Voices

Voices is the Op-Ed and personal essay section of The Georgetown Voice. It features the real narratives of diverse students from nearly every corner on campus, seeking to tell some of the incredibly important and yet oft-unheard stories that affect life in and out of Georgetown.

Voices

To the old, new social networks hard to pin down

Last Thursday, a couple of my friends and I were asked to appear in a news segment for CNN. What hard-hitting story marked my national television debut? No, it wasn’t an in-depth commentary on Harry Potter—it was a piece on not-so-new social media sensation, Pinterest.

By March 1, 2012

Voices

Finally, an online home for politically-minded loudmouths

Recently, Votizen, a new media startup, has grasped the attention of entrepreneurs and policymakers alike—including the 2012 U.S. presidential hopefuls. The startup seeks to change how our democracy works by using a national database of 200 million voting records to connect to friends on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn on the basis of ideological preferences.

By March 1, 2012

Voices

Virginia is for lovers, unless you love women’s rights

With presidential campaigns intensifying in the face of the upcoming elections, attention has recently been drawn to the state of Virginia and its numerous reproductive rights bills targeting issues like contraception and the definition of personhood. News of these bills, currently being discussed in the state’s legislature, has spread over the past few weeks.

By March 1, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: “I’ll make a man out of you”

Princesses, distressed damsels, and sidekicks—for years these roles have composed the majority of female roles in children’s literature and film. Even Pixar, with twelve animated major productions since 1995, has yet to produce a film with a female protagonist. This comes as no surprise.

By March 1, 2012

Voices

Endemic intolerance: The flippancy of anti-Mormon bigotry

This Tuesday, Rev. Franklin Graham, the influential son of the famed evangelist Billy Graham, told MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Mitt Romney is not a Christian. Even though Romney, a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, considers himself a practicing Christian, Graham said he outwardly respects Romney’s faith but considers it too unfamiliar to be grouped with his own.

By February 23, 2012

Voices

Overzealous GUSA candidates take battle to YouTube

Dorm-storming, flyering, and Red Square antics were once enough to win an election. But members of today’s generation of would-be GUSA executives would be remiss if they neglected to engage students on the Internet as well as in real life. Whereas online campaigning may have started out as a way to get a leg up on the competition, it is now expected that candidates keep up appearances on multiple social networking sites.

By February 23, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: Paying to stay competitive

With Georgetown’s new science center, Regents Hall, just months away from completion, the time has come for Georgetown to shift its focus towards its next major project. And so, last week, the University revealed revised plans for a new athletic training facility, which will be submitted for final regulatory approval in the coming months.

By February 23, 2012

Voices

Revive the Romantics and invigorate contemporary poetry

Few poets since William Carlos Williams and Allen Ginsberg have gained the reputation that poets used to enjoy. Often, critics place the blame for this on a dearth of creativity in recent generations. But instead of drawing such a conclusion, the problem may instead be that contemporary poetry is simply weakened by changing conceptions of the definition of art.

By February 23, 2012

Voices

Approaching one year, Japan disaster already overlooked

Usher videos don’t normally cause me much concern. Occasionally I feel a twinge of curiosity—how is his head still affixed after all that bobbing? Usually a glance is more than enough, and I move on. The “Without You” video, however, was different. After watching it with my roommate, I was filled with distaste.

By February 16, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: Longtime hostility against Iran

While watching the Republican debates over the past few months, I’ve been taken aback by the incredibly violent rhetoric that the candidates direct towards Iran. The three main contenders left in the Republican field, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, and Newt Gingrich, have all asserted they would use necessary military force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, a recent poll conducted by the Pew Research Center claims that at least 58 percent of Americans agree with the Republican candidates, including half of the nation’s Democrats. As a result, I’ve found myself wondering how Americans can be so eager to start another war after our more than 10-year debacle in Iraq.

By February 16, 2012

Voices

From finance to fielders, navigating the New York Mess

Earlier this week, a professor of mine asked the class if anyone was a baseball fan. I raised my hand but was tempted to add a disclaimer: As a Mets fan, I felt that this affirmation required a pretty loose definition of the word “baseball.”

By February 16, 2012

Voices

In an unfamiliar culture, an orphan in her own adopted family

Studying abroad and living with a Russian host family began like an awkward first visit at a friend’s house. Your friend leaves the room for a minute and you have to figure out what to say to her parents. Meeting my temporary family for the first time, I found myself in that situation, wondering when dinner is, what it will be, whether it’s any good, where it’s okay to sit, where to put my shoes and coat, what I should and shouldn’t touch, and a whole mess of other things. But I couldn’t just come out and ask any of that. I was very conscious of being respectful, and even when my host parents told me their first names, I was pretty sure I should stick with Mr. and Mrs. Sokolova.

By February 16, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: Who watches the watchmen?

The latest Internet-sharing apocalypse has struck the procrastinating college student in full force. Megaupload has been driven to an early grave, leaving many young adults with withdrawal-like symptoms, driving them right into the arms of cheaper, virus-ridden substitutes—vidxden.com, fullonshows.com, firststoptv.com, to name a few.

By February 9, 2012

Voices

To remain relevant, Occupiers must do more than show up

Saturday, Feb. 4, was a long day when it came to public transportation. Between going to the basketball game at the Verizon center and traveling to the Folger William Shakespeare Library in the afternoon, I spent a solid few hours sitting on buses and metro trains.

By February 9, 2012

Voices

Pain, mutilation, and abuse: All is not well on animal farm

When most people dig into a juicy steak or a pile of chicken fingers, they do not think about their food’s journey from farm to slaughterhouse to plate. That’s probably for the best; examining the conditions and treatment of food animals is a quick way to lose your appetite.

By February 9, 2012

Voices

Affirming the talking points on college brochures

During my visits to Georgetown both before and after applying, as well as during NSO, virtually every student speaker made a point to mention how Georgetown had become their home. I didn’t buy it. The idea sounded like a bullet point tacked onto an informational brochure minutes before printing by some frantic intern. The college search process forced me to examine the constant praise, merited or not, that schools heap upon themselves in the hope of attracting a few more students. With at least a little cynicism, this sentiment of Georgetown as a “new home” never came across to me as truly genuine.

By February 9, 2012

Voices

In 2012 presidential race, our last hope is Leslie Knope

No currently airing television show highlights the tedium and frustrations of government bureaucracy with comedic ease quite like NBC’s Parks and Recreation. The show’s popularity and comic brilliance is assuring to viewers, especially those who double as voting citizens, that government officials like the Deputy Parks Director of the Pawnee Parks Department, Leslie Knope, exist. Sadly, however, it seems characters like Knope only occupy in the fictional sphere.

By February 2, 2012

Voices

The gender spectum spans more than just pink and blue

A few years ago, when I was coloring with my nephew, he asked me which crayon I wanted to use. I chose purple, saying, “It’s my favorite color.” He picked up pink, and said “I love pink, it’s my favorite color.” Unconventional, but who really cares? Two weeks later he came back, and reported that pink was no longer his favorite color. Only girls like pink. That particular wavelength of light had been designated effeminate.

By February 2, 2012

Voices

Carrying On: A pirate’s life for me

In the war against online copyright infringement, the Stop Online Piracy Act—better known as the reason you couldn’t use Wikipedia two weeks ago—represents something in between a scorched earth policy and the Death Star’s destruction of Alderaan in Star Wars. The problem with the bill is that its definition of piracy is so general, and its enforcement mechanisms so extreme, that it could require the shutdown of large swaths of the Internet (including pretty much any site with user-generated content). Under SOPA, everyone would be a pirate.

By February 2, 2012

Voices

Obama’s courageous plan to steady the cost of college

During his State of the Union address last week, President Obama proposed a plan to slow increases in college tuition. His strategy calls for steering federal dollars to colleges that keep tuition low while cutting federal support to colleges that continuously raise price of attendance. Focusing on campus-based aid programs that go to university administrators instead of the much larger federal grants that go directly to students, Obama’s plan places the incentive to keep costs down squarely on the universities themselves, which ultimately have the power to prevent future increases in tuition.

By February 2, 2012