Editorials

Opinions from the Voice’s official editorial board.

Editorials

Don’t vouch for this

On Jan. 9, President Bush urged the Senate to pass a bill allotting 14 million tax dollars a year to low-income D.C. parents who want to send their children to private schools. This school voucher bill, which was approved by the House of Representatives on Dec.

By the January 15, 2004

Editorials

Ditching the District

This Tuesday, D.C. voters had the chance to participate in the District’s inaugural “Presidential Preference Primary.” By placing the District’s primary before the contests in Iowa and New Hampshire, District officials hoped to attract national attention to its lack of congressional voting rights.

By the January 15, 2004

Editorials

Censorship in Red Square?

Students passing through Red Square on Thursday, Nov. 21 undoubtedly noticed representatives from the American Society for the Defense of Tradition, Family and Property waving a large red flag and handing out pamphlets. The following Tuesday, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson addressed the situation in a campus-wide e-mail, denouncing the outside organization’s distribution of “offensive and hateful material that attacked gays and lesbians.

By the December 4, 2003

Editorials

Accidental press conference

The rector of Georgetown’s Jesuit community, Rev. Brian McDermott, S.J., apologized to the Kennedy family last week for the University’s release of Jackie Kennedy’s personal correspondences with the late Rev. Richard McSorley, S.J. The damage had already been done, but McDermott tried to rectify the situation as much as possible.

By the December 4, 2003

Editorials

Bushgiving in Baghdad

On Thanksgiving, President George W. Bush took a trip to Iraq. Arriving at the former Saddam

International Airport under cover of darkness, he spent a few top-secret hours with American troops stationed in Baghdad. He posed with the troops, and with a turkey, and then headed back to the United States.

By the December 4, 2003

Editorials

Broken confidence

In her innermost thoughts, a widowed woman contemplates committing suicide months after her husband’s murder. She confesses these feelings and others to a trusted friend, a priest, and asks whether or not God would forgive her. Later, after her piercing grief has dulled into a constant ache, she thanks him for his support.

By the November 20, 2003

Editorials

Maintaining excellence

Nationally, athlete graduation rates are on the upswing. Earlier this fall, the National Collegiate Athletics Association released its annual report on the graduation rates of scholarship athletes. Student athletes as a group continue to graduate at higher levels than the student body as a whole, and their graduation rate is increasing.

By the November 20, 2003

Editorials

Brits and Bush

This week President George W. Bush kicked off a state visit to the United Kingdom. With him traveled an unprecedented and excessive security force. Critics believe that the president is using security concerns as an excuse to quash protests. Bush’s security extravaganza seems excessive, especially as a response to concerns about protests.

By the November 20, 2003

Editorials

Improvements in Housing

How on-campus housing is distributed is an issue close to students’ hearts. Plenty of students remember the first time they saw the Village A Rooftops, or the first time they realized they absolutely needed to have a Henle single, or their depression upon moving into Darnall.

By the November 13, 2003

Editorials

Impending paranoia

There are many good reasons why Hoyas should breathe a big sigh of relief after receiving the news of the expansion of the Big East conference, which will take effect in the 2004-05 season. While the addition of Cincinnati, DePaul, Louisville, Marquette and South Florida to the league will have a positive impact on the competition level of many sports Georgetown participates in, the effects will be felt most on the hardwood floors of the MCI Center.

By the November 13, 2003

Editorials

Serving abroad

After four or five intense semesters at Georgetown, most students consider their time abroad as a time to relax while perhaps enjoying a few alcoholic beverages. While adapting to a foreign environment and immersing oneself in a foreign language is certainly challenging, the workload abroad tends to be much lighter than a semester spent at Georgetown.

By the November 13, 2003

Editorials

So Much for The City, The Thrills, Virgin

The Thrills are not another one of the garage-revivalist bands with the requisite “The” in the band title. They are a five-piece group from Dublin whose pop-rock songs unabashedly evoke The Monkees, The Beach Boys and other masters of the ‘60s craft that so galvanized the ladies.

By the November 13, 2003

Editorials

We’ll drink to that

In an effort to accurately assess the drinking culture at Georgetown, the Office of Planning and Institutional Research e-mailed a survey to all undergraduates last week. It asks students to answer a series of questions about their own drinking habits and general perceptions of the role that drinking plays for the majority of Georgetown students.

By the November 6, 2003

Editorials

A new hospital for D.C.

Southeast Washington has had a rough time over the past few years. Politicians and residents were up in arms when Mayor Anthony Williams announced the closure of D.C. General Hospital, one of two full-service hospitals in the District’s poorest quadrant in 2001.

By the November 6, 2003

Editorials

Hungry like the Wolfowitz

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, in a speech delivered last Thursday in Gaston Hall, discussed the American invasion of Iraq and reflected on his recent trip there. “We had a fairly exciting trip to Iraq this weekend,” he noted. His speech had some great lines, including one rather evangelical-sounding claim: “Today there is plenty of good news in Iraq.

By the November 6, 2003

Editorials

Policing (and arresting) MPD

According to a Washington Post report Sunday, 24 Metropolitan Police Department officers have been arrested on charges ranging from attempted murder to drunk driving since the beginning of the year. Sound like a lot? It is a lot for the 3,700-officer department.

By the October 30, 2003

Editorials

Why is voting this hard?

Electronic voting was originally hailed as the solution to all voting problems. Hanging, pregnant and otherwise illicit chads would be a thing of the past, and confusing butterful ballots would be replaced with state-of-the-art touchscreen displays. But now that such voting machines have been implemented in many states, Florida 2000 is beginning to look like a walk in the park.

By the October 30, 2003

Editorials

Sports Sermon

“Whatever system Steve is using isn’t working. That’s not a criticism, it’s a fact.” – ESPN analyst Joe Theismann

The time has come to focus on some real sports in D.C. Forget about Steve Superior’s hapless Redskins. Poor Patrick Ramsey has the spinal structure of a 75-year-old construction worker thanks to all the hits he’s absorbed over the past three weeks.

By October 30, 2003

Editorials

Odd bedfellows unite, again

Take Back the Night and the College Republicans might seem like unlikely partners, but these two campus groups are working together on the annual Take Back the Night rally this year. The College Republicans intend to co-sponsor the event by donating money and providing personnel and advertising resources.

By the October 30, 2003

Editorials

Returning to recycling

The environmental revolution that occurred in the early 1970’s made it abundantly clear to Americans for the first time that we were not doing enough to protect our world. While there was a resurgence of activism during the early 1990’s, the environment has taken a backseat to other hot button issues in recent years.

By the October 23, 2003