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.

Heelys: wheely, wheely fast

It had rained the night before and, as my classmate fluidly sailed past me on the slick asphalt path, my reaction was that I had witnessed a miracle. It was my first time seeing a pair of Heelys. The first messiah had walked on water—could the second one glide inexplicably across wet pavement?

By Sam Sweeney February 1, 2007

More complicated than carbs

I grew up on a strange blend of Happy Meals and granola, white bread and Flintstones’ vitamins. My physical activity revolved around a hula hoop and relatively infrequent Jane Fonda workout sessions alongside my mother. The monkey bars frightened me, and I still can’t quite turn corners on a bicycle.

By Perry Collins February 1, 2007

Pop! goes the femur

I knew that the head of this patient’s femur was going to need to go back into his pelvis. They would drill a hole through the bone and fix it in place to the bed frame until surgery could be performed. I had learned to steel myself for the brutal procedure, picturing it in my head before it actually happened in front of me, like I’d done countless times over the previous six months of my internship in Indianapolis’ public hospital. I remember idly wondering if they would need a spade bit.

By Ryan Callahan January 25, 2007

The first snow of the rest of my life

When it is going to snow, you can smell it in the air. There is a cool bite, but not so cold that a deep breath stings going down. Just before the snow is the best time to walk outdoors, look up into an overcast sky and wait with anticipation.

By Lauren Gaskill January 25, 2007

Hillary and Bill, sitting in a tree

After 227 years of white men in the nation’s highest office, this election has experienced a “surge” in diversity. Among the announced Democratic candidates are half Mexican-American Gov. Bill Richardson, half African-American Sen. Barack Obama, and full Woman-American Sen. Hillary Clinton. Yet while Clinton has the novel opportunity to potentially be the first female politician nominated for the presidency by a major party, her surname will constantly remind us that she is not just any lady.

By Kent Elliott January 25, 2007

Carrying On: Life and death in the fast lane

If you’ve ever fallen asleep at the wheel, you know what a bewildering experience it is to wake up. And if you survive, and bring your car to a safe stop, those moments of terror recede into something between a dream and a memory.

By Austin Richardson January 25, 2007

Several films, zero fame, all love

The wind was heavy, it was too cold for a tee-shirt and I was scared my nipples were going to show up in the shot. It’s not a normal concern for me, but Ross has a damn nice camera, and he assured us this was being filmed in HD. Every detail, every blemish, would show up on the projection screen in his basement when we were finished, from the discontinuities in my hairstyle to my potentially cold nipples. Cinema!

By Mike Stewart January 18, 2007

Get bent, Beckham!

This past summer, a couple of friends and I got tickets to see FC Barcelona play the New York Red Bulls at Giant’s Stadium. It seemed that the entire tri-state area had tickets to the game. It was not an intense devotion to Red Bulls that attracted these fans. We all wanted to see Ronaldinho dance around challenges, Messi blast through defenders, and Deco score goals. Giants’ Stadium roared when Barcelona possessed the ball, and at one point erupted in chants of Messi’s name. We were there for Barcelona, and quite frankly we could not care less how the Red Bulls faired.

By Andrew Viteritti January 18, 2007

Carrying on: Is Somalia Iraq 2.0?

“Islamist attacks destablize southern region.” “Road-side bomb leaves 20 dead.” “U.S. strike kills multiple civilians.”

By Michael Bruns January 18, 2007

A true patriot’s priorities

Five golden rings, four calling birds … three American fryers … two turtledoves and a partridge in a pair tree.

By Kathryn Brand January 18, 2007

This winter’s global warning

There is no sound that brings greater joy to my heart than the crisp “zip” of corduroy-clad thighs rubbing merrily against each other as they make their way down snow-filled streets. The rustle of a wool crepe coat, the swish of a lambs wool scarf jauntily arranged about a toasty neck and the smart clip of a buttery leather boot are music to my ears. These sounds usher in the winter season, a magical three months filled with sledding, good cheer, and according to statistics, lots of baby-making.

By admin January 11, 2007

The most forsaken place

From the outside, 2019 Igania Street looked like a slightly dirty brick house with an overgrown lawn in a rough section of town.

By Chris Stanton January 11, 2007

Less grey, more anatomy

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Halfway through winter break, with all the current TV shows on a holiday hiatus, I had grown tired of dabbling in The West Wing, Seinfeld and Weeds and without an engaging television drama to amuse me, I took a desperate measure. I turned to a show that I’d promised myself to never watch: the bastard child of the soap opera and the medical show—Grey’s Anatomy.

By Sam Sweeney January 11, 2007

Carrying On: A reasonable affirmation

Affirmative action, it would seem, is on its way out. Once embraced by liberals as a way to ensure equality established as a goal by the civil rights movements of the ‘60’s and ‘70s, it now has waning support across demographics and political ideologies. The fight is increasingly polarized as people take sides for or against affirmative action with such personally and politically-charged fervor that compromise seems impossible. Ironically, this passion is often supported only by anecdotal evidence and a profound ignorance of what affirmative action actually is.

By Perry Collins January 11, 2007

Georgetown can’t handle the truth

After half a semester of backyard noise, late night weekend parties and one living room rock concert, an anonymous neighbor complained about a radio station event at my house to the University as well as the police in the early hours of Sunday, Oct. 12. Two days later, my housemates and I trudged into the Office of Off Campus Student Life to meet with Chuck VanSant about the incident, and were summarily punished for our honesty.

By Chris Norton December 7, 2006

Negating affirmative action

Last Monday night I felt like the white kid from a black school in a white state sitting in a room full of black students at a white university. Issues of race, usually lurking in the unspeakable shadows, were then front and center in a panel discussion that dealt with whether the historically ivory tower of academics would be able to keep embracing students of color through affirmative action in the future, a possibility that I, apparently alone in my stand, look at with dismay. I see a legitimate alternative: class-based affirmative action, unfairly discounted by backward-looking ideology at American universities.

By Ryan Callahan December 7, 2006

Barackin’ in the free world

I worked in the Senate with Mercy, a tall, pretty senior from UMass who lived for movie stars. The interns had a game inspired by Kevin Bacon’s six degrees of separation in which we’d name an actor and a movie as dissimilar as possible (try James Dean and National Treasure) and Mercy would have to connect them from memory. After two weeks of the game, it was Mercy: 46, interns: 0.

By Sam Sweeney December 7, 2006

Carrying On: From the sidelines: across the desert and far away

Last Thursday, during halftime of the Men’s basketball game against Oregon, ten individuals—men and women—filed onto the court. Some walked with a limp, some with a cane, all were veterans of the Iraq war. Most of them looked to be in their early 20s. I distinctly remember one of them, a young man with crutches and a missing leg.

By Austin Richardson December 7, 2006

The good, the bad and the ugly

I rode the escalator into the subway station. “Gray? or Gorgeous?” the older woman in the first poster asked.

By Kathryn Brand November 30, 2006

Rainboots: bringing kindergarten sexy back

I was that girl who stood outside the RHO at 10:13 watching time pass with impatient anticipation.

By Allie Reiner November 30, 2006

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