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January 2013

Editorials

Non-English speakers face discrimination

This past week, the all-Republican Board of Commissioners in Carroll County, Md. voted unanimously to make English the official language of government business. The ordinance follows in the footsteps of Frederick County and Queen Anne’s County, making Carroll the third county in Maryland to declare an official language.

By the January 31, 2013

Editorials

DoD’s women in combat decision inadequate

In an announcement last Thursday, outgoing Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta declared that the Pentagon will lift its official ban on women in combat that has been in place since 1994. According to the Department of Defense, this means that the approximately 237,000 positions which women were previously barred from holding will be going under review.

By the January 31, 2013

Voices

Carrying On: In search of lost experience

What I am about to say may shock you and shake your morality down to its very core, so brace yourself: We, as members of the Georgetown student body, are an extremely privileged bunch. I’m not talking about the privilege they hammer into our heads from day one, the kind addressed in the convocation speech.

By January 31, 2013

Voices

In the developing world, contraceptives save lives

I used to consider myself “transiently pro-choice,” mainly because I didn’t know enough about the issue to restrict anyone’s rights, but I certainly wasn’t comfortable with abortion. Then things started to change as I came to college and, through my studies, came to some startling realizations about women’s health.

By January 31, 2013

Voices

Evading etymology eschews the excitement of English

During Senior Disorientation 2.0 the other weekend, I found myself at McFadden’s. As I sipped a rail drink in the roped off, Georgetown-only section of D.C.’s “douchiest” bar, I wondered if my roommates might accompany me to the main area to be among the “hoi polloi,” as I jokingly put it. “The what?” one shot back. While I explained the meaning of the phrase (Greek for “the many” or “the masses”), I was aware that this type of interaction had happened before.

By January 31, 2013

Voices

Scandalous Italian politics must become a thing of the past

We Italians studying in the U.S. are emigrants who have left our country with no fixed date of return. We left looking for a better education and a fresh outlook on life. Unavoidably though, the heart still pounds to the beat of the noise of scooters in the street, the smell of good coffee, and the warmth of our customs. We are not nationalists—we are cultural patriots. Yet, we will probably not be able to vote in the 2013 Italian general election, which will take place starting on Feb. 24, after a dramatic decade of poor administrations and economic stagnation.

By January 31, 2013

Features

Creative Expression at Georgetown Still Fiction

In preparation for its imminent arrival at Georgetown, last year’s incoming freshman class was required to read the novel How to Read the Air for the Marino Family International Writer’s Workshop. Grounded in the author’s Ethiopian heritage, the book is linguistically elegant and uses a melancholy, poetic lyricism to tell the tale of a young man struggling to overcome his family’s troubled past.

By January 24, 2013

Leisure

A meal fit for schmiels

DGS Delicatessen aims to bring classic Jewish cooking to Dupont Circle. Advertising itself as a “Restaurant, Sandwich Shop, and Bar,” the deli takes a modern approach to Jewish cooking. While such an approach may seem refreshing, however, it renders the word “delicatessen” almost arbitrary.

By January 24, 2013

Leisure

Ballin’ at the Inauguration, or, Stevie for president

At first, when I woke up the morning after the Inaugural Ball, I thought the cheeky bloggers over at Buzzfeed had stolen my angle for this Lez’hur. There it was at the top of my morning Twitter feed: “The Inaugural Ball Was Just Like Prom.”

By January 24, 2013

Leisure

Renwick: Gallery of the 21st century

It’s not often that yarn sculptures foretell the future of art, but the Smithsonian’s latest exhibit hardly meets one’s traditional expectations of craftsmanship. The 40 under 40: Craft Futures exhibit at the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery arrives to D.C. 40 years after the museum’s founding in 1972, showcasing a vast range of craft art made post-9/11, when the “20th century effectively ended.” The exhibit effectively demonstrates to viewers the new directions of art in the 21st century, combining every medium from ceramics and metalwork to industrial design and installation art.

By January 24, 2013