LSA
junior
Rain
Uddin
decided to get involved in this
campaign when she learned
that Michigan’s 12th District
was represented by a Democrat
rather
than
a
Democratic
Socialist.
“I am really interested in
seeing the progressive take this
seat, especially in this district,”
Uddin said. “I am a transfer
here, and once I experienced
the community it was shocking
to me that we had such an
established Democrat as our
representative, so that’s the
main reason that I am here.”
In an email, Kellie Lounds,
the
political
director
for
Dingell’s campaign, said the
congresswoman was focused on
serving the people of the 12th
District.
“Congresswoman
Dingell
is focused on continuing to
lead the fight in Congress for
quality, affordable healthcare,
safeguarding the environment,
strengthening affordable and
accessible
education,
and
delivering
for
hard-working
men and women in Southeast
Michigan,”
Lounds
wrote.
“Across the 12th Congressional
District,
Mrs.
Dingell
talks
with everyone, and has gone
to hundreds of meetings and
events - including events from
Downriver
communities
to
multiple
events
on
UMich
campus weekly. People who
know her, know she is a fighter.”
As
Rajput
continued,
he
emphasized his various beliefs.
He said he was focused on
college debt and talked about
more affordable or free college.
“How are we going to pay
for it? Well, the answer is using
the vast wealth and resources
of the United States because we
are a rich country,” Rajput said.
“We are the richest country that
has ever existed in the history
of mankind, and we’re going
around pretending that we are
barely getting by. … We have
so much money, but we keep
spending it on dumb stuff.”
He shared a story about
a woman he met during his
campaign.
She
mentioned
she was married, but that it
was not a romantic marriage.
When applying to college, she
got married to a friend so they
would receive more financial aid
because she would then qualify
as a dependent.
Rajput said no one should
have to get married in order to
pay for college.
“Is this actually something
that
is
happening
at
this
University?” Rajput said. “The
answer is yes. … That’s where
we’re at. Where people are
trying to do whatever to figure
out how to make this make
financial sense for them.”
University
alum
Stephen
Tryban
attended
the
town
hall to learn more about the
candidate challenging Dingell.
“As someone who is pretty far
left, I am curious and interested
in any kind of disruption there
could be in the establishment
Democrat field,” Tryban said. “I
think that even if this campaign
is not successful, I think that
primarily
having
somebody
like Solomon come in and
really gather a lot of attention
for these particular stances
could inevitably shift Dingell’s
position, possibly. So, I think, if
anything, it could gather more
support for these particular
issues.”
Rajput concluded by sharing
his opinions on health care.
Implementing universal health
care is crucial, he said.
“We need to try to make our
healthcare system better from
the inside out,” Rajput said.
Experts are unsure how
PFAS
exposure
impacts
people clinically, Wasilevich
said.
“Sometimes it means that
our lab testing procedures are
not as refined,” Wasilevich
said. “We are learning and
evolving those procedures
to test for new analytes. We
also don’t have a clear sense,
at least for PFAS, about the
clinical implications of being
exposed. That makes the
risk of communication very
challenging.”
Wasilevich
then
proceeded to talk about the
public health obligations of
the Michigan PFAS Action
Response Team.
“We have a public health
obligation, so once (MPART)
identifies
contaminated
sites, we intervene to try
to reduce or remove that
exposure, protecting public
health,” Wasilevich said. “If
we locate a contaminated
site, we will replace that
water either with bottled
water or will shift the water
source, and we will also
distribute filters.”
Wasilevich
spoke
about
how
PFAS
contamination
affects communities and how
MPART assuages the fears of
a contaminated community.
“When a community is
affected with a contaminant,
they become very fearful.
It’s out of their control that
they’ve been exposed, and
they
want
answers,
and
they
deserve
answers,”
Wasilevich said. “We go into
town halls frequently for
health education to let them
know about their testing. We
create a very strong presence
in the communities that are
affected.”
Wasilevich
also
talked
about
MPART’s
surface
water investigations where
they check for PFAS levels in
fish and wastewater.
“We
do
some
surface
water
investigations,”
Wasilevich said. “We test
fish in the water and address
PFAS foam in the water, and
we test our wastewater as
well, and based on what we
find, we put in public health
advisories.”
Public Health senior Anna
Tankersley
commented
on possible improvements
MPART could make in its
response to PFAS.
“I think that they are
doing a really good job, but
I’d like to see them be a little
more transparent about it,”
Tankersley said. “I’d like to
see more publications, kind
of publicly available. Overall,
I’d like to see the studies to
see what they’re doing.”
Wasilevich
spoke
about
where MPART is presently in
their area of assessment.
“We
are
currently
analyzing
the
data.
We
are
pulling
together
a
preliminary report for the
community to share with
them
before
the
end
of
the year,” Wasilevich said.
“Hopefully, we’ll be able to
share the full report by the
end of the next year.”
Wasilevich further spoke
about MPART’s expansion
plans, including a five-year
grant to establish two new
biomonitoring initiatives in
Michigan.
Meredith
McGehee,
a
senior
administrative
assistant at the School of
Public Health’s Department
of Epidemiology, commented
on Michigan’s response to
the PFAS presence.
“They’re doing a great job,”
McGehee said. “They’ve got
the steps down in the right
order, they are doing the
testing, and they have two
studies that are in their first
stages.”
The event came to an end
with a Q&A session. The first
question asked involved how
MPART planned to address
the clustering of samples.
Wasilevich
responded
that
MPART
aimed
to
statistically address the issue
of clustering, for example
analyzing households rather
than individuals.
“One of the things that
we’ve done in the North
Kent County assessment is
use households as a means
of analysis as opposed to
individuals,”
Wasilevich
said. “So, there are some
statistical means that we
might employ to address
that.”
Wasilevich
was
further
asked how the researchers
planned to boost enrollment
in the study.
“We are going to do a lot of
non-targeted recruitment as
well as targeted recruitment
in
the
community,”
Wasilevich said. “We are
incentivizing with gift cards.
We’re hoping that helps.”
In
an
interview
with
The Daily after the event,
Wasilevich
addressed
the
struggles
MPART
faces
in
recruiting
people
to
participate in studies.
“One of the challenges
is to make sure we have
people across the spectrum
of
possible
exposure,”
Wasilevich said. “One of the
things we also had struggles
with when we did a random
sample of participants in
North
Kent
County
was
that
we
didn’t
include
everyone, which meant that
some people who wanted to
participate couldn’t.”
Wasilevich
also
commented
on
how
Michigan’s response to the
threat of PFAS has been
exemplary and what needs to
be done in the future.
“We are doing so much. It’s
really been gratifying, in a
way, to be a part of something
that is so comprehensive
and
has
all
these
state
agencies participating in,”
Wasilevich said. “We need
to continue to do these kinds
of investigations and direct
funding to support it.”
“We want to be very
thoughtful about what we
think we can understand,”
Papsal said. “And we don’t
want to be insulting to
anyone (thinking) that we
could
truly
understand
what those individuals are
going through, but we can
talk about it. We can raise
awareness.”
SAWC Director Dan Kelly
addressed the crowd as the
event began. Kelly implored
attendees to leave the Diag
with not only a greater
understanding
of
what
experiencing homelessness
entails, but also an action
plan for moving forward.
Student
leaders
from
CURIS and MReach said
they were eager to turn
the
event’s
momentum
into
tangible
action.
CURIS
rebranded
their
organization
this
year,
moving away from clinical
work and into advocacy.
As a result, Public Health
senior Josie Lee, president
of
CURIS,
said
the
organization was seeking
out a community partner
who
had
experience
in the field when their
communication with SAWC
began.
“Our
purpose
was,
‘They’re already doing so
much, they already have the
connections, but what were
the gaps? Is there anything
that we could maybe fill?’”
Lee said.
Similarly, MReach is a new
organization this semester.
MReach President Cameron
Zurawlow, Business junior,
said the organization’s goal
was to foster community
partnerships such as that
with SAWC.
“Hopefully
this
will
be a night that CURIS
and MReach continue to
do every (year), and that
was the main purpose of
this
year:
establishing
those
relationships
and
making a change within
the community,” Zurawlow
said.
In
planning
for
next
year, Papsal noted the need
to apply for an overnight
permit further in advance.
Despite having begun to
plan for the event just
as
students
returned
to
campus
in
September,
Papsal said they did not
apply
for
the
overnight
permit with enough notice
to gain approval. The event,
which lasted seven hours,
ended at 2 a.m. rather than
at daybreak because of this.
Lee also said she hopes
next year’s turnout will
be larger. She explained
how
in
her
four
years
at
the
University,
she
has
observed
many
insensitive
conversations
where poverty is clearly
misunderstood.
Lee
said
this was likely on account
of the privilege afforded
to what she believes is
a majority of University
students.
“Personally, I feel like
there’s
something
U-M
students
particularly
…
need to learn more about
this,” Lee said. “They need
to be more aware of this
topic, so hopefully it will
be a tradition that happens
every year.”
Lee
sees
homelessness
as
a
personal
topic
because there was a period
during which her brother
experienced homelessness.
She and Papsal explained
how quickly and irreversibly
a person can transition from
poverty
to
homelessness
through no fault of their
own.
Lee
and
Papsal
also
noted the importance of
preventative measures. In
Papsal’s experience, it is
far easier to save someone’s
housing situation at the last
second than it is to begin
anew when they become
homeless.
SAWC
client
Yolanda
Neely
said
when
SAWC
acknowledged her humanity
as well as her homelessness,
she was finally able to begin
the recovery process.
“I say that was the first
day of the beginning of my
new life and the last day
of the end of my old life,
with me not knowing it,”
Neely said. “I went there
angry, upset, thinking my
life was over, but they gave
me something that I didn’t
think that I had. They cared
for me.”
Neely also expressed a
need for more preventative
measures
against
homelessness,
such
as
affordable
housing.
She
referenced
Ann
Arbor’s
housing crisis, which Papsal
blames for SAWC’s inability
to house virtually any of
their clients in Ann Arbor
post-recovery.
The fight for affordable
housing
in
Ann
Arbor,
which has been brewing for
years, persists in Ann Arbor
among both students and
residents. Protesters took
to the street on Sunday in
order to protest mounting
difficulties.
Ann Arbor City Council
discussed the issue Monday,
approving a proposal to
begin
affordable
housing
development by a 9-2 vote.
In regard to the decision,
Councilmember
Zachary
Ackerman,
D-Ward,
who
voted
in
favor
of
the
development,
advised
listeners that, despite the
proposal’s
success,
any
tangible changes were likely
four to five years down the
road.
In the meantime, Papsal
urged students who are
interested
in
helping
to
donate
or
contact
SAWC
at
734-662-2829
for more information on
volunteering.
“Our greatest goal would
be
that
people
would
want to come to us and
more meaningful ways to
volunteer and actually have
more
client
interaction,”
Papsal said. “Really having
the greatest minds in the
community
(use)
their
energy to do more than what
they’re currently doing.”
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News
Wednesday, November 20, 2019 — 3A
CANDIDATE
From Page 1A
SLEEP-OUT
From Page 1A
PFAS
From Page 1A
Al
Ahmad
has
forged
connections
with
her
interview subjects, some of
whom she has grown close
with over her years of covering
the area. As she returned to
Yemen over the years, she
recognized the effect the
trauma from the civil war was
having on people’s perception
of time and reality.
“Nothing prepares you for
how you need to handle these
cases,” Al Ahmad said. “How
do you maintain distance,
but also empathy (and) trust?
They become your friends,
you talk to them all the time,
and so the boundaries are
very difficult to deal with.”
In addition to being a
journalist, Al Ahmad covers
her
stories
through
film,
directing documentaries that
were broadcast on programs
like PBS and CBS.
“The
camera
is
an
interesting addition to a war
zone, because it enables me to
filter everything through that
frame, through that lens,” Al
Ahmad said. “It actually gives
me emotional distance.”
Though
she
is
both
a
filmmaker and a journalist,
Al Ahmad said she prioritizes
the story being told over the
quality of camera work.
“I’m
not
one
of
those
people who’s going to make
a beautiful film, and I don’t
really care about that as
much as, ‘Are you getting the
information that you need
from this scene?’” Al Ahmad
said.
As someone applying for
the Wallenberg Fellowship
to learn about the lives
of
Yemeni
refugees
and
asylum seekers, LSA senior
Ayat
AL-Tamimi
attended
Al
Ahmad’s
lecture
for
the
opportunity
to
learn
from someone who is doing
groundwork
in
a
similar
field.
“I think at the heart of it
was that she talked about
all these war and political
factions, but I don’t think
any of that mattered in the
grand scheme of the story,”
AL-Tamimi
said.
“What
mattered was the human
element, and people’s lives
and how those have been
impacted by people who put
ideology above human life.”
LSA junior Jalal Mawri,
who attended the lecture, is
a Yemeni-American student
who lived in Yemen until 2013.
Mawri said he felt a personal
connection to Al Ahmad’s
stories, as two of his cousins
had been killed in airstrikes
in Yemen.
“It was brutally emotional,”
Mawri said. “When I was
hearing those stories that
she was saying, I got really
emotional. I had a few tears
coming out of my eyes.”
Al
Ahmad
became
emotional
while
sharing
stories of civilian casualties
she had encountered while on
the ground in Yemen, ranging
from a five year old girl who
died alone standing in line to
get water, to a mother who
lost her two boys to a missile
strike that hit them while
they were playing outside.
“If anything, this was a
reminder that you can have
five factions warring in a
village, but in the end, a kid
is still a kid who answers to
his mother,” AL-Tamimi said.
“A faction doesn’t take that
away.”
Currently, Al Ahmad is
working on a podcast about
Saudi Arabian human rights
in Arabic. She is also looking
to
continue
her
coverage
of Yemen in the future by
revisiting her footage and
seeing how the understanding
of the conflict has changed.
“For a lot of people, access
is more important than the
story itself,” Al Ahmad said.
“I hope I never get accused
of
just
being
someone
who has access but no real
journalism.”
At the end of her lecture,
Al Ahmad was met with a
standing ovation from the
audience. This was followed
by a Q&A section, which
included
a
question
from
an audience member about
being a female reporter in the
Middle East.
Al Ahmad responded that
she sees her gender as being
a superpower, since she can
cover Yemeni women with
sensitivity to their culture
and situation. Other questions
addressed Al Ahmad’s opinion
about other conflicts in the
Middle East area and the
relations between the region
and the United States.
Reflecting on Al Ahmad’s
speech,
AL-Tamimi
was
moved by her description
of the Yemeni people being
impacted by the civil war.
“I think what really moved
me to tears when she talked
about how people being here is
a sign of people not forgetting
about Yemen,” AL-Tamimi
said. “I think people often
forget that people living in
the Middle East are people.”
Read more at
MichiganDaily.com
MEDAL
From Page 1A
“So, for the ACLU, them
dealing with the courts was
particular to that, and then
we wanted to talk about the
experience of women too, and
Banner teaches at a women’s
prison.”
Fancher began the panel by
outlining the history of mass
incarceration in the United
States and noting points in
recent American history in
which Black Americans have
been wrongly incarcerated.
“During the Civil Rights
era, people were arrested for
simply exercising their First
Amendment rights. … During
the Black Power movement,
you’d find people who were
framed… some of these people
imprisoned in the 1960s are
still in prison today,” Fancher
said. “During the war on
drugs… the number of people
who went to prison skyrocketed
because
of
policies
that
demonized people… and (law
enforcement) swept through
Black communities.”
Before
continuing,
both
Banner and Fancher stressed
to the audience that the issue
of mass incarceration is not
simply a point of partisan
disagreement.
“The issue is not one between
Democrats and Republicans,
but it is between those in power
and those who are oppressed,”
Fancher said.
“Sentencing guidelines (for
the War on Drugs) were voted
on by both Democrats and
Republicans,” Banner said.
Both Banner and Fancher
offered up potential changes in
policy and general approaches
to the problems surrounding
mass incarceration.
Fancher
focused
on
the
issue
of
policing
and
the
disproportionate
impact
felt in communities of color,
especially
Black
Americans.
One possible solution to this,
Fancher said, is to incentivize
police
officers
by
tying
promotion and job progression
to policing in a manner that
is as unbiased and as fair as
possible.
“The one thing that I am
convinced of after talking to, at
this point, hundreds of police
officers, is that if they’re not
concerned
about
anything
else, they’re concerned about
their careers and their career
advancement,” Fancher said.
“If the message somehow gets
through to them that the way to
advance is to act as progressive
as possible… I think that they
would do it.”
Banner briefly spoke about
the issues women face in the
criminal justice system, and the
rising number of incarcerated
women.
“From the 1970s to 2000, the
number of women incarcerated
grew by 823 percent … and
women’s
incarceration
numbers seem to be growing.
… So, we need to realize that
policies are not equal in their
impact (to men and women),”
Banner said.
When asked how University
students interested in helping
to reduce mass incarceration
might do so, Fancher offered a
rather simple solution.
“The reality is, anything I
do, you can do right now. It just
becomes a question of whether
your way of thinking is one that
just drives you to get up and do
it,” Fancher said. “You’ve got
more power, you’ve got more
influence than you think.”
PANEL
From Page 2A