11 1 2012

VOICE the georgetown

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HOW THE HOMELESS POPULATION WEATHERED SANDY PAGE 4

MEN’S SOCCER PREPARES FOR THE BIG EAST POST SEASON PAGE 6

STUDENTS VS. FRANKENSTORM PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969  November 1, 2012  Volume 47, Issue 12  georgetownvoice.com

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november 1, 2012

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Voice Crossword “Sandy” by Tyler Pierce

puzzle answers at georgetownvoice.com 35. Canyon effect 36. Hurricane 39. Timon and Pumba snack 40. Present time?

41. 180, so to speak 42. GERMS, for example 43. Cat sound 44. French pancakes 45. Seinfeld uncle 46. Sad 47. Hurricane 54. Type 55. Delhi wrap 56. Religious figure 57. Comment to the audience 58. Thing on a list 59. Persian board game similar to backgammon 60. Kind of gun 61. Match parts 62. Types of sloes DOWN

ACROSS 1. Keats’ works 5. Jake’s partner from College Humor 9. Swag 14. Nap 15. Puerto __ 16. Self-conscious 17. Alarm

18. Biting pest 19. Kidney related 20. Hurricane 23. Stack 24. Piss off 25. Meat 28. Fill to excess 30. Money dispenser 33. Like an old woman 34. Steak sauce

1. “Carmina Burana” composer 2. Bucks and does 3. Brother of Jacob 4. Place to make it rain 5. Sock pattern 6. Kind of pie 7. Worldwide plane group 8. Campus military org.

9. Existentialist Jean-Paul 10. Fine-tune 11. Doctor Who villainess, with “the”

12. Eurasia’s ___ Mountains 13. ___ Aviv 21. Linoleum tiler 22. Toys with tails 25. Skin disease for a mutt 26. Render defenseless 27. Site, Latin.

28. Pops 29. Spanish liqueur 30. Misbehave 31. Ici, in England 32. Opposites of eves 34. Donations 35. Regarding respectfully 37. Self-evident truth 38. Gold, Latin.

43. Top of a Word page 44. Asserts 45. Wife of a Beatle 46. Cap for a g-man or a painter 47. ___ Major 48. Motel employee 49. Egyptian fertility goddess 50. London art gallery 51. Deep-colored berry

52. Conflicted 53. Brings to a close 54. Tombs, for example

ARE YOU A LOGOPHILE? Share your love of words and help us write crosswords.

Email crossword@georgetownvoice.com.

editorial

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 47.12 November 1, 2012 Editor-in-Chief: Leigh Finnegan Managing Editor: Keaton Hoffman Blog Editor: Vanya Mehta News Editor: Gavin Bade Sports Editor: Kevin Joseph Feature Editor: Connor Jones Cover Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Leisure Editor: Mary Borowiec Voices Editor: Claire McDaniel Photo Editor: Lucia He Design Editors: Amanda Dominguez, Madhuri Vairapandi Projects Editors: Christie Geaney, Cannon Warren Puzzles Editor: Tyler Pierce Assistant Blog Editors: Morgan Manger, Isabel Echarte Assistant News Editors: Julia Jester, Matt Weinmann Assistant Sports Editors: Chris Almeida, Steven Criss, Keith Levinsky Assistant Leisure Editors: Will Collins, Julia Lloyd-George, Kirill Makarenko Assistant Voices Editor: Sara Ainsworth Assistant Photo Editors: Julian de la Paz, Matt Thees Assistant Design Editor: Lauren Ashley Panawa

Staff Writers:

Maitane Arana, Jane Conroy, Alex Lau, Jeffrey Lin, Shom Mazumder, Caitriona Pagni, Paul Quincy, Heather Regen, Abby Sherburne, Melissa Sullivan, Fatima Taskomur, Ambika Tripathi

Staff Photographers:

Rebecca Anthony, Max Blodgett, Matthew Fried, Kirill Makarenko, Tim Markatos, Gavin Meng, Tess O’Connor, Larissa Ong, Andres Rengifo

Copy Chief: Tori Jovanovski Copy Editors:

Patricia Cipollitti, Grace Funsten, Morgan Manger, Rina Li, Sonia Okolie, Caitriona Pagni, Ana Smith, Dana Suekoff, Kim Tay, Suzanne Trivette

Editorial Board Chair: Rachel Calvert Editorial Board:

Aisha Babalakin, Gavin Bade, Patricia Cipollitti, Nico Dona Dalle Rose, Katerina Downward, Keaton Hoffman, Julia Jester, Linnea Pittman, Cole Stangler, Galen Weber

Head of Business: Aarohi Vora Business Staff: Sara Ainsworth, Zoe Disselkoen, Meghan Fitzpatrick, Charmaine Ng

The Georgetown Voice The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

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the georgetown voice 3

IT AIN’T EASY BEING GREEN

Vote Jill Stein/Cheri Honkala on Nov. 6

Over the past year, near-constant election coverage has whittled the U.S. presidential race down to President Barack Obama’s and Governor Mitt Romney’s stances on specific domestic issues and, in particular, energy security and the GOP’s “War on Women.”

Romney’s platform leaves much to be desired on domestic and foreign policy issues. His plans to turn Medicaid over to the states and repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act will whittle away at the U.S.’s already feeble welfare system. If vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) record is in any indication of what Romney’s budget might look like, it will include more extensive budget cuts to critical social programs—all in line with what the Republican Party has pushed through over the past few years.

Progressives are right to be deterred by Romney’s commitment to preserving current defense spending levels, promoting domestic drilling, and decentralizing social welfare programs.

While these are certainly important issues, what gets lost in the pandemonium is a critical look at Obama’s record on inequality, civil liberties, and justice here and abroad. Based on these issues and more, progressives should vote for Green Party Presidential candidate Jill Stein and her running mate Cheri Honkala.

Obama’s policies have only served to foster, rather than diminish, inequality. In the wake of the 2008 housing crisis, Obama oversaw the passage of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, a bill which, combined with the associated Federal Reserve actions, underwrote corporate profits at the expense of the millions of Americans whose home equity had collapsed due to risky investment behavior.

The Wall Street bailout was intended to prevent a cataclysmic failure of massive banking institutions, but it did not include any debt-relief provisions to help the Americans who, together, lost $5-7 trillion in savings. Corporate profits have bounced back to record highs, while home equity, which holds the bulk of people’s wealth, has basically stagnated at 2008 levels.

Meanwhile, Obama extended the Bush tax cuts for the upper 2 percent. The result: greater economic inequality than under

Bush, with 93 cents of every dollar of income growth going to the top 1 percent.

While on the campaign trail four years ago, Obama promised to close the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

In 2012, he signed the National Defense Authorization Act, codifying indefinite detention without trial for the first time in U.S. history. Upon signing the NDAA, Obama attempted to reassure the public that he would “not authorize the indefinite military detention without trial of American citizens.” Even considering this enforceable promise, the 2012 NDAA sets a dangerous precedent. Equally important, it indicates a lack of regard for basic civil liberties.

While waging an unprecedented war on whistleblowers at home, the Obama administration has escalated the war on terror abroad, employing drone technology with appalling alacrity. Drone strikes allow for immediate, accurate assassination—without any semblance of a trial or due process. The Obama administration invokes national security to justify these killings. It is true that targeted drone strikes have killed a number of alQaeda operatives around the world, but any security advantages gained by those actions are easily outweighed by the radicalizing effects the strikes have on affected populations.

Each civilian killed in an American strike only pushes those populations into the arms of extremists and hampers our diplomatic efforts around the globe.

In 2010, Obama placed American citizen and al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki on what has been become known as the administration’s “kill list.” He was killed in a drone strike in September 2011. Two weeks later, his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was killed by another targeted drone strike in Yemen. The administration recently invoked the actions of al-Awlaki to justify his son’s death. Former Obama Press Secretary and current campaign advisor Robert Gibbs told reporters, “I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well being of their children.” This is exactly the logic of collective punishment that has been a hallmark of the most oppressive regimes of history. It

is nothing short of tragic that this ostensibly progressive, judicially-minded president has embraced such thinking.

No progressive should vote for an executive who deploys such violent warfare technology against victims who will not stand trial, who in some cases are being held culpable by association. Progressives should balk at the Obama administration’s secretive “kill list” and its series of executions conducted without so much as a congressional briefing.

It has become common in many liberal circles over the last four years to pretend Obama doesn’t have a choice about any of these actions. The Republican House has either hamstrung the progress we assume the President wants, or the threat of conservative retaliation has forced him to compromise with the Right. But each of these assumptions belies the underlying fact that Obama is not the strong, transformative leader this country needs. As students, we should be concerned that his policies are growing economic inequality, eroding civil liberties, and expanding U.S. imperialism.

Fortunately, there is another option on the ballot that promises to work for truly transformative change. Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala combine sound temperament with unique, real-world experience needed to truly bring change to Washington. Stein promises a single-payer healthcare system, criminal justice reform, and an end to misguided American interventionism. Their ticket uniquely emphasizes ecological sustainability, poverty, and inequality—all largely ignored by the Republican and Democratic candidates. Importantly for students, Stein promises student debt relief, a boon for students and for the overall health of the economy.

It is no secret that these are serious and troubling times for the United States. A vote for a third party candidate isn’t throwing away your vote—endorsing the inegalitarian, corporatist policies offered by both mainstream parties certainly is. Progressives should not in good conscience vote for another Obama term. If not for progressive values in themselves, then vote for the sake of pressuring the Democratic party to abandon its most damaging policies. Vote Stein/Honkala on Tuesday, Nov. 6.

THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER

Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress, online at CampusProgress.org. Campus Progress works to help young people — advocates, activists, journalists, artists — make their voices heard on issues that matter. Learn more at CampusProgress.org.

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On this week’s cover: “The Sex Issue” Cover Design: Neha Ghanshamdas (SFS ‘14)

DeGioia undeserving of “brave thinker” title In The Atlantic’s November “Brave Thinkers 2012” issue, Georgetown University President John DeGioia was lauded as one of 21 “brave thinkers” for promoting civilized discourse between Catholic and nontraditional voices at a Jesuit university. However, DeGioia has not so much demonstrated extraordinary courage as vocal advocacy of the status quo and neutral civil discourse.

The Atlantic believes DeGioia courageously advocates for the free exchange of ideas. In a March 2012 letter sent to the University community, DeGioia criticized the ad hominem name-calling leveled against reproductive rights activist and Georgetown Law student Sandra Fluke (LAW ‘12). After Fluke’s Congressional testimony in favor of improved access to contraception for students, Rush Limbaugh called her a “slut.” In voicing his support for more “civil discourse,” DeGioia never gave his own opinion on Georgetown’s reproductive healthcare policy. This was not a moment of bravery, but rather of condemning

childlike behavior which few respected in the first place.

Even while promoting the exchange of ideas in a public forum, DeGioia has done virtually nothing to remove Georgetown’s stringent freedom of speech regulations. The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, a non-profit focused on civil liberties in academia, gave Georgetown a “red light” label, meaning that University policy “clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”

The designation of a free-speech zone in Red Square for student protests implies that other on-campus areas are open to University censorship. As a private institution, Georgetown is not legally obligated to allow free speech or protest on campus, but as a university, it should promote this type of speech as a way to give voice to minority viewpoints excluded from other types of discussion. To call DeGioia a “brave thinker” ignores these easily reversible restrictions on speech.

Georgetown refuses to recognize student groups that deviate from the Jesuit norm.

Georgetown’s Access to Benefits Policy disqualifies the pro-choice H*yas for Choice from receiving University funding or renting space on campus. Denying recognition to groups which defy the school’s ideological platform is neither conducive to civil discourse nor emblematic of free thought.

As Georgetown’s first lay president, DeGioia’s appointment was initially met with apprehension about how he woud balance Georgetown’s dual identity as an academic and religious institution.

In some cases, such as the 2008 founding of the LGBTQ Resource Center, he has faced a hard decision. He did well to capituate to GU Pride’s demands during Out for Change campaign, itself a response to a series of egregious hate crimes. But with regard to reproductive rights and free speech, DeGioia has been anything but brave.

news

4 the georgetown voice

november 1, 2012

Homeless residents improvise to weather Hurricane Sandy

by Julia Jester Georgetown students took advantage of the two days of cancelled classes resulting from Superstorm Sandy by studying, sleeping, relaxing, or raging safely inside their heated residences. However, other members of the Georgetown community and greater D.C. area were not so fortunate.

“I was in it. I walked to Clarendon and back both days, ‘cause there was no subway,” said Richard Breault, a homeless man who braved the worst of the storm as it ravaged the East Coast earlier this week.

The lack of public transportation during and after Sandy did not just affect students and commuters. Breault, who frequently visits the Georgetown Ministry Center—a charitable organization providing outreach and services to the homeless population in the area—had to walk to and

from his Extra Space Storage unit in Clarendon to pick up his daily medication.

Georgetown Ministry Center Executive Director Gunther Stern recognized the challenge faced by the community’s homeless due to the closing of D.C. public transportation during the storm. “D.C. had some shelters open,” he said, “but they weren’t nearby and needless to say the buses weren’t running, so if people were going to go there, they had to walk…a couple miles.” Stern said the closest shelter was probably on New York Ave., which was still a twoand-a-half-mile walk.

Though public transportation measures were beyond his control, Stern personally tried to ensure the well-being of the homeless community for the duration of the storm.

“I actually gave out survival blankets and sandwiches which we had until about noon. And then I left fearing the worst,

but by the time I had left, pretty much everybody was gone,” he said. “I had walked around the area and encouraged the people who came by here to find shelter because my sense was that it was going to be really bad and being under a bridge wouldn’t be good enough.”

Luckily, many homeless people, such as Shannon Scannell, were able to find alternative shelter. “They opened up the Guy Mason Recreation Center about ten blocks from Safeway,” she said.

“They opened up and they’re really great, nice and clean, great people. They stayed open [through the storm], but they closed down because the weather is better now.

But everything was great during the hurricane.”

Breault was able to seek refuge at the Western Presbyterian Church on Virginia Ave., which was the only place he knew would be open. “No matter what, they’re always open, 365 days

a year,” he said. “As long as the generator doesn’t fail and they don’t lose electricity, they’re open.

It’s where I went to eat.” He also noted that Miriam’s Kitchen—a soup kitchen and support center on Virginia Ave. and G St.—was also a helpful resource, a sentiment echoed by Sannell.

“Miriam’s Kitchen is great, I go there every morning for breakfast. Most of the time I go there for dinner,” Sannell said. “They have references and they help a lot. Miriam’s Kitchen and the [Georgetown] Ministry are my two top choices.”

Fortunately, no tragedies have been reported, and some members of the homeless community even saw the storm as just another story to tell. Referring to the powerful wind gusts of Superstorm Sandy, Georgetown Ministry Center visitor Doretha Pearce joked, “I was like Mary Poppins!” She also said, “It’s a lot of excitement. It’s just

Serving as a Student Commissioner is a sizable commitment that requires students to jump through innumerable bureaucratic hoops and forgo the opportunity to study abroad. Even so, student representation in the ANC is vital to student life on the Hilltop, as the commission deals with town-gown relations, off-campus leasing contracts, and transportation, including the GUTS bus and WMATA Metrobus services.

Even though its policies have a significant impact on student life and students make up 42 percent of the residents under the ANC’s authority, Hoyas are only allocated two seats on the Commission. This lack of representation, along with the common divergence of student and neighborhood issues, can often create tension both within the governing body and between the University and the commission.

When reflecting upon his time serving on the ANC, current Student Commissioner Jake Sticka (COL ’13) said, “The biggest challenge [for me] was dealing with the passage of the Campus Plan.

It created a somewhat contentious environment on ANC2E that made work on issues regarding students difficult.” Sticka went on to say, “However, the ANC has slowly improved its relationship with students, and I am pleased with the results of the 2010 redistricting work that the ANC participated in and that created two student districts.”

Both Cassey and Prindiville affirm the importance of student representation on the ANC, and have used the concerns of their peers as an important resource when constructing their individual policy goals.

“My highest point [while campaigning] was a recent doorknocking session with some freshmen who were stoked to find out they could still vote if they registered in D.C. the day of the election,” Cassey said. “The more they learned about the impact they could have, the more onboard they were, and it’s moments like that which really get me excited for the campaign and the future of civic engagement for Georgetown students at a local level.”

Despite the current underrepresentation of students, Sticka

hopes the presence of two students on the ANC will increase the weight of student opinions on the commission’s decisions.

“It will certainly change the dynamic for the better,” Sticka said. “I think that having two students will allow for greater collaboration and understanding on issues involving campus.”

If elected, Prindiville plans to make this new dynamic a reality. “Through the petitioning and campaigning process, I’ve heard many stories and concerns from both student and long-time residents. I’ve heard how long-time residents feel disenfranchised and how students feel vilified and unwelcome in the process of local governance,” he said.

Like Cassey, Prindiville has sought to engage with community members to find out what is on the minds of voters.

“I have made a point of reaching out to every single registered voter in my district,” he said. “I have been fairly successful, and this has made the experience quite interesting and enjoyable. When you can put a face to a name on a voter roll, it really makes the whole democratic process come to life. I know that actively campaigning will make me a better commissioner and allow me to better represent my constituents…

In the end, commissioners represent their constituents. If you don’t

like ‘Storm Chasers.’ I survive out here. I’ve seen worse.”

However, Stern was glad he took precautionary measures, since even the slightest effort can go a long way. “One person said the survival blanket I gave them was perfect, it kept the wind off of them, it was waterproof,” he said. Stern also said that he was not the only one in Georgetown who was keen to help. “There have been a couple volunteers who have wondered if there’s anything they could do,” he said.

“Georgetown students were offering to do something.”

The Georgetown Ministry Center, located on Wisconsin Ave. between M St. and the Waterfront, acknowledged the importance of improving preparedness for the homeless population. Stern said, “I think for the future, we really have to plan for these weather emergencies where not only is it bad being out, but the buses aren’t running so people can’t get places.”

ANC candidates prepare for election day and life as a commissioner

by Caitriona Pagni As Election Day draws closer and Georgetown students head to the polls in what may be one of the most hotly disputed elections in U.S. history, the two names that come to their minds will undoubtedly be Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. However, come Nov. 6, Hoyas voting in the District may be surprised to see the names of two of their classmates: Advisory Neighborhood Commission Student Commissioner Candidates Craig Cassey Jr. (COL ’15) and Peter Prindiville (SFS ’14).

Next Tuesday, Cassey and Prindiville will both be running unopposed to represent Single Member Districts 4 and 8, respectively. Despite Georgetown’s politically active student body, student representation on the ANC is in short supply.

ANC Candidate Peter Prindiville is running in Single Member District 8.

Lucia He

Lucia He

ANC Candidate Craig Cassey Jr.

know your constituents, it’s hard to do a good job.”

Ultimately, Sticka thinks the ANC is ready for change, and that Cassey and Prindiville are up for the challenge.

“I can say that both Peter and Craig are immensely qualified to serve on the ANC, and that both of them will bring very valuable perspectives to the table,” he said. “I think that together they should be able to achieve quite a bit for students. They have both run strong campaigns and I have no doubt that they both will be elected easily... I’m sure that Peter and Craig will be ready for whatever comes their way.”

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Frankenstorm ravages the coast, but the Hilltop is spared

by Miles Gavin Meng Hurricane Sandy, affectionately dubbed the “Frankenstorm,” led to widespread panic—and increased liquor sales—as it unleashed a blanket of destruction across the Eastern Seaboard.

The storm made landfall near Atlantic City, N.J. as a post-tropical cyclone on Monday night after pummeling the Caribbean and Eastern United States since Oct. 22.

Here in the District, wind gusts peaked at 60 mph while torrents of rain set a new precipitation record—3.85 inches in one day, according to the Washington Post.

Overall, the D.C. area fared far better than New York and New Jersey, where the storm left millions without power, flooded streets and subways, and even caused a wind-fueled fire which destroyed 80 homes in Breezy Point, N.Y. In all, more than 6 million residents across 17 states lost power, with 2 million still in the dark on Tuesday morning, according to the New York Times.

Thanks to Pepco’s infrastructure improvements and preparations, the fewer than 2,000 power outages that remain of the initial 130,000 should be restored before

Thursday morning, according to company Media Relations Manager Bob Hainey. Pepco was praised by local media and government officials for its quick response in comparison to its poor handling of the more than 1 million power outages caused by the derecho thunderstorm complex this past June. After that storm, some D.C. area residents were left without electricity for weeks. Throughout Hurricane Sandy, however, power remained on in all University buildings.

Georgetown University closed on Monday and Tuesday due to the storm. In an email sent Sunday evening, the Offices of Resident Life and Student Housing encouraged students to “remain indoors during periods of high wind and rain” for their own safety.

“We tried to be as regular and proactive as possible in our communications,” said Assistant Vice President of Communications Stacy Kerr. “Our commitment is to continue instruction and ensure the continuity of classes whenever possible. We have to take into account a lot of factors before we can communicate a decision on closing the University.”

cOuRTeSY: GeORGeTOWN uNiVeRSiTY

University administration traverses campus to prepare students for Sandy.

On Monday, Leo J. O’Donovan Dining Hall and other Grab ‘n’ Go locations served students an additional 3,800 meals. The University encouraged students to visit these locations before they closed at 4 p.m., and take extra food in anticipation of worsening weather conditions. “We decided on Sunday to bring in additional staff to stay overnight on Monday in order to prepare to open for brunch at 9:30 a.m. the next morning.”

Rumors circulated Monday night that Department of Public Safety officers would be writing up students seen outside during the

When faced with two evils, vote neither

In the summer of 2004, Michael Moore got down on his knees and begged his fellow guest on Real Time with Bill Maher, then-presidential candidate Ralph Nader, to drop out of the race. At that time, Bush and Kerry were in a dead heat in the polls—and just four years before that, Nader had led an energetic left-wing campaign that won almost three percent of the popular vote, resulting in a wave of accusations from liberals that the consumer advocate was directly responsible for Al Gore’s failure to carry Florida, and thus, the electoral college. Proponents of the “spoiler” argument pointed to Bush’s razor-thin margin of victory in the state as evidence that Gore would have won the election had Nader not been on the ballot.

In 2012, just as in ‘08 and ‘04, the spoiler argument is making its rounds on the Left to discourage discontented Democrats, liberals, and progressives from considering voting for a third party.

This has become something of a modern election ritual for loyal Democrats: “Sure, [insert Obama

or Kerry] isn’t perfect, but could you imagine four years of [insert Romney, McCain, or Bush]?”

The argument usually acknowledges some of the grievances of those flirting with a third-party—say, Obama’s horrific record on civil liberties or wars this time around—but then settles for a condescending appeal to the unsure voter to face the cold reality of politics, suck it up, and just vote for the Democrat. The politics of lesser-than-two-evilism, though, is ultimately based on myths and a large dose of historical amnesia.

A common myth is that the structure of the American electoral system doesn’t allow for third parties. This just isn’t true.

The United Kingdom’s antiquated first-past-the-post system didn’t prevent four different parties from winning seats in Parliament in the last general election. In Canada’s House of Commons, five parties are currently represented. And in India’s lower house of Parliament, which also operates under a firstpast-the-post system in the proud and archaic Anglo-Saxon tradition,

more than 20 different parties are represented. Sure, it’s more difficult to elect third-party candidates this way than it is by plurality voting, but it’s by no means impossible.

Lesser-than-two-evilist liberals also tend to draw a false dichotomy about competing visions of social

union Jack

by Cole Stangler

A bi-weekly column about national politics and policy change from working “within the system” or “outside the system.”

They contrast the radical, irresponsible moralizing of third-party voters on the left with the more serious, slow-moving way change is actually created by elected politicians. Progress is slow, they tell us, it requires patience and comes from electing sympathetic liberals who can do the nitty-gritty work of legislation and compromise.

The “inside” versus “outside” dichotomy is, of course, a false one—the act of voting for a left-wing third party is already working within the system, and

“shelter in place” period. This speculation was unfounded: “DPS did not write any citations. There was one student playing frisbee during the storm and they were advised by DPS to go inside,” said Kerr.

The Office of Student Housing brought in extra facilities staff working until 11 p.m. to address the approximately 300 complaints of “leaks and water intrusions” following the storm. According to a message sent out by the office on Tuesday, students should report any remaining leaks or damage to either their resident assistant or Work Management.

as any good Leftist knows, only a part of a broader mission of organizing and radicalizing using tools that both are and are not provided by the state.

Unlike many loyal Democrats, most third-party voters on the Left understand that politics isn’t just about voting every two years. But we recognize that voting is an effective and important tool for advancing an agenda, and that putting pressure on the main parties has historically achieved social change.

It was the Liberty Party that helped put abolition on the agenda in the 1830s, and the early campaigns of the Prohibition Party and the Socialists, working with the Suffragettes, that put women’s voting rights into the mainstream. And it was the Socialist and the Communist parties, in tandem with the mighty labor movement of the 1930s, that helped pressure President Roosevelt into supporting Social Security and sweeping reforms in labor law. Instead of obsessing over what might have happened had Nader not run in 2000, one should ask what might have hap-

“We saw a lot of water damage— leaks, not floods— on the west sides of buildings from the strong winds,” Kerr said. By Wednesday evening, the facilities staff was “80 percent complete in addressing work requests. There are still some problems, replacing drywall for instance, which we will take care of over the next few weeks.”

With more than one week to plan, the University’s Emergency Management Team set up a command center in New South with representatives from the Facilities and Communications Department and Offices of Public Safety, Student Affairs, Emergency Services, and Student Housing. From there, the team monitored the storm nonstop beginning early Monday morning.

“We were very lucky. It was primarily proactive preparations that were happening,” Kerr said.

Georgetown and its students weathered the storm without incident or injury, but ignoring how lucky we were would be foolish.

Though only a Category 1, the weakest hurricane classification, Sandy still packed a devastating punch, claiming 132 lives and causing an estimated $20 billion in damage thus far.

pened had these old-school radicals embraced the self-defeating logic of lesser-than-two-evilism?

Amid the 40-year decline of the Left and increased corporate control of the political arena, the ideology of lesser-than-two-evilism is becoming more and more widespread. In cringe-worthy irony, it’s even preached by Georgetown’s own Michael Kazin, author of American Dreamers: How the Left Changed a Nation, a history of how left-wing social and electoral movements shifted political dialogue and won critical reforms.

But the stakes are simply too high to vote “pragmatically,” as Kazin’s current line of thought suggests. As young people facing a dreary future of war, austerity, climate change, and debt—no matter who triumphs on Tuesday—we’d do well to remember an old Parisian student slogan as we head to the polls, and for that matter, well after: Be realistic, demand the impossible.

Is leftism evil? Is Cole evil? Are we all evil? What’s the lesser of all the evils? Cole can answer all at cstangler@georgetownvoice.com.

sports

6 the georgetown voice

november 1, 2012

Soccer hopes to continue season success in Big East

by Steven Criss For the second time in three years, Georgetown men’s soccer (152-1, 6-2 Big East) has claimed the Big East Blue Division Championship title. Despite playing one of their best seasons on record, the Hoyas share this league title with the University of Connecticut (14-2-1, 6-2 Big East), earning the second seed out of the Blue Division going into the tournament.

The team clinched with its win in the last game of the regular season against Seton Hall (6-11-0, 2-6 Big East) last Saturday, Oct. 27. In addition to its second win over the Pirates (a team the Hoyas faced before on Oct. 24), the squad was also celebrating Senior Day, the last home game of the year for a group of seniors who have played major roles in finishing the season on top of the division twice during their time as Hoyas.

Although the seniors were the ones being recognized at the game, it was sophomore goalkeeper Tomas Gomez and freshman forward Brandon Allen who were recognized this weekend as Big East Conference Players of the Week, for their performances in both games against Seton Hall. Gomez kept the club in the two games last week, making a total of eight saves and putting up two shutout performances.

His impressive showing was most noteworthy in the second bout

with Seton Hall, during which the score remained 0-0 until the 86th minute. He held tough in the goal during the second half when Seton Hall picked up its offensive pressure, preventing them from finding the net. Allen also showed well against Seton Hall with a goal in each game, the Saturday goal being both the game-winner and the only score of the contest.

The Hoyas will receive a bye in the first round of the Big East Tournament, and will play the three-seeded (Red Division) St. John’s this Saturday at home. A win here would put Georgetown in the semifinals next week, but with an overall record of 10-3-4 and a divisional record of 4-31, the Red Storm will be no pushover on the Hoyas’ road to a title.

A notable challenge for the Blue and Gray will be getting the ball past St. John’s keeper, Rafael Diaz, who recorded his career-high eighth shutout of the season in the team’s Oct. 26 playoff-clinching 1-0 win over Syracuse.

One of the keys for Georgetown in this first tournament match is to keep up the pace and fight off fatigue as much as possible in the second half. Maintaining high offensive pressure throughout the game will be vital against a St. John’s team which is having a strong defensive year.

Allen, junior Steve Neumann, and senior Andy Reimer will also need to continue their leading roles

Hoyas red hot going into semifinals

GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

With Hurricane Sandy threatening to postpone the match, No. 14 Georgetown women’s soccer was able to defeat DePaul, 1-0, last Sunday in the Big East Tournament Quarterfinal. The decisive goal came in the 10th minute as junior forward Colleen Dinn headed home a corner from sophomore midfielder Daphne Corboz.

On Friday, the Blue and Gray will take on South Florida in Storrs, Conn. The Bulls triumphed over Louisville in penalty kicks in its quarterfinal matchup. Catch the game live at 6:30 on the CBS Sports network.

— Keith Levinsky

on offense in order to advance the team to the next round of play.

These three players have 22 of the teams 27 goals on the season, as well as half of the assists.

The tension on North Kehoe this Saturday will be high due to the bitter season-ending loss Georgetown suffered to St. John’s in the first round last year. The Hoyas fell 2-1 to

St. John’s in their 2011 matchup, but with arguably Georgetown’s best squad in recent memory, the tides may be in Georgetown’s favor this time around.

the Sports Sermon “High Q player/person...low cost...great influence on young P. Let’s win some games and have fun while we doin it! -Delonte West’s “resamay” via Twitter ever and it was sure as hell going to fuel OKC through next season and beyond--before it dealt away Harden and any chance at realistically contending for a ring, that is.

Now, not only do the Thunder present just a whimpering threat for the Heat, but the team isn’t even the favorite to win its own conference anymore. The Lakers, despite their newfound hoard of talent, have some defensive liabilities along the perimeter which are rendered completely irrelevant by the Beard’s departure. The League doesn’t have a great deal of parity anymore—up until last week, the Heat, Lakers, and Thunder were the only realistic championship contenders. The Knicks, Celtics, and Nuggets were all just fun teams to follow until the play-

No, the Thunder isn’t going anywhere, and nor are its fans.

“Fear the beard.” It became a But they should—Bennett threw mantra of sorts for the Oklahoaway a shot at basketball immorma City Thunder—the one lasttality with this group, something ing image from their youthfully the San Antonio Spurs achieved talented group of the past three with an identical model, which seasons. This wasn’t referring to would ultimately make more the best scorer in the universe -money. While Presti learned unsome guy named Kevin Durant der R.C. Buford’s tutelage, the -- or their electric point guard Spurs reeled off championships Russell Westbrook. No, instead, with a core of Tim Duncan, Tony it referred to the first guy off the Parker, and Manu Ginobili. They bench, a player better known for filled in the rest of the roster just his gnarly facial hair. fine, but Ginobili as a sixth man Aside from the beard gimkeyed that team’s sustained sucmick, though, James Harden cess. When he was injured, the was the glue for the greatest team didn’t stand a chance of young contender the league has advancing in an unforgivable ever seen. Imagine a selfless trio Western Conference. of Olympic gold medalists and People will, of course, point to perennial All-Stars, all under the Presti’s track record with pulling age of 25, and with an unfaththe plug financially in a number omable chemistry of similarly tenuPete Rose Central among them. ous situations. Still, Well, I suppose none was as drastic Da bettin’ line you’ll actually have of a backbreaker as Dookies Margin Hoyas to imagine it now, the Harden deal. It since the Thunder’s (favorites) would be the equiv(underdogs) (duh!) general manager alent of dealing a Man U Sam Presti traded 10-years-younger Karma Chelsea away Harden to the version of Ginobili LSU Momentum Bama Houston Rockets for a couple of unMavs Beard Rockets this past weekend. proven commodiThe Thunder, after last year’s offs brought the long-known hi- ties. In OKC, his trade of former disappointing Finals loss to the erarchy to fruition.

Hoya Jeff Green raised similar Miami Heat, still had a tremenThat said, there wasn’t a eyebrows for its potential effect on dous window for title conten- chance in hell the Lake Show team morale. The difference is that tion, combining those three with could stop Westbook, Harden, Presti used Green to fill another emerging stars like Serge Ibaka and Durant on the floor togeth- glaring need in the middle, bringand arguably the best fan base er. Now, defenses can hone in ing over an experienced Kendrick in the entire league. The NBA’s on Westbrook and Durant, chal- Perkins fresh off a championship pecking order was never really lenging the other three players with the Boston Celtics. in question. on the court to beat them. The Maybe I’ll bite my words For this year’s NBA, it’s al- only guy who could realistically when the Thunder reload and ways been a given that LeBron accept that challenge? Harden. come out just as dangerous as James and the Heat are the class Regardless of the basket- before. Perhaps Jeremy Lamb of the league, with the Thunder ball implications of the deal, all develops into the next Harden hanging off a little bit behind. blame inevitably circles back or one of the draft picks the As good as Durant is, LeBron to Clay Bennett and the team’s Thunder received as compenturned it up another level and ownership. Bennett, a native sation turns out to be an adexposed every one of the D.C. Oklahoman, first bought the Se- equate complement to Durant native’s vulnerabilities in an ab- attle SuperSonics back in 2006 and Westbrook. But in the NBA, solute dismantling of the Okla- with the stated intention of find- few things are definitive; so homa City squad. ing a way to keep them in Seat- when a triumvirate like Durant, That may seem like a damn- tle. His true desire, to move the Westbook, and Harden comes ing result for the Thunder, as they team to Oklahoma City, became around, it’s a magical connecwere constituted. The Heat had evident soon thereafter, and a tion no one should mess with. the throne and everyone else was reality about a year later. After League history will always be watching it, but that fact was by swindling the Seattle commu- marked by what could have no means conclusive. That’s the nity for his native Oklahomans, been had the Beard remained in kind of result that gets a competi- he did so to a lesser degree with Oklahoma City. It’s too bad we’ll tor’s fire rekindled stronger than the Harden deal. never find out.

by Kevin Joseph

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Redskins rejuvenate D.C. sports Nolan overcomes adversity

by Chris Almeida It has been an unusual season for the Redskins. There have been many similarities, heartbreakingly close losses, the occasional ridiculous personal foul during the crucial points of a game, and the unavoidable injury of a star player (Brian Orakpo) on an already depleted squad. However, the emergence of two rookies has changed the outlook on this year.

The two standouts are complete opposites--one the Heisman-winning, emphatically hyped second pick, the other a sixth-round pick from an unknown school. The first of these players is, of course, Robert Griffin III. There were many questions about how this new quarterback would fare in the NFL, but with an astonishing win against the Saints in week 1, RGIII burst onto the scene, quickly becoming the story of the league in 2012. Griffin has led impressive performances, and has amassed impressive passing stats to go with his ground performance, which has put him 17th in rushing yards among all players. Skins receiver Josh Morgan said of Griffin, “He’s as fast as Michael Vick, but he can make all the

throws that Peyton Manning can make, and he can make all the reads Tom Brady can make.”

Of course, Griffin’s aggressive game has led to some scares in Washington. RGIII suffered a concussion in week 5 against the undefeated Atlanta Falcons, and has been taking beatings all season. This week against the Steelers, Washington ran a play in which Griffin pitched the ball to receiver Josh Morgan and went downfield, where he was intended to be the receiver for Morgan’s pass.

But the play was unsuccessful, and Griffin took a hit from a Pittsburgh defender--something the coaching staff wants to avoid at all costs. Head coach Mike Shanahan said of the play, “Robert’s so competitive that he goes for that ball, and that one safety that comes over just killed him. Yeah, I felt like to do it over again, we’d tell Josh don’t throw it unless he’s wide open, I mean wide open. Of course from his perspective, he was. But that’s part of the growing process for me and having the guys throw a pass from the backfield.”

Griffin has been an outstanding performer this season, but the team must be cautious with him, for fear of losing the face of their franchise

REDSKINS PHOTOGRAPHER NED DISHMAN

Chris Cooley has been one of the beneficiaries of the Redskins’ revamped offense.

No sleep till Brooklyn

Well, the Islanders are moving to Brooklyn, and as a native Long Islander and a lifelong Islander fan (one of the very few), I feel obliged to comment on the move.

Quite frankly, the more I think about it, the more disappointed I am; not in the team and its ownership, but mostly by my fellow Long Islanders. Nassau County, where the Islanders play, rejected owner Charles Wang’s numerous proposals to build a new stadium to replace the Islanders’ home. Nassau Coliseum is one of the oldest, most decrepit stadiums in the NHL. Honestly, it was surprising that Wang kept the Islanders on Long Island for so long, especially considering that the Islanders have been last in the NHL in attendance for four of the past five years. It was rumored for a while that the team

would move to Kansas City, but now it’s a bittersweet surprise that the Islanders are at least staying in New York, and moving to Brooklyn instead.

The Islanders did deserve a new home; they were being mistreated and ignored by Long Islanders as the team got worse, and it was clear that Nassau County was not very intent on supporting any new arena that their tax dollars would help build. Brooklyn, with its new Barclays Center that will also host the Nets, serves as the perfect home for the lost team. Plus, with craze over the Nets also coming to town still ripe, the borough seems ripe for another new sports team.

And it’s exactly what the Islanders need. The once-proud sports franchise, whch won four Stanley Cups in a row back in the

The second of the aforementioned players, running back Alfred Morris, has defied the odds, coming out of Florida Atlantic to become third in the league in rushing yards behind only Adrian Peterson and Marshawn Lynch. This adds another dimension to a Redskins offense which has been outstanding this year--currently third in the league in total offense, up from 16th last season. Santana Moss said of Morris, “You got yourself a diamond in the rough.”

While this duo hasn’t yet been able to pull the team to great success, it’s difficult overcoming the league’s fourth-worst defense, and far and away the worst passing defense, allowing 314.3 yards per game (the next worst is the Titans at 282). However, with the exception of the recent Steelers game, every loss has been by no more than one possession. The week 5 meeting with the Falcons very well could have swung the other way had Griffin not been concussed, and the week 7 game against the NFC East-leading Giants was down to the wire. Even though the Redskins sport a modest 3-5 record, every week has been competitive, and the squad’s three wins have been offensive shows--the team is averaging 34 points per game, impressive considering it did not score 30 points even once last season. This year also brought the first home win since September 2011 in a victory against the Vikings where Griffin produced a 76yard touchdown run.

The Redskins face a daunting schedule ahead, with the majority of the NFC East slate remaining in addition to a match-up with the nearby Baltimore Ravens. Next week, the burgundy and gold face the Carolina Panthers at FedEx Field.

late ‘70s and early ‘80s, needed a new home and a new face in order to restore its dignity. Remaining in New York is the best way for the team to keep that legacy alive, especially because it can keep its name.

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

by Alex Lau

A bi-weekly column about sports Moving the team to a place like Kansas City would have involved a brand new start, with a brand new name. Just look at sports franchises that have recently changed locales--neither the Oklahoma City Thunder nor the Washington Nationals have any tie to their past teams, the Seattle SuperSonics and Montreal Expos, respectively. Sometimes a clean break is good, but for a team that’s had as much past success as the

by Brendan Crowley It is safe to say that at the start of the 2012 Georgetown football season, no one in their right mind thought Kyle Nolan would be the quarterback lining up under center for the Hoyas this past week against the Lafayette Leopards. Most fourth-string, freshman quarterbacks like Nolan hope to see the field once or twice in their whole careers, making what he is doing this season and the success he has had highly unconventional.

But for Nolan, life has been unconventional before. During his sophomore year of high school, a bout with the flu turned serious when doctors informed him he would need open-heart surgery due to an enlarged vein. Nolan, the starting center on the basketball team and starting quarterback on the football team, refused to be sidetracked by the heart problem; he returned to action just 10 weeks after surgery, undergoing a remarkably smooth recovery.

Fast forward to Nolan’s freshman year at Georgetown.

Again, he has been thrown into a challenging situation-with the three quarterbacks ahead of him on the depth chart sidelined by injury, the coaching staff has turned to him to lead a struggling Hoya team whose chances at a postseason run have started to slip away. Just as he exceeded all

Islanders have, it’s better to keep their identity and hope to be great again. By moving to Brooklyn, they can do just that.

Even if a Brooklyn move beats relocation to Kansas City, it’s still upsetting to see the last major professional sports team leave Long Island. The now-Brooklyn Nets were one of the first Long Island pro-sports teams and also one of the first to go: moving to Long Island from New Jersey as the New York Americans in 1967 in the American Basketball Association, only to move back to Jersey in 1977. The Islanders got their start in 1972, and are leaving in 2015. The Jets held training camp at Long Island’s Hofstra University for four decades, before leaving for New Jersey in 2008 and moving to upstate New York soon after. Now, LI is left with Major League Lacrosse’s Long Island Lizards and a couple of other semi-professional teams

hopes in his recovery from surgery, Nolan has exceeded all expectations as the new starter, something his coaches have begun to notice.

“Kyle has played very well and has displayed a great deal of poise,” said Offensive Coordinator Vinny Marino.

“He has been very productive and has given the offensive another dimension that we were struggling to have.”

“He has a presence out there on the field and our players have noticed it,” Marino said. “He has done a really good job of paying attention in meetings while the other guys were getting the reps. It shows a great deal of maturity on his part. That maturity has shown itself on the field on more than one occasion.”

In his first two starts, Nolan has thrown four touchdowns, including three to sophomore wide receiver Kevin Macari, and is averaging of 228.5 passing yards per game. Nolan’s play thus far is a very promising sign for the future of Hoya football, a fact Marino himself has taken notice of.

“Kyle does give us a dimension that we have been trying to get to of having consistent balance between run and pass as well as getting the ball down the field,” he said.

“We will see how the next two games go and as we head into the offseason and the preparation for the 2013 season but he certainly has a good chance to be the QB of the future.”

in soccer and baseball – not exactly the cream of the crop.

Long Island is no small market; if it were to become its own state, it would be the 13th biggest state in the country in terms of population, right behind Virginia. Still, it does not seem as though the Island looks poised to take on a sports team. With the Nets coming to Brooklyn, New York now has at least two teams in every major sport (if you count the Giants and Jets, who technically play in Jersey) and seems saturated in terms of sports teams.

But who knows? Maybe the Brooklyn hipsters will get tired of this new fad and move on to something less mainstream, or after a few years, some owner will see Long Island as the place to be.

But until then, go Lizards!

Check out Alex’s long island at alau@georgetownvoice.com.

8 the georgetown voice

feature

november 1, 2012

georgetownvoice.com

feature

the georgetown voice 9

Hilltop or Bottom? The Voice’s 2012 Sex Survey

by Matthew Weinmann From Oct. 17 to Oct. 28, the Voice conducted an online survey asking readers about their sexual practices and for their opinions on Georgetown’s Catholic identity and contraception policies.The poll generated 517 responses: 267 from women and 250 from men. It is not intended to be a scientific representation of Georgetown as a whole.

Although the sex lives of Georgetown students have received more national attention than anyone would have liked, the Voice wanted to know more. From Rush Limbaugh calling one of our own a “slut” on national radio to Playboy ranking Georgetown high in sexual satisfaction, onlookers react to Georgetown’s sex culture in highly disparate ways.

The Voice conducted a similar survey in April 2007, which found that 63 percent of respondents were sexually active. Five years later, Hoyas are getting down more often—today, 72 percent of Georgetown students are sexually active, which was defined in the survey as having had sexual intercourse within the past year.

For men, the percentage having sex increased by 10 percentage points— from 67 percent in 2007 to 77 percent now. Women did not see as large an increase; today, 65 percent of female respondents are having sex, up from 59 percent in 2007.

As for the frequency with which students have sex, the trend has been toward moderation. In 2007, 31 percent of respondents reported having sex more than 11 times per month. Now, only 21 percent of respondents report having sex that frequently.

At the same time, 13 percent of students in 2007 reported having sex less than once a month. That number fell to 8 percent in the latest survey. The fre-

quency with which students engage in oral sex remained steady in the five intervening years, with 50 percent reporting having oral sex 1-5 times a month in 2007 and 56 percent in 2012.

A majority of Hoyas—52 percent— believe that Georgetown’s student culture encourages sex. A large portion, 33 percent, neither agreed nor disagreed.

Students also seem to have an uncannily good idea of how many students are sexually active. A plurality of 31 percent thought between 60 and 70 percent of Hoyas have sex, which is true for women, and 22 percent more guessed between 70 and 80 percent, which is true for men.

Across schools, the NHS is the most sexually active, according to the survey, with over 80 percent reporting that they are sexually active. Ranking lowest is the College at 70 percent.

The survey also took a look at Georgetown’s hookup culture. A full 64 percent of Georgetown students report that they are either “often” or “always” in a committed relationship with their sexual partners. Only 11 percent report engaging in exclusively random hookups, although this is a more common phenomenon among men than women.

32 percent of women report “seldom” or “never” having sex with people with whom they are in committed relationships; the figure for men is 40 percent.

Those Hoyas who are in relationships tend to engage in sex more frequently.

Of respondents who said they have sex more than 15 times a month, 52 percent reported “always” being in a committed relationship with their partners, as did 60 percent of respondents having sex between 11 and 15 times a month.

Of students who are “never” in relationships, a group which comprised

only 11 percent of respondents, 66 percent are having sex one to five times a month, and only 13 percent are having sex more than 15 times a month.

Across the board, 70 percent of respondents said Georgetown’s Catholic and Jesuit identity should not affect its policy on contraception, an increase from 65 percent five years ago. The groups most supportive of Georgetown’s current policy are self-identified Christians. Among Catholics, a lesser number, 57 percent, said the University’s identity should not affect its policy, as did 50 percent of Protestants.

84 percent of respondents said that the Student Health Center should be allowed to prescribe birth control pills for contraception, a figure which is unchanged since 2007. Again, a majority of Catholics and Protestants agreed, but in fewer numbers. 71 percent of Catholics and 75 percent of Protestants said the Student Health Center should be able to prescribe birth control.

At Georgetown, condoms are the most preferred method of contraception, favored by 52 percent of students.

The next most popular method was the pill, which 51 percent of female respondents report using. All other methods were far behind in popularity.

More women than men wanted easier access to birth control: 75 percent of women thought Georgetown should offer free condoms, compared to 65 percent of men. The same gap persists on the question of the sale of contraceptives on campus, with 78 percent of men and 89 percent of women responding affirmatively.

Sexually active women were asked where they get hormonal or prescription

contraception. By far, the most common response (at 81 percent) was from an off-campus doctor. Planned Parenthood came in second with 7 percent, and only 5 percent used the Student Health Center to prescribe birth control for other reasons.

On the issue of birth control and its Catholic identity, Georgetown has been a target of heavy criticism, both in 1989, for recognizing a pro-Choice group, and in 2012 for Sandra Fluke’s (LAW ‘12) testimony before Congress.

According to the Student Health Center ’s website, SHC staff follows the “Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services” issued by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The Ethical and Religious Directives explain the Church’s positions in the increasingly complex and sophisticated field of medicine. According to those directives, “The Catholic health care ministry is rooted in a commitment to promote and defend human dignity; this is the foundation of its concern to respect the sacredness of every human life from the moment of conception until death.”

The ban on contraceptives is made clear later in the document. “The Church cannot approve contraceptive interventions that ... have the purpose whether as an end or a means to render procreation impossible.” This is because such interventions violate “the inseparable connection willed by God... between the two meanings of the conjugal act: the unitive and procreative meaning.”

This is the doctrine which guides the University in its decision to ban birth control from the student insurance policy.

However, University Assistant Vice President for Communications Stacy Kerr pointed out that students do not have to use the student insurance policy.

“We require all students to provide insurance. We do not require them to have Georgetown’s insurance.” Kerr said in an interview. “To meet the policy requirement, we offer a plan to our students that does not provide contraceptive coverage, which is consistent with our Jesuit and Catholic identity.”

Consistency with that Catholic and Jesuit identity is the reason why H*yas for Choice cannot call itself as “Hoyas for Choice.” In 1989 the group was formed and approved by then-Dean of Student Affairs John DeGioia to have access to the same resources as other student organizations. In an open letter to the community, President Leo O’Donovan, S.J. wrote “I do not believe that this student group poses a threat to Georgetown’s identity as a Catholic institution.”

Although H*yas for Choice was originally permitted to organize officially under grounds of free speech, in April of 1992 the club lost its recognition. “I judge it no longer appropriate to continue to provide access to benefits for the club,” Dean DeGioia wrote.

Today’s H*yas for Choice offers a range of programs aimed at “keeping H*yas safe.” Many students have seen envelopes stuffed with condoms on doors or seen members tabling in Red Square offering prophylactics.

“We also promote petitions, such as one we had last semester, asking President DeGioia to begin covering contraception this fall, as opposed to January. We also hold events almost monthly,” wrote Kelsey Warrick (COL ‘14), president of H*yas for Choice, in

an email to the Voice. “Last year, we held an information session about the Affordable Care Act and what it means for students; on Nov. 12, we’re holding an adult sexual education event.”

From the Voice’s survey, 82 percent of respondents said H*yas for Choice should be granted institutional legitimacy. The groups least supportive of HFC were self-identified Christians: Of Catholic respondents, fewer (68 percent) said it should be granted legitimacy, which Protestants matched with 70 percent.

“I’m clearly ecstatic that so many students support H*yas for Choice,” Warrick wrote. “The student body’s approval shows that we’re moving towards a time when people are more open to sex. Being open about sex only promotes safety.”

Not all groups on campus, however, are in favor of abandoning Georgetown’s position on H*yas for Choice and the role of the University’s Catholic identity. The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic service fraternal organization which exists to engage college men to actively live out their faith.

“We believe that Georgetown’s policy should be formed primarily through a Catholic lens. That means Catholic teaching and discipline influence all university activities, while freedom of conscience is respected fully,” wrote Christian Verghese (COL ‘15), the chapter ’s Outside Guard, in an email to the Voice. “In essence, everything that goes on in Georgetown’s name should be in accord with its Catholic identity.”

Verghese points to Pope Paul VI’s “Humanae Vitae”, which says every sexual act ought to involve an exclusive bonding and the openness to pos-

sibility of generating new human life.

“Hence, given Georgetown’s priority to maintain its Catholic identity and the Church’s teaching on sexuality, we fully agree with Georgetown’s stance for health insurance that does not cover prescription contraceptives for birth control,” Verghese wrote.

“Any University affiliate that is allowed to prescribe birth control would be rejecting the Catholic ideals on human sexuality.”

Verghese acknowledges that the views of the Knights are not widely held. But “while the stats clearly show we are in a great minority with these beliefs, we as Knights—defenders of the Catholic faith—believe Georgetown has a clear-cut path for these issues in order to adhere to its mission as a Catholic university.”

Warrick is skeptical that H*yas for Choice will ever become an officially sanctioned group. “The Catholic Church’s views on choice will never change. Without said change, HFC will never be able to function at full capacity as an officially recognized group.”

Warrick wrote.

In fact, she worries that any recognized manifestation of H*yas for Choice would be institutionally restrained. Where, now, H*yas for Choice is permitted to distribute condoms, this capacity could be restricted if the University recognized their group.

“Becoming a sanctioned group would severely limit our impact on campus,” Warrick wrote.

A l t h o u g h most respondents to the survey support giving H*yas for Choice institutional legitimacy, most students

oppose ending the university’s formal ties to the Catholic Church, even though that majority is fairly slim.

53 percent oppose dropping Georgetown’s Catholic identity, 19 percent support the change, and the rest report being unsure.

While Georgetown students recognize the value in attending a Catholic school, few students view that as the overriding feature of Georgetown’s identity. The vast majority—70 percent—say they value the institution’s Jesuit identity, but only 26 percent said that this aspect of Georgetown’s identity was important to their decision to attend.

Georgetown students on the whole respect the Catholic Church, but they do not necessarily agree with its more traditional teachings on marriage, contraception, and sex. The proportion of students who reported engaging in sex equals the percentage that reported valuing Georgetown’s Catholic identity. As the Voice’s survey shows, students are more committed to having sex than to upholding strict Catholic doctrine.

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

november 1, 2012

A melodramatic Late Quartet hits all the wrong notes

by Julia Lloyd-George The pursuit of perfection in art has its pitfalls; the pursuit of an audience’s emotional reaction through strained and overwrought soap-opera drama, however, should be avoided at all costs. In A Late Quartet, filmmaker Yaron Zilberman falls into this trap in spite of his unique subject matter and starstudded cast.

Revolving around the complex dynamics of a Manhattanbased string quartet, the story quickly falls prey to stock tales of uncontrollable lust and competing egos that threaten to derail the talented group.

The catalyst of all these theatrics is a cellist’s troubling diagnosis of Parkinson’s. Played with brilliant subtlety by Christopher Walken, the cellist is clearly the glue that holds the operation together—when it is discovered that he may no longer be able to play, it seems as if all hell has broken loose.

A Pandora’s box of infidelity, ambition, and betrayal shakes the group’s foundations, leading to the introduction of far too many stiff and

lez’hur ledger

by Nick Childress Every apartment has the token roommate who flips out about natural disasters. Most people who like to be superprepared and ready for any apocalyptic outcome, however, start calling for a retreat into Helm’s Deep at the first weather warning.

Not so with the protector of my apartment, who waited until 5:30 Sunday night to send out mass texts: “Everyone buy 2 liters of soda and freeze them so we can use them to keep our food cold if the power goes, we have a lot of perishable food; Everyone buy food, we don’t have a lot of food; fill bags with water; …”

After filling up a few empty wine bottles with water to humor him, we got the good news from our Voxy Gurl: no classes Monday. “Fuck it, let’s go to the Tombs!” shouted everyone in my apartment. An hour later, I remembered I needed to work on

clichéd subplots—an Excel spreadsheet might be necessary to keep track of who cheated on whom. Making the audience believe that all this drama occurs because of the patriarch’s resignation is a bit of a stretch, and squanders the compelling and underserved subject of the complex world surrounding classical musicians.

In between all the yelling and door-slamming, there’s hardly a single instance of levity in the entire film. The characters take themselves far too seriously for that, choosing instead to wax lyrical about their art or personal woes ad nauseam. Though Philip Seymour Hoffman is an actor who never fails to hit the mark, his egotistical violinist character had me with head in hands.

The best moments occur between the painfully staged histrionics, when characters like Hoffman leave their pride at the door and are at their most vulnerable. Acting such as this was both the highlight and saving grace of the film, though nothing could really be done to compensate for the overreaching plot structure.

Instead of honing in on the intriguing psychology surrounding a disintegrating marriage or an aging performer at the twilight of his career, Zilberman touches on every char-

of artistic integrity and life’s own imperfect fragility.

In one of the film’s most naturally executed scenes, first violinist and incurable perfectionist Daniel (Mark Ivanir)

screenrush.co.uk

“This one time at band camp, we had to practice our pensive musician faces.” acter like he’s playing a game of duck, duck, goose. Lingering a little longer is what gives a story nuance and depth, especially when exploring the intersection

advises aspiring virtuoso Alex (Imogen Poots) to read Beethoven’s lengthy biography to better understand the personal pain that went into his

composition. This idea seems to become a theme of the story, as every character ’s cringeworthy, intimate history comes under the spotlight with the apparent justification that it informs and shapes their artistic identity in a significant way.

The problem is that every story is constructed with such cautious and trite vignettes that it could practically be ripped off a particularly self-important episode of Gossip Girl. Drama like this can never be more than just that, hot air to fill the gaps in between the rare encounters with depth.

Unlike Black Swan, a film that constitutes a perfect example of how artistic ambition can become the impetus for one person’s unraveling mind, Quartet mimics wild abandon without really unleashing it.

Maintaining tight control over every thread in its narrative, it merely skims the surface of a valuable topic.

At one point, Hoffman’s character advises another to “unleash your passion.” If only the filmmakers could practice what they preach, this story might have been able to find its missing harmony.

Throwing caution to the 65mph wind

a group project. Luckily, my partner was similarly distracted.

Monday morning, influenced by my roommate’s insistence that we would need to loot Wolfington Hall just to survive, I decided to wear camouflage fatigues until the hurricane subsided. Influenced by his own insanity, my other roommate resolved to wear a speedo all day. He also decided that I would help him slackline in the worst of the storm—in said speedo. He made it two steps before the post that the line was tied to cracked from the wind.

We returned to the apartment and saw a puddle accumulating in the alley, about to overwhelm the sandbags in front of our door. Luckily there were loose bricks, so we were able to build a channel directing the water away from our place.

A pretty chill day of Settlers of Catan and Cruis’n the World ensued. The wind and rain settled down by 9:00 p.m. We never lost power. In fact, we accidentally

fixed our speakers, which had been busted for a week. I had donned a cross around my neck in case of some sort of unholy apocalypse—unnecessary.

We did hit a food crisis though: we ran out of Tapatío hot sauce and had to switch to Cholula!

Craving chaos, we threw some pumpkins into the wind.

We sat down and signed people in at abandoned guard desks.

You’d be surprised how much authority you command just from wearing camo, a mustache, and a beret.

We prepared to seize power in case the students lost confidence in the hall directors’ abilities to keep them safe, but, disappointingly, no one was rebelling. We wandered dorms looking for friends and trouble.

Far too many people were alone, watching Netflix, or reading— no riots, no looting, no nothing!

Where was the danger?

The danger was back home, where we had left 12 hamburgers

defrosting in the oven. The three of us ran back, cooked, and ate them, avoiding bacterial infection but not high cholesterol.

We racked our brains for the dumbest idea possible and then it hit us—LXR rooftop.

There the wind was decent, but not scary enough. Even

our small, lightweight friend wasn’t blown off the roof. We insulted the personified Sandy, and dared her to try harder. We taunted her, dancing around, shouting. That’s when I saw the only real fear that night, in the faces of the passersby below who overheard us.

Cannon Warren

“Stop taking photos, doing this in a public space is subject to a $500 fine!”

georgetownvoice.com

“What’s your secret? Mellow jazz? Bongo drums? huge bag of weed?” — The avengers

the georgetown voice 11

Conference of the Birds soars to great heights at Folger

by Mary Borowiec In the director ’s notes for The Conference of the Birds, Aaron Posner describes his latest production at the Folger Elizabethean Theatre and his expectation for audience members: “It is an astonishing work, and, hopefully, unlike anything you have likely ever seen before.”

Running until Nov. 25, Birds achieves this aim and then some in its creative representation of the 12th century Persian epic poem by Farid Uddi Attar of the same name, originally adapted by Jean-Claude Carrière and Peter Brook. While Birds’ unusual storyline intrigues and sometimes confounds in this work based on Sufi mystic poetry, Birds’ true merit lies not in the plot but in the cast’s dynamic performance and the musical elements that make this narrative come alive.

Birds depicts the journey of an assortment of birds who realize they lack a supreme ruler, though they believe one exists in the mysterious kingdom known as the Simorgh. With the hoopoe, a spiritually astute bird dynamically played by Patty Gallagher, elected to lead this group on a journey in search of wisdom and higher truths, the narrative is structured as a col-

lection of smaller stories which interweave fragmented tales of individual struggle and folly in the material world into a larger spiritual journey.

A simple story on the surface, Birds impresses in its ability to illuminate what Posner describes in the director’s notes as “‘the real stuff’—the big, complex core questions of our lives.” Drawing on many layers of symbolism and larger themes of humanity, from the intoxicating feelings of love to the poisoning nature of power, each miniature story provides a window into these universal questions, allowing audience members countless interpretations of the play’s many messages.

Music resounding throughout the play, in both instrumentals by the immensely talented Tom Teasley and vocals by the cast, adds to the play’s accessibility and theme development.

The unique mix of Persianinspired melodies and modern sounds, including Jessica Frances Dukes’ riffs about her peacock feathers and Britt Duff’s Ingrid Michaelson-inspired ukulele love songs, bring this 12th-century poem into 21stcentury theater.

The importance of music in the play is clear from the start, as Birds begins with birdcalls

Snape kills Dumbledore

It’s a trauma we’ve all experienced—you’re sitting on your couch, having just hit the “play” button on Netflix/Megavideo (R.I.P.)/whatever other illegal site you use, geared up for the season finale you’ve been dying to watch.

Your roommate comes in, and glances at the screen. “Oh, is that Dexter? I couldn’t believe it when Trinity killed Rita!”

The semi-murderous rage we feel when someone ruins the big twist in a TV show—you might be feeling it right now, if you happen to be planning on watching the fourth season (and last one worth your time) of Dexter—is something that can destroy friendships and lead one into a hermetic lifestyle. There’s something about that moment when the shocker happens, whether you were completely floored or totally called it three episodes ago, that really gets us television-watchers going. And

when someone takes that away from us, intentionally or not, it makes us wish we could selectively erase that knowledge from our brains just to get the experience the director intended.

Back in the day, when bread cost a nickel and toasters were a luxury, television was a shared experience. Sure, you could spoil movies and books, but TV shows aired at one time and one time only and everybody watched their plots unfurl simultaneously, making events like the death and subsequent reincarnation of J.R. on Dallas part of America’s collective memory.

Then came VCRs, DVRs, and finally Internet streaming, which allows anyone to watch any television show ever aired at whatever pace he or she feels like going.

Suddenly, we’re all experiencing shows at different times, and unintentional spoiling becomes

echoing throughout the Folger Theater, while the 11-person ensemble struts and squawks on to stage.

The stage has been cleverly revamped in a minimalistic set design of sandy brown panels and hanging lanterns to disguise its traditional English appearance and create a 12th-

next. Each transformation is total and exact in the actors’ portrayals, as the smaller stories within the play have each actor playing his or her bird persona alongside a myriad of different characters throughout the work.

Tiffany Stewart stands out in this regard, in her uncanny ability to give her heron as

MDTheaTerGuIDe.coM

“Forget rain dances, let’s do a dance to stop Star Wars VII from sucking.” century Persian landscape.

From the opening scene, the talent of the cast is made clear, as subtle movements reveal the horde as a group of birds in one scene and a king’s court in the

much emotion as that of the princess she plays who is enraptured by a slave. The characters’ journey through the seven valleys of emotion in the second act, from love to unity

easier than ever; I had that Dexter finale ruined for me before I’d seen a single episode of the show, because some jackass television commentator had to rerun the scene where her body is found.

The reason why we hate spoilers is how they affect our viewership; rather than paying attention the way we’re intended to, we’re looking for clues about

stories of various genres had been spoiled reported enjoying the stories more than those who didn’t know about the endings.

While this research may seem like an unbelievable twist in the tale of your enjoyment of books, movies, and television, think about your own spoiler experiences: I, for one, didn’t give up on Dexter once I knew about Rita, nor did I turn off The Wire during season five when I found out that Omar—okay fine, I’ll spare you that one.

Point being, we don’t watch television solely for plot; if we did, we’d read synopses online rather than spending hours actually watching the episodes. And granted, there are some shows structured a little like mystery novels, where the fun of watching them is trying to figure out who the killer/ criminal/father (for you Maury fans) is—think about how much an episode of Law & Order sucks when you know who did it and what the verdict’s going to be. But for other

Idiot Box

by Leigh Finnegan

a bi-weekly column about television what we know is going to happen, we’re analyzing characters’ actions and relationships with that in mind, and we’re just not as overcome with emotion when the twist finally takes place. It makes the show less engaging, less riveting, and less worth the time it takes to watch it. Right?

Maybe not. Researchers from UC San Diego found earlier this year that people for whom short

to annihilation, further capitalizes on the cast’s dynamism and malleability as the characters are plunged into the ardor of love one minute and tested through the reality of nothingness the next.

Though complicated plot turns intertwined with layers of religious symbolism have the potential to convolute Birds, the cast’s ability to disentangle these scenes and let the emotion ring through, renders the play a both honest and reflective experience.

Further, with action packed into every scene—whether in actors rolling and dancing across the stage, or audible breathing to capture the mood of the scene, or the sounds of the desert—Posner assures audiences that metaphysical undertones remain real and present on stage. He explains of Birds, “I didn’t fully understand it when I first read it, and I still don’t…but at the same time, it continues to grow and evolve for me.”

This sentiment sums up the enduring quality of the play.

And though the narrative slips away, Birds leaves individual performances and melodies to touch the audience and remind them of art’s power to make meaning of our humanity.

shows, at least ones that are well executed, the story is just a small part of why we keep tuning in.

Television, unlike books or movies, is a multisensory, longterm affair, with plenty to engage us besides just plot. And unless it’s the series finale that’s been spoiled—in which case, at least you’ve had the whole rest of the show to enjoy it—ruining a TV twist isn’t like finding out the killer in an Agatha Christie book or that Batman doesn’t actually die at the end of The Dark Knight Rises.

It might inform the way you take in the storyline for a little while, and then the twist happens and the show moves on. There will be more plot turns to come, and hopefully you’ve put enough fear into your roommate that she won’t tell you which Mad Men character kills himself at the end of season five.

Spoiler alert: It’s Lane.

Tell Leigh that Rosebud is the sled at lfinnegan@georgetownvoice.

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

november 1, 2012

C r i t i c a l V o i ces

Flyleaf, New Horizons, A&M/ Octone Records At hardly over 36 minutes, New Horizons, the third studio album from Christian alt-rockers Flyleaf, is by far the band’s shortest to date.

And if its diminutive length wasn’t enough to make listeners uneasy, the announcement of lead singer Lacey Sturm’s departure from the band just days before the LP’s release definitely did the trick. Fortunately, Sturm does not go out with a whimper; from explosive metal riffs to expertly crafted pop hooks, Horizons boasts an astounding level of power and emotion jammed into such a seemingly innocuous package.

“Fire Fire” kicks the album into gear with amplified acoustic guitar and a simple drum beat accompanying Sturm’s distinctive subdued vocals. A sudden twosecond silence startles the listener to attention before breaking into dynamically panned electric gui-

tar riffs as Sturm condemns “fire from the tongues of liars.”

The momentum carries into the title track, an intensely hopeful song that alternates the listener’s focus between crunchy guitar rhythms and the vocals before bringing the two together in the explosive chorus.

Neither the vocal nor instrumental section, however, dominates “New Horizons;” Flyleaf achieves a perfect balance, allowing the chords to echo Sturm’s optimism.

Well-presented production aside, the centerpiece of New Horizons is Sturm’s voice, which is particularly effective on album closer “Broken Wings.” Sturm begins with airy, unadorned pop phrases backed by a strummed six-string, and as drums and amplified power chords build to the chorus, she climbs the octaves before adding her signature pitch changes at the end of each verse in pursuit and effortless attainment of alt-metal timbre quality.

Horizons possesses one weakness: the overwhelmingly Christian lyrical content that at times can prove tiresome. “Call You Out,” for instance, has Sturm screaming, “Liar!” at what can be assumed to be Satan, while the smoother and more optimistic “Cage on the Ground” is filled to the brim with images of a resurrection and ascending into the clouds.

In spite of the ideological saturation, though, the delivery remains

Get Frankenfabulous

Whether you forgot to order your Halloween costume on Amazon or your group costume fell through, have no fear —Julian and Neha are here.

Because Halloween falls awkwardly on a Wednesday this year, you have the grand opportunity to dress to impress two weekends in a row.

Even if you missed out this past weekend, here are some creative costumes you can pull together from your wardrobe.

Richard Simmons - Want to rock an ‘80s exercise diva getup? Perfect for a guy or girl, just throw on some spandex or running shorts and a sports bra or undershirt, paired with your gym sneakers (the only time we condone the use of athletic footwear). Maybe borrow your roommate’s portable speakers,

and transform the party into an ‘80s jazzercise routine.

If you want to make this a group costume, grab two of your friends and have them be your workout biddies. For your hair, tease, tease, tease to keep that ‘80s pouf going with tons of hairspray. And don’t skimp on the metallic accents, which means if you have any raver clothes, do not be afraid to whip them out.

Royalty - Looking to get to the ball by midnight, but without a costume? From ancient Cleopatra to the iconic Disney Princess, you can pull together a regal look without breaking the bank.

Glitz and glamour are all you need to execute the classic princess outfit. Big gold bangles and necklaces will

well executed without attempting to impress religious zeal upon the listener. But even in the face of a solid release ringing with hope, uncertainty remains. Since Sturm, a defining member of Flyleaf, cannot accompany her former group on its journey, the band may be bound for new, but not greater, Horizons.

Voice’s Choices: “New Horizons,” “Great Love” —Kirill Makarenko

Meek Mill, Dreams & Nightmares, Barclay Records Mediocre production value meets overly ambitious lyrics in Meek Mill’s first major-label release, Dreams & Nightmares. Fittingly titled, this “meh” album forages into the oft-explored “I’m rich, now let’s reflect on how I used to be a drug pusher” theme.

Yet Mill’s distinctive style of sentimental-poetry-meets-trap-rap add pizazz to a simple white dress. Even if you don’t have a white dress, take a sheet and wrap toga-style. For a quick and easy headpiece, use either yarn or lanyard and braid a strand to tie around your long and luscious tresses.

haute Mess

by Julian de la Paz & Neha Ghanshamdas a bi-weekly fashion column

For the Disney look, pick your childhood favorite and play dress up! Take Snow White for instance—pair a big, bright, A-line skirt with a blue blouse, perhaps even peplum, and fasten your hair with a red bow that you can make out of ribbon. But before you walk out the door, be sure to grab your seven dwarfs.

comes at the appropriate time. Well fashioned in Dreams & Nightmares the deep divide between conscious rap and gangsta rap is becoming an increasingly blended genre.

The release comes from Rick Ross’ label, Maybach Music, notorious for imperial beats, new slang, and lots of drug references.

Dreams & Nightmares certainly remains on this leash, and yet distills something distinctly Meek Mill.

In a perfect example, “In God We Trust,” Mill talks about the “love of that money” over Hollywoodthriller violins and horns.

In the album’s title track, Mill decides to go Kanye and rhyme “this” with itself: “I used to pray for times like this, to rhyme like this / So I had to grind like that, to shine like this.” As he laments his hard, dirty work, we’re soothed by heartfelt piano keys and some orchestral strings. The beat, midway through, bursts into intense bass-banging as Meek begins to yell angrily, giving himself commentary and repetition in echoy reverb. The song successfully lays ground for more sentimental-cum-murderous tones.

“Believe It” might have the best production value on the entire record. Unsurprisingly enough, it features Ross himself using Disney pop stardrug-money metaphors. “Sellin’ Miley Cyrus in my brand And now, for some punny costumes.

Take a cardboard box, open and pull over your head, and adorn with flattened cereal boxes.

Add some fake blood to the boxes with lipstick or ketchup and carry around a knife (preferably fake) to scare all your party hosts into letting you in—you’re a cereal killer.

Here’s one with no specific clothing required; just get a basket and fill it with eggs, and call yourself an “egg donor.” While at the party put on your biggest smile and offer a fellow Hoya your egg donating services—ideally while singing Young Humma’s classic, “Fried or Fertilized?”

Fasten a homemade sling/ baby carrier using an old sheet or t-shirt, and fill it with a bag of “sugar.” If anyone asks, you’re a sugar daddy.

Height of laziness, i.e. 30 seconds or less:

new Monte Carlo / I got that Justin Bieber please believe it,” Ross brags, perhaps calling ecstasy “Miley Cyrus” and wads of cash “Justin Bieber.” Other features also tend to be more braggart and look-at-me than contemplative of the old days.

Drake is on “Amen,” a song which somehow uses church as a metaphor for killing and having sex—of course, over organs.

“Maybach Curtains” features Nas, John Legend, and Ross once again on an explosive ballad with real drums, guitars, and soulful keys.

With Ross’ obsession with drug money—his name even coming from that of a famous drug dealer—Meek Mill’s release on Maybach Music was bound to be full of dealing stories and self-lauding. But Mill’s whole persona is based on leaving the trap game and earning Audemars by rapping. Dreams & Nightmares does not stand up to the fun dialect of 2 Chainz, or the intellectual ethos of Kendrick Lamar, but it does secure a particular aesthetic of blending fame with reflection that comes at the right time. ”Voice’s Choices: “Believe it Ft. Rick Ross,” “Tony Story Pt. 2” —Will Collins If you just got the Facebook invite to some Halloween shindig and you are sans costume or lacking any incentive to make one, go dressed as your normal self. If anyone asks who you are, reply with confidence that you are an American werewolf in Georgetown. If they ask you why you don’t have hair or fangs, point out with even more confidence that it is not a full moon.

If you want to get somewhat creative, grab red lipliner or lipstick and draw a line down the side of your face and voila! You are the San Andreas Fault.

So go out there with sass and ‘tude, and rock your homemade costume, however long it took you to make. And party like it’s 1999!

Send your costume party ideas to Julian at rdelapaz@georgetownvoice. com & Neha at nghanshamdas@ georgetownvoice.com

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the georgetown voice 13

Dino Jack & the Whore-icane

voices

14 the georgetown voice

november 1, 2012

Going Green: A progressive’s plea for a new party

by Gavin Bade As it turns out, President Obama was spot-on when he said Mitt Romney wanted to bring back the “economic policies of the 1920s” during their final debate—he’s just not the man to stop it.

This became incredibly clear to me last week, as I read an essay entitled “LaGuardia in the Jazz Age” by Howard Zinn, which was published in his 1970 book The Politics of History. The piece highlights the struggle of problematic iconoclast Fiorello LaGuardia, the socialist Republican congressman from West Harlem who would go on to become mayor of New York. Especially pertinent were his battles with Andrew Mellon, the Secretary of the Treasury under Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover. Mellon was a Wall Street “Master of the Universe” long before the term was conceived—his vast empire including coal, Coke, gas, oil, and aluminum would eventually amass him a fortune topping $2 billion, more than $25 billion in today’s dollars.

Mellon’s policies were unapologetically regressive. As Zinn

writes, his “various tax proposals in the Twenties had one basic theme: to lower taxes on high incomes. For instance, his first report to Congress, in 1921, recommended tax cuts, but only on incomes over $66,000 a year.”

Compare that to Republican rhetoric this year—especially Romney’s assertion on 60 Minutes that it is “fair” for him to pay a lower tax rate than someone making a tenth of his income—and you come to some troubling conclusions. First, the conservative economic prescription of low taxes and less regulation hasn’t changed much over a century, even after it delivered us economic catastrophes in 1929 and 2008.

But perhaps more disturbing than the continued influence of this wholly discredited approach to macroeconomics is that there’s hardly anyone around in elected politics today to push back. It certainly wasn’t any easier to be a progressive in the 1920s than it is now; the Klan enjoyed its highest membership ever, and Congress was flooded with legislators of Mellon’s stripe. Even so, once crisis hit, liberals were able to capitalize on the

Right’s failings and elect a swath of at-least mildly progressive officials, including FDR. The result was a significant reimagining of the American social contract in the form of the New Deal, effectively killing those right-wing economic myths for over a generation.

This is the opportunity progressives hoped President Obama would seize in 2008, but instead of using the various crises he inherited to transform American politics, he wholly succumbed to the pressure to conform to political norms.

Whereas the likes of FDR and LaGuardia looked at the collapse of the economic system in the late ‘20s and decided the country that would rise from the ashes would look markedly different from the one tossed into the flames, Obama sought primarily to get the country back to normal— to restore the pre-crisis status quo.

In that respect, he’s been wildly successful. Corporate profits are back at record levels, stock prices have rebounded, the war on terror continues to trample on our civil liberties and rights, global warming is still an afterthought, and economic inequality is growing at a faster rate

than it was even under the previous administration.

Even where the President has proposed reforms, he’s either put forth conservative options or personally undermined them after the fact.

His healthcare law, for instance, is the spawn of the Heritage Foundation— a giveaway to insurance companies without a public option. The DoddFrank Wall Street regulations were already too modest when they were passed, but then the president supported the absurdly named Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act that eased the few derivativetrading regulations on the books.

There’s a long list of other Obama shortcomings, like record deportations and his failure to support an increase in the minimum wage, but while all are significant they tend to gloss over the most important point—that his temperament makes it impossible for him to achieve progressive aims. Obama is someone who views compromise as an end in itself, rather than a means to get something done, and this naïve desire to bring everyone to a consensus has hamstrung every one of his political efforts.

half of this nation’s votes each year, and I guarantee you, it is not just the elderly.

We are a group that is powerful and united in our belief that America is the land of equal opportunity. We are a group that claims responsibility for our actions. So why should you join our forces and vote for Romney/ Ryan in 2012?

The short and simple answer is the economy. We can’t afford another four years of debt. With an unemployment rate of over 8 percent as of August and a national debt upwards of $16 trillion, something clearly needs to change. Mitt Romney plans to cap government spending at 20

percent of our GDP, and his website explains his detailed plan to get more Americans working. The past four years have been a disaster for the U.S. fiscally, and the President has done everything but claim responsibility—rather, he simply points fingers.

When it comes to the economy (job growth, debt, and taxes specifically), citizens who want to see an America that is fiscally responsible will be voting for Romney/Ryan.

If you are like me and you are decidedly not an economist, some other issues may be on the front of your mind. Republicans cannot always avoid social issues, so I will discuss three “hot-button” ones.

First, abortion. The first step in understanding the pro-life position of the Republican Party is recognizing the role the government should play in the lives of Americans. The government is an institution that tries to establish a moral standard for society, while simultaneously protecting citizens. There is no better example of a government fulfilling its purpose than protecting the life of the unborn. The government’s purpose is to ensure that our society respects life at all ends of the spectrum—this does not only mean fetuses, but also those in our society who are deemed “unwanted.” The government must foster an attitude that encourages people to care for and respect those in all walks of life.

This includes safeguarding citizens by protecting rights and dismantling systems that work solely to destroy life.

Second, one of the biggest areas of criticism for the Republican Party is its stance on gay marriage. This, I believe, is a misconception. Within the GOP, same-sex marriage is truly a generational issue. While many of our parents and grandparents may strongly believe that those who identify as homosexual should not be permitted to marry, I have come across few in our generation who support that position. So please, do not assume that all Republicans hate homosexuals. Instead, understand that the Republican Party is moving in the direction of accepting same-sex marriage. Therefore, if you justify your anti-Republican stance because you support samesex marriage, it would be a decision that lacks foresight and is based on outdated stereotypes.

Third, Republicans work towards fair and legal means for more immigrants to become citizens of the United States. The first step to fixing the system is establishing an easier, legal way for people to immigrate.

Romney plans to fix the current worker visa system, and he’s not the only Republican working for immigration rights. Representative Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) successfully wrote a bill which increased the number of South Americans who could migrate to America, a number which before was capped at 7 percent. At some point, the liberal rhetoric can only take you so far.

Backing away from non-social issues, foreign policy is a prominent topic in the 2012 election, with ter-

In the end, the political situation hasn’t changed much in comparison with the ‘20s. Progressives face the same insanity from the one percent on the right wing as they did in those days. But, Obama is no LaGuardia, he’s no LaFollette, and he’s certainly no FDR. He has given us no reform we couldn’t expect out of a moderate Republican, and has only moved the nation further to the right on foreign policy.

We shouldn’t be fooled into thinking Obama will suddenly transform into a progressive in his second term by himself. He’s a soggy, technocratic centrist like the vast majority of our Democratic politicians today. To me, a vote to push the President to the left does much more good than one that simply endorses his policies, and that’s why a true progressive’s ballot in 2012 does not include the President.

Gavin Bade is a junior in the SFS. He’s writing in Chicken Madness on his absentee ballot for his district’s school board, because why the fuck not.

My man Mitt’s vision of the right, rosy, Republican future

by Maggie Cleary The other day I was reading an article in which the author discussed the effectiveness of receiving email endorsements for President Barack Obama from political and public figures like Sandra Fluke and Jessica Alba.

If you truly believe that Jessica Alba is an authority on the economy, or politics in general, then the Republican Party is not for you. Let’s be honest—being a Republican is not cool. We are not renowned for our stylish clothes. We do not listen to cool music. Most famous people hate us. Yet, Republicans merit nearly

KAREN BU

YE GODS! What happened to his flowing locks? He’ll never win without them!

rorist attacks in Libya, the breakdown of the Syrian state, and the growing possibility of a nuclear Iran among our top concerns. Once again, Obama has demonstrated his inability to establish himself as a powerful figure overseas. His response to threats on U.S. lives was demure. Yet, in some sense, we cannot blame him; he’s simply inexperienced at dealing with a conflict of this severity.

Romney’s policies regarding America’s future interactions with individual countries are clearly outlined. For example, in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, Romney is committed to making available technical assistance that will encourage good governance and financial management. He furthermore would task a “regional director” with the specific purpose of fostering stable governments in the Middle East.

You are right, Jessica Alba; Mitt Romney cannot dance. He cannot play basketball. He does not have a list of celebrities who support him, and he probably does not know anything about hip hop music. But Mitt Romney does know tax policy. He knows how to build a company and make it successful. He understands the importance of protecting our interests overseas. And those are the qualities that count in a president.

Maggie Cleary is a junior and President of the College Republicans. She secretly loves Jessica Alba and her Incredibles Halloween costume.

voices

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15

Four more years for the foremost, forthright President

by Joseph Vandegriff Presidential elections often become glorified popularity contests, where questions like “Who would I rather have a beer with?” determine who obtains the most important job in the world. However in a country with high unemployment, large national debt, and rising income inequality, this election is likely to come down to who voters think has a stronger plan to move our country forward. I am voting for President Obama because I believe his economic plans will continue to move us in the right direction, and his social views will

allow us to protect and expand civil rights over the next four years.

Obama has a superior and substantive plan to solve the unemployment and debt problems which plague our nation. Before we go into specifics, it is important to remember that when the President took office, our country was shedding hundreds of thousands of jobs due to the financial crisis. Obama stepped in with a stimulus bill that stopped the negative trend in GDP and job growth. We have added 5.2 million jobs over the past 31 months, and are projected to add 12 million more jobs over the next four years.

KAREN BU

Even his enemies put him as their emergency contact. That means you, Christie.

International indifference

When I declared a Government major late in my sophomore year, I had only completed one class in the department and was in the middle of another.

In attempt to catch up with the four introductory-level major requisites, I decided to take U.S. Political Systems and Comparative Political Systems in the same semester. This was a terrible idea.

Deciding to load up on introlevel Government classes this Fall was probably one of the worst decisions I could have made— more than half of class time each week is dedicated to discussing the upcoming elections, and being in two of these classes at once means at least two hours of my week are spent discussing events that have little relevance to me.

As soon as I decided to attend Georgetown, I knew I would be in D.C. for the 2012 elections, but never did I think it would make my life so inherently awkward. At first, I thought it would be exciting to have the campaigns going on while I was living in the U.S. capital and to have all of campus debating “the issues,” but now I realize that being an international student on campus during the election is a very different experience than one might expect.

When one doesn’t have the right to vote, the discussions that take place surrounding the election take on a different meaning.

I don’t feel like I have the right to argue with others about the merits of one candidate or another, because I won’t be voting in the

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Obama’s jobs plan for the next term is multifaceted, but can be best encapsulated by the American Jobs Act which he pushed for—and which Republicans in Congress blocked—last year. The law is predicted to add 2 million jobs over the next two years by using half of the savings from ending the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthiest Americans to rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure and schools.

This policy creates the short-term growth needed to bring down unemployment, while helping to propel our future economic growth so America can keep its competitive edge. It is easy for me to vote for a man whose economic policies will continue to move us forward.

Romney’s agenda could not be more different. Four of the five parts of his plan are much more platitude than policy, as he plans to do things such as champion small business and cut the deficit but provides no details on what that means on a policy level. Furthermore, the central plank of Romney’s plan is to lower all marginal rates by 20 percent and reduce loopholes to make it revenue-neutral.

The problem is that there are not enough loopholes affecting wealthy individuals to offset the loss in revenue of $250,000 per millionaire due to the tax rate cut. This means Romney will either need to increase the deficit or raise taxes on middle-class families through deductions. Rom-

ney’s answer to these legitimate questions has been to say his plan louder, in hopes that people forget about the foggy math. If Romney’s plan is so sound, why does he not simply indicate which loopholes he would end and stop the dilemma?

On the deficit there is a similar contrast. Obama has presented a balanced approach to reducing the deficit by $4 trillion over the next ten years. His plan includes a mixture of tax raises on the wealthy and necessary reductions in both military and discretionary spending. The plan is feasible and detailed, and provides that people from every class contribute.

On the other hand, Romney wants to reduce the deficit by capping spending at 20 percent of GDP, a cut that is predicted to result in 6 to $7 trillion of spending cuts over the next decade. I would respect Romney for proposing such bold measures if he had actually specified what spending he would cut, but true to form, he has refused to tell the American people the details that actually matter. On both jobs and the deficit, Obama proposes a more effective approach but more importantly an approach that makes and presents tough decisions instead of running from them.

The second reason why I am voting for President Obama is the effect he would have on the Supreme Court. There are currently four justices over the age of 70, and it is

election. But in the end, the choice for U.S. president will have a profound effect on the political and economic situations in the international sphere, through both foreign and domestic policies.

I could never have imagined the extent to which people’s lives become consumed by the elections. My entire Facebook news-

dividual’s vote doesn’t actually matter, because it makes such a minuscule effect on the final tally of votes. Obviously the electoral system would collapse if everyone realized this and proceeded to stop voting, but it begs the question of whether dedicating all this time and effort towards an election one has no control over whatsoever is really worth it.

I’m coming into this election season with the perspective of an international student, which gives me a bias different from those of the majority of my classmates. It frustrates me to see students who are going to abstain from voting on the basis that none of the candidates are “good.” I feel like they are not taking advantage of the privileges given to them by their country through their right to vote. It frustrates me to see politicians cater to certain interest groups just to win votes or receive funding, even if they don’t believe in these groups’ ideologies. Or to see them making promises that they will not, or will be unable to, keep when elected, because they no longer feel the need to,

Carrying On

by KimTay

A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

feed is constantly flooded with posts regarding my peers’ every political thought. These are people who plaster social media with their personal notions of each candidates’ merits, and thus only use social media to make fun of the opposition or brag about how tuned in they are to current events. These posts have zero effect on how other people will be voting, because they aren’t meant to convince. So why am I always being spammed with memes of the most recent debate?

We spent an entire lecture in USPS learning about how an in-

widely predicted that the next president will appoint at least one new justice. If Obama wins, the 5-4 balance which currently leans Republican could finally be reversed. This would allow for a repeal of state bans on gay marriage and Citizens United within the next four years.

Both of these arguments would then be heard by a liberal-leaning court, resulting in both marriage and democratic equality for all.

If Romney is elected, it is likely he will move the court even further to the right. Romney has publicly shown support for overturning Roe v. Wade. The thought of women having to return to alleyway abortions is frightening, dangerous, and an expression of how extremely conservative Romney is. As a Catholic, I believe that life begins at conception, but I also believe that my views should not be forced upon anyone else. We live in a democracy, not a theocracy.

The last four years have been rocky, but the answer is not to go back to the same policies that led to the recession. With four more years, President Obama can continue to move our country forward and create an America that works for all of us.

Joseph Vandegriff is a junior and President of the College Democrats.

He would kill to have a beer with Obama.

Like, actually kill. or just will not have the resources to do so.

The outcome of the presidential election retains importance to the rest of the world, but the constant stress throughout the election season is unnecessary for those of us not from the U.S. Instead of spending vast amounts of money on campaigns, instead of the swinging emotions generated by minute shifts in polling data, instead of debates centered around attracting as many voters as possible, the U.S. should engage in fixing its fundamental and long-term societal ills—education, healthcare, immigration, etc.

I do admire the passion with which American citizens are able to throw themselves into politics, but I feel that if people could split this passion—and campaign financing—and throw it into alleviating the societal problems of the day, the world would be a better, more resourceefficient place. Hurricane Sandy is not simply a factor affecting election turnout, it is a metaphor for the storm soon approaching American shores if the difficult issues confronting its society are not addressed.

50 shades of blue and gray Here’s the seventh installment of the Voice’s serial romance novel-cum-murder mystery, “50 Shades of Blue and Gray.” The next chapter of this steamy thriller is all up to you—send your 1,000-1,500-word submission, under your real name or your fake one, to editor@georgetownvoice.com by Monday night at 10 p.m., and we’ll pick our favorite for next week’s back page.

I looked up at the hooded figure and my mind froze.

He isn’t supposed to be here, I thought. Not yet.

But I was getting confused. My mind was reeling from killing Ryan earlier—I knew I had to do it, I’d practiced it in my head a hundred times, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that I, Corinne, was officially a murderer. I was cautious,

of course, putting the needle back in my bag before anyone could see it. My prints were going to be on his shirt, pants, and skin, but so were a lot of other girls’, from what I knew about him.

The plan was unraveling so quickly. It was clear someone wasn’t being completely honest with me— the note Tony got, the extra murders, and now Tony getting tied up. Why the hell was Tony tied up?

I needed answers. “Wait here,” I said to Tony.

He looked down at his body, naked and still tied. “What choice do I have?” He flashed that smile of his, and half of me wanted to stay back and have another go at him. It took all of my energy just to kiss him and pull away.

I went over to the hooded figure, which was far enough away that Tony couldn’t hear us or see us clearly, just as I felt the first clap of thunder in the distance. Fuck, I thought. So there actually is going to be a hurricane. Let’s make this quick.

“Good work,” he said in a hushed voice.

“What haven’t you been telling me, Jack?” I demanded, trying to sound brave but knowing I was in the presence of a cold-blooded killer.

He chuckled, and condescendingly stroked my cheek. “Coco, my dear,” he said as I cringed. I hated when he used nicknames from when we used to be together—if you could even call that dysfunctional mess of a relationship “together.” I grabbed his wrist and threw it off of my face. He didn’t like that.

“Listen to me, Corinne,” he said more directly.

“We’ve got a plan, and we’re sticking to it.”

“No,” I said. “You have a plan, and I’m clearly not part of it. Where did that note come from?”

He laughed again, harder this time. “That was her idea, actually. She seems dumb, but the girl just might be a criminal mastermind.”

I felt a pang of jealousy when he mentioned the other girl. The nameless, faceless girl who was supposedly orchestrating this whole thing, out of hatred or revenge against Tony and his pals.

Whenever Jack mentions her, my blood curdles just a little bit. All the time he’s spending with her, all the things he does for her, the things he gets me to do for him to carry out her plans. It’s not like I still like him. I couldn’t, not after the disaster of a relationship we went through, but the thought of him with someone else made me want to invest in a couple more poison-filled syringes.

The slow breeze that had been blowing suddenly picked up, and the quivering tree branches began whipping rapidly against one another. Down the hill, I could see a figure heading down the Village C stairs, probably going into Southwest Quad. My instinct was to shriek, but I knew it was useless— even if that person miraculously did hear me and sent someone up here to rescue Tony and me, Jack could turn me in as a murderer, and he wouldn’t be lying. I was stuck.

“The one the Wingo’s guy gave Tony!”

Thunder clapped again, getting closer. The air had that heavy feeling it always gets when it’s about to pour, and I was growing a little concerned about being up on the tree-filled hill by the observatory. He chuckled.

“The Wingo’s guy is a nice touch, isn’t he?”

I was baffled. “What do you mean, nice touch?”

“That was us.”

I seethed. “What the hell do you mean, that was you? He’s been tipping people off all night about what I’m up to!”

“Hold on, I’ll call GERMS,” Tony said, panicked.

“No,” Corinne gasped. “Tony, listen…”

“What? What is it?” He tried to keep her awake so she could finish her thought, leaning his head close to face to hear her dim, almost lifeless voice.

“It’s you she’s after,” Corinne choked.

“Who? Who’s after me?” Tony pled.

“She wants…you…Exorcist stairs.”

The rain began to fall. Jack took down his hood, his dirty blonde hair shining beautifully and his blue eyes dazzling as a bolt of lightning struck. He put his hand on my cheek again, gazing into my eyes, and this time I couldn’t resist. As he pulled my face into his, I felt my breath deepen and my body begin to tingle. His breath was warm on my lips, and as his other hand slid under my shirt, my mind emptied of everything that had happened that night. All I knew was that I wanted him, I ached for him with every bone in my body. As the rain bore down harder, he pushed me against the swaying tree behind us, kissing my neck hungrily, his hands clawing at my skin.

He brought his lips to my ear, his voice breathy and passionate.

“Which note?”

force, he needed to get away from these people, away from the observatory, and to the police station. His wrists were getting wet, and with some effort he wriggled them out of the ropes. Untying his feet, he was about to run when he heard a scream. At first it sounded like pleasure, but he saw the hooded figure moving away from the tree and down the hill, and Corinne slump limply to the ground, her body soaking with rain water. As he ran over and knelt beside her, he saw that the water around her hands, which were clutched to the space between her ribs, was red with blood.

Oh god, he thought, he stabbed her. But she was still breathing.

“I’m sorry, gorgeous,” he whispered, reaching into the inside pocket of his hooded jacket and pulling out something that out of the corner of my eye looked shiny and metal. “You shouldn’t ask so many questions.”

Tony almost thought that the storm, the lack of sleep, and the residual hangover were clouding his vision. It couldn’t be. Corinne kissing this strange, darkhooded man right in front of him.

But once he pushed her against the tree, it was undeniable what was going on. He couldn’t watch anymore. With the hurricane gaining

A bolt of lightning struck, and Tony watched Corinne’s eyes shut, her face stop moving, and her body relax. He stared at her soaking corpse in shock for a minute, before getting up and somberly heading down the hill.

— Sandy