Every Saturday morning since
September 2003, members of
Witnesses For Peace — an anti-
Israel protest group — have
stood outside the Beth Israel
Congregation
on
Washtenaw
Avenue in Ann Arbor. Members
of the group hold signs reading
“Resist Jewish Power,” “Jewish
Power
Corrupts,”
“Boycott
Israel,” “Stop U.S. Aid to Israel”
and
“End
the
Palestinian
holocaust.” Their demonstrations
last from about 9:30 to 11:30 a.m.,
taking place during Shabbat
services.
After 16 years and more
than
800
protests,
a
Beth
Israel
Congregation
member,
Marvin Gerber, motioned to
sue the group on Dec. 19, 2019,
claiming Witnesses For Peace
have demonstrated anti-Semitic
rhetoric. The lawsuit also claims
the city of Ann Arbor has not
taken the appropriate action to
put an end to the demonstrations.
According to the litigation,
the protests defy Ann Arbor
regulations on public gatherings
and stretch the legal limits on
a person’s right to free speech.
Gerber requested the city either
eliminate the protest altogether
or install certain restrictions. The
plaintiff is also seeking financial
retribution due to the protester’s
constant “harassment.”
“The First Amendment right
of free speech does not entitle
a speaker to use that right
repeatedly
to
bludgeon,
for
weeks and years at a time, in the
same location,” the lawsuit reads.
Lewis Raven Wallace, an
independent
journalist
from
North
Carolina,
spoke
at
Literati Bookstore on Tuesday
evening to a crowd of about
70 people. Wallace discussed
his new book “The View from
Somewhere: Undoing the Myth
of Journalistic Objectivity” at an
event sponsored by the store.
Wallace is an Ann Arbor
native who turned his activism
to journalism. He currently
hosts his own podcast, “The
View from Somewhere.” In
addition, Wallace started his
own
company
called
Press
On,
a
Southern
journalism
collective
providing
training
and education about challenging
harmful bias in the journalism
industry.
During the book reading,
Wallace
read
passages
describing how his early career
as a journalist was affected
by the LGBTQ+ activism he
participated in as a teenager.
The excerpts detailed how he
was fired from a job at a daily
paper when he wrote a blog post
titled “Objectivity Is Dead and
I’m Okay With It,” which would
come to define the rest of his
career.
Wallace, who is transgender,
said
he
knew
his
opinion
about
objectivity
would
be
controversial but did not realize
the extent to which it would
change his career.
“I wrote about my experience
as a transgender journalist, never
neutral on the subject of my
own humanity and rights, even
as they were being debated in
‘both sides’ journalism,” Wallace
said. “When I posted the blog, I
knew it might be controversial.
What I didn’t know was how
dramatically it would change
the trajectory of my life, as my
own story became part of a tense
national conversation over truth
and journalism.”
Art & Design senior Brooks
Eisenbise said it is important to
challenge the idea of journalistic
objectivity.
“I like the message of pushing
against journalistic objectivity
because I feel like in our current
fact climate where people can
say whatever, it takes more
than objectivity to tell people
the truth and to know what’s
real and what’s not,” Eisenbise
said. “Talking to the source
and talking with people on the
ground is important. Telling the
full story is really cool.”
A
team
of
University
of
Michigan
faculty
and
students have created iGYM,
an augmented reality system
allowing
both
able-bodied
individuals and those with
mobile disabilities to engage in
physical games together.
iGYM is designed to mimic
physical sports by projecting
an interactive court onto the
floor. It can host multiple
games featuring virtual goals
and balls. Players interact with
the projections to virtually kick
and pass the ball to score goals.
Art
&
Design
professor
Roland Graf, one of the team’s
leaders, said the game creates
an
even
playing
field
for
children with disabilities so
they can compete and play with
their able-bodied peers.
The
team
consisted
of
students and faculty from the
School of Art & Design, the
School of Information,
the
College of Engineering and
the
School
of
Kinesiology.
Graf stressed the importance
of having an interdisciplinary
team to bring the research
project to life.
“What united us was really
a shared mission,” Graf said.
Good news for stressed-out
students: there may be a link
between stress in early life and
longer lifespans, according to
researchers at the University of
Michigan.
The research is being conducted
at the Jakob Lab, a molecular,
cellular and developmental biology
laboratory, and focuses on oxidative
stress, a natural byproduct of
metabolism,
and
its
potential
ability to increase lifespan. The lab
uses genetically identical worms to
study aging.
Postdoctoral
fellow
Daphne
Bazopoulou, a key contributor to
the ongoing project, explained
what oxidative stress is and why
the group chose to study it in
worms.
“These are oxidants that every
organism produces, and these are
byproducts of metabolism, and
these have been linked to oxidative
damage which contributes to
aging,” Bazopoulou said. “Worms
produce those oxidants at very high
levels during development and they
do that naturally … so this was a
little bit weird because we knew
from studies before that excessive
oxidants might do harm, however,
these juvenile worms were able to
recover by themselves.”
Starting
this
April,
undergraduate students can
apply to the Ford School of
Public Policy for acceptance
into the new public policy minor
for Fall 2020. The minor will be
open to students from LSA, the
College of Engineering, Ross
School of Business, School
of Information and School of
Public Health.
Sharon
Maccini,
faculty
director of the undergraduate
program at the Public Policy
School, said the impetus for
the minor came from hearing
students express interest in
studying public policy without
necessarily majoring in it.
“The idea was to attract
students who are primarily
committed
to
another
discipline and to supplement
their education with public
policy studies,” Maccini said.
“We offer essentially a toolkit,
various types of skills and
ideas that can be useful for
pursuing effective change and
leadership in essentially any
field.”
According
to
the
press
release,
sophomores
and
juniors
are
able
to
apply
from April 1 to May 15. The
application consists of an online
form, resume, transcript and
two short essays. Students will
hear their results by mid-June,
and 25 students are expected
to be offered admission into
the minor.
LSA
sophomore
Sarah
Abdelbaki intends to major in
economics and international
studies. However, she said
she is also interested in public
policy. After learning about the
new minor program, Abdelbaki
said she was excited about the
opportunity.
michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, January 8, 2020
ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-NINE YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
GOT A NEWS TIP?
Call 734-418-4115 or e-mail
news@michigandaily.com and let us know.
INDEX
Vol. CXXIX, No. 40
©2019 The Michigan Daily
N E WS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
O PI N I O N . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
CL A SSIFIEDS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
S U D O K U . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
A R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
S P O R T S . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
michigandaily.com
For more stories and coverage, visit
AR game
increases
access for
children
TECHNOLOGY
Federal lawsuit challenges anti-Israel
demonstrations at local synagogue
Litigation addresses 16-year protest at Beth Israel Congregation
‘U’ study:
longevity
impacted
by stress
RESEARCH
Follow The Daily
on Instagram,
@michigandaily
BARBARA COLLINS &
SAMANTHA SMALL
Daily News Editor &
Daily Staff Reporter
See STRESS, Page 3A
ANGELINA BREDE
Daily Staff Reporter
Research team creates
gaming system for kids
with differing abilities
Results show early-life
stressors may lead to
increase in lifespan
HANNAH MACKAY
Daily Staff Reporter
Dean expects to enroll approximately
25 students in 16-credit program
Ford School
to offer new
minor next
school year
Independent journalist discusses
‘myth of objectivity’ in industry
Lewis Raven Wallace reflects on personal experience as LGBTQ+ activist
JASMIN LEE
Daily Staff Reporter
See JOURNALIST, Page 3A
See LAWSUIT, Page 3A
FRANCESCA DUONG
Daily Staff Reporter
ALEC COHEN/Daily
Author Lewis Raven Wallace speaks about his book “The View From Somewhere Else” during an event at Literati Bookstore Tuesday evening.
statement
ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily
Members of Witnesses for Peace, an anti-Israel protest group, have protested outside of the Beth Israel Congregation for the past sixteen years.
See MINOR, Page 3A
SPORTSWEDNESDAY
See GAME, Page 3A