The Tufts Daily - Thursday, October 20, 2022

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Rwanda fellowship promotes immersive global education

‘Sound of Things Falling’ fell on deaf ears

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T HE T UFTS DAILY VOLUME LXXXIV, ISSUE 7

Thursday, October 20, 2022

LOCAL

‘The T is failing’: Warren, Markey hold Senate hearing in Boston on MBTA

by Aaron Gruen

Deputy News Editor

UNIVERSITY

BREAKING: Tufts administration reports offensive graffiti on campuses

by Ariana Phillips

Originally published Oct. 18 Senator Elizabeth Warren chaired a senate subcommittee hearing in Boston on Friday, focusing on management failures within the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority. Senator Ed Markey joined Warren for the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs’ Subcommittee on Economic Policy hearing.

Over the past two years, the T has experienced delays, derailments, collisions, fires and even a death earlier this year when a man was trapped

MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, MASS.

Deputy News Editor

AARON GRUEN / THE TUFTS DAILY

Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey are pictured in Boston at a Senate hearing on management failures within the MBTA. in the door of a red line train.

Warren addressed these problems in her opening statement.

“The people of Massachusetts need a safe system, but they

also need a transit system that works — a system that is reliable, accessible, frequent, see HEARING, page 2

Dean of Student Affairs Camille Lizarríbar disclosed the presence of offensive graffiti around Tufts campuses in an email sent to the Tufts community on Wednesday.

The email cited a series of incidents involving the defacement of public spaces, including “[d]erogatory and crude” graffiti on the School of Museum of Fine Arts campus found in the last few weeks.

Members of the community have also found a hate sym-

bol on the Medford/Somerville campus and vulgar imagery in the Joyce Cummings Center and the School of Engineering.

Lizarríbar emphasized that this behavior contradicts the “values and expectations” of the Tufts community. The presence of offensive graffiti “creates an unwelcoming environment and disrespects every member of our community.”

Lizarríbar urged students to work together to establish a respectful and inclusive campus culture that encourages see GRAFFITI, page 3

UNIVERSITY

Department of Public Safety announces updated mission and values, creation of new positions

by Madeline Wilson Deputy News Editor

Executive Director of Public Safety Yolanda Smith shared updates on the Department of Public Safety’s efforts to support the University’s anti-racism initiatives in an email to the Tufts community on Wednesday.

The email stated that the changes are the result of the 2021 Campus Safety and Police Workstream final report, which established the Working Group on TUPD Arming as well as detailed other recommended structural changes and efforts for community engagement.

Smith noted in the email that over the summer that DPS updated its core values and its mission and vision statements, to “clearly reflect our commitment to ensuring the physical, psychological, and emotional safety of all members of the Tufts community.”

The updated vision statement includes direct mention of the department’s anti-racism initiatives, stating that DPS will be a “model of progressive excellence in campus safety and policing by employing a hybrid model with

differential response training; mentoring employees to act with compassion, professionalism, and integrity.”

The email also stated that DPS will be expanding the training process for all TUPD officers to include a focus on “implicit bias, harassment discrimination, active bystandership, and mental health awareness.” Over the summer, officers also received additional training from a non-law enforcement agency on healing and empathy, which DPS plans to continue.

The Department also announced that two new roles have been created to “strengthen the department’s relationship with the campus community.”

According to the email, a new communications manager at DPS will be responsible for updating the department’s website and social media channels.

The second new position is the campus security officer manager who will manage non-emergency situations on campus, like lockouts and missing items, which do not require uniformed officers.

According to the email, the SMFA and Boston Health Sciences campuses already employ CSOs.

TUPD patrol cars are pictured in the Dowling Hall Garage on May 8.

Other upcoming changes that the email noted include welcoming a comfort dog to help during mental health and non-emergency incidents, a “new and less imposing” cruiser design, uniform patches that express the department’s “com-

mitment to the community” and a survey, which is planned for next fall, to assess the community’s response to the aforementioned changes.

Smith closed the email by restating DPS and Tufts’ continued commitment to keeping the

MINA TERZIOGLU / THE TUFTS DAILY

community safe and working toward an anti-racist institution.

“While we have made progress over the last several months in transforming the Department of Public Safety to support the university’s anti-racist goals, there is more ahead,” Smith wrote.

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THE TUFTS DAILY | News | Thursday, October 20, 2022

THE TUFTS DAILY Chloe Courtney Bohl Editor in Chief

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EDITORIAL

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UNIVERSITY

Annual Clery study reports crime, fire statistics

by Amelia Colafati

Delaney Clarke Julia Shannon-Grillo

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Ty Blitstein Abigail Vixama Associate Editors Emily Thompson Aaron Gruen Ariana Phillips Madeline Wilson Aditya Acharya Madeleine Aitken Coco Arcand Peri Barest Olivia Field Skyler Goldberg Ella Kamm Maddy Mueller Michael Weiskopf Ava Autry Charlotte Chen Daniel Vos

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The Tufts University Department of Public Safety published its Annual Fire Safety and Security Report for the 2021 calendar year, pursuant to the Clery Act of 1990. The report was distributed to the Tufts community via email on Sept. 30. Crimes included in the report cover everything from sex offenses and aggravated assault to liquor and drug arrests to hate crimes.

The Medford/Somerville campus reported seven burglaries, five rape offenses, five stalking offenses, three motor vehicle thefts and two instances of dating violence. The SMFA campus reported one rape, the Grafton campus reported one hate crimes-intimidation offense and the Health Sciences campus had four burglaries.

“The Clery Report … is a Federal mandate by the Department of Education that requires colleges and universities that receive federal funding to disclose certain crime statistics and fire statistics each year

by October 1st,” Yolanda Smith, executive director of public safety, wrote in an email to the Daily.

The reported information is compiled from Tufts police reports and from other organizations on campus that keep track of crimes and fires, including the Office of Equal Opportunity and the Tufts Campus Security Authorities.

Tufts Emergency Medical Services does not report these crimes, according to Rebecca Moriarty. Moriarty, a TEMS EMT, stated that TEMS only works in treating patients.

“As far as TEMS involvement in the Clery Report, I don’t [believe] we have a specific or direct role in reporting as our training for TEMS is focused on providing patient care to patients in emergency situations – not reporting crime,” Moriarty, a sophomore, wrote in an email to the Daily.

The report includes data on crimes reported on campus property and on public property that is adjacent to campus. As long as the crime is reportable under the Clery Act, it must be declared in the Tufts report.

“The crime statistics include any Clery reportable crime regardless of who the perpetrator is,” Smith wrote. “Tufts must report to a national database overseen by the U.S. Dept. of Education. The DOE’s Campus Safety and Security website allows users to get data for one school, compare data for multiple schools, and download custom data.”

The Working Group on Campus Safety and Policing issued a report with recommendations to establish “a new vision for campus safety and policing at the university” in 2021, according to Smith.

“This vision called for a renewed and broader understanding of campus safety that

NATALIE BROWNSELL / THE TUFTS DAILY

A TUPD patrol car is pictured near the Medford/Somerville campus on Oct. 16. encompassed the physical, psychological and emotional well-being of our entire community,” Smith wrote.

This working group came up with several recommendations, including increasing the visibility of the Department of Public Safety. They also recommended increasing training and orientations for new employees, including active shooter training, and increasing the use of digital technology to respond to and solve crime.

The pandemic influenced the numbers in the Fire Safety and Security Report too.

“Some factors that influenced a change in numbers were the COVID protocols placed within the communities,” Smith wrote.

“As a result, people were more apt to call to report COVID vio-

lations such as large gatherings.

These types of calls might have increased the statistics for alcohol referrals.”

Mike Howard, executive vice president of Tufts and chair of the Working Group on TUPD Arming, views the Fire Safety and Security Report as a useful resource for Tufts as it strives to keep the community safe.

“This annual report is a useful tool that provides our community with information about safety on and around our campuses as well as information about related university programs, policies and resources that are available to community members,” Howard wrote in an email to the Daily.

“Public safety is a responsibility we all share, so the report helps to equip our community members with relevant information.”

Michelle Wu, MBTA manager testify at Senate hearing in Boston HEARING

continued from page 1 dependable, clean and that gets you where you need to go without crazy delays,” Warren said.

Markey, who grew up in Malden, noted that greater Boston’s identity is “inseparable” from the T, calling the public transit system “the lifeblood of the region.”

“As any rider of the T can tell you, the MBTA has a long way to go,” Markey said in his opening statement. “Let this hearing today be an honest and unsparing account of the T’s neglect, as well as a first step towards making the T a vibrant, prosperous transit system.”

The subcommittee first called Nuria Fernandez, administrator of the Federal Transit Administration, to testify. The FTA conducted a safety management inspection of the MBTA’s rail system between April and June of this year, finding that the MBTA is understaffed and that the Mass. Department of Public Utilities failed in its duty to actively oversee the MBTA’s management. “[The] MBTA was not adequately staffed, across the agency, to meet the demands of both an aggressive capital expansion program and the basic day-today safe operation of the system,” Fernandez said. “I feel that the system is safe and that people should continue to ride

it. Yet, tough decisions will have to be made now to create a better, safer future.”

Following Fernandez’s testimony, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, Executive Director of TransitMatters Jarred Johnson, Chair of the DPU Matthew Nelson and MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak delivered statements and fielded questions from Warren and Markey.

Warren scrutinized Nelson and Poftak’s records, telling the former, “It is your job to make sure that the MBTA is doing its job, and you are failing,” and criticized the latter for not making safety risk decisions based on safety data. “[T]here are a lot of reasons why safety risks on the T have grown over time,” Warren said.

“But the only way out of this is with accountability. … If we don’t have that, then we are not going to have a T that gets better.”

Citing shutdowns and slow service, Markey asked Poftak to give a specific date when repairs to the orange line will be complete. Poftak declined to answer, saying, “If I put a date in place, it doesn’t prioritize safety, it puts pressure on field staff to make a decision that is not based on what is the safest condition in the field.”

Warren then asked Wu to elaborate on the effects of T

delays and failures on riders.

“The most obvious and devastating impact is the injury and loss of life,” Wu said. “This has been … driven by a lack of clear safety culture and decades of deferred maintenance.”

Wu added that T shutdowns have an indirect effect on the city’s economy and quality of life.

“When ridership goes down, that means more traffic for everyone,” Wu said. “That means the entire region is paralyzed, and so any question of safety hurts our residents and it hurts our economy.”

Johnson, whose organization TransitMatters advocates for improved public transit in greater Boston, noted that T shutdowns have a disproportionate effect on poorer communities.

“Residents in under-resourced communities are more likely to be hourly workers or be in precarious employment,” Johnson said. “So the unreliability of the service cuts … literally took money out of the pockets of these folks and left some of them vulnerable to termination.”

“Failures to competently manage and invest in the T have left many families without safe and reliable transit,” Warren said. “If this incompetence continues, the T is going to see more shutdowns, more delays, more crowding, more

derailments and potentially more accidents.”

Asked about solutions to mitigate congestion, Wu said that “fare equity on the commuter rail system could be done tomorrow and would likely boost ridership on the commuter rail to then ease the congestion and the load and burden on other forms of transit and on traffic as well.”

Markey noted that a silver lining of the orange line shutdown was the expanded usage of the city’s BlueBikes, after Boston offered free 30-day passes to riders in August.

“We were expecting, with 30-day free BlueBike passes, that maybe eight or nine thousand people might take us up on that,” Wu said. “It ended up that 60,000 people claimed those free passes. … Before the shutdown, the BlueBike system’s daily ridership record was just over 18,000 rides in one day, and during the shutdown it was 47,000 rides.”

Warren closed the hearing by calling for systemic change within the MBTA. “The people of the Commonwealth deserve a reliable transit system that works for them and works for their families,” Warren said. “And to achieve that vision, we need new leadership from top to bottom.

News

Thursday, October 20, 2022 | News | THE TUFTS DAILY

3

Lizarríbar condemns graffiti as disrespectful, against Tufts’ values

MICHELLE LI / THE TUFTS DAILY

The front of Dowling Hall is pictured on Oct. 5, 2021.

GRAFFITI

continued from page 1 students to take accountability for their shared spaces.

The email noted that these incidents will require the university to utilize resources to repair the physical damage.

According to the email, the Tufts University Police Department is now involved and is conducting an investigation into these instances.

Once those responsible are found, they will be referred to the Office of Equal Opportunity and subsequently the Office of Community Standards, where they will discuss the violations committed through these acts.

The email encouraged anyone who has information about inappropriate behavior that does not align with community values and standards to reach out to her, OEO, the Division of

Diversity and Inclusion, TUPD or the University Chaplaincy. The email stated that any information given will be handled confidentially and will be addressed in partnership with its sharer.

The email also listed a variety of support groups and services for those affected to reach out to. These include DOSA, OEO, DSDI, Counseling and Mental Health Service, the CARE office and Ears for Peers.

Despite the information included in the email, students are unsure about the extent of these incidents and how the university will address them on a larger level. Issues such as these do not come as shock to many who have followed the news of recent racist and antisemitic incidents by Tufts students.

In a Sidechat forum about the email, one student wrote,

“I feel like these emails are just like ‘hey we need to send out an email because we feel like we are doing absolutely nothing tangible.’”

Another student wrote, “Let me justify a useless administration position so your tuition keeps funding admin bloat.”

Executive Director of Media Relations Patrick Collins declined to offer an administrative response to these comments.

In Photos: Beelzebubs perform in Tufts Daily Newsroom Concert Series

4 Thursday, October 20, 2022

Features

tuftsdaily.com

Students emerge with new perspectives after immersive Tufts With Rwanda Fellowship

by Isabelle Kaminsky

Assistant Features Editor

Originally published Oct. 18 Hidden in the spring semester course selections is an Experimental College class called “Tufts With Rwanda Fellowship.” However, it is much more than the average three-hour ExCollege class.

The Tufts With Rwanda Fellowship is an opportunity for undergraduates subsidized by Tufts Hillel and the Cummings Program for Holocaust and Genocide Education.

Fellowship participants learn about the Rwandan genocide in the ExCollege class, and then travel to Rwanda for 10 days to briefly immerse themselves in the material they spent the previous months discussing and to visit the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village where they connect with the village’s students.

In the semester following the trip, the fellowship brings back their learnings and experiences and shares it with the Tufts community.

About an hour and a half outside the capital city of Kigali, the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village started as a high school for orphans of the Rwandan genocide, a result of escalated conflict between Rwanda’s Hutu and Tutsi minority ethnic groups in 1994. Dismayed by Rwanda’s 1.2 million orphans at the time, and invigorated by the Jewish philosophy of ‘Tikkun Olam,’ which means ‘to repair the world,’ Anne Heyman, the wife of Tufts alumnus, Seth Merrin, founded the Youth Village in 2008. She endeavored to model it after similar residential communities that aided orphans of the Holocaust.

Bella Preneta, a senior majoring in international relations and a co-coordinator for the 2022 Tufts With Rwanda Fellowship described how the co-coordinators structured the 2022 fellowship.

“Typically, we recruit the fellows in the fall and then preceding the spring semester, there’s an ExCollege class that meets once a week for two and a half hours. It’s typically a 6:30 [p.m.] to 9 [p.m.] class. And during the class, we have different speakers come in every week,” Preneta said.

Each year, the ExCollege class looks slightly different from the year before.

“Every week, [we had] a discussion with a … highly trained person with knowledge about the Rwandan genocide and Rwanda in general. So we talked to a professor of ethnic studies or actual Rwandans who are now doing amazing NGO

and nonprofit and community organizing work. During the semester, we also read parts of a book,” Saffiyah Coker, a junior double-majoring in international relations and economics and a 2022 Tufts with Rwanda fellow, said.

Aside from providing fellows with necessary background information to travel to Rwanda, the ExCollege class and the trip search for answers to questions regarding tourism in a country recently distressed by mass violence.

“One of the main goals of the ExCollege class was for us as individuals in the class to think of how we wanted to travel intentionally. … We wanted to have very intentional conversations about what ecotourism looks like and why we’re going to Rwanda,” Coker said. “It’s not just the vacation; we’re going there to learn about very serious topics, and also how we wanted to interact with the space while we were there, because you’re only visiting one place for 10 days, so you won’t become an expert by any means.”

Once in Rwanda, fellows spent time at ASYV and toured various genocide memorials.

2022 fellow Claire Brennan, a senior studying English and political science, noted that while they were constantly partaking in meaningful discussions on the trip, the interactions with the students at ASYV were not about the genocide but simply teenagers getting to know one another.

“When we were with the students, we were talking about math homework and the soccer game later that day and stuff, so we weren’t really getting into the deeper stuff with them. But we had opportunities to have speaker series with older staff members, and that’s when those topics would come up a little bit more,” Brennan said.

Esma Abib, a junior studying international relations, and the other co-coordinator of the 2022 Tufts with Rwanda Fellowship also described the interactions with the ASYV students as more friendly and less rigid than the ExCollege classroom setting.

“I feel like I didn’t learn that much about the history of the Rwandan Genocide through the conversations I was having. It was just kind of like humanizing all the learning that we’ve done and seeing so many similarities between each other,” Abib said.

However, when it came to having meaningful discussion, Abib noted that she was grateful for the diversity of the Tufts cohort because it brought about more fruitful conversations throughout the Fellowship.

Participants in the Tufts With Rwanda Fellowship are pictured.

“In previous years, there wasn’t as much diversity in the cohort specifically, and this year … [we had] diversity on our cohort [that impacted] the discussions that we’d have, because so many people would come from so many different backgrounds, whether if it was identity based or even academically,” Abib said.

As children orphaned by the Rwandan genocide grew up, ASYV had to adapt. Preneta explained how it is now also a community for the most vulnerable children in Rwanda.

“Each district [in Rwanda] nominates two or three students. And then they’re voted on by the councils of those regions and Rwanda, and then they get to go to the village and attend for free.” Preneta said.

The fellows additionally got to experience much of Rwanda outside of ASYV. “We spent a little bit of time in Kigali, which is the capital city and did touristy stuff there.

We saw some markets and some cool buildings. … One day, we went on a safari, which was awesome … and then we also went to three nonprofits. …

One was a women’s shelter,” Brennan said.

While they were not at ASYV, fellows toured several genocide memorials, museums and nonprofits in Rwanda. Brennan explained that immersing oneself in such grim images was often a difficult task. She noted one memorial in particular that was difficult and uncomfortable to view.

“It was a school where people ran to as a safe house and then they were killed there. …

How they choose to present [this

memorial] is that they preserved a lot of the bodies, and they keep them in classrooms. And then there’s also a mass grave … that was by far the hardest day for me, at least. I think it was for most people,” Brennan said.

“There was a lot of crying. It’s just nauseating to see that laid out in front of you. … The tour guide who works at the memorial, he was guiding us around and he was seeing all of us get really visibly upset and his job is to go around and comfort people and say, ‘I know this is really hard, but you need to keep going because it’s really important to see this and that’s why we have it displayed this way.’”

The third element to the Tufts With Rwanda Fellowship is that the fellows carry on what they learned in the ExCollege class and on the 10-day trip to the Tufts community in the fall semester. “[The fellows have] done something different every year.

One year they had a 5K, where they raised money for the village.

One year they did an art show where they showed pictures.

This year, we’re doing a speaker series. So our first one is actually … Oct. 12. So, Wednesday, Oct. 12, at 7:30[p.m.] And we’re having an ASYV alum and Tufts graduate come speak to us, and it will be a roundtable discussion,” Preneta said.

Although the fellowship is technically only one year long, fellows returned from the trip with new perspectives, experiences and unanswered questions that extend far beyond the timeline and scope of the fellowship.

“When you fly into Rwanda, you fly into Kigali, which is a really modern city. … It could be any

COURTESY ESMA ABIB

midsize city in the United States.

And then you get right outside the city and you’re in these villages that do have no running water, and 80% of the population of Rwanda lives in a super rural community [and] that is what I think a lot of people do think about when they think about Africa. So, I think it was really interesting to kind of see that nobody really gets it right unless you’ve been there. And just the fact that those perceptions exist in the first place is really harmful stereotyping,” Brennan said.

“When I started interacting with people of Rwanda, I fell in love with Rwanda. … They have a phrase, which is ‘Ubumuntu,’ and it means ‘greatness of heart.’ … I felt like everyone in Rwanda really held that to the utmost importance in their lives. And I felt like everyone lived by that phrase, and everyone just wanted to do better … and be their best selves,” Preneta said.

“I think that more people should apply because it’s truly a once in a life opportunity. You’re going to Rwanda, such a beautiful country, for 10 days to learn and be with a cohort of such intentional people,” Coker said.

F e at u r e s

Thursday, October 20, 2022 | Features | THE TUFTS DAILY

Tufts community members reflect on the escalating tension around Taiwan

by Layla Kennington

Elizabeth Foster Liz in London

On food and art

W

Assistant Features Editor

Originally published Oct. 17 In the aftermath of China’s August military exercises near Taiwan, Beijing’s message to the world was clear: China will not shy away from challenging the United States, and its military will continue to uphold China’s claim to Taiwan. The message suggests that tensions in the region will remain high, with an increasing risk of confrontation between the United States and China.

China’s military exercises came following U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan in August of this year. Pelosi is the highest-ranking American official to have visited the island since 1997, and her decision to do so was immediately marked by rising tensions with Beijing.

It is important to note that Pelosi’s visit came at an already tenuous time in world politics. Michael Beckley, an associate professor of political science and specialist in U.S.-China relations, pointed out the two countries’ strained relationship in light of recent events.

“China, even prior to Pelosi’s visit, had been conducting the most sustained and aggressive show of force in the Taiwan Strait in more than a generation,” Beckley explained. “[Between] the crushing of Hong Kong, the concentration camps in Xinjiang … and …

China’s support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, … I would say that relations [between China and the US] were pretty awful even prior to the visit, and even more awful now.”

To fully comprehend the context of the speaker’s visit, it is helpful to understand the complex relationship between China and Taiwan. Though Taiwan has its own democratically elected government, Beijing views the island as a breakaway province and seeks reunification. In an October 2021 address, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that “the historical task of the complete reunification of the motherland must be fulfilled, and will definitely be fulfilled.” In a response, Taiwan’s Mainland Affairs Council rejected Xi’s statements and entreated Beijing to desist with its “provocative steps of intrusion, harassment and destruction.”

Even as the United States officially subscribes to a “One China policy,” it has enjoyed extensive commercial and informal political ties with Taiwan. The U.S. also supplies Taiwan with “arms of a defensive character” per the Taiwan Relations Act, and operates under “the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means.”

For Pelosi, a visit to Taiwan is in character with a career that involves a 1991 trip to Tiananmen Square and leading a congressional delegation to Kyiv in May of this year. In a call with President Joe Biden prior to Pelosi’s arrival in Taipei, Xi highlighted Beijing’s discontent with the visit and the current state of Washington’s Taiwan policies. “Those who play with fire will perish by it,” he said.

Beckley further contextualized China’s strong disapproval of Pelosi’s visit.

“I think [Pelosi’s visit] accelerated trends that were already there, namely that China perceives the U.S. as determined to upgrade Taiwan’s status and upgrade the U.S. relationship with Taiwan,” Beckley said.

5

GRAPHIC BY MARK CHOI IMAGES VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS According to Kevin Du, a junior from Hangzhou, China, Beijing’s aversion to the speaker’s visit was palpable, even prior to August’s military exercises. Du anticipated the Chinese foreign ministry’s displeasure with her presence in Taiwan.

“I don’t know if ‘scared’ is the way to put it, [it was more that I was] extremely concerned before Pelosi made the visit, because in China, [there] was an increasing number of concerns and outcry about, ‘you [Pelosi] should not be doing this and we will be extremely unhappy,’” Du said.

In this context, Du questioned the reason behind Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan and shared his frustration as the U.S.-China relations continue to deteriorate.

“My family and the people [in China] definitely have a sense of resentment, a sense of like, why are you doing this?” Du said. “You cannot sacrifice the already intense relationship between the U.S. and China to another level, especially [when] it could involve people’s deaths and the war between two countries.”

China’s military exercises this summer entailed firing “long-range explosive projectiles” and “multiple conventional missile launches in three different areas in the eastern waters of Taiwan,” according to the Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army. Japan’s Defense Ministry said on Twitter that four missiles may have flown over Taipei.

Beckley shared his view on what these military exercises might mean for the geopolitical risks and future of the region. “[Pelosi’s visit] allowed China to establish this new normal in the Taiwan Strait of having massive military forces out there, barging across the median line between China and Taiwan. And that not only helps it ramp up pressure on Taiwan, it also means that if there is going to be an assault on Taiwan sometime in the future, China could use that to gain some tactical military surprise,” Beckley said.

Beckley elaborated on his assessment of the overall tension between the United States and China over Taiwan.

“It’s not that I think war is likely, but it has just become much more likely, especially given the rise in tensions, … than it has been in any time I can remember honestly,” Beckley said.

Jason Wu, a junior from Taipei, Taiwan, underscored the negative

impacts of Pelosi’s visit on the people of Taiwan in light of his lived experiences.

“On a personal level, I did not think that it was good for Taiwan for Nancy Pelosi to visit, simply because it’s a sensitive time. … she knew that Xi Jinping’s re-election was coming up … and that her trip would be unprecedented. … She knew that Beijing would react, either militarily or diplomatically or economically,” Wu said. “So it’s unfortunate that the people of Taiwan have to face the consequences of her political gamble.”

The consequences Wu spoke of have been felt widely. Echoing Wu’s sentiment, Du drew attention to unique challenges that many international students face as U.S.-China tensions escalate.

“Because we stay in the states for so long … [and] get exposed to a lot of different media coverage and also the key values of the United States, [we] learn that through American history, you learn through civic discussions with Tufts people … the importance of democracy and the importance of preserving that,” Du said. “[Through these interactions], you understand that there’s definitely merit [to] having a democratic system … [but] I’m Chinese, and I … totally understand my fellow Chinese [in regards to Taiwan policy].”

Du urged the Tufts community to consider what the ongoing conflict between the United States and China might mean for international students at Tufts.

“I would love [the Tufts community] to know about the tricky balance [that] international students — I think every international student — needs to strike when it comes to political conflict between their home country and the United States,” Du said.

In the coming months and years, the international community can only wait to witness how the relationship between the United States and China evolves or deteriorates. Amid this uncertainty, Wu offered a call to action to the U.S. government.

“With China being more assertive, diplomatically and militarily, I do hope that the U.S. [moves] away from strategic ambiguity and [makes] it more clear that China would face consequences if they were to invade,” Wu said.

hile living in Medford this summer, my friends and I excitedly discussed studying and traveling abroad: who knew who in which countries, what airlines were the cheapest to fly across the pond and, most importantly, the food.

I’ve accidentally put myself in the position of eating dining hall beans and toast, but considering the traditional British cuisine, I was excited to consume fruits, vegetables and grains that weren’t sprayed with U.S.-grade pesticides. In addition to higher-quality (and cheaper) produce, London has a vast assortment of international food trucks, market booths and restaurants. Through this lens, I’ve begun to experience what it means to be in a cosmopolitan space.

I celebrated a friend’s 21st birthday at a Brazilian steakhouse. He took full advantage of the opportunity to practice his Portuguese while my plate piled higher and higher with steaks and sausages. Yes, there was a vegetarian option and no, I did not get it, as my friend had pushed me out of my comfort zone by ordering the protein-heavy option before I sat down.

Art serves as another universal experience (though I will argue that food is just a form of art) and there is no lack of creativity in London’s theater circles.

One of my modules watches a play a week. A recorded version of Chekov’s “The Cherry Orchard” put on in 2011 by the National Theatre reminded me that I was in fact, in the U.K., with an all-white cast of actors speaking in British accents and giving interviews explaining how the play would have been performed under Stanislavski. It felt regal, traditional and a little pompous — exactly what one would expect from a national British theater.

The following week we saw The Yard’s production of the Russian classic and ventured out to Hackney Wick, a neighborhood just outside of the Olympic Park that’s very hipster — in the derogatory sense (think industrial architecture and graffiti, but all in the same style and only on certain buildings). The actors still had British accents, but this allSouth-Asian cast performed a science fiction rendition. Add in a spaceship and a few (correct) references to special relativity, and you have a premise so engaging and fresh that it was unclear how far the show would drift from the original script.

After two weeks of distinctly British plays, I spent a weekend in Venice, Italy during which we (myself and 14 other Tufts students) discovered La Biennale di Venezia, the every-other-year exhibit featuring over 20 artists representing different countries.

We took the ferry out to the Giardini della Biennale, and after an impromptu detour to the island of Lida and a dip in the Adriatic Sea, we wandered from building to building. A surprising number of pieces featured technology, from Egypt implementing artificial intelligence to generate a womb experience to South Korea building a knotted, circular snake that moved in response to individuals leaving the exhibit. Somehow, five hours was not enough time to fully explore the exhibits.

Elizabeth Foster is a junior studying computer science. Elizabeth can be reached at elizabeth.foster635086@tufts.edu.

6 Thursday, October 20, 2022

WEEKENDER

tuftsdaily.com

We forgot ‘The Sound of Things Falling’

by Andrés F. Arévalo Contributing Writer

“Hay un ruido que no logro, que nunca he logrado identificar: un ruido que no es humano o es más que humano.” (“There is a noise that I cannot, that I have never been able to identify: a noise that is neither human nor more than human.”)

In his most renowned book, Juan Gabriel Vásquez wastes no time to probe the readers’ mind.

Like many of his other titles, “The Sound of Things Falling” (2011) takes a very common verb and uses it in a nothing but confusing manner to preface Vásquez’s work.

The reader may know the sounds of many things, but what could the sound of things falling be?

Vásquez is a Latin American writer, journalist and translator, from Bogotá, Colombia.

Although he has spent most of his professional writing years abroad, his pieces aim to narrate and feature the realities of the Colombian and Latino peoples, just like his predecessors from the “Boom” — a movement in the 1960s and 1970s when Latin American literature became greatly popularized worldwide.

Mostly recognized for his contemporary imagery and superb representation of human interactions, Vásquez has earned his place into the Latin American canon, as well as being considered one of the most influential active Latin American writers.

“The Sound of Things Falling” could be deemed as Vásquez’s ode to the city that birthed him: Colombia’s capital, Bogotá. Using Bogotá as an essential character, instead of a setting, this piece presents a short memoir of Antonio Yammara. Antonio, as the narrator, remembers the worst portion of his life by focusing on telling the story of another man, Ricardo Laverde. Antonio meets Ricardo, a mysterious ex-convict and retired pilot, playing pool. Although their relationship revolves fully around playing pool, one day, Antonio helps Ricardo find a tape-player in the city. When they walk out, Ricardo is shot to death, and Antonio catches a bullet in the crossfire.

As Antonio falls deep into depression and experiences PTSD, his daughter is born.

He decides he will find out who Ricardo Laverde was and what got him killed. As he probes deeper, he finds the tape Ricardo listened to right before his murder. Finally, Maya, Ricardo’s daughter, reaches out to him.

Together, they piece together her father’s life, while also uncovering themselves and the impact that living in Bogotá and being Colombians had on them.

The plot of “The Sound of Things Falling” is not intricate.

Vásquez was able to create a humane prose — one that mirrors real people — by choosing a simple story and focusing

Juan Gabriel Vásquez (left) and the cover of his novel “The Sound of Things Falling” (2011) (right) are pictured. on excelling the manner it is portrayed.

One must first note the use of the setting, Bogotá. The book has a beautiful description of the capital of Colombia, naming and showing to the reader many of the landmarks of the city, like La Candelaria, El Centro, la Casa de Poesía Silva and more. Nonetheless, Bogotá goes further than just being detailed imagery, it becomes an actor in the story. The violence, the fear, the weather and the characteristics of the city, all have influence over the characters and the actions. One of the characters even specifies that all raised in Bogotá during the ‘80s had some sort of connection — a mark — created by all the events they had to live through: the terrorism from the drug cartels, the corruption of the governments the murders of social leaders. Turning on the TV only showed more terrible news. By using Bogotá as an actor, Vásquez vividly depicts a reality of the Columbian people: deeply engraved in trauma created by the atrocious conditions and events of their homes.

Vásquez’s depiction of trauma in this piece is sublime. Not only the trauma mentioned above, but also through exploring the feelings and thoughts of the narrator. Similar to accounts of wounded-in-battle soldiers, the reader gets a peek of what an injury of that magnitude can cause to a human being.

Additionally, Vásquez breaks a mental-illness stigma for Latino men by openly talking about PTSD and demonstrating how it sends Antonio into a downward spiral — developing fear towards

his own home, madness, sexual impotence and more.

The beauty of how “The Sound of Things Falling” portrays trauma also lies in the lightness the narrator keeps while still depicting all these atrocious events. At its core, the narrator represents what life is in South America: the ability to take traumatic events lightly to keep going. To perform the latter, the reader follows a very conversationalist narrator, which is a contemporary trait. Vásquez mimics real life conversations by using simple language, slang and curse words.

He can almost seamlessly change perspectives, delve into fully different accounts and jump between storylines. One more aspect of Vásquez’s light narration worth noting is his use of irony and comedy, which aids the “swallowing” of strong events. An example can be seen after Antonio’s wife gives birth, and she exclaims, “I think the glove really did belong to O.J. Simpson.”

The contemporary-style narrator from Vásquez breaks the long-standing notion that Colombia’s, and Latin America’s, suffering and problems are a matter of the past. The world can only remember Pablo Escobar, but now that he’s dead, what about all those who come after? Although the country has changed for the better, what about the generations that had to live through all that pain and suffering? That is exactly what the book tries to hint at. By using a contemporary setting and style as well as a superb depiction of trauma, Vásquez reaffirms that the troubles of the Colombian people are not gone; they linger

far beyond, but the world has forgotten about them.

So, what is the sound of things falling?

In his search for the story of Ricardo Laverde, Antonio finds the tape he listened to right before he was murdered. The tape was the ‘black-box’ recording of the plane crash that Ricardo’s wife died on. As he listens to it, he details what he hears: a “more than human sound … a sound that never finished.” Antonio, and thus Vásquez, insinuate that the sound of things falling is that never ending desire for more information, for the ultimate truth; that’s why he never stops searching for who Ricardo Laverde was. When Antonio listens to the tape, he opens Pandora’s box; he becomes submerged in the infinite search of the truth, in the infinite sound

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of things falling. And that’s what Vásquez does with this book, he searches for the truth: the truth of the Colombian people, the truth of what Bogotá did to him. That intimate passageway between the story and its author is what has given his work much reputation, even landing him the prestigious Spanish Literature award “El Premio Alfaguara de Novela” (The Alfaguara Novel Prize).

Why, when “The Sound of Things Falling” has won this award as well as the PEN and Impac Dublin awards, isn’t it more widely known? If it was extensively praised in The New York Times, why isn’t it sold in more bookstores?

It seems as if the public has forgotten about the search for the truth — about the sound of things falling.

A r t s & P op C u l t u r e

Thursday, October 20, 2022 | Arts & Pop Culture | THE TUFTS DAILY

Declan McKenna lights up The Sinclair on ‘Zeros’ Tour

by Tessa Moore

Contributing Writer

“They say you play this venue twice in your life: once on the way up and once on the way down. Well, it’s good to be back,” Declan McKenna quipped at the start of his set at The Sinclair on Oct. 11. The joke was clear to the audience as McKenna’s career has only been on the rise, and this show made it obvious why.

Annie DiRusso opened for McKenna, and although most of the audience didn’t seem to know her songs, its members matched her vibrant energy. DiRusso’s lyrics were relatable and her guitar lines were head-banging, both of which she delivered passionately. Her set would inspire any first-time listener to add her music to their playlists. Several quirky elements made the performance even more fun: the matching outfits that she and her band sported, the trampoline on the stage that her guitarist occasionally jumped on and the synchronized choreography that all of the musicians executed during her final song.

McKenna’s set kicked off with a recorded cover of The Beatles’ “With A Little Help from

My Friends” (1967) that played before McKenna even stepped onto the stage, a bit of a surprise to fans who had already stalked the setlist online. However, this choice was certainly in line with the inspiration that McKenna openly takes from pop-rock icons, especially those of the ‘70s. This influence is clear in “Zeros” (2020), the album he is touring, as well as his fashion choices, which for this show included glittery eyeshadow and a Bowie-esque outfit.

McKenna’s first song was “Beautiful Faces,” which immediately engaged the audience as the lyrics encouraged them to “lift your hands up!” He performed the entire tracklist of “Zeros,” which was interspersed with most of the songs from his debut album, “What Do You Think About the Car?” (2017), as well as his most recent single, “My House.” Standouts were “Make Me Your Queen,” a stripped-down version making the emotion in the song palpable, and the opening track of “Zeros,” “You Better Believe!!!” which perfectly encompassed McKenna’s adeptness at shifting between catchy, energetic riffs and esoteric lyrics.

The small and intimate size of The Sinclair was the per-

Declan McKenna performed at The Sinclair on Oct. 11.

fect setting for McKenna. He consistently engaged with fans throughout the show and humorously recounted his previous experience at the venue years earlier when he climbed up onto the balcony and was scolded by a security guard.

Sadly, he did not do the same at this show. He also responded to fans showing him images on their phones and accepted a bouquet of flowers from an attendee in the front row. He didn’t hesitate to let his personality shine through between and during songs.

The most notable aspect of McKenna’s performance was the emotion that he injected into every song, which could be heard in his voice, and seen in his facial expressions and passionate body language. Whether it was a vulnerable expression of insecurity like “Humongous’” or an apocalyptic banger like “Rapture,” the audience responded directly to his energy.

McKenna hopped onto the piano for “Be an Astronaut,” which featured his guitarist Isabel Torres on a beautiful solo in the middle of the song. Throughout the set, McKenna showed his chops in all aspects of musical performance, from vocals to guitar to piano, and even the tambourine.

He left the stage briefly and came back for an encore that consisted of “Daniel, You’re Still a Child,” “Why Do You Feel So Down,” “Eventually, Darling,” his viral hit “Brazil” and the highlight of the set, protest rock anthem “British Bombs.” It was for this last number that McKenna grabbed a guitar plastered with the U.K. flag, which he then seemingly symbolically threw to the ground before launching into the epic buildup of the song’s bridge and final chorus.

Something that stands out in McKenna’s music is his extensive reference to social, political and often existential themes.

This closing performance, as well as many of his other songs, clearly channeled his political frustrations. There is no doubt that his overwhelmingly young audience not only identifies with this feeling, but also appreciates the extremely danceable melodies and guitar lines that McKenna so expertly wraps his scathing political commentary into. A Declan McKenna concert is a space where you can sing and shout along with him about issues from climate change to corruption, and have a grand old time doing it. It is a truly unique and cathartic experience.

TESSA MOORE / THE TUFTS DAILY

7

Layla Noor Landrum The Book Nook

‘Six Times We Almost Kissed’ explores romance and trauma

T

ess Sharpe’s “Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)” (2023) is a poignant and expertly-plotted young adult contemporary romance novel releasing next year from publisher Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Penny and Tate aren’t friends.

Penny is anxious and hyper-organized whereas Tate is a quiet, competitive swimmer who can be found swimming laps in the pool.

But because their mothers are best friends, their lives have always been intertwined even though they’ve never wanted them to be.

And when medical circumstances force the two girls to live together, they’ll be forced to confront everything they’ve been running from — including their pasts, their traumas and the times they’ve almost kissed.

Inspired by the “5+1” structure popular in fanfiction, Sharpe crafts an unforgettable sapphic romance novel full of angst and heart. Told through both girls’ perspectives of the present and six moments of almost kisses from their pasts, the novel unfolds in wholly unexpected ways and allows for the reader’s understanding of their character to slowly build over time. Penny and Tate are equally compelling characters with their own unique voices, traumas and hopes. And while “Six Times” is a slowburn, sapphic romance, it’s equal parts a thoughtful exploration of trauma and what it’s like to be forced to grow up too fast as a result of it. From the longterm illness Tate’s mother faces to the sudden death of Penny’s father which her mother is unable to cope with, both protagonists have had their lives defined by forces out of their control that they’ve unfairly had to grapple with. Alongside the two girls accepting their feelings for one another, they also embark on a journey of healing. Their romantic arcs and character arcs intertwine and conclude in satisfying ways, showing readers that the process of healing and pursuing relationships, both platonic and romantic, may be messy — but is ultimately worth it. For all the grief and sadness in the pages of this book, there’s an equal amount of hope.

And there’s only one bed scene, which is equally important to note.

“Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)” is the perfect read for anyone in need of proof that happy endings exist for people like them or for anyone who prefers romance novels that explore heavier themes. The novel is available for pre-order now.

Layla Noor Landrum is a junior studying engineering psychology. Layla can be reached at layla.landrum@tufts.edu.

8

THE TUFTS DAILY | Fun & Games | Thursday, October 20, 2022

F& G

LATE NIGHT AT THE DAILY

FUN & GAMES Last Week’s Solutions

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Delaney: “He’s like our concerned uncle. ... We’re his weird nieces.”

SUDOKU BY ANUSHKA SINGH

Difficulty Level: Making it through a physics lecture.

MISSED CONNECTIONS You: Using a fancy kettle to boil water for tea. Me: Using a microwave to boil water for tea. When: Thursday Evening Where: Dorm Kitchen

You: Were telling everyone the walk sign was on Me: Jaywalking at the Boston Ave intersection When: Thursday Where: Boston Ave intersection

You: The person in the plaid shirt, wire rimmed glasses, jeans and white sneakers sitting a table. Me: In my gross workout clothes trying to get work done on the couch in the room opposite you When: 9-10 pm ish on Monday Where: The women’s center

You: An opossum or raccoon in the dumpster. Me: A squirrel in the countryside

CROSSWORD BY LUCAS CHUA

Opinion

tuftsdaily.com

9 Thursday, October 20, 2022

VIEWPOINT

Rap lyrics to a rap sheet: California is finally affirming rappers’ freedom of speech

by Justin Solis Staff Writer

California just passed legislation that limits the use of rap lyrics and other forms of artistic expression against artists in court. Assembly Bill No. 2799, also known as the Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act, requires judges to carefully determine whether the corroborative value of the evidence outweighs the danger of unfair bias caused by its use.

Similar legislation to secure artistic freedom has been introduced in other states and nationwide. In July, representatives from New York and Georgia introduced the Restoring Artistic Protection Bill — which seeks to provide similar protections at the national level — in the House of Representatives.

It is crucial to recognize that there is a strong racial bias implicit in the use of rap lyrics in court. White artists like Johnny Cash (who often sang about murder), Queen (with lyrics like “Mama, just killed a man…”) and Bob Dylan (with his antiwar protest songs) never dealt with legal backlash against their artistry.

Recent progress toward recognizing and repairing racial injustices in prosecuting artistic

expression are a step in the right direction. The Decriminalizing Artistic Expression Act was heralded by the Black Music Action Coalition for its progress towards reducing systemic racism in the judicial system. Also in California, two murder convictions were recently overturned based on the 2020 Racial Justice Act, which is intended to reduce the usage of racial bias in court.

The two defendants’ convictions were overturned because the use of rap lyrics in court most likely “injected racial bias” in the proceedings.

Rap music has been given a negative connotation by some.

Studies have shown that an implicit cognitive bias exists against the genre as a whole. In one such study, participants were shown identical lyrics and then told the genre was either country or rap. When the lyrics were attributed to rap, participants were more likely to take them literally and find them offensive.

The results of this experiment are very troubling, especially if these lyrics are presented to a jury that will decide someone’s fate.

So, what exactly does legislation like California’s mean for artists? What this new bill highlights is the often-blurry boundary between art that pushes the limits and dangerous speech.

At its most basic level, the bill is an affirmation of artists’ free speech, something that was not promised in the past.

The new law passed in California does not forbid the usage of lyrics in court. Instead, it simply tries to limit the widespread, predatory use of the practice. This will help ensure that artists will not fear writing lyrics on important yet sensitive topics while also allowing for prosecution in the rare cases where rap lyrics are a solid form of evidence.

To allow the use of vague lyrics as evidence in court is clearly unreasonable under the First Amendment, which protects the right to freedom of speech without prosecution in most cases.

However, prosecutors have used rap lyrics as evidence in a staggering amount of cases — over 500 in the past 30 years, according to research cited in the Washington Post. Not only does this weaponize an artist’s own lyrics against them, it also results in a stifling of artistic expression over fear of legal trouble.

Artists such as Snoop Dogg and Tekashi 6ix9ine have had their own writing used against them in court. Even more recently, rappers Young Thug and Gunna, along with 26 others, were arrested for a variety

California’s capitol building is pictured. of gang-related crimes. Charges against them were heavily based on rap lyrics, including ones as vague as “I’m prepared to take them down.”

Though California’s new law and the movement towards decriminalizing rap lyrics should generally be celebrated, it is important to acknowledge the outlying bad actors that persist in every genre. In one case in Texas, artist Tay-K’s song “The Race” details his escape from the law as well as the illegal activities he participated in.

After being tried, he was sentenced to 55 years in prison for murder.

By passing laws such as the Restoring Artistic Protection Bill at the federal level, lawmakers have the potential to dismantle

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another piece of racial discrimination that persists in the judicial branch. In a country where Black people are 12 times more likely to be convicted of a drug charge than white people, efforts to address systemic racism in the criminal justice system are essential.

California’s new ruling is a strong step forward in preserving the right of artists to express themselves. Rap, and art in general, is about pushing the boundaries of cultural norms and not worrying about your voice being silenced. As the United States becomes increasingly divided over a multitude of issues, having protections in place that ensure freedom of speech are more important than ever before.

VIEWPOINT

How the Democrats lost Florida

by Toby Winick Staff Writer

As midterm elections draw closer and voting registration deadlines pass, pundits look at the polling of “swing states” — states with a roughly even population of Democrats and Republicans that have the potential to vote either way in national elections.

The results are especially important this year as polls show neither party has a large advantage in either congressional chamber,

with Democrats favored in the Senate and Republicans favored in the House. The governorships are also significant, as state law determines hot-button issues like abortion, education and immigration.

Interestingly, the country’s most populous swing state, Florida, is one of its most partisan. Republicans control Florida’s governorship, state house and state senate, and they have for some time. Presently, FiveThirtyEight’s polling com-

Florida's 2020 presidential election results are pictured.

VIA WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

posite shows incumbent Gov. Ron DeSantis with almost a 7% lead over Democrat Charlie Crist, with some polls giving him a double-digit gap. Moreover, they forecast challenger Val Demings with a less than 15% chance to defeat incumbent Republican Sen. Marco Rubio.

This is despite the fact that Florida is home to large populations of both African American and Hispanic voters, two blocs that are historically key to Democratic success.

All of this forces us to ask: “What happened to Florida’s Democrats?” For starters, this decline isn’t a new phenomenon. The decline began way back in the ‘80s, with the election of Republican Gov. Bob Martinez.

The party connected with rural and Dixiecrat voters and swiftly gained power. Florida hasn’t elected a Democratic governor since 1994. However, this decline has accelerated in recent years.

I believe a key turning point was the 2016 election. In line with Florida’s swing state character, it contributed to an upset Trump victory by voting red.

This started a precedent of voting Republican in national elections that continued in 2018, 2020 and, most likely, 2022.

This progress was multifaceted

as Republicans did not simply build on key rural bases — they also narrowed their disadvantage with Hispanic voters, the fastest-growing bloc.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has refused to innovate. The party has taken its core constituencies for granted, hoping that the registration gap it has long relied on will suffice for a victory.

In the meantime, Florida’s registered Republicans overtook the number of registered Democrats.

Nationally, the party has pivoted away from Florida, seemingly giving up on it. Pennsylvanian John Fetterman and Texan Beto O’Rourke are the new faces of Democratic hope.

This is hardly the media or the national party’s fault; Florida Democrats nominated an incredibly unexciting candidate in converted Republican Charlie Crist, who already lost Florida’s 2014 gubernatorial election.

Putting their party’s stake in Crist is in character for Florida’s Dems, who are now left with a distant memory of past success. They have failed to rekindle what sparked it and have not promoted or nominated Nikki Fried, the only Democrat to win a statewide election since 2012.

The forecast for Florida is harrowing. The nation’s third-

most populous state has become a haven for MAGA populism. As a result of a crucial messaging problem, Democrats have been on the defensive on key culture war issues. A new abortion ban was signed recently, the infamous and ignorant “Don’t Say Gay” law was passed in line with anti-critical race theory stances and Gov. DeSantis shipped migrants all the way to Martha’s Vineyard in a xenophobic move. Democrats have failed to create a cohesive narrative on any of these issues.

These prospects are certainly dire, but there is a reason I still refer to Florida as a swing state. Despite Republican gains, Democratic ideas like a $15 per hour minimum wage, climate action and medical marijuana legalization have proved popular by poll and statewide election. And Democratic voters do exist, by the millions. The party needs to revitalize its core and listen to what its voters want.

Unified leadership in the wake of recent troubles is a must. For Democrats, returning to their values is more than running tired candidates and issues — it is finding the ideology that inspired voters in the past and across the country elsewhere.

10

THE TUFTS DAILY | Opinion | Thursday, October 20, 2022

Asher Berlin It’s Happened Before

Putin’s scare tactics won’t work

I

n the 1930s, Britain was terrified of the bomber. It was thought of as the ultimate weapon: It could swoop in virtually undetected and deliver devastation of biblical proportions upon vulnerable cities, wiping them out. A massive aerial first strike, some military experts claimed, could bring Britain to its knees before it had a chance to fight back. In World War II, these ideas were put to the test. Nazi Germany, victorious in France by 1940, moved on to Britain.

Any Nazi invasion of Britain, however, would require crossing the English Channel — guarded by the Royal Navy.

To cross the channel, the Nazis first had to neutralize British air defenses: A bitter aerial war ensued, later termed the Battle for Britain, in which the embattled Royal Air Force desperately tried to stave off the German Luftwaffe.

One night, however, a few German planes dropped bombs on London by mistake. The British response was swift. In a daring raid, British planes did the unthinkable: bombing Berlin.

The war had, for the first time, come to Germany, despite repeated promises from Hitler that it never would.

Echoing the Berlin raid, Ukrainian forces have recently pulled off an operation that took the war to the Russian border. On Oct. 8, an explosion rocked the Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Crimea to Russia, a humiliating setback to Russia’s war effort.

In response, Putin ordered massive strikes in Ukraine — the worst of the war — hitting cities as far from the front as Lviv in the country’s far west.

These attacks, which specifically targeted civilian areas, have significant precedent in Hitler’s response to the bombing of Berlin: the Blitz, a massive campaign of civilian bombings. They were not intended to destroy Britain’s war industry but instead, by punishing civilians for Hitler’s military failings, to crush the population’s morale and force Britain to the negotiating table.

Putin’s strikes on civilians, like all attacks of this kind, have a similar goal: to make their targeted populations tired of war by way of death and destruction.

Like Hitler’s Blitz, Putin’s is aimed at sapping the morale of Ukraine’s civilian population. But, if the original Blitz was any lesson, attacks intended to harm civilian morale often produce the opposite effect.

The British, despite facing regular German bombings, grimly carried on.

This stoic determination became a source of national pride by fueling, rather than harming, their war effort.

Over the last eight months, Ukrainians have displayed this same fortitude.

Though countless horrors have ravaged their country, they have fought on, slowly but steadily pushing the Russians out. In August, Volodymyr Zelensky channeled his inner Churchill and declared that Ukraine “will fight to the end.” History tells us that Ukraine will make good on that promise, no matter how many Russian missiles fall upon their cities.

Asher Berlin is a sophomore studying history. Asher can be reached at asher.berlin@tufts.edu.

tuftsdaily.com

VIEWPOINT

Smoking is making a comeback and its harmful effects must be addressed

by Julieta Grané Staff Writer

When I arrived on campus for the first time in September, many things surprised me: How beautiful the trees on President’s Lawn are, how intensely the early 2000s have come back into fashion and, unfortunately, how many people I saw smoking cigarettes.

Cigarettes were first introduced in the United States in the early 19th century as an alternative to tobacco usage in pipes, cigars and chewing tobacco. They were used during World War I to keep soldiers calm and pain-free, and the military even started including cigarettes in soldiers’ rations in World War II. Early and somewhat rudimentary studies on the negative effects of smoking cigarettes began exposing the causal relation to lung cancer in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

In January of 1964, then-Surgeon General Luther Terry held a press conference where he condemned smoking as the cause of lung cancer and likely heart disease, citing the research of American Cancer Society scientists E. Cuyler Hammond, Ph.D and Daniel Horn, Ph.D. Their study delineating the cause-andeffect relationship between smoking and lung cancer was the first to collect longterm data and include non-smokers in their participant sample, which bolstered the credibility of the research.

Surgeon General Terry’s landmark statement in 2001 led to the percentage of young cigarette smokers declining substantially. The first e-cigarette device was invented in 2003 by pharmacist Hon Lik with the intention of helping him quit his own cigarette habit. Contrary to his origi-

nal aim, the rising popularity of vaping has shaped a new generation of nicotine-dependent smokers.

When e-cigarette manufacturers realized that teenagers represented an untapped consumer base, they began aggressively marketing their products towards them.

Unfortunately, those campaigns have successfully contributed to the rising use of tobacco by youth. Some who became dependent on nicotine in their early youth now turn to cigarettes as an alternative and sometimes more accessible source of nicotine. Others are falling prey to smoking addictions in their young adulthood.

At Tufts, I have witnessed the repercussions of young smokers, who picked up the habit after the height of anti-smoking campaigns, manifesting everywhere from the cigarette butts littering the sidewalk to the secondhand smoke that too often lingers on Pres Lawn.

“I think it’s mostly shocking to see anyone our age smoking cigarettes, I’ve never seen any cases of that at all at home,” freshman Emma Dawson-Webb wrote in a message to the Daily. “It seems like such an old school danger and we’ve been able to witness what it does to older generations with lung cancer or from smoker’s cough. …

Somehow, even though a lot of the vaping is doing the same damage, it doesn’t scream out as morally wrong or dangerous in the way smoking cigarettes does.”

Local convenience stores around campus sell cigarettes and will continue to do so until consumer demand is eradicated or our community takes a firm stance against tobacco and its known harms.

Decades of data collected from cigarette smokers prove the numerous health consequences of smoking cigarettes. Although

GRAPHIC BY ALIZA KIBEL

lung cancer is most commonly associated with smoking, other forms of cancer such as mouth and throat, liver, kidney and pancreas have all also been linked to smoking.

Smoking increases the risk for conditions such as chest pain, heart attack, heart failure and arrhythmia, and it has made COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses worse.

Additionally, tobacco products contain over 7,000 toxic chemicals and are the most littered item on the planet. They pollute our environment from the oceans to city sidewalks, according to the World Health Organization. Other victims of the smoking epidemic include those who suffer health complications due to second-hand smoke exposure. Often the children or loved ones of cigarette smokers are at high risk for heart disease, lung cancer, SIDS, asthma and pneumonia.

Fortunately, the growing base of public knowledge on the harmful consequences of smoking have allowed for campaigns such as The Truth to push the anti-smoking agenda further. Though 43% of adults in the U.S. smoked regularly in 1965, that number has dropped to 14% today. This means that, although the problem seems prevalent to me from what I have witnessed from my time on campus, we are moving in a positive direction nationwide.

But there is still work to be done. Vaping, although it has been marketed as harmless compared to traditional cigarettes, has been facilitating the resurgence of nicotine addiction in young adults. Unlike Y2K sunglasses, cargo pants and platform sandals, the comeback of smoking has tangible harms.

Given the clear environmental and health dangers, we as a community must work together to reduce the prevalence of smoking at Tufts.

Spo r t s

Thursday, October 20, 2022 | Sports | THE TUFTS DAILY

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Men’s soccer holds draw while women’s team suffers tough loss SOCCER

continued from back goalkeeper Nico Hessel.

Jumbo sophomore goalkeeping sensation Erik Lauta had some impressive saves of his own in the first half, diving to his right to stop a shot from Bobcat forward Tife Agunloye in the 31st minute.

The Jumbos’ best scoring opportunity of the second half arrived in the 71st minute through a dangerous corner kick taken by first-year midfielder Daniel Yanez. His corner kick was headed into a crowded six-yard box. Hessel dove to his right to knock away the subsequent shot from close range and was then able to cover his near post, which forced the Jumbos’ next shot attempt wide.

The game between the Jumbos and Bobcats eventually ended in a scoreless draw. This represented the fifth clean sheet of the season for Lauta and the Jumbos’ defense, which has been strong throughout the season.

“Preparation throughout the week [was] a big focus for us because we knew, going

Oliver Fox Sports and Society

How to protect fencing The plaintiff of two Supreme Court cases against elite universities has very little interest in the politics of college athletics. Their eyes are on a bigger prize: the end of affirmative action in college admissions altogether. Yet, in their efforts to torpedo an era of campus diversity, they might accidentally destroy fencing.

Very rarely during the volcanic debates surrounding affirmative action does anyone bring up the so-called “Country Club Sports” that have for years acted as the secret back entrance to elite Ivy League universities. The usual battle lines contest that

to Bates, that the field wasn’t going to be great and the most important thing I think in most NESCAC games is just keeping a clean sheet,” junior fullback Gibson Campbell, who played all but six minutes against Bates, said. “Especially against a team like Bates and the style of play that they play, that was stressed during the week as very important for us.”

“We also focused on set plays because Bates is a pretty big team height-wise, so they try to get a lot of their moves on set pieces and we focused a lot on that during the week and made sure that wasn’t one way that they could try and score on us,” Campbell added.

The Bobcats’ women’s team got off to a hot start on Saturday, snatching the lead in the 12th minute and never giving it up. Bobcats midfielder Elizabeth Patrick pressed high against the Jumbos’ defensive line, stripped the ball off firstyear Jumbo center back Lena Sugrue, rushed with the ball to the edge of the penalty area, and, with her right foot, fired the ball across the face of goal into the right side-netting.

In the 27th minute, Patrick possessed the ball deep in Jumbos’ territory along the left sideline. She dashed back along the edge of the penalty area and evaded a Jumbos defender as she fired off another dazzling shot which senior goalkeeper Kaelin Logue could only watch as it sailed into the top right corner of the goal.

Patrick’s two top-notch finishes from distance gave the hosts a 2–0 lead over the Jumbos with over an hour left to play.

The Jumbos’ best chance to get back in contention for the win occurred in the 52nd minute, when Bobcat midfielder Ellie Tyska collided with the Jumbos’ junior right back Madelyn Silveira inside the Bobcats’ penalty area and Tufts was awarded a penalty kick. Bobcat goalkeeper Ruby Reimann did a good job standing still the entire time before Jumbos’ senior midfielder and penalty-taker Maddie Pero struck the ball, leaving her without a clear direction in which to shoot it. As a result, Pero dragged a weak shot on the ground, wide of Reimann’s left goalpost, and the Bobcats’ twogoal advantage was preserved.

The Bobcats continued to try their luck from distance in the second half and weren’t far from cashing in in the 72nd minute, when midfielder Mollie Franklin struck a bouncing ball that hit the crossbar from around thirty yards away from goal. The Jumbos finally got on the scoreboard in the 84th minute through Silveira, who headed the ball into the back of the net after it was knocked straight up into the air by Reimann.

With less than seven minutes remaining, the goal was too little too late, however, and it proved to be the Jumbos’ final shot of the game. The final score was shocking to say the least, as it represented the Bobcats’ first NESCAC win of the season after seven winless NESCAC games to start the season. The Jumbos had also entered the weekend ranked 20th in the United Soccer Coaches NCAA Division III Women’s Soccer rankings, but fell out of this week’s list of top 25 teams as a result of their performance against Bates.

“I think what we could’ve done better is face every team like they’re the best,” junior mid-

fielder Casey Lam said. “I think we underestimated them and those quick two early goals were really a wake-up call for us and we just had to work really hard in the second half. … Everyone was on a new gear, but obviously not a high enough one.”

The Tufts men’s and women’s soccer teams will both play critical games against Middlebury and Bowdoin at home to close out the regular season. The men’s team can increase their chances of a NESCAC tournament bid with results against No. 7 Middlebury and No. 14 Bowdoin. The women’s team, on the other hand, needs results against Middlebury and Bowdoin in order to have a chance at hosting a NESCAC tournament game.

The women’s team takes on Middlebury on Saturday at 12 p.m., on Bello Field while the men’s team takes on Middlebury on Saturday at 3 p.m. on Bello Field. The women’s team takes on Bowdoin on Tuesday at 3 p.m. on Bello Field and the men’s team takes on Bowdoin on Tuesday at 7 p.m. on Bello Field.

affirmative action either promotes diversity and thus fights discrimination, or is discrimination itself in that it uses race to decide if a student is qualified, which should in theory be illegal under the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.

A recent study found that in Harvard admissions, recruited athletes were five thousand times more likely to receive an offer of admission. For reference, the same study found that legacy applicants were eight times more likely. High personal-cost sports — such as sailing, squash, skiing and fencing — receive the same advantages, yet are typically reserved for affluent and usually white students who can foot the bill.

Athletes, legacies, dean’s interest list and children of faculty and staff make up what is known as the ALDC advantage.

Students with this advantage are

far more likely to be white and receive a similar and sometimes greater advantage than students with a race-based advantage. Yet it differs from actual affirmative action in that it neither bolsters campus diversity nor mentions race explicitly, giving these students a leg up in surviving affirmative action bans.

When, in all likelihood, the Supreme Court declares affirmative action practices unconstitutional and bans them nationwide on Oct. 31, no one’s first question will be about what will happen to collegiate fencing rosters. Despite being a de facto form of race-based admissions, efforts to end athletic advantages in admissions will face a much harder road than those that have all but succeeded in removing those that look to make college campuses more equitable.

Despite my exhaustive efforts to prove otherwise, much of the

world still believes that sports are separate from the political battlefields that define college diversity standards. And despite the obvious connectedness between athlete advantages and race, it is much easier to defend against whatever the Supreme Court may declare illegal. Sports lack the ugly hypocrisy that make legacy admissions morally indefensible and are technically open to all races, as wrong as that may be in practice.

Ironically, sportswashing may protect a remaining bastion of discrimination in college admissions against laws specifically designed to end it.

The obvious rebuttal to my complaints is one of scale.

Country club sports and their recruits make up a tiny number of total athletic advantages that universities weigh every year, and the fetishization of Ivy League admission may be mis-

placed considering that it makes up only 0.7% of American college students. But I’d argue an issue of scale is exactly what makes the crusade to destroy affirmative action so profoundly stupid. A tiny interest group of 20,000 students, weaponized by a conservative political strategist, is hell-bent on destroying education diversity for tens of millions of students nationwide.

And yet, you simply cannot learn about slavery without Black students in the room. Nor can a whole generation of programmers and engineers exclude entire minority groups that make up the complicated heart and soul of the nation. Yet when the death knell rings for affirmative action, it might only be the fencers that survive.

Oliver Fox is a sophomore studying history. Oliver can be reached at oliver.fox@tufts.edu.

Sports

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tuftsdaily.com

Yarwood earns NESCAC player of the week honors, leads team in weekend success

by Keila McCabe

Executive Sports Editor

Volleyball kept its hot streak going on the road, grabbing two more NESCAC wins against Williams and Amherst. This successful weekend marked the team’s seventh straight in-conference win and put Tufts tied for first with Wesleyan in the NESCAC standings. In addition, due to her dominance in both matches, senior outside hitter Jennelle Yarwood earned NESCAC player of the week honors, the first Jumbo to get this accolade since last season.

On Friday, the Jumbos faced off against the Williams Ephs for a hard fought four set match (23–25, 25–13, 25–15, 25–22). The first set was a back-and-forth contest characterized by quick ball movement and aggressive offensive attacks from the Ephs.

Yarwood described the team’s mentality coming off the first set loss and heading into the rest of the match.

“The Williams team has a really good team and has a lot of great hitters,” Yarwood said. “They’re just running a good offense. And I think going into the second set, we really just found a lot of intensity and fight within ourselves, and just knew that we wanted to play our game.”

In the game against Williams, Yarwood tallied a remarkable season high 20 kills. She attributed her offensive success to her

SOPHIE DOLAN / THE TUFTS DAILY

The volleyball team plays Williams in Cousens Gym on Sept. 11, 2021. setters and good visualization of the court.

“The setters, [Zoey Gregory] and [Maddie Yu], were doing an excellent job getting the ball to me. I think I was able to find a lot of holes in the block wall and spots on the court that were open,” Yarwood said. “[Stephanie Lee], our libero was talking to me a lot about spots that were open. So I think it was just a combination of us being in system so the sets were there. And then kind of taking what they gave us with the block and the defense.”

Yarwood’s praise of her teammates was reflected on the scoresheet. Setters Maddie Yu, a junior, and Zoe Gregory, a first-year, recorded 36 and 11 assists for the night, respectively. Senior libero Stephanie Lee was a huge defensive asset, adding 23 digs to the board.

The Saturday contest against the Amherst Mammoths was a bit more tumultuous, with momentum drastically shifting between the two teams in each set (17–25, 25–15, 25–11, 11–25, 15–13). Ultimately the Jumbos came out on top, finding their

rhythm and settling in for a fifth set victory.

“We talked about how we really just needed to kind of go back to channeling the same energy and fight that we had in the second and third sets,” Yarwood said. “We’ve really been focusing on coming out strong and consistent. So with the fifth sets, there’s only 15 points.

You’re pushing for the first five points and then pushing to earn a switch at eight. And so I think just focusing on one point at a time was really one of our main keys to success.”

Junior outside hitter Christine Audette was the kill leader for the afternoon, with 13 of her own. Yarwood was close behind with 11, also tallying her season high digs with 17. For the weekend, she totaled 31 kills and 25 digs. She leads Tufts on the NESCAC leaderboards, sitting fourth in the conference overall with 181 kills on the season.

The Jumbos will compete against a few high level out of conference opponents this weekend with Springfield on Friday night and both Babson and MIT Saturday afternoon.

Soccer programs stunned by winless trips to Bates

by Ethan Grubelich Sports Editor

Both the Tufts men’s and women’s soccer programs traveled to Bates for games on Saturday. Each team arrived at Bates with an incredibly dominant record against its host. The Bates Bobcats’ men’s team’s last win over the Jumbos was in 2008 and they last scored a goal against the Jumbos in 2011. The Bobcats’ women’s team, on the other hand, has lost seven in a row to the Jumbos dating back to 2014. In a sudden change of fortune, however, the Bobcats’ men’s team held the Jumbos to a scoreless draw and the Bobcats’ women’s team snapped their losing streak with a 2–1 victory over the Jumbos.

The men’s team had few scoring opportunities in the first half. Their best opportunity was a shot taken on by senior midfielder Zach Seigelstein in the 10th minute, which was saved by Bobcat see SOCCER, page 11

Tufts men’s soccer takes on Bates in 2014.

NICHOLAS PFOSI / THE TUFTS DAILY