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

Intellect virtually absent in the online classroom

Usually after asking me for technological aid, my grandfather loves to tell me about the era before computers defined communication—proudly showing me his old but still functional typewriter. Many truly gifted writers, he says, never made the jump from typewriter to computer, preferring the ability to interact with text in ways computer screens don’t allow.

By February 24, 2010

Voices

Yoga’s not about looking good in your lululemon

Georgetown students love their exercise. Anyone who goes to Yates around 5 p.m. knows that you have a better chance of getting into Otto Hentz’s Problem of God class than finding a vacant treadmill. The alternative is sharing the sidewalk with the swarms of outdoor runners—huffing and puffing along, looking miserable. But Georgetown has another category of over-zealous athletes, easily recognizable by the yoga mats sticking out of their backpacks.

By February 24, 2010

Voices

My brother Kyle: A special lesson in human value

As the Winter Olympics come to a close, the time comes once again for us to return to our routine TV schedules, oblivious to the physically disabled who are competing in the Winter Paralympics. The games resemble the Winter Olympics, with patriotic fanfare and fierce competition, except these athletes are, of course, handicapped. With only five sports—alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country skiing, wheelchair curling, and sledge hockey—the Paralympics is a minor spectacle compared to the lavish and gaudy celebration that precedes it.

By February 24, 2010

Voices

Real fans tailgate … why don’t we?

A couple of days into the new year, I found myself standing in the middle of a massive parking lot wearing three pairs of pants. I tried to shield myself from the harsh, freezing wind by taking shelter against the side of a Winnebago that probably had not seen a good day since the Carter Administration. Around the lot, men huddled over fires in metal trash cans, evoking scenes from every post-apocalyptic film ever made.

By February 24, 2010

Voices

Constantly risking Winter Olympic absurdity

For the sake of the modern world, I really hope the ancient Greeks were wrong in their religious beliefs. Maybe the gods have been ignoring our lack of animal sacrifices for the past couple millennia, but all those myths about an angry god not getting enough worship and going on a killing spree make me a little nervous for the future of civilization.

By February 18, 2010

Voices

What would Betty Freidan do?

When I was younger, my mom refused to let me watch two Disney movies: Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. I asked her years later about what I thought was a strange prejudice against the delightful animated fairytales, and she explained that she didn’t want me growing up absorbing stories of women being saved by a white knight.

By February 18, 2010

Voices

It’s easy to quit smoking—I’ve done it tons of times

It’s mid-February, which is the perfect time to evaluate all those attempted resolutions of only six weeks ago. The new year ushers in a sense of determination that has the potential to last, but usually disappears within a few weeks, a few days, or even a few hours—usually about when that New Year’s Eve whiskey buzz turns into a New Year’s Day headache. I, like so many before me, took it upon myself to throw away that nasty habit that comes at an unreasonable price in packs of twenty.

By February 18, 2010

Voices

No on-campus cura personalis for sick Hoyas

You wake up one morning to find your throat as raspy as Bob Dylan’s. You trudge to class, yet you can’t help but cough at the least opportune moments and, despite your best attempts, you are that loathsome person whose nose just won’t stop running. But it’s not a cold. It can’t be. Georgetown students can’t afford to get sick. We have classes, commitments, jobs, and social lives. Maybe it’s nerdy, but in general, the only thing that we Hoyas hate more than the flu itself is missing a day of school.

By February 18, 2010

Voices

Some extremely inconvenient truths

It snowed a hell of a lot this week. Amid the record-breaking snowfalls, school closings, and panicking weathermen came the unfortunate but predictable conservative reaction that this kind of anomalous blizzard somehow debunks the theory of “global warming.” The argument—that rare instances of severe cold prove that temperatures are not in fact trending upwards over the long term—is seemingly raised after every dramatic winter storm.

By February 10, 2010

Voices

Party and bullshit: The hassles of entertaining

It started out as a nice evening with a few friends at a Nevils apartment, as it always does. Then someone’s friend’s little sister brought her Harbin cluster-mates, someone’s cousin and all his friends and acquaintances showed up, and a few dozen texts and tweets later, the apartment was flooded with thirsty, rowdy strangers.

By February 10, 2010

Voices

Hoya pride swallowed amid a crowd of apathy

As a fan, it’s hard to repeat the same chant over and over again. It’s time we switch it up a little. “WE ARE GEORGETOWN” and “HOYA SAXA” are good when thrown into the mix, but we need to diversify our portfolio further. How about getting into the other team’s head. Call out a specific player—“SMITH IS RATTLED” will work, for example, when Smith messes up twice in a row. Or try the simple “CRY ABOUT IT” when a player thinks he’s doesn’t deserve a foul. Get creative—you have four whole syllables to work with.

By February 10, 2010

Voices

Rebuttal: A look at the pro-life perspective

Andrew Zipperer’s recent article, “Protesters’ pro-life arguments prove ill-conceived,” (Georgetown Voice, February 4, 2010) showed a vast and astounding ignorance about the pro-life movement it attempted to analyze. While it’s honorable that Zipperer made some effort to understand the protesters he met at the January 22 March for Life, he failed to deliver a balanced or holistic view of the pro-life movement.

By February 10, 2010

Voices

The ethics of Super Bowl advertising

Was there ever really a time when athletes could be considered paragons of morality? Years before Tiger Woods slept with every cocktail waitress in the greater Orlando area, the American public gave up trying to look up to sports stars as role models. And between Janet Jackson’s nipple, Prince’s giant penis-guitar, and any beer commercial ever, the Super Bowlbowl should have even less moral credibility.

By February 4, 2010

Voices

Paralysis on the operating table: Awake and afraid

On January 3, while many of you were still celebrating the new decade with themed parties or family vacations, I was preparing myself for a routine tonsillectomy. Aside from getting my wisdom teeth out, this was my first surgery, so I was not quite sure what to expect—other than a really sore throat and lots of ice cream.

By February 4, 2010

Voices

Protesters’ pro-life arguments prove ill-conceived

A quarter of a million activists descended on D.C. this past weekend to advocate for the sanctity of human life. As a liberal vegetarian seeking to understand the nuances of the pro-life argument, I ventured down to Constitution Avenue—notebook in hand—to question the marchers in the 37th annual March For Life.

By February 4, 2010

Voices

Islamic studies: The jihad against ignorance

But as I perused the January 7 issue while home over winter break, one article caught my attention. It was Cal Thomas’s column, “Administration reluctant to call a war a war” that caught my attention. The piece, notable for both its absurdity and a rather unflattering reference to Georgetown, demonstrates not just the ignorance of one small-minded small-town man, but a frighteningly widespread misunderstanding of Islam.

By February 4, 2010

Voices

Coffee break: Bringing addiction to a grinding halt

My freshman fall semester was spent in line at MUG and Uncommon Grounds deciding which drink to try. The delicious-sounding names of the drinks made them that much more enticing—who wouldn’t want to quench her thirst with a drink called “The Anarchist,” “The Yankee Buster,” or “The Peter Cottontail”?

By January 28, 2010

Voices

The secret life of an Am-Stud Major

Much to the dismay of my father, a computer scientist, all three of his children pursued majors in the humanities. When my twin brother shared with us that the engineering and pre —med majors at Johns Hopkins, who make up roughly 75 percent of the undergraduate class, call history classes and the like “arts-and–crafts time,” my dad chortled in tacit agreement.

By January 28, 2010

Voices

Lessons learned between a rock and a hard place

I’d been living by the motto “work smarter, not harder” for a long time. Why walk across the Key Bridge, for example, when you could stand outside the Southwest Quad and catch a GUTS bus that’ll get you to Rosslyn at the same time? But as I reflected on the old sermon I realized that the point of the priest’s story was that the existence of a shortcut isn’t always enough to make taking that shortcut worthwhile.

By January 28, 2010

Voices

Logistical fault lines, too, run under Port-au-Prince

The 7.0 magnitude earthquake that hit Port-au-Prince on January 12 affected three million people—killing over 100,000, about 80 percent of whom had to be buried in mass graves. Thousands still require medical attention, millions are homeless, and many lack necessities as basic as water and food.

By January 28, 2010