Opinion

Thoughts from the Georgetown community.

Page 13 Cartoons

Hoping for Obama in ’08

America is not as divided as the pundits would have us believe. Our perceived disagreement stems from a tendency to miss the forest for the trees. We get too bogged down in the minutiae of policy, and in the process we overlook the fact that regardless of ideology, we all yearn for a stronger and safer country that aspires to fulfill its fundamental ideals.

By February 14, 2008

Voices

I’ll just have a nosh of that lo mein

The first thing you should know about me is that I’m not really Jewish. Technically I’m Jewish. My parents are Jewish, we watch a lot of Seinfeld and I definitely prefer my bagels with a little shmear, but I was raised in a household where Yom Kippur—the Jewish day of atonement—didn’t exist until my dad went through his midlife crisis

By February 7, 2008

Voices

The roommate, the boy, and the wardrobe

Fresh from the shower and clad only in a towel, I saw that one of my apartment-mates had opened her door, so I knew she was awake. I immediately walked into her room and, still dripping, launched into my interrogation. I had gone to bed before she came home, and all I knew was that there was a boy involved. She began her story as she tried to print a paper using my computer and her printer. After a few unsuccessful attempts, we migrated to my room to use my printer.

By February 7, 2008

Voices

Once more into the security breach

Like a whole bunch of Georgetown students and alums, I woke up last week to an unpleasant e-mail from Georgetown: my name and Social Security number “may have been exposed” after a University hard drive was stolen. More exasperated than angry—between Facebook, buying things on the internet and the U.S. government’s tendency to lose private information, my privacy is nil anyway—I had an advantage that most students didn’t: a pre-arranged chat with Vice President of Safety and Security, Rocco DelMonaco, Jr., scheduled for later that afternoon.

By February 7, 2008

Voices

Never stop exploring the world outside the classroom

We worry an awful lot about our school’s image. You hear concern among students when they talk about friends at Harvard or Yale (the unspoken question being, how do we compare?). You see it in administrative reports when we compare our grade inflation to Princeton’s. You may, in fact, have just read it in several columns recently published in the Voice and the Hoya. As Fr. James Schall sees it, we focus too much on careers and extracurricular activities and appreciate the “life of the mind” too little.

By February 7, 2008

Editorials

Google e-mail plan won’t byte

For students dissatisfied with the unreliablity, sluggishness and 20 megabyte limit of Georgetown’s e-mail service, forwarding GUMail e-mails to a Gmail account has long been a better option. Georgetown should look into implementing Google’s education application, which would provide all the benefits of forwarding to Gmail on a school-wide scale, while saving the University time and money.

By the February 7, 2008

Editorials

School plan gets passing grade

Most people agree that Washington’s school system needs to be fixed, but they differ wildly on how to do it. Just ask Washington Mayor Adrian Fenty (D), Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, City Council members and community activists. They’ve been battling one another since November, when Fenty and Rhee proposed closing public schools.

By the February 7, 2008

Editorials

Permanent library long overdue

The D.C. government blamed a heat gun for the fire that burned down Georgetown’s public library last April. Ten months later, the neighborhood is lacking even an adequate interim branch and the reconstruction is so far behind that the project’s architect is only being announced today. In the District, slow-moving bureaucracy can be as dangerous to bibliophiles as heat guns. The District of Columbia Public Library system must open an interim library location as soon as possible and ensure that the permanent library is constructed on time.

By the February 7, 2008

Voices

The best part of waking up is a Murky cup

You may be sipping on your daily caramel macchiato as you read this. Or perhaps you are more of a “Beloved” fan. Either way, why the extra flavoring? Can’t you handle the taste of real coffee? Would you prefer to drink straight sugar? I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and say that it’s not you; it’s the coffee.

By January 31, 2008

Voices

The faith-based fight against poverty

“Poverty is a great enemy to human happiness,” wrote the British essayist Samuel Johnson. “It certainly destroys liberty and makes some virtues impracticable and others extremely difficult.” Johnson’s understanding of the threat that poverty posed to London in the 18th century holds no less true for Washington, D.C. in the 21st.

By January 31, 2008

Voices

The pursuit of happiness

I have been told that January 22nd is the most depressing day of the year. Sunlight is scarce, Christmas bills are filling mailboxes and people are coming to the realization that their three weeks of New Years-inspired jogging and Pilates will not actually help them land a model, a professional football player or even a promotion. Forget April, Mr. Eliot; January appears to be the cruelest month.

By January 31, 2008

Voices

Buying organic is meating vegans halfway

If you love Mother Earth, good food, animals and being a human, please don’t become a vegan. While adherents to vegetarianism’s extreme cousin claim that their lifestyle, which completely eliminates the consumption of animal products, springs from a concern for animal rights and the environment, a close look at vegan practices reveals them to be largely ineffective in terms of their stated goals. A simple awareness of the benefits of locally-grown and organic food and a dedication to small lifestyle changes is much more beneficial to the earth we all love so dearly.

By January 31, 2008

Editorials

Holding on to Jesuit identity

Georgetown doesn’t have a Jesuit President, and likely won’t in the future. We don’t, in fact, have very many Jesuits—only 34 working on campus, out of some 728 full-time faculty. It’s quite possible to go through four years here without taking a class with or even, if you make an effort, meeting a Jesuit. For many students, the most prominent reminder of our Jesuit identity is how often we’re told that we have one. So, what’s the use of our Jesuit heritage today? Should we cast our religious identity aside like so many other Universities and seek to become a Potomac Harvard? After weighing the costs and benefits, we can only say no. Jesuit we began, and Jesuit we should remain.

By the January 31, 2008

Editorials

The truth will set the Hoya free

Hoya staffers have lately been flooding basketball games, Red Square and Facebook with appeals to “Save the Hoya,” without specifying who the Hoya needs to be saved from. While the Hoya deserves support, the campaign is inaccurate at best and disingenuous at worst.

By the January 31, 2008

Editorials

Bush still not keeping it real

President Bush spoke of “decisive days that lie ahead” in his final State of the Union Address Monday. Throughout the speech, though, he revealed his ignorance of the decisive days that have already passed. On matters of foreign, domestic and economic policy the president appeared dangerously out of touch with reality.

By the January 31, 2008

Editorials

New Corp leaders plan big

After a record-breaking year, the Corp announced at its first-ever shareholders meeting plans to open a coffee shop in the new McDonough School of Business building. Jesse Scharff (COL ’09), Kevin Lynch (COL ’09), and Adah Berkovich (SFS ’09) were also introduced as the new Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer, respectively.

By January 31, 2008

Editorials

More Diversity Progress Needed

Ask whether Georgetown is a diverse university and you’ll get a plethora of opinions, ranging from the University’s official stance—“a leader in promoting diversity among the most selective universities in the country,” according to the fact sheet —to the sense of self-segregation expressed by many students in a 2004 Diversity Action Council report.

By the January 24, 2008

Editorials

D.C.’s struggle for rights not over

University President Jack DeGioia went two for two on Martin Luther King Day when he presented this year’s John Thompson, Jr. “Legacy of a Dream” award.

By the January 24, 2008

Editorials

Losing liberty for better lawns

A proposed protest zone on the National Mall threatens to sanitize demonstrations and curtail freedom of assembly—all to protect some worn-down grass.

By the January 24, 2008

Voices

The necessity of idealism

Though it is hard to imagine, I’m sure I’m not the only person who enjoys the Hoya’s bi-weekly exegesis of the ancient philosophers, penned by the legendary Fr. James V. Schall, S.J. Each edition of the aging Jesuit’s Aristoletian discourse is a treat—like intellectual antiquing—but I can’t help but take issue with the latest dispatch from the Hoya’s correspondent in the 1920s, entitled by their editors “Idealism Root of Political Problems.” (Hopefully, next week Fr. Maher will come back with “Open Minds Lead to Strife.”)

By January 24, 2008