Voices

Combatting homelessness and its preconceptions, one paper at a time

How many times have you walked down M Street and carefully averted your eyes, sped up or even crossed the street to avoid someone asking for change on a street corner? Trained from a young age in the philosophy of hard work and self-sufficiency, my own justifications for doing so are almost automatic—“How dare they stir up these feelings of embarrassment and discomfort? Why don’t they get a real job instead of sitting on the corner, or worse—sleeping (even though it’s known that many sleep during the day so they can stay awake at night and guard themselves and their belongings)? Won’t they just use the money for drugs or alcohol? It’s just a scam.”

By admin April 10, 2008

Voices

The political purgatory of abortion

Assessing my political beliefs is a simple enough task. I am a liberal and a Democrat. I believe in healthcare for the needy, in the critical need for compassionate government and true to my rust belt roots, I believe in the importance of unions. I also believe in gay rights, in the decriminalization of marijuana, the importance of sex education and making birth control available. I am a feminist, and will accept all the bra-burning connotations that come along with that.

By admin April 10, 2008

Voices

Shattering the myths of recycling on campus

Some people say it with a hint of boastful pride. “Me? No, I never recycle!”

By Robyn Liska April 10, 2008

Editorials

NCAA fouls out on game tickets

Davidson College students had two reasons to smile during their Elite Eight game: their team had come out of nowhere to beat Georgetown and Wisconsin, and their trip to Detroit was free because Davidson’s administration paid for game tickets, transportation and lodging for students who wanted to go to the game. While Georgetown’s precarious financial state makes such a cushy arrangement unlikely, Davidson has the right idea: giving college basketball back to college students. This is something the NCAA, with its restrictive ticket policy, seems loath to do.

By the Editorial Board April 3, 2008

Editorials

Feds trying great train robbery

When D.C.’s first mayor-commissioner, Walter Washington, was appointed in 1967, Representative John McMillan (D-NC) congratulated him by sending a truckload of watermelons to Washington’s office. While the overt racism is gone, the federal government is still treating its responsibility to D.C. like a cruel joke. With Washington’s Metro system confounded by hundreds of millions of dollars in repairs, it’s time for Congress to help the District that it’s ignored for so long.

By the Editorial Board April 3, 2008

Editorials

Forget it, Georgetown, it’s China

With the Beijing Olympics only four months away, protests aimed the Chinese regime’s abuses and its support for the genocidal Sudanese government are mounting. Reporters Without Borders sells shirts with interlocked handcuffs in place of the Olympic rings, and Steven Spielberg left his job as an artistic adviser to the games over China’s indifference to the crisis in Darfur. Now is the perfect time for Georgetown to evaluate its own ties to two Chinese universities.

By the Editorial Board April 3, 2008

Voices

Shirt is a symptom of a larger problem that afflicts the campus

We are not saying that individuals in the Georgetown University Grilling Society are sexist, but the marketing tools that the Grilling Society and other organizations on this campus choose to employ systematically serve to demean women. The decision to associate their week with “Girls Gone Wild” and their initial decision to sell a t-shirt that read “GUGS, Grade A, Size D,” was a combination of marketing tools that we found offensive. There is a fine line between humor and sexism, and this line has been blurred—especially for the average Georgetown student.

By admin April 3, 2008

Voices

GUGS admits shirt has offended some, Grills Gone Wild moves forward

From April 21 through 25, the Georgetown University Grilling Society (GUGS) plans to hold Grills Gone Wild Week, which will include a GUGS burger eating contest, ribs and pulled pork day, a grilloff competition, a sausage extravaganza on Georgetown Day and a BYOF (bring your own food). The GUGS Grillmasters will be grilling up pizzas, lamb, kebabs and all sorts of delicacies throughout the week to celebrate yet another successful semester on the Hilltop.

By Jake Styacich April 3, 2008

Voices

April Fools’ Hoya issue is tasteless and mean

A disclaimer on the front page of the Hoya’s annual spring joke issue advises its readers to proceed with caution. “Chill out, tight-ass,” it reads. “This issue is a joke.” Ah, so Jack the Bulldog didn’t actually have an affair with the West Virginia Mountaineer.

By Sam Sweeney April 3, 2008

Voices

Pushing papers all around campus

Seeing that The Fire This Time’s latest edition had come out gave me a strange thrill.

By Tim Fernholz April 3, 2008

Editorials

GUSA’s own housing meltdown

No one can say that GUSA President Pat Dowd (SFS ’09) and Vice President James Kelly (COL ’09) lack ambition. Their GUSA Summer Fellows initiative has the laudable aim of providing free summer housing at Georgetown to undergraduates with unpaid internships they couldn’t otherwise afford to take, starting this summer. But Dowd and Kelly have approached the idea with a startling naiveté of the complexities involved in enacting such a bold proposal. Putting their energy towards an unreachable goal of trying to institute it this summer diminishes GUSA’s credibility and detracts from the program’s chances for next year.

By the Editorial Board March 27, 2008

Editorials

DPS shouldn’t run an arms race

Department of Public Safety officers are about to get a belated Easter gift: batons and pepper spray. By the end of March, all of Georgetown’s DPS patrol officers should be trained to use their new tools. But instead of protecting Georgetown against D.C.’s rising crime rate, these weapons might actually make life on campus more dangerous.

By the Editorial Board March 27, 2008

Editorials

Area taken out by the ballgame

While Washington prepares for the Nationals’ first game in their new stadium, one group of Washingtonians has little to be excited about: people living and working near the stadium who have been shut out of its economic benefits.

By the Editorial Board March 27, 2008

Editorials

GU holds its first Women’s Week

Feminist author and blogger Jessica Valenti wanted to know what words came to Georgetown students’ minds when they heard the word “feminism.” The responses from the predominantly female audience included words such as “angry” and “bra-burning.”

“Most young women are feminists, have feminist values, but are too freaked out to use the word,” Valenti said.

By Marco Cerna March 27, 2008

Voices

Looking past the smoke and mirrors

Contemporary airlines have done everything they can to convince squirrelly passengers that riding in their jolly contraptions is virtually the same as traveling in a car. Southwest Airlines, with its uniformly perky staff, brightly colored planes and incessant “ding!”-ing has become an industry leader, largely thanks to the company’s ability to make truculent travelers feel at ease. Nevertheless, on March 6th, the F.A.A. levied a record-breaking $10.2 million fine on the airline for its failure to ground planes that had not been properly inspected and certified as up to code. And no khaki-clad, coddling flight attendant or cute cobalt-blue plane could change that.

By admin March 27, 2008

Page 13 Cartoons

Lying her way to the highest office in the land

When did misspeaking become synonymous with lying? When Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) suggested that she merely misspoke about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia, her statement was not an error in recollection, it was a lie. It is only one of many lies put forward by the junior Senator from New York as she desperately scrambles to save her nearly mathematically impossible campaign for the Democratic nomination.

By Timothy Kaldas March 27, 2008

Voices

Promoting abstinence while screwing students

“For a while, I honestly wondered whether it was worth using a condom at all,” a friend told me when I asked her—a well-grounded, intelligent girl what she thought about her four years of abstinence-only sexual education at our high school.

By Molly Redden March 27, 2008

Page 13 Cartoons

Helping Haiti to help itself

The poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere is merely a few hundred miles from the tip of Florida. What was once France’s richest colony and the first Caribbean island to gain its independence is now a country where people lack the basic amenities of the 20th century—running water, electricity and plumbing. Haiti is an incredibly beautiful island, but it has been afflicted and bankrupted for decades by despotism and conflict.

By Dominga Julicia James March 27, 2008

Editorials

How to repair our national lawn

Although the National Mall is home to memorials to our nation’s Founding Fathers, it is treated like Washington’s ugly stepchild. The facilities are neglected and dirt patches grow faster than grass. As the front yard of the nation’s capital, the Mall deserves better than its current disgraceful state.

By the Editorial Board March 13, 2008