Voices

Baby alien Spanish

Middle-child syndrome comes in handy when you are trying to learn another language. I, like the majority of middle children, am a true pacifist and do my best to avoid discord and maintain peace wherever the possibility of conflict is brewing. This serves me well in Chile, where it is much easier to agree with people than to engage in an idea battle when armed with the verbal equivalent of a sharp toothpick.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

Voices

Take me back to the coke orgy!

Well, seniors, we’re almost there! I can’t believe it’s been four years already! Can you? Why, it seems like only yesterday that I was standing in a stuffy and humid New South dorm room, shaking hands with a complete stranger with whom I was about to spend the next nine months.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

Voices

In defense of John Walker Lindh

After the attacks of Sept. 11, the rhetoric used by American leaders would lead one to believe that those responsible were attacking freedom and democracy, liberty and justice, ideals theoretically intrinsic to an American ideology. The truth is that the terrorists were attacking reckless American hegemony and economic and cultural imperialism.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

Editorials

Don’t wash my square

Red Square’s “free speech zone” designation has been an easy way to foster debate on campus. Give students the freedom to voice their views, and they will usually take care of the rest. But the system does require a few controls. Otherwise, Red Square’s various capacities as message-board, canvas, stage, stump, science-fair-project-presentation area, etc.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

Editorials

Why can’t we stay?

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Although the good doctor was most certainly not referring to Georgetown students right to live in high-priced community housing, the point still stands.

The West Cloisters Homeowner’s Association voted Wednesday on a measure to prohibit more than three unrelated individuals from living in a Cloisters residence.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

Editorials

The darker side

On March 28, D.C. Inspector General Charles Maddox released a 514-page report detailing a series of fundraising inproprieties in the office of Mayor Anthony Williams. According to the report, mayoral aides tapped the accounts of local nonprofits for events and programs that were often politically beneficial for Williams and vigorously solicited donations from organizations with a business interest in the District government.

By the Voice Staff April 11, 2002

Voices

Asking for a definition

Things couldn’t get much worse for the Catholic Church. In the past few years, a spate of scholarly books have taken the ecclesiastic hierarchy to task for its abominable treatment of European Jewry during the Holocaust; similar tomes have unraveled the manufactured mythology the Church used to quell critics past and present regarding its collaboration with Italian and German fascism.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

Voices

Letter to the editor

I am writing this letter in response to the Mar. 21 article, “Finding a place in Asian-America” by Andrew Lin. In it, Lin derides the Asian-American youth scene in Los Angeles and describes his (unsuccessful) attempt to escape it by enrolling at Georgetown.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

Editorials

How are we doing?

As part of the reaccreditation process by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, Georgetown last month released a self-study report that looks into various components of University life and offers over 100 specific recommendations for suggested improvement.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

Editorials

Marijuana: Why not?

District of Columbia voters will have the chance to vote, perhaps as early as November, on the legalization of marijuana for medicinal purposes following a March 28 ruling by U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan.

Sullivan overturned a federal law known as the Barr Amendment that forbade the District from placing the question on the ballot, decreeing that the Barr Amendment limited free speech and he judged that “the Constitution does not allow Congress to pre-clear acceptable viewpoints for public debate and expression.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

Editorials

Crack kills

Show us an efficient super-criminal with civic aspirations, and we’ll show you a way to get this city running tight as a drum. Unfortunately, all anybody’s been able to show us is last week’s Metro section story in the Washington Post detailing former D.C.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

Voices

Trials and tribulations in Chilean Patagonia

My friend Helen and I are studying abroad in Santiago, Chile. During Easter, we decided to visit the Torres del Paine national park, which includes the longest vertical drop in the world. The park is extremely remote, requiring a plane trip and four buses to arrive.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

Voices

Alpha males, alpha problems

Spring Break at Georgetown always conjures up demons, and the most recent “week of vice” was certainly no exception. As of January, reports filtered in from Hoyas near and far who were planning strange and inadvisable outings. One small band apparently flocked to the Florida Everglades for the world crocodile wrestling championships, only to head on to the body-wrestling haven of Key West-Georgetown.

By the Voice Staff April 4, 2002

Editorials

A black and white issue

Georgetown has a reputation as an African-American-friendly school. Surveys in Black Enterprise, movies such as Boyz N’ the Hood and Georgetown’s stories basketball program have created the popular image of an institution that is open and welcoming to black students.

By the Voice Staff March 21, 2002

Editorials

Too much compromise

In a letter to the campus community released Tuesday, Vice President for Student Affairs Juan Gonzalez detailed his proposed compromise on the issue of a resource center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students. This compromise represents an important step forward for the University, but it raises questions about the administration’s decision-making process.

By the Voice Staff March 21, 2002

Voices

Finding a place in Asian-America

I hail from the Los Angeles megalopolis, a region renowned for its Californian sunshine and super-sized East Asian population. While in high school, I used to detest this sad fact. No, I did not have yellow fever, and the Asian-American youth scene was rather despicable.

By the Voice Staff March 21, 2002

Voices

Ending on a positive note

Second semester senior stress? Is this actually happening? It’s always been ingrained into my head that second semester seniors and stress went together like Georgetown men’s basketball and the NCAA Tournament. Seniors told me last year that no one studies second semester, no one worries, no one stresses and everyone just kicks back with a beer or 10, ticking off the days until graduation.

By the Voice Staff March 21, 2002

Voices

Letter to the editor

If cities truly exist to “poison and mar their surrounding environment,” as they do according to Ian Bourland, then the question “Why rate a city?” in his diatribe “Philadelphia does not deserve to live” (March 14, 2002) quickly becomes all the more puzzling.

By the Voice Staff March 21, 2002

Editorials

The season’s over?

This past Sunday, the Georgetown Hoyas Men’s basketball team decided not to play in the National Invitation Tournament, ending its streak of 27 straight postseason appearances. Head Coach Craig Esherick said that his team initially accepted an offer but eventually declined because tournament officials could not guarantee them a home game at the MCI Center?which will host part of the NCAA Tournament?or an away game close to Washington, D.

By the Voice Staff March 14, 2002