Opinion

Thoughts from the Georgetown community.

Voices

A dose of reality and disillusionment

If I had to pinpoint the problem with the United States government, my answer would be simple. Me.

By February 28, 2008

Editorials

NEWS HIT

Free national newspapers are finally set to arrive on campus the Monday after spring break, almost a month after Student Association President Ben Shaw (COL ’08) promised the papers would be here.

By February 28, 2008

Voices

Trying to translate the US political system to German

In the month that I’ve been working in Germany before my semester begins, I’ve learned plenty: what a plus sign in a phone number means, how to say instantaneous [augenblicklich] and to buy groceries on Saturday, since everything is closed on Sunday.

By February 28, 2008

Voices

Roadtrip: Seeing America right

Everyone our age remembers (and maybe even occasionally watches) the 90s classic “The Sandlot.” It had all the elements of a cinematic triumph: the backdrop of 1960s America, James Earl Jones and baseball. Plus, you had to admire Squint’s cajones when he made out with va-va-voom lifeguard Wendy Peffercorn after fake-drowning. The movie brimmed with great moments, but the 4th of July scene is by far the best in the movie, a perfect pictorial encapsulation of summer-time bliss, in which the whole squad gazes in wonderment at fireworks splayed across the sky as Ray Charles’ bluesy rendition of “America the Beautiful” swells in the background. The only thing that could have made the scene more quintessentially “American summer” is if all the boys, inspired by patriotic pyrotechnics, had decided to hop in a Chevy and drive off down the highway to where the setting sun meets the waving sea of wheat.

By February 28, 2008

Voices

Attacking American Unreason

You’re dumb. It’s a message you can hardly avoid lately, unless you’re doing the very thing that’s making you dumb: not reading. Georgetown’s already told you so, in the form of a 72-page Intellectual Life Report that says you study less, drink more, and “earn” good grades more easily than your historical counterparts did. Your degree, it seems, will be a testament to an intellectual odyssey through a University in a “crisis stage.”

By February 28, 2008

Editorials

Muslim center’s no madrassa

It seems like 2005 again as a $20 million donation from a Saudi royal stirs up media controversy, casting aspersions on Georgetown’s academic ethics and credibility.

By the February 21, 2008

Editorials

Fenty out of bounds on stadium

Mayor Adrian Fenty (D) thus far hasn’t shown himself to be a gambling man. His plan to finance a professional soccer stadium with money intended for debt repayment, however, would throw Washington’s future on a roulette wheel.

By the February 21, 2008

Voices

University fails on affirmative action

Fact one: there’s a direct connection between that college degree we’re all struggling to earn and economic mobility. Fact two: economic mobility has stagnated in the last three decades, mainly because it is becoming increasingly difficult for poor minorities to obtain a higher education, according to a new Brookings Institution study. And fact three: a majority of black children born in the middleclass ended up with lower incomes as adults, and nearly half wind up in the lowest quintile of earners (only 16 percent of whites face the same fate).

By February 21, 2008

Editorials

Firearm database won’t misfire

The District responded limply to an increase in gun violence in the past year, mainly with the Metropolitan Police Department’s ineffective All Hands on Deck initiative, which tried to reduce crime by having all officers work overtime some weekends. Luckily, the mayors of eleven East Coast cities have a better idea: a database to share information on known gun offenders. There is no reason Washington shouldn’t sign on.

By the February 21, 2008

Voices

Dispatches from fractured Kenya

“My friend, how is your Valentine’s like? Here in Kenya it is exclusively a youth affair. The seniors dismiss it as merely foreign culture. Still, shops are still colored by red. I wish you were near! We would celebrate together! Keep good, my friend. Pray for us.”

By February 21, 2008

Voices

Dirty rotten scoundrels on the ‘Riviera’

“You were dealing with illegal drugs. Tell me, as a [former] police officer, how that isn’t being a drug dealer?”

By February 21, 2008

Voices

Obsession doesn’t culminate in face paint

I have never been to a Georgetown basketball game. Okay, you can stop throwing things at me now. I watch them on TV sometimes, and I stay vaguely aware of how we’re doing, much as I stay vaguely aware of how much money is on my GoCard. I don’t have season tickets, and I don’t want to go through the hassle of finding a ticket, getting up early, and taking some sort of bus to the Verizon Center. I relish brunches in a mostly empty Leo’s, and the quiet feel of the campus when all the action is elsewhere. I haven’t lost my voice yet, and I have never scrubbed blue facepaint out of my hair (or at least, never for basketball reasons.)

By February 21, 2008

Letters to the Editor

GUSA: Sean Hayes and Andrew Madorsky

Hopefully you are aware that we, Sean Hayes and Andrew Madorsky, are running for GUSA President and Vice-President. We have a lot of great ideas for Georgetown, and a real... Read more

By February 21, 2008

Letters to the Editor

Academic Resource Center helps students

I have a variety of learning disabilities for which I receive accommodations at Georgetown. I am now in my fourth semester of working with the Academic Resource Center, and I... Read more

By February 21, 2008

Editorials

Williams and Kesten for GUSA

In a crowded field of eight Student Association executive tickets, Kyle Williams (SFS ‘09) and Brian Kesten’s (COL ‘10) critical goals and leadership experience make them the best choice for president and vice president.

By the February 14, 2008

Voices

A Valentine’s card to the little people

Sunday mornings are sacred. Whether you welcome the week with mass, mimosas or Meet the Press, those first few waking hours are universally recognized to be a precious time, and barring nuclear disaster or a major sporting event, one’s routine should not be disturbed. Last weekend, throwing caution and luxuriously slow-brewed cups of coffee to the wind, I determined that my civic duty to the voters of Montgomery County, Maryland was greater than my ritualistic weekly reading of Date Lab in the Sunday Post.

By February 14, 2008

Editorials

Time for ushering out a New Era

Most American sweatshops closed decades ago. Georgetown apparel manufacturer New Era, however, is keeping the tradition alive. Conditions at the company’s Alabama factory are abysmal, with union-busting that would embarrass Pinkerton. Georgetown’s contract with New Era will run out in June.

By the February 14, 2008

Voices

Don’t mourn, organize: ten years of GU Solidarity

The Georgetown Solidarity Committee (GSC) is ten years old this year. We are officially a Georgetown tradition; we were invited to table on Copley Lawn during Traditions Day. We’ve done a lot in those ten years. I’m not going to list all of our accomplishments in this column—for that, go to www.georgetownsolidarity.org—but I will tell you why we’ve lasted so long, drawing enough students to our weekly meetings to become a lasting voice on campus.

By February 14, 2008

Editorials

Let students make the Deans list

Jane McAuliffe, the Dean of Georgetown College, deserves congratulations on her imminent ascension to the presidency of Bryn Mawr College. While Georgetown will be less without her, we should be mindful of the opportunity we have in filling her shoes: a new dean is a chance for new ideas, new energy and another step forward for the University. And, though it ought to go without saying, students need to be involved in the process of selecting McAuliffe’s successor.

By the February 14, 2008

Page 13 Cartoons

Hillary Clinton for President

With the race for the Democratic nomination a virtual tie, Democratic voters need to think long and hard about who they want to be their nominee in the 2008 presidential election. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is both better qualified and better positioned than her Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), to be president of the United States.

By February 14, 2008