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

We’ve got 99 problems, but income inequality ain’t one

Everyone is painfully aware that the proportionate income of the richest Americans is growing. Like a cancerous tumor, the wealth of America’s elite threatens to envelop us all. As their collective fortunes reach critical mass, the moral fabric of our society will tear apart, fire and brimstone will fall from the sky, machines will rise up against the human race, and Nicki Minaj will be the last cultural legacy of humanity. Or maybe not. Unfortunately, the dystopian visions enthusiastically broadcast from Zuccotti Park by the Occupy Wall Street movement present a distorted picture of this economic trend. True, the income of the top one percent has increased steadily from roughly 10 percent of the total national income in 1985 to 17 percent in 2009.

By November 17, 2011

Voices

Teach for China crosses the Pacific, chalk in hand

At first the books came individually, and then there was a flood of them. After Tim Worm (SFS ’10) posted a message on RenRen, China’s equivalent of Facebook, pleading for help in procuring English-to-Chinese dictionaries for his class of more than 50 students in rural China, the result was a deluge of packages and messages. “I got a bunch of friend requests, with everyone saying ‘Thank you so much for helping us out,’” he said. While he and his fellow teachers at the middle school were amazed at the kindness and generosity of strangers, the feeling was very much mutual. Worm’s new RenRen friends appreciated graduates from top-flight institutions in China and America who were spending two years of their professional lives at rural schools in the Teach for China program.

By November 17, 2011

Voices

Respectful mayhem: a night at the helm of SafeRides

John briskly stopped the van in the middle of the road, allowing me to swiftly unbuckle my seatbelt and exit the passenger-side door of the vehicle. I raced out of the van toward the two huddled bodies lying on top of each other in the middle of the black concrete on P Street and screamed, “Is everything alright?” The first body looked up and made eye contact with me. “Yeah, he’s my roommate,” he responded. “We’re just … uh … wrestling.” The roommate verified the claim. It’s not every night I witness an impromptu drunken wrestling match in the middle of the streets of Georgetown. Then again, it’s not every night I volunteer in the SafeRides van.

By November 17, 2011

Voices

Occupy Towne

Whipped cream-flavored Burnett’s vodka in hand, two Jane Hoyas approach the cashier at Towne Wine and Liquor on Wisconsin Avenue and engage in familiar debate about splitting the bill—“I’m out of money … Buy you a fro-yo at Sweet Green tomorrow?” “Perf!” Unfortunately, the situation was not perfect. With $13 in hand, the thirsty ladies thought they had enough cash to pay for the vodka, but they forgot about one of D.C.’s more sinister institutions—alcohol taxes.

By November 17, 2011

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

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

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

Voices

For Millenials, too many choices and not enough options

This week, Georgetown alum (and former Voice editor) Noreen Malone (COL ‘07) wrote a feature story for New York Magazine encouragingly titled, “The Kids Are Actually Sort of Alright: My screwed, coddled, self-absorbed, mocked, surprisingly resilient generation.” I started reading it in the library today and had to leave because I felt near a breakdown (and a breakdown in Lau 2 is just not okay). As if I needed another reminder that the next stage of my life is a complete mystery to me.

By October 20, 2011

Voices

Steve’s greatest job: the editor to Apple visionaries

When Steve Jobs, CEO and co-founder of Apple Inc., died a fortnight ago, my dad went out and bought an iPhone. This emotional response was hardly atypical: rock stars, journalists and politicians alike lauded the man whose sense of showmanship had helped him transcend the shadowy ranks of the business world into the stratosphere of celebrity and brought sleek premium electronics to the hands of millions of Americans.

By October 20, 2011

Voices

Beyond Ahmadinejad: the Iranians’ democratic potential

Gradually through the years, European and American foreign policies have managed to construct a Western vision of Iran that associated the country with the so-called “axis of evil” states and al-Qaeda. But the Iranian government actually desired cooperation with the U.S. on terrorism. However, the Bush administration did little to foster dialogue. As a result, hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected President in 2005, ushering in an era of renewed anti-Americanism.

By October 20, 2011

Voices

An imaginary community

When I was a senior at Hill, I felt inextricably connected to the place and to everyone who was a part of it. But when I arrived at the promised land of higher-level academia, I couldn’t help but be let down. Of course it’s natural to feel lost going from being a big fish in a small pond to a lowly first-year guppy. But as a freshman at Georgetown, once the NSO Cheerleaders strip off their neon t-shirts and cease all their “HOYA SAXA”-ing, it is incredibly easy to disappear into gateway class oblivion.

By October 20, 2011