Opinion

Thoughts from the Georgetown community.

Voices

Detached, ironically

If college is a part of my formative years, then it is safe to say that I am still developing the basic paradigms through which I view the world. I don’t just mean my stance on political systems such as representative democracy or bureaucratic authoritarianism, or how to choose an appropriate theoretical economic framework with which to analyze the Mexican debt crisis of 1982.

By the February 6, 2003

Editorials

It starts from the top

Georgetown University Athletic Director Joe Lang’s comments in the Washington Post last week defending embattled men’s basketball Head Coach Craig Esherick angered many Hoyas fans. Amid criticism following embarrassing losses to St. John’s and Seton Hall, Lang praised Esherick for averaging 21 wins in his three full seasons as head coach, extolled the team’s high graduation rate (84 out of 86 players on Esherick’s watch) and argued that it is “unreasonable” to expect the Hoyas to reach the NCAA tournament every year.

By the January 30, 2003

Editorials

Image isn’t everything

In response to complaints of a lack of police presence, last week D.C. Metropolitan Police Chief Charles Ramsey ordered all police cruisers to flash their blue and red rooftop lights at all times, the first mandate of its kind in the United States. The idea came from Ramsey’s recent trip to Jerusalem to observe the anti-terror tactics used by its city police, which include using police car rooftop lights in a similar fashion.

By the January 30, 2003

Editorials

Look who’s talking

Georgetown is too often knocked for its “pre-professional” orientation: So it goes, students here would rather press flesh and pad resumes than learn without a motive or ambition in mind. Still, many of us are ready to wait in excessive lines to hear top speakers, class credit be damned, and over the past months, students have had more reasons than ever to stand in line, thanks to a wealth of fine speakers on campus.

By the January 30, 2003

Voices

Thinking about the way he lived it

I think of my dad and Ronnie, little boys in Bayonne, chasing the ball in the street, watching the boats arriving at the docks and the boats departing, watching the water wash ashore and then recede; two boys marveling with child-eyed wonder at life’s comings and goings.

By the January 30, 2003

Voices

My parents never told me about that

When I was 12 years old, I had my first and last conversation about sex with my mother. She and I were walking to the back of a drugstore to pick up a prescription, and we happened to walk down the “Family Planning” aisle. I stopped in front of the massive wall of prophylactics, turned to my mother and said, “I think it’s time you bought me some condoms.

By the January 30, 2003

Voices

Letter to the Editor

As a proud Rochesterian, I feel I need to respond to Carlie Danielson’s section of The Voice’s Spring Break article (“Spring Break 2003: Destination America,” Jan. 16). While your first paragraph painted an accurate picture of Rochester’s mundane suburban life, your second paragraph on the so-called “trash plates” was purely blasphemous.

By the January 30, 2003

Editorials

A more perfect union

According to the Georgetown University Alumni and Student Federal Credit Union’s website, the Credit Union “makes members its main priority.” While the declaration to provide excellent service to students and alumni is an admirable goal, so far this year GUASFCU has fallen far short.

By the January 23, 2003

Editorials

Good riddance

In Dec. 1996, former ANC Commissioners Patricia Scolaro, Beverly Jost and Westy Byrd filed suit against the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, claiming its refusal to investigate students’ residential status violated residents’ civil rights by registering students to vote.

By the January 23, 2003

Editorials

Size matters

Last Saturday in front of the United States Capitol, protesters, including over 100 Georgetown students, demonstrated against the impending war against Iraq. Lots of protesters. Just how many protesters, or even a rough approximation of the number, nobody knows.

By the January 23, 2003

Voices

Confessions of a lazy mind

Picture this: It’s a little after midnight early Wednesday morning, and you have a column and a three-page thesis outline due later that day. So what do you do? Well, if you’re me, you sit down with your too-often shirtless roommate and watch A Walk To Remember, based on the best-selling novel by Nicholas Sparks.

By the January 23, 2003

Voices

Taming old variables

“What if we moved back to New South? Would that be amazing, or just horrific?” asked my roommate one night as we walked back from the cafeteria. Devoted New South ex-residents, we began reminiscing about the fun we’d had there—being thrown in the shower at 2 a.

By the January 23, 2003

Voices

This protest’s for you

Last weekend the traveling protest carnival arrived in D.C. again, and the preemptive analyses of Peter Hamby (Cultural Revolution, Jan. 16) and Scott Matthews (“I love sweatshops,” Jan. 16) were right—dead right. Their light-hearted and entirely uncontradictory essays in last week’s issue of the Voice truly provoked deep introspection amidst the activist community at Georgetown and struck a note of discord within the greater peace and anti-globalization movements, to whom the articles were mass e-mailed.

By the January 23, 2003

Voices

Losing it, whatever it is

The first movie that a friend of mine recalls watching as a child was a gay porn flick. Telling me this story, he remarked that while he had most likely been introduced to Sesame Street before John Holmes, puppets didn’t make quite the same impression. My friend described it as akin to watching Freud’s primal scene with a twist: He wakes up one night and goes over to his door, which is partly open.

By the January 23, 2003

Editorials

Communication is security

When Jeremy Dorfman (CAS ‘06) took his own life late Saturday night, he left a campus not only in mourning but also in confusion. University administrators quickly released relevant facts and gathered support services for students and should be congratulated for their prompt response.

By the January 16, 2003

Editorials

Don’t forget about us

On Jan. 7, Advisory Neighborhood Commissioner Tom Birch was chosen to succeed Peter Pulsifer as Chairman of Advisory Neighborhood Commission 2E, which includes Georgetown and Burleith. Birch will lead an ANC that would seem on first glance to be less student friendly.

By the January 16, 2003

Editorials

Dead men walking

The legacy of former Illinois Governor George Ryan will be difficult to determine. During his four-year term, Ryan switched from staunchly supporting capital punishment to become a key advocate of death penalty reform. Adding to this transformation was his announcement last weekend that he would empty Illinois’ death row.

By the January 16, 2003

Voices

You stir me up like mayonnaise

Despite all of its advantages, study abroad has the downside of imparting some annoying habits on its participants. Between ridiculous complaints that “I can’t remember what that word is in English” and attempts at adopting the baffling skirt-over-jeans look that is popular in some Latin American countries, it is clear that there are some habits that are better left abroad.

By the January 16, 2003

Voices

I love sweatshops

I love capitalism. And sweatshops—nothing I can get behind more than the exploitation of those less fortunate so long as it saves me some money the next time I visit the Gap or Abercrombie or any of the other trendy, upscale clothing establishments that make me look like an individual (just like everyone else who shops there).

By the January 16, 2003

Voices

“Hey Georgetown, have another drink”

It was so nice to be back home, drinking Smirnoff in my friend’s bedroom while her parents slept downstairs. We bought the liquor with a fake ID, my little brother was lucky enough to be designated driver for the evening and we were playing lame drinking games.

By the January 16, 2003