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“Going for the Western” by Carolyn DeCarlo

John held Susan by the elbow as they walked across the lot toward their new car. He held the door for her as she slid in, before bounding to the... Read more

By Carolyn DeCarlo November 6, 2008

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Inciting racism is a move for morons, not mavericks

In a country already extremely sensitive to matters of race and religion (especially Islam), the McCain campaign is actively encouraging people to question Obama’s identity in an attempt to build a severely distorted narrative about him. When their own vice presidential candidate is saying Obama is friends with terrorists and implying that he harbors intense resentment for America, what does the campaign expect their middle and southern American base to do?

By Brendan Brown October 23, 2008

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In financial crisis, taking public transit pays

If there is any time to encourage the use of public transportation, it is now. With ridership at an all time high, the focus should be on keeping these new transit riders out of their cars, not encouraging them to return to their old ways. Plus, an investment in the nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure will provide jobs in the short run and would encourage development in the long run, alleviating the effects of the economic downturn.

By Dylan Richmond October 23, 2008

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Everything I needed to know about college admissions I learned from Machiavelli

Perhaps this new emphasis on college is the continuation of the American emphasis on meritocracy, the idea that by working hard in high school you can pull yourself up to Ivy League prestige. As another sixth grader told the Times, ‘’With the Ivy League schools, my dad always says that to get into them, it’s like a race. Let’s say we could put the whole grade in a race. People have to fall. People have to stop to tie a shoe. But if you keep getting good grades, you race and race to the top.” This survival of the fittest mentality may be brutal, but at least achieving the best is earned.

By Rebecca Abelman October 23, 2008

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The dearth of discussion about depression

The repercussions of depression are great for those who deal with it daily. Depression is more than just its physical symptoms.

Antidepressants can dramatically affect your social life at college; anyone who’s been on them knows that it’s not a good idea to drink while taking medication. Some would choose not to drink anyway, but being on medication means that you never get to make that choice.

By Rachel Chow October 16, 2008

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Centre Street Home

We buy okra, rice, crayfish, and plantains that I use to make my Saturday night jambalaya. The black civic leaders are very proud of their neighborhood and it’s safe to walk there in the daytime. At night sometimes there’s live music in Thayer Park, but we never go because between us and Thayer Park are the South Street Housing Projects where that kid was shot a year ago.

By Jeff Bakkensen October 9, 2008

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GUMBO: understanding the internal melting pot

There are no easy answers to the questions “What are you?” or “Where are you from?” Which is more important: the part of me that loves to make my paternal grandmother’s Indian recipes, or the part of me that loves to bake Christmas cookies with my maternal grandmother? The fact that my dad is Indian or that he’s Catholic?

By Therese Miranda October 2, 2008

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My field trips bring all the boys to the art

The likes of Georgetown art aficionados include freshmen, seniors, exchange students, grad students, econ majors, sculptors, computer scientists, and more. Some of us overdosed on Jackson Pollock and Rembrandt in high school art, some of us have never taken an art class, some of us doodle masterpieces on our Problem of God notebooks. No matter what their academic pursuits or previous exposure to art, students from all walks swarmed to the general body meeting.

By Peter Kong October 2, 2008

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Bomb blast in Islamabad affects more than just Pakistan

Although I did not realize it at the time, the hotel is eminent not only because of its extravagance, but because it neighbors the embassies of foreign dignitaries, the President’s office, and the parliament building. Perhaps most importantly, the Mariott serves as a symbol of corrupt Pakistani decadence and of the government’s unpopular alliance with the United States.

It is no shock, then, that it was the prime target of a terrorist attack.

By Nafees Ahmed September 25, 2008

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All we are saying is give football a chance

I’m not an unrealistic idealist: I know as much as anyone what our season was like last year. I know we’re still building a program that only recently joined I-AA. And I know that we’re facing as tough a schedule as ever. So I don’t have expectations of sweeping the league or watching a Football Championship Sub-Division playoff game on TV this season. But I do know that anything can happen on the gridiron, that every game is a fresh start, and that our team is talented enough to put up a fight every week. So I show up every Saturday ready to watch something special happen, to witness a time-expiring field-goal or a game-ending sack, to stand at the front of the bleachers when the game is over and triumphantly sing the fight song with a victorious team.

By Nick Sementelli September 25, 2008

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Give me liberty or give me death?

The poverty-stricken masses of Cairo are fed-up with an oppressive government that doesn’t care, a supposedly “grand America” that supports this negligent regime, and a city that doesn’t offer so much as clean air. “Religious” leaders seeking power use the compelling context of Islam to attract these people and to convert them into devotees. These figures augment their status in relation to the government and obtain a personal following. They promise a sanitized political system and a chance for people to have greater ownership over their own lives. Social services, like the hot meal that government welfare rarely provides, entice the average person to keep coming for more.

By Mark Lerner September 11, 2008

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McCain chose VP for style, not substance

More significantly, it seems that McCain doesn’t respect women for their qualifications but simply uses their gender for political advantage. Is this McCain’s way of telling us that he believes women can be easily manipulated for political gain instead of being respected for their own career accomplishments? McCain has shown us that he doesn’t respect women, and that he will go to desperate measures to get himself elected, an occurence that would put our country at risk.

By Sasha Wasserstrom September 4, 2008

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Dispatches from the Obama campaign

With deepening gloom, I had continued to call people, hoping I’d strike gold and find a volunteer. The next day passed uneventfully. I paced the room, talking eagerly to whoever picked up their telephone. Occasionally, pedestrians would slow down or stop when they saw that someone was walking around inside the office, but they’d soon move on again, and my hopes for a walk-in volunteer would dissipate into the sweltering August air.

By Nick Wertsch August 28, 2008

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Play honest, not nice

It would be much more helpful for all of us if our papers left those classrooms in shards. Instead, it seems like the barrier to raising your hand is having some point of praise to help the criticism go down easier. At twenty-one, I’d rather leave this Mary Poppins treatment behind; in a writing class for upperclassmen, criticism is neither rude nor unnecessary. Even good writers sweat out bad pieces, and I hope they’d like to know it when they do. The decision we make everyday in those classrooms is to value politeness over honesty, and it leaves us victims as much as perpetrators.

By Mike Stewart April 24, 2008

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The refusal to veil religious freedom in the U.S.

My English friends and Dutch cousins are smart, contemporary, educated and enlightened. But over the last few years, whenever we’ve discussed the differences between how Europe and the U.S. have handled Islamic women’s veiling, I’m always somewhat shocked at how, uniformly, my enlightened “Euros” are passionately biased against the veil, saying that they wish Muslim women in Europe would be prohibited from the practice.

By Lauve Steenhuisen April 10, 2008

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Lying her way to the highest office in the land

When did misspeaking become synonymous with lying? When Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) suggested that she merely misspoke about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia, her statement was not an error in recollection, it was a lie. It is only one of many lies put forward by the junior Senator from New York as she desperately scrambles to save her nearly mathematically impossible campaign for the Democratic nomination.

By Timothy Kaldas March 27, 2008

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Helping Haiti to help itself

The poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere is merely a few hundred miles from the tip of Florida. What was once France’s richest colony and the first Caribbean island to gain its independence is now a country where people lack the basic amenities of the 20th century—running water, electricity and plumbing. Haiti is an incredibly beautiful island, but it has been afflicted and bankrupted for decades by despotism and conflict.

By Dominga Julicia James March 27, 2008

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The El Salvador Experience

What I heard at dinner on the first night of spring break was hard to believe. A group of seven other Georgetown students, two leaders from Campus Ministry and I spent the break in El Salvador as part of the “Magis Immersion and Justice Program,” and to kick off our trip we went to a small restaurant with our guide and bus driver. I was practicing my Spanish and chatting with our driver, Santos, about how much I was looking forward to the week. It was Santos’ response that took me by surprise. Rather than returning my excitement or laughing along with me, he became very solemn and told me this would be one of the most important weeks of my life. He told me that our group would be learning and seeing so much during our time there that our lives would be changed afterward. I found Santos’ statement touching, but couldn’t help but think he was being a little dramatic. I knew I would be exposed to different lifestyles and challenges during the trip, but it seemed unlikely that one week could change my life.

By Brandi Streauslin March 13, 2008

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Hillary Clinton for President

With the race for the Democratic nomination a virtual tie, Democratic voters need to think long and hard about who they want to be their nominee in the 2008 presidential election. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) is both better qualified and better positioned than her Democratic rival, Senator Barack Obama (D-Ill.), to be president of the United States.

By Faraz Mohammadi February 14, 2008