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.

Page 13 Cartoons

Gtown housing: the bad, the really bad, and the worst

For me, the inordinate difficulty of obtaining affordable housing as an upperclassmen and lackluster facilities we must endure if we’re lucky enough to get campus housing fly in the face of Georgetown’s commitment to cura personalis.

By April 16, 2009

Voices

The non-crisis of obscure grad speakers

GW’s got Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; Stanford’s got Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy. NYU will host Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Franklin & Marshall is planning to welcome former Secretary of State Colin Powell. And Arizona State University even managed to net President Barack Obama, despite its absurd refusal to grant him an honorary degree. Meanwhile, we Georgetown students are still waiting to hear who will speak at the Commencements for each of the undergraduate schools this May, and if the last few years are any indication, the speakers addressing the Class of 2009 won’t have nearly the same A-list cred.

By April 16, 2009

Voices

The Hoya’s April Fool’s issue controversy: Only empathy will prevent future crises

I frequently overlook Georgetown’s diversity-related issues. As the graduate of a small, mostly white high school that makes Georgetown look like a cornucopia of diversity, it’s easy for me to miss the tension between mainstream Georgetown and various minority groups, since I’m part of the majority. The ongoing discourse about The Hoya’s April Fools’ edition, however, illuminates a darker side of Georgetown that a naïve freshman like myself had failed to fully recognize.

By April 16, 2009

Voices

The Hoya is eager to engage in dialogue

In the over two weeks since The Hoya’s annual April Fools’ Day edition came out, it has become clear that many articles in the issue were both distasteful and offensive.

By April 16, 2009

Voices

This Georgetown Life: Righteous karma

Righteous karma: tales of pranks from Voice staffers

By the April 2, 2009

Voices

A theory about theories

The idea that science gives us insight into today’s major policy issues—the most important, of course, being the financial crisis—hugely misrepresents what social science can tell us about the economic world.

By April 2, 2009

Voices

How to get your econ freak on and ride the recession wave

The realignment of grandiose ambitions to account for economic reality is a rather hard pill to swallow.

By April 2, 2009

Voices

Who let the girls out? Why women’s basketball matters

Most people assumed that the 2008-2009 Hoya basketball season ended with a disappointing defeat in Waco two weeks ago. That couldn’t be further from the truth.

By April 2, 2009

Voices

Getting to know a grandfather, even after his death

Today, the weather is good for the first time in a long time. Come walk with me, down to the Washington Harbor. Past the shop windows of shiny, plastic women wearing soft things and summer things and silver things, who nod at you as you go by.

By March 26, 2009

Voices

When television grows out of its box

If television is supposed to capture the rhythms and flows of people’s lives, then it makes sense to immerse oneself totally into those lives.

By March 26, 2009

Page 13 Cartoons

Election observer in El Salvador, a recession-proof spring break job

Last Tuesday, I spent my morning in the noisy, sunlit streets of San Salvador and the night in Georgetown’s comparatively glacial climate.

By March 26, 2009

Voices

Making brotherly love the official sport of brotherly love

My brother and I are completely different people.

By March 26, 2009

Page 13 Cartoons

A day in the life of a MidEast border-crossing junkie

In these days of borderless Schengen areas and expressways funneling cars across the U.S.-Canadian border at blazing speeds, the prospect of crossing an international border on foot seems more than a little quaint. Last April, I did so twice in one day.

By March 19, 2009

Voices

The “Cuddler” as a joking matter

Though I can’t remember the first time I heard about the assailant who later came to be known as the “Cuddler,” I remember exactly when I heard my first Cuddler joke.

By March 19, 2009

Page 13 Cartoons

The U.S. v. nonviolent DNC & RNC protesters

Dear Denver and St. Paul, I can still smell the last whiffs of the tear gas that you sprayed at us, I still see the remnants of it rising mockingly in misty spirals to a backdrop of riot gear, though all that is left of our peaceful protests are the legal battles that began to erupt between you and us protesters in the aftermath of the Republican National Convention and Democratic National Convention.

By March 19, 2009

Voices

Liberals for a strong, but intelligent, Republican party

The Republican party is in shambles, and I’m not happy about it—even though I’m an Obama supporter.

By March 19, 2009

Page 13 Cartoons

A-Rod’s juiced up stats destroy childhood memories

A-Rod’s steroid use has tainted my childhood memories. The scandal has even, on a certain level, created more of a disconnect with those memories. From now on, I will associate those numbers with a player who dishonestly juiced himself up, rather than with a simpler time, when a Yankees game, my dad, and a box of Twizzlers made everything right in the world.

By March 5, 2009

Voices

A break up of operatic proportions

So perhaps a happy relationship was never in the cards for Wagner and me; perhaps there was just too much baggage. We both did what we could. He got me cheap tickets, and I struggled to accept his mythological quirks and overpowering brass section. But in the end, we’re just two very different people. But maybe we can still hang out sometime.

By March 5, 2009

Page 13 Cartoons

Sex Positive Week: Events were counterproductive and one-sided

This year, Sex Positive Week only served to promote dangerous stereotypes through events and discussions which are fundamentally inconsistent with Georgetown’s identity as a Jesuit university. Simply put, we deserve better.

By March 5, 2009

Voices

Sex Positive Week: sex positivity can be part of a Jesuit education

Sex positivity is a simple yet radical idea that an individual’s right to make sexual choices must be respected. Sex positivity discourages sexual shame and coercive sexual acts, espousing instead safe, healthy, and responsible choices for one’s body and mind.

By March 5, 2009