Opinion

Thoughts from the Georgetown community.

Voices

Laziness: a college gamer’s biggest obstacle before Level 1

This Friday, Bethesda Softworks will release Skyrim, the fifth installment of The Elder Scrolls series of role-playing video games, and my GPA will subsequently plummet to unprecedented lows. Or at least that’s what I hope. In the summer of 2006, when The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion came out, I logged about 150 hours playing the game. When I say that I have been counting the days to Skyrim’s release, I am not lying. But there is an obstacle that may keep me from recording monumental hours on my Skyrim account. Since graduating from high school, I have become too lazy to play video games.

By November 10, 2011

Voices

In the media, not all sex scandals are created equally

Anyone who spent this past hot, sweaty summer in D.C. remembers the sex scandals that loomed large in the nation’s media coverage. We were assaulted daily by front-page images of a shamed Anthony Weiner, breaking down after a futile attempt to explain why he felt compelled to tweet pictures of his genitals to young girls across the country. If Weinergate wasn’t enough, accusations then surfaced about Congressman David Wu’s alleged sexual encounter with a teenage girl. And, of course, there was the infamous photograph of the Congressman himself in a tiger suit. Needless to say, Wu, like Weiner, promptly resigned right before the big U.S. debt downgrade, by which time we had realized that our nation’s politicians were, in fact, going mad.

By November 10, 2011

Voices

Moving in and moving on, finding a home on any hilltop

Leaving L.A. for college, I was trading a city I barely knew for a small campus packed with a few thousand other teenagers, which hardly seemed like a place I could eventually have the confidence to call mine. Yet somehow, when I walk across the Hilltop, I feel an organic connection with this place that I’ve never felt anywhere else. When I walk in front of Healy or purposefully pause in front of White-Gravenor to glance south across the panorama of the front lawns, I feel like we are one.

By November 10, 2011

Voices

Reservation under iPhone

Last weekend, my older brother came down from New York for a visit. My mom told us that we could use her credit card to go out for a nice dinner, so naturally we treated ourselves to a three-course meal at Georgetown’s quintessential gastronomic splurge spot, 1789. The restaurant was packed on Friday night, but I noticed a 20-something man sitting at a table across from us, enjoying his locally raised, braised-to-perfection loin of lamb … alone. His dinner companion was lying on the table next to his bread plate—an iPhone that consumed his attention throughout the course of the meal.

By November 10, 2011

Editorials

Common fiscal policy offers hope for Europe

Although Europe’s financial chaos shows no sign of ceasing, the events of recent days suggest that there is still hope for a unified European fiscal policy. The welcome subordination of short-sighted political debates in countries like Greece and Italy to the broader economic needs of the European continent is ultimately necessary for the stabilization of the global economy.

By the November 10, 2011

Editorials

JTIII’s postseason story has to change

When this year’s senior class came to campus in 2008, the Georgetown men’s basketball team was only a season removed from its fifth NCAA Final Four appearance and hailing the arrival of highly touted forward Greg Monroe, ranked one of the best freshmen in the country. But three years later, Monroe has left campus for the NBA, and the team has not won a postseason tournament game. The team has only an outside shot at qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in 2012. While there are plenty of guilty parties in the program’s recent struggles, the lion’s share of the blame for the Hoyas’ underperformance lies with one man: head coach John Thompson III.

By the November 10, 2011

Voices

Twuesday Tweetacular: dispatches from the hashtag front

A few days ago, a friend of mine was sitting at her computer, her face expressing deep, hopeless concentration—writer’s block if I’ve ever seen it. When I asked her what was stumping her, she sounded exasperated: “I can’t think of anything to tweet about.” Her answer surprised me, but not because of the importance that she was assigning to coming up with a bite-sized sentiment to bestow on her dozens of followers. Rather, I was baffled that she had enough self-awareness not to just type up her latest passing thought and throw in some number signs and words without spaces between them. From my experience, that’s what Twitter is all about.

By November 3, 2011

Voices

Founding Fathers fought slavery in their own way

As many have noted, ”all men are created equal” did not hold true for the vast majority of Americans until 1865, 1919, and even beyond. The founders did not create a republic for all; they created a republic for the few, but even this was a significant accomplishment—no other country had affirmed and secured natural rights in the same way that the United States did in 1788. In any case, this hasn’t stopped Randall Kennedy, a professor at Harvard Law, from categorically negating the legacy of the founders. In an editorial special to CNN last month, Kennedy writes that black Americans, in large part, reject Herman Cain because he esteems the founders as great men, who “did their job … a great job.”

By November 3, 2011

Voices

Troy Davis is yet another victim of a broken system

Troy Davis was convicted and sentenced to death before many students at Georgetown today were born. His fate has been sealed our entire lives. On September 21, 2011, yet another American man was killed for a crime he did not commit. Having spent most of his adult life on death row, Davis had to spend his last day in an agonizing battle. First the world heard that the President would not intervene. Then, the Supreme Court deliberated for hours over a stay of execution, which he had successfully received three times before. But he was denied a fourth. From his fatal injection at 10:53 p.m. to death at 11:08 p.m., Troy Davis passed away and became a pallid shadow cast long and low over the United States.

By November 3, 2011

Voices

No more stolen lunch money

To my disappointment, the Internet recently seems to have become more about social change and less about LOLcats. From the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, broadcast all across the world during the 2009 Iranian election protests, to the subsequent coverage of the Arab Spring, it became clear how powerful viral material could be. With that in mind, the It Gets Better Campaign was launched to end bullying and what seems like an increase in bullying-related suicides. The organization targets youth by releasing videos urging the bullied masses to keep on keeping on, and boasts videos from the likes of President Obama, various members of Congress, and professional athletes.

By the November 3, 2011

Editorials

SAC reforms are just more of the same

This week, the Student Activities Commission launched its latest club funding structure, called the Comprehensive Budget System. Though SAC Chair Andrew Koenig (COL ’12) called it a “fundamental departure from the ‘programming arc’ system of financial allocation, as well as a significant change in the way SAC approves organization events and operations,” the new system is neither a departure from the previous, flawed system nor a significant change in SAC’s labyrinthine bureaucracy.

By the November 3, 2011

Editorials

Anti-piracy effort crushes Internet freedom

Last Wednesday, the Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives, Lamar Smith (R-Texas), introduced the E-PARASITE Act, a measure that will shackle innovation and freedom on the Internet in an attempt to stop piracy.

By the November 3, 2011

Editorials

Sky is the limit for the capital campaign

Last Friday, the University launched “The Campaign for Georgetown: For Generations to Come,” a $1.5 billion fundraising initiative aimed at comprehensively improving life on the Hilltop. The campaign is a necessary response to the needs of our community and a notable exception to the perceived inattention of the administration to improving the undergraduate experience in recent years.

By the November 2, 2011

Voices

A colorblind case for income-based affirmative action

Recently, while filling out forms for a fellowship, I found myself confronted with the all too familiar race-based form that instructs me to please mark the box titled “White/Caucasian.” Of course, if I object to providing this information, I do have the option of marking the corresponding box. But I think it’s safe to say that marking the “I decline to respond” box is basically saying, “I’m white or another race that isn’t considered diverse enough for this institution.”

By October 27, 2011

Voices

Tricks and treats: college unmasks a new Halloween

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. It’s not just the scary movies, the haunted houses, the crisp fall weather, the pumpkin pies, the apple cider, the bonfires, the haunted corn mazes, and the hayrides. What other holiday encourages, even requires, you to put on a crazy costume and get tons of treats (or perhaps more realistically for the average Hoya, a sloppy makeout with someone whom you think is the hot guy from your English class, though you can’t really be sure under his Dread Pirate Roberts Mask)? And no, Mardi Gras doesn’t count.

By October 27, 2011

Voices

High hopes for Libya and the future of U.S. intervention

Congratulations are due to the people of Libya. After months of civil conflict, the tyrant who oppressed them with his iron fist is gone. However, a warning is needed as well: that was the easy part. What Libya is faced with now is much more cruel and much more destructive than any tyrant could be. It lurks behind the joyous celebrations, behind the statements of global political leaders, and behind the news streams around the world of Gaddafi’s death. It is the potential that Libya’s reconstruction will fail.

By October 27, 2011

Voices

Facebooking the dead

Every October 25, my Facebook experiences its annual flood of wall posts. This inundation of birthday wishes from friends, family, distant cousins, Sunday school teachers, past hookups, and people I just plain forgot about is something only Facebook could facilitate. But another event on that day spawns an almost equally predictable outpouring of well-wishers—the death of my soccer teammate and friend, Will Wardrip.

By October 27, 2011

Editorials

Occupy DC movement at a crossroads

Since the Occupy DC protests took root in McPherson Square at the beginning of October, over a hundred tents have been erected, as well as more permanent set-ups to service the everyday needs of the occupiers such as food, basic medical care, clothing, and reading material. As the occupation approaches its second month, participants must work to ensure the longevity of the movement while facing two big challenges: the fast-approaching winter and ideological issues that threaten the unity of the movement.

By the October 27, 2011

Editorials

U.S. wars end, foreign policy lessons abound

This week, the death of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi coincided with the announcement of the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq by the end of the year. The conclusion of the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq and the NATO-led campaign in Libya should provide an opportunity for American policymakers to learn from both our failure at nation building in Iraq and the relative success of our measured strategy in Libya.

By the October 27, 2011

Editorials

Complaints about Leo’s deserve attention

For years, complaining about the quality of the food provided at Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall has been among Georgetown students’ most common conversation topics. As healthiness and food choices have declined in recent years, prices have increased. Since Georgetown’s contract with Aramark, the company the University contracts to operate the dining hall, expires next year, the administration has an opportunity to address one of the most persistent, and easily addressed, sources of student discontent.

By the October 27, 2011