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

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

Voices

All I need is my bicycle

Last summer, I soaked up Amsterdam for a few days during my oh-so-cliché summer-before-starting-college Euro Trip. I already know what you’re thinking, but believe me: what tickled my fancy most was not the vendors of sexual fantasy nor the urbane denizens of those “coffee shops”, but rather something much more wholesome: the bicycles.

By February 26, 2009

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Recessions take money and might even humble souls

I have given up on the idea of working to become wealthy, or to become powerful; I will work simply to do good, and to do well. If I may grow rich in the pursuit, so be it.

By February 26, 2009

Voices

This is not real life

Maybe the whole idea of there being a difference between “real life” and some other form of existence is just a lie we’ve got to rise above. Maybe I just need to grow up.

By February 26, 2009

Voices

Museums of the mind: finding yourself through art

There is no need to come to the Met—or any museum—equipped with an itinerary, a list of works you absolutely must see. You may never find what you are looking for, and you may never leave the hall of white walls and whispering people.

By February 26, 2009

Voices

Discovering Egypt through amoebic dysentery

My efforts to live like a local certainly did reap cultural dividends, just not the kind I expected. A few days later, I started feeling sick and developed a 104-degree fever. Before I could say, “pyramid,” I was on my way to Mustashfa as-Salaam (Hospital Peace), about to acquire far more insights into the Egyptian health care system than I ever wanted to know.

By February 19, 2009

Voices

An uncomfortable waltz with Bashir

The Israeli film Waltz with Bashir is up for Best Foreign Film, and betting either for or against it would leave me feeling uneasy.

By February 19, 2009

Voices

Hope rings hollow in Obama’s first weeks

In his inaugural address, President Obama said, “We have chosen hope over fear; unity of purpose over conflict and discord.” In Obama’s first few weeks in office, I have not seen much in the way of hope, and I certainly have not seen any unity of purpose—on Capitol Hill or in the rest of the country.

By February 19, 2009

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Obama’s integrity will ensure his success

The economy is in the pits, social and political conflicts are brewing around the world, and, judging by the paltry number of Republican votes for the stimulus package, bipartisanship in Washington is apparently dead. So why should Americans still be excited about Barack Obama and his administration of hope and change?

By February 19, 2009

Voices

This Georgetown Life: Awkward Luvin’: The Valentine’s Day Edition

Voice staffers share their most awkward encounters with love, in a Valentine Day's Edition of This Georgetown Life.

By the February 12, 2009

Voices

The ANC: G-town’s own bastion of hyper-democracy

Washington, D.C. touts its 37 ANCs as advisory boards whose opinions on traffic, parking, zoning, liquor licenses, and police presence must be given “great weight” by District agencies. But this doesn’t even begin to explain the phenomenon of the ANC.

By February 12, 2009

Voices

Just because it’s real doesn’t mean it’s not terrifying

When I get bored, I slip into a sort of steady state of mind, my own personal state of nature. Oddly, that condition has come to involve watching a lot of horror movies. It isn’t that I particularly prefer slashers or monster romps to romantic comedy or drama. It’s more force of habit than conscious choice.

By February 12, 2009

Voices

A message for President Obama: go green, baby, go green

Newly appointed Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele won’t push his party in a new direction. This is the man who coined the phrase “Drill, baby, drill,” so often attributed to Sarah Palin, and whose acceptance speech lacked any real substance.

By February 12, 2009

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Relieve the suffering of the Palestinian people

As members of “Georgetown for Gaza,” greeting our friends and professors on campus with “Happy New Year” after winter break seemed bitterly paradoxical.

By February 5, 2009

Voices

The world must understand Israel’s motives

In the aftermath of the recent Israeli operation in Gaza, much of the world has an opinion, but few care to understand why Israel was forced to go to war in the first place.

By February 5, 2009

Voices

Grown-ups can play games, too

One of my favorite psychological concepts to misuse in everyday life is the idea of “parallel play.” When children are very young—say, one or two years old—they aren’t entirely capable of playing with each other, and will instead play their own individual games, side by side.

By February 5, 2009

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D.C. vs. Chi-town: vying for Obama’s affection

Early in my freshman year, my friends and I concocted a game called, “Fun Facts about my Hometown.” What began as an innocuous exchange of trivia about our home states and individual points of origin soon transformed into a heated competition, renamed “Whose Hometown Is Best?” Naturally, an important facet of this more confrontational stage was tearing down one another’s places of residence. (We repeatedly introduced our Maryland friend as having crabs.)

By February 5, 2009

Voices

40 years of 11:15 p.m. Mass

In June of 1968 I finished studies in France and arrived at Georgetown to begin teaching theology. Bill Clinton had graduated from the University earlier that month.

By January 29, 2009

Voices

Give me liberty, but don’t let me vote on a ballot initiative

The ballot initiative process is just too much unfettered democracy.

By January 29, 2009