season
By DANIEL O’BOYLE sports writer
i t can be hard to live up to the hype of being a fivestar recruit. f reshman forward Jennifer w estendorf had to deal with expectations of a big impact in her opening season at n otre d ame.
b ut the success w estendorf has had in her first 11 games for the i rish (7-1-3, 2-0-1 acc ) suggests that dealing with expectations hasn’t been a concern for her.
westendorf hit the ground running in her n otre d ame debut, scoring twice against w right s tate. s ince then, she’s added three more for the season to lead the i rish in goals, most recently volleying in the second goal in n otre d ame’s 4-0 home victory over p ittsburgh. westendorf’s other two goals were impressive efforts — a free kick to earn a
i rish finish sixth in season opener
By MOLLY MURPHY sports writer
notre dame competed in the schooner fall classic in norman, oklahoma, this past weekend and tied for sixth amongst 12 teams.
This was the first tournament of the season for the irish, and head coach susan holt said her team’s mentality coming into the event was one of excitement to start the season and a readiness to compete. The team’s combined score of +19 and sixthplace finish were results the team can build upon, she added.
“i thought, first tournament of the year, we’re just getting back into the routine of traveling and competing,” holt said. “i thought we could have done better, but there was a lot of positive points to the weekend. we had a lot of good scoring from four of our players, all pretty consistent. we definitely have things to work on, but i think we’re definitely gonna be able to make those necessary adjustments and we’ll be just that much better when we get to Texas state in a couple of weeks.”
focusing on those adjustments necessary for her team, holt pointed to its play on par 5s in particular.
“we didn’t play the par 5s very well at all any of the rounds,” holt said. “we’re pretty long hitters and pretty accurate, so i was a little surprised by the par5 score being as poor as it was. i think it just comes down to playing a little bit smarter on those holes and putting ourselves in better positions to make birdies and pars. we discussed that and — looking forward — those are just some of the little things that make a big impact on your score and that we need to make adjustments on.”
holt emphasized, however, she has confidence in her players and the strength of the line up despite their performance in their first event not being up to par.
“we’ve got really good players, and i think, individually, we had some good showings across the board, and i just think that we
nd WomEn’s GolF
WomEn’s soCCEr
CHRIS COLLINS | The Observer
Irish sophomore linebacker Asmar Bilal, left, tangles with a Duke blocker in Notre Dame’s 38-35 loss to Blue Devils on Saturday. Kelly said Tuesday that Bilal will see more playing time going forward.
