part, they might not have paid
off, as evidenced by his second
place finish in a state he was
projected to win. In contrast,
his opponent, Sen. Ted Cruz
(R–Texas) at his rally in Iowa
City the day before spent his
time portraying himself as
a true conservative, evoking
time-tested symbols like the
Bible and the Constitution.
For Iowa though, where,
according to NPR, 53 percent of
voters consider religion “very
important” and where more
Evangelical voters participated
than anticipated, Cruz’s morals
emphasis was more appealing.
The candidate won the state’s
caucus with 27.6 percent of
votes.
Trump
took
second
carrying 24.3 percent.
In
addition
to
not
campaigning as much as his
opponents,
Trump
refused
to attend the last Republican
debate a mere two days before
the caucus, following tension
with moderator Megyn Kelly
stemming
from
the
first
Republican debate in August
where he said he felt she did not
treat him fairly.
At the rally, Trump said he
believed had he attended the
debate, it would have had its
highest ratings ever.
“You have to stick up for your
rights in life,” Trump said. “I
wanted to debate so badly the
other night. I wanted to go back.
But when people don’t treat you
properly, just like when people
don’t treat our country properly
… We would’ve broken the
(rating) record that night, but
we did the right thing. Frankly,
Fox is great. We’re back, we’re
friends, all of that stuff, but
I said I’m not going into that
debate.”
Instead of debating, Trump
held a rally for veterans that
night and said he raised $6
million.
At the time, Trump said
his absence from the debate
showed how strong of a leader
he is, versus Cruz, whom he
has called a “puppet” and a
“nervous wreck.” His rally
was
comparatively
more
policy-focused than Cruz, who
focused on building up his
character at his rally and whose
expressed policy platform was
largely focused on dismantling
Obama administration policies.
Aaron Kall, director of the
Michigan
Debate
Program
and an expert on presidential
debates, said missing the debate
because of his feud with Kelly
only hurt him instead of making
him look strong as Trump said
it would.
“It made him look weak,”
Kall said. “That he wouldn’t
attend a debate because of a
conflict with a moderator kind
of showed that he had poor
negotiating skills because he
tried to get the moderator
excluded and when Fox news
decided to stick with her he
basically was left with no
choice but to skip the debate.
And it was just disrespectful for
the voters of Iowa.”
Kall said the small margin
between the candidates’ polling
numbers, and how soon the
debate was to the caucus, made
Trump’s choice to skip it even
riskier.
“The debate was just a few
days before people made their
decision and some entrance
poll data of people right before
they voted revealed that those
that decided late in the process,
just in the last few days, he only
won a very small percentage
of — only about 15 percent,”
Kall said. “Where Rubio and
Cruz won just about half of
the overall voters. So, I think it
definitely hurt him with those
late deciding voters.”
But after the loss, Trump
didn’t express any of the guilt
he had joked about on Sunday
— after results came in, he
tweeted he was taking the
second place in stride.
However, in a series of
further tweets, Trump did
associate the loss with the little
time he spent campaigning in
the state.
That
kind
of
rhetoric
mirrored the confidence he
expressed pre-caucus — and
the kind of confidence that’s
characterized his campaign.
On Sunday, Trump said he
anticipated he would win the
race so extremely he would
garner votes in historically
Read more online at
michigandaily.com
TRUMP
From Page 1
experiences
of
stigma
and
inadequate
accessibility
to
quality health care, which he saw
to be outgrowths of the larger
system.
“Imagine
facing
stigma
every day with your friends and
family, and just understanding
that
changing
transgender
perspective is not necessarily
an individual person’s problem
but also a structural thing,”
Carrillo said. “Places that have
increasing rates of sexually
transmitted infections (STIs)
are often the same places where
people lack access to health
care because they don’t know
how to apply for Medicaid,
or
service
providers
aren’t
creating a safe environment for
people who seek help, or money
isn’t
going
toward
helping
them. Accessibility is a big
issue because it is related to a
lot of other pressures — social,
economic, psychological.”
Sirdenis said engaging the
Youth Advisory Board was a
core part of the organization’s
programming.
“Often public health programs
are created in isolation without
input,
guidance,
leadership
and wisdom from the people
most impacted by it,” she said.
“The youths are here to help
us understand what is going
on, what they would like to see
in terms of STI treatment and
access. They are our reality
check.”
The Health Access Initiative
is
a
two-part
engagement
with
individual
clinics
and
health centers. The first part is
cultural humility and cultural
responsiveness for staff — from
medical
personnel
such
as
doctors and nurses to front desk
and administrative staff. This
includes equipping them with
inclusive language and practices
to serve LGBTQ patients more
comprehensively.
The second component of
the HAI is technical assistance,
which aims to support clinics and
health centers with creating and
revising protocol and policies.
This
includes
re-examining
current
practices
and
other
aspects of the patient experience
that could impact quality of
care. All training and support is
provided for free.
Sirdenis said conceptualizing
the Health Access Initiative
involved significant groundwork
and
community
engagement.
Twelve town halls throughout
Southeast
Michigan
—
encompassing Flint, Ypsilanti,
Ann Arbor and Detroit — were
conducted
to
survey
public
opinion
and
facilitate
open
conversations on how to best
meet the needs of the population
of interest.
Jack Andrzejewski, a second-
year Master’s student in the
School of Public Health, works as
a research assistant for MFierce.
Part of his job involves literature
review and data evaluation. He
said the program development
phase was both challenging and
fulfilling.
“The town halls engaged
community
members
via
process-oriented activities, to
gather their input on what they
felt was important and salient.
This really helped the coalition
to
make
future
decisions,”
Andrzejewski said. “Time is
always an issue. Community-
engaged participatory approach
to research requires a lot of time.
Nonetheless, outcomes are better,
engagements are better and there
is more buy-in from community
members.”
Sirdenis
emphasized
the
efforts devoted to ensuring the
Health Access Initiative was
directed at meeting the needs of
its target population.
“We looked over the data
gathered by SexLab and talked
it through with the Youth
Advisory Board; we asked them
what they thought, and if the
research resonated with their
personal experience,” she said.
“Using existing data, as well as
everything else gathered from
the town hall ideas, we went from
100 ideas and whittled down to
two ideas.”
Aside from the Health Access
Initiative, MFierce is also working
on the Advocacy Collective,
aimed at providing advocacy
and professional development
training for the Youth Advisory
Board so that members can go on
to do consulting work.
Carrillo said he hoped the
Health Access Initiative would
ultimately
affect
large-scale
change.
“I think that the cool thing
about this project is not only
that we’re hoping to increase
awareness and reduce STI rates,
we are also involving institutions
that would otherwise not be
involved,
and
challenging
them to consider what they can
improve, what has been working,
what hasn’t been working, who
is being left out and how do we
make whatever we are doing
more accessible to people,” he
said.
“One thing that I always take away
from George Shirley is to remain
humble. And know that everybody
is
somebody
and
everybody
matters. He’s very humble and
beyond deserving.”
Olwyn Shirley, George Shirley’s
daughter, attended the event as
well. With pride, she said he has
always had many children: his
students. He showed the same
attention and devotion to his
students as he did to her and her
brother, she said.
“His door is always open,”
Shirley said. “They come to the
house, he hosts parties for them, he
encourages them, and I watch him
and I feel so blessed to have him.”
In an interview with The
Michigan Daily following the
ceremony, Shirley said the most
important advice he’d like to
impart on his students is to enjoy
the
challenge
of
expressing
themselves through music. He
described this gift of expression as
a public service that should never
be taken lightly.
“You’re serving the composer,
you’re serving the poet, you’re
serving the public,” Shirley said.
“It’s a kind of public service that is
blessed.”
Shirley
announced
during
his speech that he will use his
monetary prize to fund his George
Shirley African American Art Song
and Operatic Aria Competition.
He said the competition was
established to encourage the next
generation of musicians and to
acknowledge many operatic songs
written by African American
composers who are not as widely
known.
“I want people to know this
music,” Shirley said. “And the best
way of doing that is getting young
people interested in performing
it, helping them to appreciate it
and to perform it for people so
audiences will know more of it.”
Shirley is known internationally
as an esteemed performer, teacher
and lecturer. In 2015, President
Barack
Obama
awarded
him
the National Medal of Arts, the
nation’s highest public artistic
honor. He has performed in more
than 80 operatic roles throughout
his career and won a Grammy
Award in 1968 for one of his roles.
Although
Shirley’s
name
is prominent in the global art
community, he has also remained
loyal to his Michigan roots, as
evidenced by the large number of
attendees from his hometown of
Detroit. Detroit natives Stephanie
Donaldson and Reverend Barbara
Kelley came in support of Shirley,
explaining that they attended
the same church as him in their
youth.
While
he
was
studying
music education at Wayne State
University, Shirley found the
time to start and conduct the first
chancellor choir in the People’s
Community Church.
“I’ve had occasion to attend
some
of
his
performances,
operatic performances, and he’s
just a wonderful human being,”
Kelley said. “He’s a hero for me.”
Shirley
said
his
life
has
revolved around music since his
mother sang to him while she
was pregnant. He added that
he remembers singing with his
parents at the age of four, noting
that his mother had a beautiful
voice.
“It’s my language,” Shirley
said. “It’s a language that I believe
everyone speaks. I’ve always
known that my life would be
centered on music in some way.
So to me, it’s like the air I breathe,
it’s the food I eat, it’s what makes
me feel good, it’s the way I express
myself, it’s a spiritual life force. I’m
grateful for that.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Friday, February 5, 2016 — 3
SHIRLEY
From Page 1
HEALTH
From Page 1
News
DELANEY RYAN/Daily
George Shirley, professor at the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, accepts the Shirley Verrett award, which is given to
a supporter of women of color in creative arts, at the Stamps Auditorium on Thursday.
“I think there was a 19th
century sense,” Cole said, “that
there was turbulence out there
on the frontier, and it was
important to the wellbeing of
the nation that that turbulence
be dealt with militarily.”
The new frontier of today,
Cole said, is no longer the
American Southwest but the
Middle East. He noted the
so-called frontier has shifted
many times in American history,
encompassing
groups
such
as Native Americans, Roman
Catholicism, communism and
still others at different points
at time.
He then made a point he
would return to throughout
the lecture, that there are two
ways for politicians to motivate
voters: promising things and
making them afraid.
Cole said following the Camp
David Accords of 1978, which
led to a peace treaty between
Israel and Egypt, the next
biggest threat to Israel was Iraq,
he said. As a result of this threat
— which Cole noted he felt was
exaggerated — neoconservative
groups put pressure on the U.S.
government to take military
action against Iraq, culminating
in Operation Desert Fox, a four-
day bombing campaign in Iraq
in 1998.
Touching
on
terrorist
groups in the Middle East,
Cole compared their tactics to
those of American politicians.
Groups like ISIS, Cole said,
are “the mirror image of fear-
mongering in America.” He
also noted that it was incorrect
to call such groups “Islamic.”
While they could be called
“Muslim” because “Muslim”
can describe any person of that
faith, the word “Islamic,” he
said, is used to describe a set
of religious ideals with which
terrorism is not consistent.
When Cole opened up the floor
to questions, one student asked
if he thought the prevalence of
Muslims in professional fields
like medicine and engineering
was detrimental to their voice
in the community, as opposed to
encouraging Muslims to pursue
careers in arenas like the media.
“Having only professionals
is like wearing a muzzle,” Cole
said in response. “They’re never
going to ask a doctor about
Islamophobia.”
LSA freshman Yasmeen Afifi
said she felt obligated to come to
the talk because of her personal
connection to it.
“I feel like I was sort of
forced into the political realm
because of my identity as a
woman and as a Muslim,” Afifi
said. “I basically came here to
understand more about how
Islamophobia is manifesting in
the West.”
COLE
From Page 1