8 Monday, July 23, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com Monday, July 23, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com E-MAILALICIAATALIMAIRKO@UMICH.EDU. FOOTBALL Saban talks Michigan, Cowboys Classic OF TUBALL 'M' snags six standouts for 2013 DYLAN CINTI I V OINT How not why By STEPHEN J. NESBITT Daily Sports Editor The countdown to the 2012 'Cowboys Classic' season opener between Michigan and Alabama in Arlington, Texas is slowly tick- ing down, but the discussion is already ramping up. With fall practices just around the corner, football is about to take the main stage once again. At the SEC Media Days in Hoover, Ala., Alabama coach Nick Saban acknowledged that the sea- son opener will be a stiff test for the reigning national champion Crimson Tide. "I think playing a great oppo- nent like Michigan the first game of the season really enhances your players' sort of work ethic and preparation in the off-season," Saban said, "because they know they're going to play a top-notch team right off the bat, and that's very challenging. That's kind of been the reasoning behind it, and it's worked out well for us. "But we know that Michigan is going to have an outstanding team and it will be a very challenging game for us this year." . Saban and Alabama are no stranger to facing another ranked team at a neutral site during non- conference play in September. In 2007, the Crimson Tide faced Florida State in Jacksonville; in 2008, they faced Clemson in Atlanta; in 2009, they faced Vir- ginia Tech in Atlanta. Alabama also just completed a home-and- home series with Penn State. "We've had a lot of national exposure that has really enhanced the development of our program, especially in the early years, by playingneutral-site games against very good national competition," Saban said. "Now having the opportunity to go play Michigan in Dallas, and we're going to come back to Atlanta and play Virginia Tech and West Virginia in the next two years. These are the kind of games we look for national exposure." By GREG GARNO her senior season and recorded a Daily Sports Writer record-breaking .667 on-base per- centage. The middle infielder also Michigan softball coach Carol set records in hits (54), home runs Hutchins will have to decide how (14), stolen bases (49), RBIs (38) and to replace the reigning Big Ten runs scored (67). Lawrence also led Player of the Year, a four-year her team to a regional champion- starter in the outfield and a defen- ship in 2011 and was named the sive catalyst in the infield. 2011 Gwinnet County Player of the Her incoming freshman class Year for her efforts. will provide an easy solution. Romero also brings another Although the Wolverines have powerful bat after hitting a school not formally announced their new- record-breaking 25 home runs est additions, six players have com- and batting .556 during her senior mitted to play for Michigan for the season while leading her team 2013 season. Incoming freshmen with 54 RBIs and 38 runs scored. Sierra Lawrence, Sierra Romero, The product of Vista Murrieta in Olivia Richvalsky, Kelsey Susalla, California garnered All-American Alice Fitzpatrict and Lauren Con- honors after her junior year and nell compose a larger-than-usual was named the 2011 Southwestern freshman class that could see play- Player of the Year. ing time immediately. Richvalsky led the South Lyon Lawrence and Romero - the East Cougars to one of their best two Sierras - will not only provide records by leading the team offen- a handful of puns about the moun- sively. The Division 2 All-State tain range, but will strengthen a selection in Michigan batted .477 depleted infield. The duo signed with 33 RBI, 33 runs and 28 sto- with the Wolverines during the len bases. The centerfielder and early signing period in Nov. 2011, slap-hitter looks to replace for- and are the only two players to be mer centerfielder Bree Evans both given scholarships. offensively and defensively. Lawrence, a product of Greater Susalla, who was a pitcher in Atlanta Christian, hit .568 during high school, will enter as a posi- tion player for the Wolverines after batting .620 on the year. The two- time All-State selection went 18-4 with 134 strikeouts in 126 innings of work to total a 1.44 ERA. Both Susalla and Rich- valsky were members of the Michigan High School Softball Coaches Association All-Star game on Wednesday. Fitzpatrick, who hails from Union Grove, Wisc., passed up a scholarship offer to pitch at the University of Illinois-Chicago to walk on as a Wolverine. Fitzpatrick carried a 0.92 ERA while going 12-1, including two perfect games and a no-hitter, during-her junior year. The All-State selection led her team to a state championship her junior year and the sectional finals her senior year while accumulating a 16-4 record during her last year. The West Lafayette, Ind. native, Connell, is able to play any posi- tion on the field. Duringher junior campaign, she switched to third base after playing catcher for a year. Connell, who hit .429 with 31 RBIs and 18 stolen bases duringher junior campaign, hit only .324 her senior year, but tallied eight home runs. Giuseppe Verdi's REQUIEM July 24, 20128 Hill Auditorium Blue Lake International Choir Alumni Choir and Youth Symphony Mon, July 23 Wed, July 25 Blue Lake International Blue Lake International Choir Youth Symphony Blue Lake International Tchalkovsky No. 5 Jazz Orchestra In his book "Columbine", a masterfully crafted narrative of the massacre and its after- math, journalist Dave Cullen recounts the media firestorm that unfolded in the minutes and hours after Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold opened fire on their classmates. Cullen was among the horde of journalists who converged in Littleton, Colo. to cover the story. But for a while no story existed - at least not one that made a whole lot of sense. There was only gunfire, mass hysteria and wild speculation about a massive force ofshooters behind Columbine's sealed walls. "It was the panic and frus- tration of not knowing," Cullen writes, "the mounting terror of horror withheld, just out of view." Why was this happening? That question prompted a stream of wildly extrapolative stories hintingat ahuge conspir- acy and propagating the (false) notion that Harris and Klebold were "outcasis" and "loners." Citizens of Littleton were in shock. They needed answers. They needed a "why." And that's what stories of the Trench Coat Mafia provided. Never mind that the "why" was false. It gave people the comfort of being able to point the finger. Journalists have a responsi- bility to narrativize tragedy. To fill in the whos, whats and whys of a scene. But sometimes there are stories where no "why" exists. Columbine was one such story. The shooting in Colorado on Friday is another. These are the stories of senseless killings. In these cases, narrativizing is tricky business. And when done poorly, it's dangerous. Unfortunately, sloppy narra- tivizing abounds. It was on CNN, as Cullen points out, that Columbine wit- nesses described the Trench Coat Mafia as "Goths, gays (and) outcasts." That isn't journalism; it's fear-mongering. It's the kind of journalism that makes you question if everyone wearing a long coat is packing heat. Or if all victims of bullying will seek bloody revenge. I can't tell you how many headlines I've seen in thempast few days about the so-called "'Dark Knight Rises' Shooting." Most of these articles confine discussion of "Rises" to the sur- face. It was where the shooting happened, thus it makes for a convenient title. I guess I see the logic there. And I'm not going to take pot-shots at lazy titling. But what are reprehensible are pieces that turn to "Rises" for a motive. In a silly little piece of tragedy porn published by the Associ- ated Press, the anonymous writ- er attempts to draw parallels between, amongdother things, the plot of "Rises" and the Colo- rado shooting. The article features a bullet- point list of similarities between "Batman" narratives and that of the Colorado killer, includ- ing the assertion that the movie "features at least two scenes where unsuspecting people are attacked in a public venue." In its petty and insensitive way, the piece searches for motive. Why'd he do it? Was he tryingcto be the Joker? Or.Bane? I'm not saying these weren't the first thoughts that popped into my head when I heard about the shooting. It's only natural.Someone opens fire at a movie and you look to the movie for answers. But it becomes dangerous when that kind of thinking infects our news. At this stage in the story, we shouldn't be searching for motive. Is it really that impor- tant why the killer did what he did? I think I know at least one reason why: attention. And that's exactly what he's getting - from pieces about his musical preferences to discussion of his dating site profile. Such discussions need to end. We need to turn away from the nonsensical person who did this and focus, on the big- ger question at hand: how did someone like that get his hands on a gun? How did he walk into a store and walk out wielding an instrument of death? And knowing that, how could Colorado Gov. John Hickenloop- er sit in front of a camera and claim the shooting had nothing to do with a lack of gun control? It has everything to do with gun control. And that's the most important conversation right now. In reporting Friday's shoot- ing, the media owes the victims and their families the kind of coverage that will actively pre- vent such senseless carnage in the future. Let's hope they're not too busy tracking down the killer's Twitter feed. Dylan Cinti is a LSA senior and the Daily's magazine editor. ALI AKT FAI P.PSr REFTYLE p If exQtSiSC "- pscrthastc -ris' s- sasiaorrs. jewetlr , . ak 4sFcir, * Cardslbecaws- fers - . flwies Siht s)tn4 st arsitS b 550jedeS rba~r Oat r*'os - 5rc l'stes Continued gridlock Even though the Democratic and Republican National Conven- tions are over a month away, there's little doubt that the 2012 gen- eral election is already under- way. Pundits are constantly talk- ing about the latest polls, elec- toral math and the faults of each campaign. Yet in the MICHAEL SPAETH midst of the breathless media cov- erage of the daily back-and-forth of the presidential campaign, political commentators aren't emphasizing one very important detail: no matter who wins the presidential election, the gridlock that's currently pre- venting pretty much anything from getting done in Washington will continue - or even worsen - unless one party gains control of the White House and large majorities in both houses of Congress. The Republicans in the 112th Congress are commonly blamed for Congress' inability to get any mean- ingful legislation passed. In an opinion piece for the Washington Post, congressional scholars Thom- as Mann and Norman Ornstein observed, "When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal construc- tively with the country's chal- lenges." This statement deserves some consideration because, a# NPR noted in April, Mann and Ornstein "have been in Washing- ton for more than 40 years - and they're renowned for their careful- ly nonpartisan positions." Ornstein also told NPR that since President Obama was inaugurated, "when we did get action, half the political pro- cess viewed it as illegitimate, tried to undermine its implementation and moved to repeal it." For example, Congress holds many symbolic votes, which are a only if we're being extremely idealis- blatant waste of time and money. tic - does anyone believe for a min- Their time - along with taxpayers' ute that the Tea Party Republicans dollars - should be spent on actually are suddenly going to relent and start finding solutions to our country's cooperating with President Obama? problems. Shortly after the Supreme I'm skeptical. Court ruled that the Affordable Care Act was constitutional,. the Repub- lican-controlled House voted to repeal the law, despite the fact that The 2012 the Democrat-controlled Senate def- initely wouldn't repeal the law and eW that President Obama would veto the earth-shatterin repeal if it actuallypassedbothhous- es of Congress. It was the 33rd time the House tried to repeal all or parts of President Obama's health care law. CBS News reportedthatlthese efforts While nobody knows exactly have "taken up at least 80 hours on how the 2012 elections will turn the House floor" and have cost tax- out, early estimates indicate that payers "a little under $50 million" there won't be any seismic shifts in total. No wonder Congress' approval power in Washington. Using an elec- ratings are at historic lows. tion forecasting model, Prof. Alan But don't expect these kinds of Abramowitz of Emory University tactics to end if Democrats lose con- concluded in March, "It would be trol of either the White House or surprising if Republicans did not the Senate. After nearly four years hold onto their majority in the House of relentless Republican obstruc- in 2012 and gain at least a few Sen- tion, I highly doubt the Democrats ate seats." Democrats will fight hard are going to conclude that it's time to prevent Republicans from gain- to let the Republicans do whatever ing control of the Senate, implicitly they want now that they control a arguing that a divided government is majority of the governing bodies in better than a Republican-dominated Washington. Democrats will instead government. Also, with a Republican do everything in their power to block Party that's increasingly influenced Republican legislation from becom- by the extremism of the Tea Party, inglaw. As long as Democrats control the Democrats' concerns have some the White House, the Senate or the legitimacy. However, if the past two House, the gridlock will continue. years are any indication of how the It's even more unlikely that the next few years will proceed, a divid- gridlock will end if President Obama ed government isn't much better. wins a second term, yetthe president In short, unless the Republicans remains hopeful. In June, he told win control of all three governing donors in Minneapolis, "My hope bodies in Washington, don't expect and my expectation is that after the 2012 to be an earth-shattering elec- election, now that it turns out the tion. I'm still optimistic about our goal of beating Obama doesn't make country's future, butit's going to take much sense because I'm not run- some time before we can make any ning again, that we can start getting real progress. some cooperation again" on issues like deficit reduction. But while this might conceivably be true for estab- Michael Spaeth can be reached lishment Republicans like House at micspa@umich.edu. Speaker John Boehner - and that's CIA KOVALCHECK- All Concerts Begin at 7:30 p.m. More information at blu.lake.org/ebI