The Georgetown Voice, February 25, 2010

VOICE the georgetown

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LET’S TALK SEX POSITIVE PAGE 5

NO LUCK FOR THE IRISH PAGE 6

CAN YOU LAST MORE THAN ONE ACT? PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w Februrary 25, 2010 w Volume 42, Issue 21 w georgetownvoice.com

guilty until Chimingproven in innocent

2 the georgetown voice

february 25, 2010

comments of the week “I guess I’m just not constrained by your strict Haiku structures. I’m really more from the Kobayashi Issa school of Haiku. You’d know who that was if you were a CULP major.”

—Chris D “The winners of Vox’s haiku contest”

“The Voice is like the cold, emotionless, and disapproving father to GUSA. Nothing is ever good enough. WHY WON’T YOU LOVE ME DADDY?” — Tim “GUSA election, with 3,152 votes cast, may have set new turnout record” “I haven’t voted yet. Which slate promises to allocate GUSA funds to defend Philly Pizza?? I’d think $100,000 would help with legal bills. Put your money where your mouth is Hoyas!”

—Simon “Twuesday Tweetacular: GUSA Elections, Philly P, and meta-Tweeting”

“You know who’s lustfully enslaved to sexual desires? People without a healthy outlet for them...”

—Alex “United Fems and H*yas for Choice form concerted campaign for reproductive rights at Georgetown”

Talk Back

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Apply to Be a Writing Center Tutor The Writing Center welcomes applications for new tutors for the 20102011 academic year. Tutors work one-on-one with Georgetown students from all disciplines to improve their writing.

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Voice Crossword “Midterms” by Mary Cass and Jaclyn Wright

ACROSS 1. J. Edgar Hoover’s org.

4. Carnaval dance 9. Settled 14. Panty hose problem 15. Suave competitor 16. Yogi’s language

17. Genesis craft 18. Semester __ __ 19. Mountainous mint 20. Celestial bear 22. Groveler 24. Long-haired Himalayan bovine 25. African antelope

27. One of Captain Ahab’s legs 29. Forthrightly 32. Is always Semper fidelis 35. It’s between Can. and Mex. 36. Pass over 38. Catapult 40. Fit to stand trial 42. You can get a rise out of it 44. Now and __ 45. Go around 47. Disinfects to protect 49. Little devil 50. Subclass including ticks and mites 52. Like Santa’s visit 54. Tool with teeth 55. Mole 56. __ and downs 59. Rainier locale 63. Visually assessed 67. Allegation 69. Appropriate 71. “Madame Butterfly” wear 72. It may be at a tilt 73. One whom Jesus healed 74. She is against Wade 75. 49 Across’s opposite 76. Roundup rope 77. Wind up

answers at georgetownvoice.com DOWN 1. Herr’s wife 2. Clingy seed 3. Pen fillers 4. Salon 5. Tastefully 6. Table in Mexico 7. What the wind did 8. Academy Award-winner Arkin 9. Joint users 10. Kind of can 11. Warhol or Roddick 12. Brainstorm 13. Can be floppy or compact 21. Wine gets better with it 23. Green government group 26. Compass direction 28. Covered in gold 29. Japan’s second largest city 30. __! At the Disco 31. Cede

32. Cluttered 33. Nothing 34. Foe 35. Ship initials 37. Part of a week 39. Measure of income 41. Spans of time 43. Blisters (2 words) 46. Impede 48. Kind of dance 51. __ Jima 53. Grain 56. California Univ.

57. Scheme 58. Made music vocally 60. Void 61. On the ocean 62. Solo __ 64. Past 65. Black 66. Went kaput 68. Vanilla __ 70. What an athlete may turn

Are you a logophile?

Share your love of words and help write crosswords.

E-mail crossword@georgetownvoice.com.

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 42.21 February 25, 2010 Editor-in-Chief: Jeff Reger Managing Editor: Juliana Brint Publisher: Emily Voigtlander Editor-at-Large: Will Sommer Director of Technology: Alexander Pon Blog Editor: Molly Redden News Editor: Kara Brandeisky Sports Editor: Adam Rosenfeld Feature Editor: Tim Shine Cover Editor: Iris Kim Leisure Editor: Chris Heller Voices Editor: Emma Forster Photo Editor: Hilary Nakasone Design Editors: Richa Goyal, Ishita Kohli Literary Editor: James McGrory Crossword Editor: Cal Lee Contributing Editor: Daniel Cook, Dan Newman Assistant Blog Editors: Hunter Kaplan, Imani Tate Assistant News Editors: J. Galen Weber, Cole Stangler Assistant Sports Editors: Nick Berti, Rob Sapunor Assistant Cover Editor: Jin-ah Yang Assistant Leisure Editors: Brendan Baumgardner, Leigh Finnegan Assistant Photo Editors: Jackson Perry, Shira Saperstein Assistant Design Editors: Robert Duffley, Megan Berard

Associate Editors: Matthew Collins, Lexie Herman Staff Writers:

Jeff Bakkensen, Cyrus Bordbar, Tom Bosco, Sonnet Gaertner, Aleta Greer, Victor Ho, Kate Imel, Satinder Kaur, Liz Kuebler, Walker Loetscher, Kate Mays, Scott Munro, Katie Norton, Sean Quigley, Justin Hunter Scott, Sam Sweeney, Keenan Timko, Tim Wagner

Staff Photographers:

Max Blodgett, Jue Chen, Matthew Funk, Lynn Kirshbaum

Staff Designers:

Marc Fichera, Dara Morano, Marc Patterson, Miykaelah Sinclair

Copy Chief: Geoffrey Bible

Copy editors: Aodhan Beirne, Caroline Garity, Keaton Hoffman, Matt Kerwin, Molly Redden

Editorial Board Chair: Eric Pilch Editorial Board:

George D’Angelo, Emma Forster, Molly Redden, Chris Heller, Imani Tate, J. Galen Weber, Dan Newman, Will Sommer, Brendan Baumgardner, Cole Stanger, Juliana Brint

Head of Business: George D’Angelo

Director of Marketing: Michael Byerly

The Georgetown Voice

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Unsigned editorials represent the views of the Editorial Board. Columns, advertisements, cartoons and opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the views of the Editorial Board or the General Board of the Georgetown Voice. The University subscribes to the principle of responsible freedom of expression of its student editors. The Georgetown Voice is produced in the Georgetown Voice office and composed on Macintosh computers using the Adobe InDesign publishing system and is printed by Silver Communications. All materials copyright the Georgetown Voice. All rights reserved.

On this week’s cover ... D.C. Innocence Project Cover Illustration: Jin-ah Yang and Iris Kim

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STAYING POSITIVE

Keeping Sex Positive Week productive This week, you may encounter some unexpected, in-your-face activities around Georgetown—perhaps some student “guerrilla theater” volunteers demonstrating sexual positions in Red Square, or students in drag crowding The Tombs on Wednesday evening. It’s all part of this year’s Sex Positive Week, following up last year’s controversial week of events, which outraged outside conservative groups and shocked even moderate students. But don’t let this year’s ostentatious events fool you—SPW 2010 is far better geared toward Georgetown students’ actual needs, when it comes to dialogue about sexuality, than the inaugural event.

SPW 2009—with a discussion of open relationships led by a director of pornographic films, and an introduction to

practices of bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism—was seemingly planned with the intent of shocking and provoking, rather than informing and promoting dialogue about sexuality. But simply from looking at the events planned for the week, it’s clear that this year’s SPW planners gave a lot more thought to what kind of conversations students at Georgetown are interested in having about sexuality. Tuesday’s “Disability and Sexuality,” for example, demonstrates thoughtful attention to how sex positivity relates to a typically marginalized group on campus.

Monday’s “Virginity and Losing It”—a discussion about the significance of virginity that was co-organized by David Gregory (COL ‘10), the editor of the conservative

Catholic Georgetown Academy, and one of SPW 2009’s biggest opponents—shows that the leaders of SPW 2010 are making a genuine effort to include a variety of viewpoints.

Georgetown should be commended for continuing to fund these events in the face of vocal opposition from conservative Catholics. SPW is a much-needed antidote to the limited, overwhelmingly conservative dialogue that currently takes place on campus about sexuality.

A recent University-sponsored discussion about the hook-up culture, for instance, was promising in that it acknowledged one of the most common realities of modern college life—but was unfortunately dominated by disapproving, conservative speakers and panelists.

q BITCH SET ME UP

Don’t delay, launch investigation of Barry A much younger ex-girlfriend. Angry voicemails. Run-ins with the United States Park Police. When Councilmember Marion Barry (D-Ward 8) was arrested for stalking his ex-girlfriend last July, all the right plot ingredients were in place for another installment in the tragicomic saga of Washington’s former mayor. The situation was bizarre enough for Washingtonians to wonder, as they so often do with the councilmember, “What do you do with a problem like Marion?” only to let his improprieties slide after another crushing victory on Election Day. But the recently released council-mandated report on Barry’s arrest, and the revelations that followed, paints a much more sordid picture, one that the District and its Council cannot ignore or laugh away.

To start with, Donna Watts-Brighthaupt, the woman Barry was allegedly stalking, wasn’t just his ex-girlfriend. She was also his employee, receiving thousands of dollars from the D.C. Council for producing reports. The investigation discovered, however, that portions of those reports were plagiarized from the In-

ternet. According to the report, Barry received a cut of each of Watts-Brighthaupt’s paychecks for her dubious work.

Watts-Brighthaupt wasn’t the only employee with whom Barry tried to mix business and pleasure, according to Sharon Wise, who previously worked on an alcohol rehabilitation program in Ward 8 for the Council.

Wise claims Barry sexually propositioned her “probably 562 times,” and was soon fired after she approached the Inspector General with her concerns.

Barry’s colleagues on the D.C. Council should forward the report to the United States Attorney’s Office and push them to investigate the alleged criminal activity. The outlook for prosecution might not seem positive—after all, many of these allegations have been around since the summer, and the U.S. Attorney is not known to be investigating Barry.

But with a new U.S. Attorney appointed for the District just last week, the case has a better shot at receiving the investigation it merits.

While the Council may encourage the U.S. Attorney to prosecute the case and—at the

very least—censure him, Barry will only truly be expelled from public life if his constituents repudiate him. The traditional explanation for Barry’s baffling popularity in his ward is that he steers jobs and contracts to a marginalized portion of the city. This is true, to an extent— Barry has been providing residents with work since 1968, when he founded a jobs training program, and as mayor he was instrumental in founding the District’s summer jobs program for teenagers.

After this report, however, Barry is crippled as a councilmember. He will likely lose his chairmanship on the Committee on Housing and Workforce Development. Other councilmembers will be wary of sponsoring future legislation with Barry, lest it be loaded with kickbacks for former girlfriends. This should give pause those who voted for him because of his ability to channel much-needed city money into neighborhoods across the river.

Now that Barry’s improprieties have been revealed, it’s time he resigned. If he won’t do it on his own, the Council and Ward 8 should certainly help him along.

q UNION MAID

GU makes strong move on DPS wages Crime doesn’t pay, but, thankfully, now Georgetown’s Department of Public Safety does.

Earlier this month, Allied International Union, which represents DPS officers, accepted the University’s proposal for a three-year contract that guarantees a $2.50 per hour pay raise and an increased starting salary for new officers.

Under the new agreement, salaries for newly hired DPS officers will jump from $15.60 per hour to anywhere from $17 to $22 per hour.

The agreement ends a months-long round of negotiations, which began in August, between Allied International Union and the University. The pay raise is long overdue for the officers, whose salaries lag behind those of their counterparts at other D.C. area universities. The final decision is a far cry from Allied International Union’s initial request for $4 per hour increases, but the com-

promise suits both parties well—DPS officers received their first pay raise since 2007, and the University demonstrated a growing devotion to employees’ needs despite economic limitations.

The new contract grants DPS officers the competitive salaries that they deserve and will help ensure that the University is able to staff DPS with qualified employees. The department’s current low retention rate creates instability and understaffing. Hopefully, this wage increase will improve the retention rate and attract more highly qualified applicants.

Last semester’s initiative to raise officers’ wages, organized by the Georgetown Solidarity Committee, should be commended for raising awareness about the issue among students.

Although there is no way of knowing how the initiative impacted negotiations, it is important for students to understand how the labor con-

tract impacts public safety at Georgetown.

While Solidarity’s general objectives were admirable, their method of getting the word out about the issue—hijacking discussions after this fall’s alleged hate crimes—was inappropriate and misleading. The wage raises will most likely improve DPS’s effectiveness, but Solidarity’s claim that higher wages would prevent similar crimes from occuring on-campus was weak and had the unfortunate side effect of distracting from the larger issue of homophobic violence at Georgetown.

The unfortunate fact is that crime will always be a presence on college campuses. But with more fairly compensated officers, DPS will be better able to respond to crimes when they do occur. Georgetown should be commended for giving officers, who provide a vital service to campus, a wage more in keeping with the work they do to keep us safe.

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Angert wins GUSA reelection

by J. Galen Weber Incumbent Georgetown University Student Association President Calen Angert (MSB ’11) and Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) won this year’s GUSA executive election with 50.1 percent of the vote, the GUSA Election Commission announced on Wednesday evening. A record-breaking 3,152 students—44 percent of the undergraduate student body—voted in the election, 543 more than last year.

His closest rival, former GUSA Senator and Finance and Appropriations Committee Chair Matt Wagner (SFS ‘11), received 35.8 percent of the vote.

Angert and Kluger pointed to their track record and network of supporters as major factors in their victory.

“Our mantra was ‘Because Results Count,’” Angert said. “I think that really resonated with a lot of students.”

When asked why they chose a particular candidate, however, most students interviewed for this article cited face-to-face encounters from candidates who knocked on their doors. But others said they supported what Kluger termed GUSA’s “new direction.”

“I thought they did a good job

this year,” Patrick Sweeney (COL ’12) said. “The fact that they were able to get something done for the general student body is pretty cool ... The fact that they were able to get something done period was a reason for voting for them.”

The idea of a “New GUSA” surfaced several times during the campaign and was mentioned by two of Angert’s competitors, Arman Ismail (COL ’11) and Hillary Dang (SFS ’12), as reasons Angert and Kluger won.

“I am really happy with the historic turnout,” Ismail said. Ismail came in third, receiving 8.1 percent of the vote in the first round. “It’s just magnificent. It’s part of a new GUSA. I think people like the tone they set.”

Dang came in fourth with 4.7 percent of the vote in the first round.

“Calen and Jason’s reelection suggests a new GUSA,” Dang said.

“Calen and Jason definitely deserve this victory.”

Both Ismail and Dang attributed their losses partly to a lack of name recognition among students. Dang said that she and her vice presidential candidate Katie Balloch (COL ‘12) were interested in getting more experience in student politics and potentially running again next year.

Angert said he viewed the election partly as a referendum on the

Funding Board Reform legislation recently passed by GUSA, which became the main point of disagreement between him and Wagner, who came in second with 1,108 votes in the first round. Although disappointed by the results, Wagner said he and his running mate Emmanuel Hampton (COL ’11) had met one of the goals they had set for themselves at the beginning of the campaign: to get 1,000 votes in the first round.

“We would have preferred a win, but we were very happy with the way our campaign went,” Wagner said. “We wish [Angert and Kluger] the best, and we hope they will draw from some of our ideas.”

Students who supported Wagner and Hampton talked about their fresh perspective and specific campaign promises.

“They were talking about higher DPS pay, which is an issue I really care about,” Sean Kelley (SFS ’13) said. “I thought it would be good to have a change in perspective.”

Angert and Kluger said that they expect to hold their first meeting of their second term this weekend. The first item on the agenda is the budget summit, which allocates the student activities fee funding to clubs and will be held Sunday. Angert said that he will begin solidifying next year’s agenda at the executive meeting.

“Despite recent positive actions by the University, it is my strong belief that the current policies and procedures intended to safeguard LGBT students on and immediately off campus remain woefully ineffective,” he wrote in a December 17 letter to several top administrators.

Vice President for Student Affairs Todd Olson answered his first letter in January, a response that Schubert felt was basically aimed at “making me go away,” and did not respond to his request to meet DeGioia.

When asked for comment, Olson said the University takes such assaults seriously and is constantly considering the security of its students.

“Well, I’m not going away,” Schubert said in an interview. “The need for my efforts really came to me through alumni, current students, and family members who all spoke to me about the deplorable things that [they] have been [through]. And those aren’t going away.”

Schubert’s demands are one of several signs that recent high-profile homophobic and sexual assaults against students are beginning to affect how people outside of the Uni-

versity see Georgetown. Shane Windmeyer, the co-founder and director of a non-profit organtization called Campus Pride that helps high school students select LGBTQ-friendly colleges, said that he would not counsel a gay student to attend Georgetown.

In 2007, Windmeyer was one of several outside experts that the University brought in to review its proposal for the LGBTQ Center.

While he applauded the creation of the Center as a strong commitment that will help Georgetown become an LGBTQ-friendly school, Windmeyer said that Georgetown has not demonstrated the proactiveness in recruiting LGBTQ students that its peer schools have. Georgetown has never agreed to be evaluated by Campus Pride for its list of the country’s most LGBTQ-friendly colleges, a list that ranks several of our peer schools and every Ivy League school.

“No campus is immune from bias incidences or hate crimes,” Windmeyer said. “[But] when they happen so frequently, Georgetown can do a lot more than just create a Center and call it a day.”

Olson does not agree that the

february 25, 2010

Philly P’s remains open

by Cole Stangler Philly Pizza & Grill is continuing to operate despite a notice to vacate the premises issued by the District’s Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs on February 19. In the notice, the DCRA said that if the restaurant did not immediately cease operations, it would request that the D.C. Attorney General’s office seek emergency injunction relief on or after February 22.

The notice was issued three days after the District Board of Zoning and Adjustment upheld the DCRA’s decision to revoke the restaurant’s certificate of occupancy, because it was operating as a fast-food establishment but was not zoned as such.

The deadline passed, but Philly Pizza is continuing to serve customers daily until midnight.

Philly Pizza owner Matt Kocak said that he does expect the Attorney General’s office to follow through on the injunction, but doesn’t know when.

“Philly Pizza didn’t deserve to be shut,” Kocak said. “We were following the definition of a restaurant.”

Advisory Neighborhood Councilmember Aaron Golds (COL ’11) said that he expects DCRA to try to obtain a temporary restraining order from the D.C. Superior Court, although he noted that the ANC does not have any say in the matter.

A temporary restraining order would grant authority to the Metropolitan Police Department to shutter the restaurant for good. Golds said that a hearing about the restraining order is set for March 5 in the D.C. Superior Court.

Galen Weber

The saga continues: Philly Pizza still hanging on despite an order to close.

Georgetown is still not LGBTQ friendly enough, critics charge

by Molly Redden A prominent national figure in a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender advocacy group is pressuring Georgetown’s administration to better ensure the safety of Georgetown students following what he characterizes is a feeble response from the University to the homophobic hate crimes that occurred on campus in the past few years.

Since December, Walter Schubert, the Chairman of the LGBT Chamber of Commerce and the son of John Carroll Award-winner Walter Schubert, Sr., (COL ‘51), has sent two letters to several high-level Georgetown administrators, demanding a meeting with President John DeGioia to discuss his proposals. Schubert’s suggestions include a full-scale reevaluation of Georgetown’s security system by a top-tier outside security company, a fundraising campaign to build an expanded LGBTQ Center that he promises to match dollar for dollar, and the use of stronger language by the administration in condemning crimes that happen at Georgetown.

crimes have affected how others see Georgetown. “[T]he homophobic crimes last semester did raise questions for students and parents,” he wrote in an e-mail. “With that said, I do not believe that people’s view of Georgetown has been significantly changed by these incidents. Our students, parents, and others understand that crime happens on every campus and in every community.”

Director of Georgetown’s LGBTQ Resource Center Shiva Subbaraman said that the establishment of the center has begun reconciling Georgetown with the LGBTQ community, especially alumni whose experiences at Georgetown were particularly difficult.

But Shruti Dusaj (SFS ‘11), a student who makes calls soliciting donations for the Office of Advancement, said she stills calls alumni who refuse to give because of how painful it was to be LGBT at Georgetown. This week, for the first time, she spoke to a woman who refused to give because she was afraid for the safety of LGBTQ students at Georgetown and because she has yet to see DeGioia address the homophobic incidents in

his communications with alumni.

The homophobic crimes on campus this fall prompted American University freshman Ashley Dejean to make a short film about Georgetown for the “Not In Our Town” campaign, a project run by the Public Broadcasting Service that encourages people to respond to hate crimes through media. Dejean said that she was shocked to hear about such crimes happening on a campus so close to AU’s, and disturbed to discover how divided Georgetown was over accepting LGBTQ students.

For Schubert, acceptance of LGBT students on campus is half the battle. While he is outraged that students’ safety is threatened, he is equally perturbed by the language the University uses when it speaks about the importance of “tolerating” LGBT students.

“Why don’t they change language from tolerating to accepting, welcoming, celebrating?” Schubert said. “Tolerating means ‘we really don’t like you but we’ll put up with you.’ I won’t be satisfied until Georgetown celebrates all the diverse groups within its walls.”

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Sex Positive Week returns without controversy more radical events, however, SPW 2010’s organizers made an effort to include a wider array of perspectives. The discussions officially sponsored by the University, entitled “Virginity and Losing It” and “Disability and Sexuality,” reflected this more moderate approach.

One of the planners of “Virginity and Losing It” was David Gregory (COL ‘10), a vocal critic of last year’s event and editor-inchief of the Georgetown Academy, a Catholic, socially conservative student publication. Gregory and a few friends attended some of the organizing meetings for the week.

“Our presence there, I think, caused them to think carefully about what they were proposing,” Gregory said. “Talking about disability and sexuality is completely appropriate.”

The Cardinal Newman Society, a group dedicated to renewing Catholic identity at Catholic institutions across the United States, spoke out against last year’s SPW, saying it “conflicted with Georgetown’s founding principles.” The organization did not respond for comment about this year’s SPW and has

not released any public statements about it.

SPW 2010 organizer Kristine Mitchell (COL ’10) said the “Virginity and Losing It” event attracted a different crowd than usual.

“We had a lot of people I hadn’t seen before,” Mitchell said. “We talked about peoples’ perspectives on virginity—what it means to them personally and culturally. We definitely had a lot more inclusion from people with religious backgrounds.”

Nonetheless, the leading figures of Sex Positive Week didn’t shy away from pushing the boundaries of what they see as a largely sex-negative campus community. The events not sponsored by the university—Guerilla Sex Theatre in Red Square, guerilla queer bar at the Tombs, a female orgasm workshop, and a sex toy party—are meant to challenge what they see as static and limited conceptions of sex at Georgetown “I think the reason we do this is that this is a campus that really doesn’t show sexuality at all,” Liz McAuliffe (COL ’10), the other Guerilla Sex Theatre reader, said.

“Even mainstream sexuality is largely behind closed doors.”

Talking racism at GU

cause inadequate and misguided responses fail to inspire serious, mainstream discussion.

Last December, a Heckler article satirically depicting members of the Hoya dressing up in white robes and burning a cross provoked an overwhelming—and often counter-productive—outpouring of criticism from faculty and administrators. In a press release about the article, sociology

by Cole Stangler Wednesday at 1 p.m., two girls took turns reading aloud descriptive passages about the clitoris in Red Square, attracting the attention of students on their way to class. One of the passersby included a bewildered Chris Wright (MSB ’11), who stopped to watch for a brief moment then asked his friend and teammate on the Georgetown basketball team, Jason Clark (COL ’12), “Am I hearing right?”

The event, formally known as “Guerilla Sex Theatre,” was part of Georgetown’s second annual Sex Positive Week. The week long event strives to encourage more open discussion about sex and sexuality, with the belief that sex can be a healthy, positive part of life.

“The goal has been to promote a positive sex idea and combat some oppressive notions of it on campus,” Amelia Powell (COL ’12), one of two participants in Wednesday’s guerilla sex theatre said. “This is to get the attention of people who walk by. And it definitely works.”

In light of the controversy sparked by some of last year’s

Recent Georgetown University Student Association presidential elections have been rife with controversy, but usually the problem is voting irregularities or last-minute disqualifications. This year, however, the main issue was accusations of racism.

As Calen Angert (MSB ‘11) and Matt Wagner (SFS ‘11) emerged as the front-runners in the race, the politics of their campaigns devolved. Conflict began when Wagner left a comment on the Hoya’s website, calling a Facebook message written by Chris Pigott (COL ‘12) “racially charged.” The only reference to racial issues in the message was when Pigott wrote, “I know some of you are very involved with [the Student Commission for Unity] and other minority and diversity organizations on campus. Just so you know, Matt Wagner was one of the most vocal opponents of SCU.” After current Vice President Jason Kluger (MSB ’11) heard that Wagner’s running mate Emmanuel Hampton (COL ’11) had been call-

ing their campaign racist because of his connection to Pigott, Kluger publicly confronted his opponent in Lauinger Libary. Meanwhile, online, one commentator accused Wagner of playing the “race-card,” while another criticized Pigott’s attempts at defense against accusations of racism as “reducing this terrible act to a spectacle.”

Then, very quickly, the controversy ended, with candidates claiming they wanted to shift the focus of the campaign. The underlying cause of the disputes went unaddressed.

If merely commenting on a GUSA candidate’s history of opposing one campus diversity organization is “racist,” our campus is never going to move beyond a superficial discussion of race. This incident is just the latest example of how campus dialogue on race is limited, tends towards the extreme and the personal, and rarely examines the fundamental issues.

The Georgetown community is unable to learn from incidents of perceived racial insensitivity be-

Saxa Politica

by J. Galen Weber

A bi-weekly column on campus news and politics professor Joseph Palacios accused the Heckler writers of displaying, “deeply rooted racism, anger and sarcasm, and anti-Christian attitudes.” Other professors and administrators mirrored Palacios’s comments, issuing sharply worded statements calling the Heckler “a mouthpiece for hatemongering.” Faculty members have a right to criticize what they see as racial insensitivity, but publicly accusing students of “deeply rooted racism” is irresponsible. Palacios declined requests for comment,

HIlarY naKaSOne

Testing the limits: Sex Positive Week advertises in Red Square. saying he “did not want to contribute any more to the conversation.”

Although much of the debate over the Heckler article was unnecessarily accusatory and polarizing, there were some attempts to approach the issue constructively, including a forum organized by students to discuss their thoughts on the article and race at Georgetown.

Though the forum was a valuable effort, it was also an example of the difficulty of engaging in far-reaching dialogue about race at Georgetown. While most organizers were pleased with attendance, several noted that such discussions tend to attract the same limited group of participants.

“A lot of mainstream Georgetown wasn’t there nor did they understand the problem,” Stephanie Frenel (SFS ’12), director of academics for the Student Commission for Unity, said.

The superficial, limited, and unproductive nature of the debate on race at Georgetown is due partly to widespread student apathy.

A bigger problem, though, is that the current nature of the discussion discourages unaffected students from joining in. When professors

and administrators issue stinging condemnations but then stay away from engaging in extended dialogue, it does little to create an open discussion among Georgetown students.

For this to change, students, faculty, and administrators should embrace and continue to encourage honest dialogue, like the forum held after the Heckler controversy, while refraining from leveling the serious charge of racism when it’s not merited. Otherwise, what could be a productive discussion degenerates into little more than name-calling.

Ryan Wilson (COL ’12), who serves on one of the Diversity Initiative working groups, noted the necessity of thinking beyond each individual controversy.

“This issue is not about the Heckler and it’s not about the Hoya,” Wilson said.

“It’s a larger cultural problem, and until we start to have discussions about that, we’re really not going to go anywhere.”

Want to continue the dialogue with Galen? Email him at gweber@ georgetownvoice.com

sports

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february 25, 2010

Hoyas defeat Irish in front of huge home crowd third leading scorer, only saw the court for seven minutes and As the final buzzer sounded contributed just two points. last Saturday, the Georgetown Georgetown’s second leading women’s basketball team had scorer, Monica McNutt, accountjust beaten the No. 4 team in the ed for only a single point. With country and recorded the biggest two players who average a comwin in program history. The No. bined 20 points per game post11 Lady Hoyas (23-4, 12-2 Big ing just three points, the other East) beat the Irish (24-3, 11-3 players had to step up.

Big East) 76-66 in front of a reIn this case, a pair of sophocord 2,417 people at McDonough mores came to the rescue. ForArena. It was their most difficult ward Adria Crawford provided a test in a season where they have lift off the bench and scored 13 of slowly climbed up the national her 18 points in the second half. rankings and reached third place Complementing her classmate, in the ultra-competitive Big East forward Latia Magee continued Conference. to play well, pouring in 17 points After the game, Coach Terri and grabbing seven rebounds.

Williams-Flournoy put the game “In other games Jaleesa in perspective. “It’s a big game and Monica had my back, so if because it’s a ranked opponent; they’re not having one of their it’s a big game because we’ve better games, then as a teammate never beaten Notre Dame before,” it’s my job to pick them up,” MaWilliams-Flournoy gee said. “I felt like said. “In order to Women’s Basketball I needed to take continue to show more shots, make 76 more shots, make people how much Georgetown 66 bigger plays.” of a contender we Notre Dame are, we have to Keeping with beat opponents that are supposed the theme of underclassmen proto be better than us.” duction, freshman guard Sugar It doesn’t get much better Rodgers once again showed that than defeating Notre Dame, she is skilled beyond her years. with its athletic tradition and Rodgers had 24 points, includhistory, but the Hoyas weren’t ing several clutch shots down focused on the accomplishments the stretch, proving that the of their opponent. pressure of facing a top ranked “We come out and play ev- team doesn’t affect her. ery game, it doesn’t matter who “It’s big, but a ranking is just it is, we have to play our style a number,” Rodgers said. of basketball and that’s what we One of her biggest shots came did,” sophomore forward Adria in the second half when Notre Crawford said.

Dame managed to tie the game at What was even more im- 42 after going on a 7-0 run. Rodgpressive about this game was ers knocked a three to cut off the the way the Hoyas beat Notre Irish momentum and give her Dame. Because of foul trouble, team a much-needed confidence senior Jaleesa Butler, the team’s boost. The shot sparked a 9-1 run

by Nick Berti

HILARY NAKASONE

Latia Magee stepped up for her struggling teammates in a big way vs. ND.

by the Hoyas and gave them a lead they did not relinquish for the rest of the game.

The keys to the game for Georgetown were turnovers and offensive rebounds. The team’s ability to force Notre Dame to turn the ball over wasn’t surprising, as the Hoyas currently lead the nation in turnover margin. But when the team grabbed 19 offensive boards to Notre Dame’s eight, the undersized Hoyas had reason to rejoice.

“I always tell them we have to out-rebound opponents, but anytime we do it, it’s almost like an extra cupcake in your lunch box,” Williams-Flournoy said.

After the biggest win in program history, the team can’t afford to get ahead of itself, and so far they haven’t. On Tuesday, the Hoyas traveled to Philadelphia to play Villanova. After trailing into the second half, the Hoyas turned the game around to avoid a let down after the big Notre Dame win.

“Our next game is always our biggest game. I don’t try to make anybody seem bigger than what they are,” WilliamsFlournoy said.

Georgetown’s next match is against Jacksonville State on Thursday, but it will be hard for the squad not to focus on the game after that. On Saturday, the Hoyas head to Connecticut to take on the Goliath of women’s college basketball, UConn, and try to establish a new biggest win in program history.

the Sports Sermon “It’s such a struggle for attention, you come to meetings and it’s like a bad day if Lindsey didn’t do well.” — U.S. Skier Julia Mancuso on team chemistry with Lindsey Vonn It is clear that Tiger’s previous lifestyle of extremely tight control and limited media access led to an environment in which he was able to get away with almost anything. The way he conducted his press conference showed that he is incapable of exposing himself to anything outside of his complete control.

The speech itself did little to make up for his poor choices surrounding the event.

Woods entered a room with blue curtains all around, stood

be a good move. However, the press is not to blame for the Last Friday for 15 minutes, spread of these rumors. the world stopped for a press Let’s take a look at the conference. There’s only one man facts. In the early morning in sports who has this sort of hours after Thanksgiving captivating power: Tiger Woods. night, Tiger Woods crashed This press conference was unlike his car in his neighborhood any Woods had ever given, as subdivision. His neighbors he was returning back into the found him asleep on the sidespotlight after two months of sex walk wearing no shoes. The scandal-induced silence. back windows of his car were During these past two smashed in and his wife was months, the sporting world has standing near him with a golf been rife with controversy and club. He then disappeared speculation as Woods experifor 10 weeks without tellenced one of the ing anyone what quickest and steephappened. Tiger Pete Rose Central est falls from grace should blame Da bettin’ line in recent memory. himself—or his Friday was Woods’ publicist—for the Dookies Margin Hoyas chance to tell us extremely poor (underdogs) (duh!) (favorites) what happened, way the situaadmit his guilt, and Canada Miracle, pt.2 tion was handled USA begin the long road and the resultant Harangody Poo dollar rumors, not the Monroe back to golf and a Storm Sausage casing press who constable personal life. Kornheiser Plain and simple, nected the pieces Tiger duffed this opportunity. at a tiny podium, and then of the salacious puzzle.

To begin, let’s examine the began his horribly slow and Despite providing the percircumstances under which stunted prepared statement. fect case study on how not to Woods held this conference. Those thirteen minutes were handle a damaging situation, Woods announced early in the a public speaking disaster. He all is not lost for Tiger Woods. week that he would be break- progressed so slowly, at times One need only look to the ing his silence in a Friday press seeming to pause or trip on example set by Kobe Bryant. conference. Woods himself words deliberately to indicate After enduring a public relawould select which members deep emotion. If he wanted to tions nightmare brought on of the media would attend show emotion, he should have by adultery and rape allegaand would take no questions. opened himself up to a more tions throughout the 2003-04 These controlling moves be- loosely outlined speech, al- NBA season, he has been able gin to show how Tiger has not lowing for moments of genu- to pull a complete 180 and learned much from his ordeal. ine remorse to come through return to the pinnacle of his In a speech where he was sup- naturally. profession. posed to apologize and open It appeared the time when The manner in which himself back up to the world, emotion was actually present Woods handled this ordeal, he micromanaged the environ- was when he went on the at- including his Friday press conment to such a degree that he tack to chastise and dismiss ference, has put him in a deep would avoid any outside scru- all reports that his wife Elin hole. That being said, if anyone tiny or questioning. He wanted somehow hurt or assaulted is capable of recovering from a to come clean, but only on his him this past Thanksgiving rough start to return to the top, own terms. night. Normally, this would it’s Tiger.

by Adam Rosenfeld

sports

georgetownvoice.com

Baseball off to good start first game. Catcher Erick Fernandez and third baseman Sean Lamont each drove in three runs in the game. In the fifth inning, Fernandez delivered a two-run single to left field that took the lead and set the tone for the remainder of the game.

On Saturday afternoon, the Hoyas built off their first victory to win the second game of the series. They were able to pull away in the ninth inning, scoring four runs to win the game 11-8.

lowing only two hits and striking out two batters. Junior Jared CoAfter enduring weeks of hen earned the save in the ninth practices amid record-breaking and retired four batters. snowfall in D.C., the George“We got a really good pitchtown baseball team finally got ing performance out of freshman a chance to play on green grass Neal Dennison,” coach Pete Wilk under clear skies last weekend said. “You never know what when they traveled to North you’re going to get with a freshCarolina for their season openman. He went out there with ing series against Davidson. poise. His whole attitude made “We were running around him look like a junior or a senior. like little leaguers out there at He did a tremendous job getting Friday’s practice,” head coach the win in game two.”

Pete Wilk said.

The final game of the series The Hoyas definiteproved to be a different ly enjoyed playing in story for the Hoyas, losthe nice weather as eviing to the Wildcats 11-3. denced by their perforDavidson was able to mance over the weekend, mount nine runs in the winning two out of the fifth inning, as the Hoyas three-game series. were plagued by five erThe Hoyas began the rors while giving up five three-game series strong hits. Junior left-handed with a 6-2 victory at Wilpitcher Tommy Isaacs son Field on Friday night. started the game, but he The score remained close exited in the fifth inning until the Hoyas scored after he put the first two four runs in the seventh runners on base. Junior inning.

Cary Piligian came in to Georgetown was led throw two thirds of an by strong pitching as seinning and was charged nior Tim Adleman gave with six unearned runs. up one run on five hits in “On the mound we a little over six innings of were constantly getting play to start the season. behind hitters,” Wilk He also accounted for six said. “And when you get strikeouts while walking behind hitters, they have two batters. Sophomore more confidence and can Courtesy SPORTS INFORMATION right-hander Bobby KirTim Adleman pitched six strong innings for a Hoya win. be more aggressive. Deby entered the game in fensively, it’s also hard to the seventh inning, allowing a Senior shortstop Tom Elliot play high-quality defense when run before striking out the fi- had four hits in the game. Senior you’re out there for long innings.” nal batter to close the inning. left fielder Billy Cupelo had three Despite the minor setback Junior pitcher Pablo Vinent RBIs, and senior second baseman in the final game of the series at finished off the Wildcats in Chip Malt hit a big two-run sin- Davidson, the Hoyas performed the final two innings, allowing gle that helped the Hoyas come well overall. only one hit and striking out out on top.

They take on New York Tech one batter.

Unproven freshman Neal this weekend at Christopher A pair of juniors led George- Dennison pitched 1.1 innings of Newport University in Newport town’s offensive attack in the shutout relief to earn the win, al- News, Virginia.

by Tim Wagner

Dry season

“Football Season is Over” was the title of the note that one-time sportswriter and Gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson wrote a few days before his suicide in February 2005. While for most of us “shotgun” refers to a passing formation and not a method of coping, the period between the end of the Super Bowl and the first pitch of the baseball season is a sort of dry seasons for sports fans across the country.

The Super Bowl is by far the best championship in American sports. Among the major professional sports—those with their own tabs on ESPN. com—football is the only one with a one-game, winner-takeall finale. The NBA playoffs

are ridiculously long: a single team could conceivably play twenty-eight playoff games, more than a third the length of the regular season. The MLB postseason skews towards teams with one or two knockout pitchers. I’ve never actually followed the NHL, but I believe the team with the highest ratio of facial hair to vowels in their last names wins. The Super Bowl is short and sweet.

The entire season comes down to one hour of game time and then … it’s over.

It’s not that there aren’t sports to watch; it’s that the sports that are on just really suck. Professional basketball is starting to slump as it passes the midpoint of its season.

We know the teams that will be competing in April and we

know we’ll have to wait until June to see any good postseason matchups. And I refuse to call the All-Star break sports.

Entertainment or spectacle, yes. Sports, no. Hockey is also at midseason (or so I’ve read on Wikipedia), a fact surely lost on readers from states not end-

Backdoor Cuts

by Jeff Bakkensen

a rotating column on sports ing in –innesota or –ew Hampshire. This is also the point in the year when Georgetown basketball usually decides they’d rather surf the NIT than compete with the big boys, and drop a few Big East matchups (See: Rutgers, Syracuse, USF).

This year we have the Olympics, only it’s the Winter

the georgetown voice 7

Freeman dominates Cards

teristically quiet first half, the junior guard put on a perforSay one thing about this mance reminiscent of his heGeorgetown team—they know roics against UConn earlier how to make games interesting. this season.

Less than a week after Nineteen seconds into nearly clawing back from a the second half, Freeman 23-point deficit against No. 5 knocked down a three. Then Syracuse, No. 11 Georgetown he drove for a lay-up, hit (19-7, 9-6 Big East) successanother trey, and all of a fully overcame a halftime defisudden Georgetown had its cit against Louisville on the first lead. Freeman’s assault strength of Austin Freeman’s would not relent, and neither 24 second-half points. would the Hoyas, who never Freeman scored 29 total trailed again. points on 9-of-12 shooting to The Hoyas needed Freepropel the Hoyas past the Carman to catch fire, because dinals 70-60. third-leading scorer Chris While the margin of vicWright wasn’t finding the bastory was ultimately comfortket. The junior guard did not able, the outcome convert a field didn’t seem likely in Men’s Basketball goal and was the early going, as scoreless un70 held Louisville jumped Georgetown til the final min60 ute, when he hit out to a 13-3 lead. Louisville Georgetown ended four free throws. the half trailing by six and But Wright was hardly a seemed incapable of stopping non-factor. While a low-scorsenior guard Edgar Sosa, who ing game from Wright has finished with 24 points in adusually correlated to a Hoya dition to eight assists. loss, on Tuesday he made his The Hoyas remained close presence felt without scoring. thanks to the efforts of sophoHe consistently broke down more center Greg Monroe, who Louisville’s press and did not scored 12 of his 16 points in try to force his offense, atthe first half. The big man also tempting only four shots durgrabbed 14 rebounds for the ing the game and none in the double-double. final 15 minutes.

Louisville had momentum The win was a big one for on its side at halftime, but it the Hoyas, snapping a two seemed like the Hoyas forgot game slide and keeping their that in the locker room. When hopes of a top-four conference Georgetown stepped back on finish and a double-bye in the the court, they looked like the Big East tournament alive. clearly superior team, opening Georgetown will look to the half with a 21-2 run. keep rolling this Saturday at Georgetown’s sudden noon at the Verizon Center dominance was made posagainst a Notre Dame squad sible by the emergence of fresh off a 15-point beatdown Freeman. After an uncharacof Pittsburgh.

by Tim Shine

Olympics, which are like the prom queen’s homely younger sister. That being said, the Vancouver Olympics have already delivered a fair share of drama. For the first time in recent memory I planned on watching an entire televised hockey game (and almost finished it). I also saw Simon Ammann make ski jumping history and Apolo “Three Names” Ohno continue to tear it up on the short track. By and large, though, the Olympics are mostly puff pieces, frilly outfits, and Al Michaels milking one more year out of the Miracle on Ice. So what’s a bored sports fan to do? For starters, MTV’s Sixteen and Pregnant just launched its second season and promises more beautiful little mistakes

than a draft analysis by the New York Knicks. There’s also Chatroulette.com, where you can video-chat with randomly selected people from around the world, many of whom will probably appear on later seasons of Sixteen and Pregnant.

Ultimately, it helps to know that the start of the baseball season is only a few weeks away. Pitchers and catchers reported last week.

Spring Training games begin in another week and a half. It’s a magical time, when almost all franchises can hope for a miracle season.

So, fellow sports fans, please put down the shotgun.

Spring is almost here.

Help Jeff cope at jbakkensen@ georgetownvoice.com

feature

8 the georgetown voice

february 25, 2010

A long-distance appeal to justice

Overturning the District’s wrongful convictions

A

plastic mail bin sits on Daniel Satin’s desk, nearly overflowing with a mix of thin white envelopes and manila envelopes so thick that a single stamp won’t suffice. Every month, he receives between 40 and 70 of these envelopes, their contents all asking for the same thing: a second chance.

Each envelope contains an application from a convicted felon or an inquiry from family members, all seeking help from the Mid-Atlantic Innocence Project, a nonprofit organization that seeks to overturn wrongful convictions that have occurred in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. Run out of American University’s Washington College of Law, MAIP connects area law schools and a network of pro bono attorneys to work toward freeing innocent prisoners in the region.

While MAIP has found many successes in Maryland and Virginia, fewer of the envelopes that cross Satin’s desk come from D.C. The organization has experienced difficulty in its outreach here, largely because the District does not have a prison for convicted felons. Inmates convicted of serious crimes are not housed locally, but are instead dispersed to prisons across the country. It’s difficult for prisoners to learn about MAIP while serving sentences as far away as Arizona.

As MAIP’s program assistant, Satin is the first person to read through the applications of prison inmates claiming their

by Dan Newman innocence. Satin, who graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism just last June, plays a crucial role in the early screening and investigation of potential cases.

MAIP’s current executive director, Shawn Armbrust (LAW ’04), held a position similar to Satin’s at the Center on Wrongful Convictions at the Northwestern University School of Law. She was faced with a similarly daunting pile of unread cases and concern about how to know what to look for. On her first day she was given some advice: “The innocent ones just smell funny.”

Now, after Satin sniffs out a promising application, a screening committee, made up of pro bono attorneys, investigates cases to determine whether they should be pursued further

by MAIP. The screening committees look primarily at two things: whether the inmate is possibly innocent, and whether it is possible to prove innocence through DNA evidence or factual investigation.

After the initial screening, there is no set timeline for how long it could take to overturn a wrongful conviction.

“The first case that I worked on took only four months to resolve,” Armbrust said. “But the second case that I was involved in took 11 years.”

The causes of case delays can vary greatly—anything from roadblocks in the investigation to trouble obtaining court documents. Satin said that it can occasionally take over a year just

Courtesy HOLLY EATON PHOTOGRAPHY

Guilt free: Aaron Michael Howard is grateful to the staff of MAIP for his freedom.

Courtesy HOLLY EATON PHOTOGRAPHY

Road MAIP: D.C.’s scattered convicts can only be reached through their community. to obtain a trial transcript.

“Especially when dealing with older cases, getting legal documents can be very tough,” he said. “A lot of these guys have four or five different lawyers over the course of their incarceration, and documents just get lost. Unfortunately, our three jurisdictions don’t do a great job, some better than others, of maintaining records.”

The protracted nature of these cases is somewhat alleviated by the large network of pro bono attorneys and area law students who share the workload.

Armbrust co-teaches a Georgetown Law Center class that relates to the Innocence Project, where students spend nearly a year investigating a single case.

Armbrust also teams up with Georgetown Law professor Wallace Mlyniec for an “experiential learning class” that integrates seminars with real-life investigations and casework.

There was a time when these law students would travel to Lorton Correctional Complex in Virginia to interview inmates and work with them to secure their exonerations. Lorton held all of the District’s inmates convicted of a felony. But since its closing in 2001, D.C. inmates, previously imprisoned there, are shipped throughout the United States to serve out their sentences.

Lorton was the only prison for individuals convicted of a felony within the District. It opened in 1910, during the height of the Progressive era, as a remedy for the abuses and overcrowding

common in Washington’s prisons and work-houses.

But by the 1970s, the facility became known for the same abuses and excesses that plagued the District’s earlier prison system. According to the Washington Post, in 1995, Lorton held 7,300 inmates, about 44 percent over its capacity.

Lorton soon became known as a training ground for career criminals. According to a Government Accounting Office report, published in 1987, just under 70 percent of inmates at Lorton had been convicted of a previous felony and spent time at the facility.

As the surrounding community became synonymous with the much-maligned prison, Congress passed a bill requiring the prison’s close by 2001. And so, on November 19, 2001, Lorton Correctional Complex closed its doors for good. The remaining prisoners were transferred to federal custody.

Without any District prisons to hold inmates, all individuals convicted of a felony are handed over to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and sent to federal prisons across the country. While the BOP says it makes every effort to keep D.C. inmates in the region, Armbrust has heard anecdotally that they do their best to ensure that D.C. inmates are separated from one another as much as possible, in order to preempt violence.

BOP spokesperson Edmond Ross said there is no policy mandating that D.C. inmates are to be separated from one another, but “[the BOP does] monitor all

inmates to make sure that the people that they need to be separated from are not placed in the same facility.”

“The Bureau of Prisons does its best to make sure that all inmates are placed within 500 miles of their homes,” Ross said.

“That is not always possible because the facility needs to be of commensurate security level and have the correct programs for inmates.”

The scattered nature of the District’s inmates makes MAIP’s job much more difficult to accomplish. In Maryland and Virginia, when the Innocence Project accepts an inmate’s case, it usually see an increase in inquiries from other inmates in the prison, allowing MAIP to advertise its services cheaply and effectively through word of mouth “If you’re in Western Correctional Institution in Maryland, everyone there is from Maryland,” Satin said. “It is very easy to learn about our services.”

With most of the District’s incarcerated located outside of MAIP’s jurisdiction, it is much

Courtesy HOLLY EATON PHOTOGRAPHY

Exonerated: Howard shares his story.

more difficult to spread the word about the Innocence Project and what it does.

“There was an extremely low number of inquiries from the District,” Armbrust said.

“Word of mouth was not getting the job done.”

In searching for another way to reach the District’s inmates, MAIP board member Gina Harps recalled the buses that would bring visitors to Lorton.

During the time Lorton was

feature

georgetownvoice.com open, the L90, a Metro bus ran a route from downtown Washington to the prison. The route allowed inmates to remain tethered to their former lives, regularly bringing prisoners’ families and girlfriends to the facility.

If the inmates could not be reached directly, MAIP would have to reach out to the people who knew where all of D.C.’s prisoners were located: their families. Parents and spouses had every interest in seeing the wrongfully convicted exonerated, and would not hesitate to spread the word about MAIP’s work.

“Now that those buses don’t run down I-95 South anymore, we need to get in touch with [the families and girlfriends of the incarcerated],” Harps said.

Harps works in communications for the Department of La-

these meetings. And they’re the type of people who will make sure that their son or husband is sending us all the forms.”

While reaching out to the community, it became apparent that some area leaders were concerned about the potential for instilling false hope in the relatives of the incarcerated. Satin does his best to temper applicants’ expectations, remarking that MAIP is not “assuming the role of savior.”

They are merely looking to give people a second chance.

While these community meetings were helping to spread the word, their impact was fairly limited, since MAIP was only one point on the agenda at most meetings.

This was part of the impetus behind the decision to hold MAIP’s first-ever legal clinic in

Courtesy HOLLY EATON PHOTOGRAPHY

Life on the outside: Howard talks with Rosenthal, the lawyer who freed him. bor and is the only member of MAIP’s board without a legal background. She began volunteering with MAIP six years ago and has worked on everything from new logo development to marketing.

Working with Satin, Harps became one of the chief architects of the Innocence Project’s new effort to reach out to communities in the District, beginning in the summer of 2009.

The first areas MAIP chose to reach out to were the east of the river neighborhoods, Wards 7 and 8. Satin began getting in touch with religious and political leaders, at one point sending letters to the approximately 75 members of the two wards’ various Advisory Neighborhood Commissions. Satin and Harps travelled to ANC meetings and any other community gathering they could to speak about MAIP to all of those attendance.

“There are all these different community organizations out there, some are church related or some are school related,” Satin said. “But the type of people who could help us help [the wrongfully convicted] are the type of people who go to

November. On a cold and rainy Thursday, at Matthews Memorial Baptist Church in Southeast Washington, a small dedicated number of people came to learn more about the Innocence Project. The bad weather depressed turnout, but not enough that the clinic could not go on.

In addition to staff members, members of MAIP’s Board of Directors, students from the Innocence Project at Catholic University of America, and Aaron Michael Howard, a man exonerated in 2008 after spending 18 years in prison as a result of a wrongful murder conviction, attended the clinic.

Howard spoke, not just because he had been recently exonerated, but because he was a native son. He was from Southeast D.C. and was wrongfully convicted in the District. When spreading the word about the legal clinic, Satin said he “ran into so many people who knew Mike.”

Howard was convicted, along with three other men, in 1990 for the murder of Bobby Parker and sentenced to 21 years to life. During the trial, only two of the prosecution’s 26 witnesses—a man with a history

of psychiatric problems and his sister—placed Howard at the scene of the crime. Howard gave his court-appointed attorney his alibi and a list of witnesses who could verify it, but the attorney never even interviewed them.

In 2002, Howard filed a motion to reopen the investigation into his case and in 2006 he was assigned a new court-appointed lawyer, Zack Rosenburg. Rosenburg spent a year working on the case before bringing in MAIP through board member Seth Rosenthal.

“Zack and Ronetta [Johnson, a private investigator] spent about a year looking into the case,” Rosenthal said. “They had done a bunch of great work and contacted me because they were looking for some pro bono help.”

Howard’s new legal team, with the help of a private investigator, was able to obtain statements from witnesses supporting his original alibi and others who witnessed the crime and only saw three assailants.

Perhaps most damning of all, they obtained a statement from the mother of the two witnesses against Howard, explaining that they were home with her at the time and could not have seen anything.

In light of this new evidence, the Assistant U.S. Attorney withdrew from the case claiming that he was no longer in a position where he could defend the jury’s original guilty verdict. As a result, Howard was offered a deal by prosecutors in which he would accept a voluntary manslaughter conviction in exchange for immediate release from custody.

“Instead of rolling the dice in court, where there could be no decision for months, Mike saw the offer and said, ‘I get to go home and see my family tomorrow,’” Rosenthal said.

Although he would still have a conviction on his record, Howard accepted the deal in order to get out of prison.

“It is not perfect because, although it allows me to maintain my innocence, it requires me to accept a conviction for a crime I did not commit,” Howard said in a written statement.

Howard says that having the conviction on his record has made it very difficult for him to find steady employment. Even with some of the troubles he has faced since being released from prison, Howard is very grateful to the work of MAIP. “They really helped me,” he said in a phone interview.

“No,” his wife chimed in from the background, “They helped us.”

Which is why Howard agreed to talk at the event in

the georgetown voice 9

Courtesy HOLLY EATON PHOTOGRAPHY

Road to freedom: Attorney Seth Rosenthal explains his work to exonerate Howard.

November and at the 2009 MAIP Awards Luncheon.

“I have no problem trying to put my experience out there to help someone else,” he said.

After his talk, many in the crowd came up to talk to him.

They congratulated him and told him that he was an inspiration.

With Howard as an embodiment of what was possible, the attendees were able to talk to law students about their loved ones’ cases. The clinic ultimately led to nine new cases for MAIP, including seven from the District.

“Everyone thanked us for showing up and being in the community,” Harps said. “I think many people were grateful that we were just there talking with them about their loved ones.”

MAIP, which is in its eleventh year of existence, is a member of the international Innocence Network, an organization with member groups in countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom, and 50 locations in the United States. The Network, according to Armbrust, provides an “informal support structure” that allows different Innocence Projects to learn from and assist one another.

In the past 18 months, the local branch has seen its share of successes, helping to exonerate five men.

“To put that in perspective

in the first nine years of its existence, MAIP achieved just one exoneration,” MAIP President David Eppler wrote in the organization’s winter newsletter.

These recent victories speak not only to the continuing professionalization of the organization—which did not have any full-time staff until 2005— but also to the incredibly long time that these cases take to resolve. Nearly all of the most recent exonerations were initiated years before they reached a conclusion.

Inmates from the District currently account for 30 percent of MAIP’s cases that have made it past the screening stage, a marked increase from even a year ago.

MAIP already has plans underway for another legal clinic in the late spring, to be held in either Ward 4 or 5 in order to reach even more D.C. residents.

Spread out across the country, from Arizona to Florida, Washington’s wrongfully imprisoned can only rely on their friends and family to learn of the opportunity for a second chance.

“I’ve been around a lot of people in the same shoes as me,” Howard said. “Some of them have life sentences and will never be coming home, but everyone deserves a second chance to prove their innocence.”

Courtesy HOLLY EATON PHOTOGRAPHY

On the case: Armbrust (LAW ‘04) works with law students and prisoners’ families.

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

february 25, 2010

One Act Festival celebrates campus theater

by Shira Hecht Georgetown’s theater scene can be a little insular. Even the theater kids admit it—the different performance groups tend be exclusive, all the plays feature the same actors, and a lot of the theater kids hang out with each other. And so the average Hoya could be forgiven for not realizing that Georgetown theater is blowing up.

According to Jimmy Dailey (COL ‘11), director of the Donn B. Murphy One Acts Festival, the change began in 2005 when the theater major was created and the Davis Performing Arts Center opened.

And so the University stepped it up, merging the various student performing arts groups under the umbrella of DPAC. Georgetown invested in quality faculty with deep connections to professional theater in D.C., started the Theater and Performing Studies major, and provided students with opportunities to be involved in polished productions at the Gonda.

And the University’s commitment is reaping dividends. According to some of DBMOAF’s cast and crew, more and more Georgetown students are looking to enter the fields of theater

cent alumni have acted in Washington Shakespeare Company and Synetic Theater productions, while others are becoming professional playwrights or jetting off to Hollywood.

following February as part of a “one-act festival.” This year, Dailey wanted to reach out to people who were “not in the theater community but had creative juices,” and the Georgetown

“You’re doing it wrong! This is what a spotted horned lizard looks like when it’s about to attack.” and performing arts after they graduate. They won’t be the first.

Matt McNally (COL ‘08), Georgetown’s first theater major, is currently studying acting at Brown University, one of the nation’s top programs. Several other re-

Georgetown’s theatrical renaissance is evident in this year’s Festival. Each year, a panel of Georgetown professors reads student-written one-act plays, the best (or most feasible) of which are then performed the

Jue Chen

community answered this call.

For the first time ever, the festival will include interpretive dance in addition to traditional drama.

“When I first got to campus, I was upset that people could only choreograph if they were part of

[Georgetown University Dance Company], so this was an opportunity for them,” Dailey said.

In addition to the play and the dances, each night of the festival will offer some other Georgetown performance art, such as improv, singing, or readings of other student plays from the oneact competition.

And as for the play itself?

Well, it’s a better study break than going to MUG. For about the same price as your coffee, you can experience 20 minutes of the best of Georgetown theater. Written

by Tom Carroll (COL ’09), who joined the Navy after graduating, “The Hypothetical Detective” is a slapdash parody of a noir story, featuring a woman with a cigarette and a red dress, a mafioso called The Baker, trench coats, eye patches, guns, fedoras, and some truly delightful over-the-top acting. Throw that in a showcase with dance, comedy, and music, and you’ve got a festival that’s sure to delight all audiences.

The show runs February 24 through 28, in the Davis Performing Arts Center’s Devine Theater.

Ranch not included: life after Philly’s pizza

by Leigh Finnegan This past week, the dark cloud of mortality descended upon Georgetown. Left in a state of shock and mourning, the community pondered the cruelty and fleeting nature of life. Yes, Hoyas, it’s true. Philly Pizza has been shut down. The merciless Advisory Neighborhood Commission has robbed the student body of a tradition as deep-seated as Jack the Bulldog himself: the drunken slice of overpriced, subpar pizza, smothered in ranch and enjoyed semi-coherently while sitting on a sidewalk. But in these trying times, it’s important for students to remember that life always goes on. It’s now up to us to find the next social epicenter where we can satisfy our alcohol-induced munchies and piss off a whole new set of neighbors.

To some, the obvious next-best choice is Philly’s former neighbor, Quick Pita. Everyone already knows where it is, and its distance is totally manageable, even for those having difficulty walking a straight line. The food is cheap

enough, and the filler options offer some much-needed variety. But Quick Pita’s lacks the mass-appeal necessary to attain drunk-food supremacy. There are already plenty who don’t like falafel or hummus when their minds and stomachs

The Quick Pita conundrum raises an important aspect of Phillys’ success: when you’re drunk and hungry, you can’t go wrong with pizza. It’s crucial that the next hotspot for Georgetown munchies provide

isn’t your thing. The pizza has a satisfying thick crust and plenty of cheese, but the overall flavor makes Philly’s taste like quality.

Plus you have to get a whole pie rather than just a slice, but if it’s past four and you desperately

Shira Saperstein/Keaton Bedell

The Great War of the Drunkard will last many moons and cost many lives. Or at least some beer money. are at normal capacity. If those people happen to stumble into Quick Pita at 2 a.m. on a Friday night, the thought of garlicky Middle Eastern food might be enough to send them right back out to the sidewalk.

a cheap, fast, late-night slice. If you’re up for a hike to Wisconsin Avenue, you’ll find quite the selection of post-midnight pizza joints. Manny and Olga’s is inexpensive, open until 5 a.m., and delivers just as late if walking

need your pizza fix, it’s worth splitting with your friends (or engorging the whole thing by yourself, if you dare). Al Cappuccino’s is also open and delivers until the wee hours. Tastewise it’s slightly better than

most late-night pizza joints, but at a heftier price. And let’s face it, nobody wants to spend too much on food they can barely taste to begin with.

But with all the highly-scientific components of drunken fourth-meals taken into careful consideration, it seems the pizzeria destined to become Phillys’ successor is Tuscany Café. Located on Prospect St. just around the corner from our beloved, now-deceased pizza place, Tuscany’s real estate is perfect for a wobbly walk from campus. The slices are big and reasonably priced, and it’s open till 3:30 a.m. on weekends. Plus, with its diminutive size and slightlysketchy storefront, it’s the closest to what we’re used to.

This weekend will be a somber one for us all. But when it’s two in the morning and your stomach begins to demand more from you than just Leo’s and Natty Light, rest assured that there’s still somewhere out there that can ease your pain.

Just make sure to bring your own ranch.

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 11

“plastics.” — the Graduate

Scorsese’s noir Island BMDT shows a soul-ful spring

by Christopher Heller

I thought Martin Scorsese lost his edge in old age. His last film, The Departed, was great the first time around, but lost its luster after multiple viewings. (I blame Jack Nicholson’s terrible Baahsten accent and that incredibly weird cocaine and prostitute scene.) Where was the suspense?

At age 67, could it be that Scorsese lost his flair for well-crafted, shocking films?

I have a lot to learn—Scorsese hasn’t lost his fastball. Shutter Island, based on the Dennis Lehane novel of the same name, is as frightening as Cape Fear and as disturbing as Taxi Driver.

The film creeps along like a silent predator, waiting to strike once the audience is distracted

by Technicolor or haunting musical notes. Shutter Island has all of the elements of classic film noir—namely, a flawed hero and a menacing villain—but it stands out from its predecessors in the way it brutally assaults the audience’s senses when they least expect it. You will jump out of your seat watching Shutter Island—Scorsese made damn sure of it.

Shutter Island opens on a small ferry, rocking to-and-fro in a violent storm, chugging toward an island basked in eerie glow. U.S. Marshall Teddy Daniels (Leonardo DiCaprio) is doubled-over inside the boat, heaving the insides of his stomach into a toilet. His partner, Chuck Aule (Mark Ruffalo) is standing on bow-side, smoking a ciga-

rette and glancing out towards the horizon. The scene is unlike anything Scorsese has done in decades—it’s dripping with noir influences that would make any B-movie fan swoon.

On the island, nothing is as it appears. A Civil War-era fort is actually a prison for the criminally insane. The prison’s medical director, Dr. Cawley (Ben Kingsley), claims that the inhabitants of the prison are patients, not prisoners. And Teddy—brought in to investigate the disappearance of a child murderer—steps onto the craggy rock of an island with a past of his own that haunts him when he sleeps.

Teddy’s dream sequences are a highlight of Shutter Island, if only because they are so starkly removed from the tone of the rest of the film. The saturated colors that flood his dreams stand out from the subdued grey hues on Shutter Island. When his night terrors veer towards memories of liberating Dachau in World War II, the soundtrack quiets down to a peep; the scene is unspeakably powerful because of the silence.

But don’t expect Shutter Island to be a rigorous watch. Film noir isn’t meant to stimulate the mind. Scorsese’s love letter to films like Out of the Past and Vertigo stays true to the genre, at the expense of plausible storylines and surprising plot twists. But really, who cares? Shutter Island’s final scene—which is too good to spoil—vindicates Scorsese’s decision to make the film.

I can’t believe I had the gall to doubt him.

Costume chaos in Canada

I’ll admit it’s been a glorious two weeks of Olympic activities.

Although I initially intended to remain blissfully unaware of its snowy-peak and frozen-lake activities, I just couldn’t tear myself away from the beautiful boob tube images of dreams being shattered by little more than melting snow. After this Presidents Day, I think snow’s power to ruin our aspirations is something we all can relate to as a campus community.

Besides my revelation that snowboarders coming down the half-pipe bear stunning resemblance to Ewoks, I discovered

that for some athletes, fashion can make all the difference between landing at the top of the podium and spending the evening after your event drinking away your sorrows in the Olympic village.

Take, for example, the case of Russian ice dancers Maxim Shabalin and Oksana Domnina.

Fresh off of a World Championship victory, the couple took their Australian Aboriginal themed program to the Olympic Games. If you’re wondering what an Aborigine looks like on ice (or at least how the Russian skating team interprets such a

rowski (NHS ‘12), is more reminiscent of past BMDT performances. According to PjeBlack Movements Dance rowski, the piece is intended Theatre transitions to the spring to represent “a journey searchseason with leaps and turns, as ing for hope.” Soft, fluid lines the company welcomes the new dominate the piece, while its season on February 26 and 27 lyrical, ballet-inspired movewith Mind, Body, and Soul in the ments evoke deep-felt emoDavis Performing Arts Center’s tion and intensity.

Gonda Theatre. ConModern dance tinuing the themes of features are once the fall show of the again prominent— same name, Mind, extensions, muscle Body, and Soul blends contractions, and passion and grace in sudden, isolated celebration of Black motions that lend History Month. Moa powerful exprestivations behind the sion to the choreindividual dances ography.

Dancers include expressmove quickly then ing the value of slow down, merging love and friendship their bodies with along with personal the music’s subtle strength. Although melodies. Smooth BMDT remains loyal and graceful jumps, to its signature balintricate groupings, ance of modern and and a series of leaps lyrical dance styles, that cut across the this season’s concert floor all combine to has a strong theatrigive the motions of cal feel. lYdia MihaYChuK the piece complex“The most important thing to us was Baseball and cold showers ... baseball and cold showers. ity. Even as BMDT’s to express and emphasize each the number is fundamentally a focus turns more towards the element of the show’s title,” jazz routine, shades of modern stylized and theatrical in this BMDT Student Director Kellie dance work their way into the season’s Mind, Body, and Soul, composition. its celebratory themes of perJack (COL ‘10) said. “We don’t choreographic have a hip-hop piece this time Sharp, extended arms flow sonal growth and friendship around, but we communicate swiftly into softer curves, and communicated through dance flexed feet shift into ballet leaps, remain constant. The compaour message in different ways.”

In “Johnny,” choreographer leaving the viewer with a lively ny continues to speak through dynamic motion, using the and BMDT alum Heather Burrs sense of theatricality.

“Winter Song,” by student stage to tell a cohesive yet channels the concert’s overarching focus on high-energy choreographer Katie Paje- multifaceted story.

by Elizabeth Thompson

paradox), allow me to explain: the couple wore indigenous, tribal-looking costumes of dark skin-toned spandex with sewedon leaves and white paint markings on their bodies and faces.

Needless to say, the look was

Suffer for Fashion

by Keenan Timko

a bi-weekly column about fashion completely authentic and wellreceived by the Australian Aborigine community… Not. The two looked more like a Down Under Disney On Ice minstrel show than an Olympiclevel performance. Aboriginal leaders and the Olympic Com-

movement. The dancers’ white gloves accentuate their crisp jazz motions, while the exaggerated style of both costume and dance technique evokes the precise synchronization of a Broadway chorus line. Quick movements keep pace with the music’s accelerated beat. While

mittee, which encouraged the team to tone down the outfits for competition, justly reprimanded the pair. Maxim and Oksana ultimately left the blackface in Moscow, but the surrounding hype and pressure from the media regarding the couple’s threads rather than their throws undoubtedly contributed somewhat to their disappointing third-place finish.

In contrast to these wardrobe misfire, American ice skater Jonny Weir managed to use his fasion sense to benefit his athletic performance. Weir’s clothes both on and off the ice reflect his outlandish, flamboyant personality and generate positive,

politically-correct hype around his performances. Weir designs his own costumes, clearly drawing on some of the same influences as Lady Gaga. Weir even plans to launch a clothing line of his own at the end of this season. His swan costume from the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin may have inspired the Blades of Glory parody of the ensemble, but maybe that’s the kind of publicity a certain Russian icedancing duo should aim for when outfitting themselves for their next big gig.

Check out Keenan’s skin-colored spandex that made Jonny Weir blush at ktimko@georgetownvoice.com

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

february 25, 2010

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

DJ Mathematics, Return of the Wu and Friends, Gold Dust Media Don’t get too excited—although the cover features guys in kung-fu robes kicking each other and a steely W logo, DJ Mathematics’s Return of the Wu and Friends isn’t a new Wu-Tang album. Rather, it’s an hour-long mix of unreleased material and new remixes put together by Clan-affiliated producer/DJ Mathematics. Some of this material appeared on Mathematics’s solo albums, but since just about no one bought those, everything should sound fresh.

There’s nothing earth-shattering here, but for an album that’s essentially a collection of B-sides, it’s surprisingly consistent throughout, with every original member (including the late Ol’ Dirty Bastard) making an appearance. Mathematics

chose a relatively upbeat collection of songs, but the overall mood falls closer to the rockhard, minimalist aesthetic that originally defined the group (perhaps because some of the material dates as far back as the sessions for 2000’s The W, arguably the last truly great Wu-Tang album). While Mathematics can’t match the cold, brutal grit of the RZA’s production on the group’s early albums, the disc gives him a chance to display his versatility. He laces “Respect 2010” with an eerie keyboard loop, understated drums, and an AZ vocal sample, then gives the very next track a blaring horn line and pounding snare.

It may be surprising that the Clan is still able to produce such quality music almost two decades after its inception in 1992, but the MCs seem to be aware of their status as rap’s elder statesmen.

“I was here before the dinosaur, shining, defying law/ measuring every inch of the earth, and combining chemicals” spits the RZA on “Iron God Chamber.” On “John 3:16,” Method Man, who for years has rapped like an angry old guy, reminds listeners “by now, if you don’t know me, you better know my flow.”

Return of the Wu and Friends

Help wanted: GU’s music scene Even now, over four years later, it’s hard to say exactly what I expected of the so-called “Georgetown Music Scene” when I first arrived on campus in 2006. Readers familiar with D.C.’s illustrious hardcore punk history understand the sort of fantastical possibilities that one can dream up: perhaps a homegrown, vibrant collection of bands that plays often and supports one another, or maybe even a student body that pays more attention to its musicians than to its football team—a fair expectation at Georgetown. The first student-organized music event I attended on campus—a concert put on by WGTB in Bulldog Alley that was attended by a paltry 10 to 15 people—was a harbinger of the truth: the “Georgetown Music Scene” exists vividly in daydreams, but re-

mains, in actuality, spotty at best.

Let me be specific. I’m not talking about the Jazz Band, the Marching Band, the Chimes, or even Cabaret. I’m referring to a student-run, do-it-yourself, wewrite-and-perform-our-ownsongs sort of “scene.” The kind that offers shows on weekends and dreams of putting on more in between. One that has its resource-oriented stars and leaders aligned in a neat row. You know, the kind we don’t have at Georgetown.

I think a natural reaction to this discovery—and one of the most popular knee-jerk reactions on the Hilltop—is to blame the University. The most glaring issue my freshman year was that there was no reliable location for aspiring student bands to practice. That problem was quickly resolved when the Guild

isn’t much more than a collection of B-sides curated by a longtime affiliate of the clan. But coming off the strength of Raekwon, Ghostface, and U-God’s strong 2009 albums, the release fits nicely into the recent Wurenaissance. If nothing else, it’ll tide you over until Method Man, Ghostface, and Raekwon’s WuMassacre in March.

Voice’s Choices: “Respect 2010,” “Iron God Chamber,” “John 3:16” —Sean Quigley

Shout Out Louds, Work, Merge Records While mixing easy-going pop rock with heartfelt lyrics Sweden’s own Shout Out Louds have been attracting buzz since their last release, 2007’s Our Ill of Bands, an organization with access to a practice space in the basement in New North, was created in the spring of 2006. In one fell swoop, the University not only gave these bands a place to practice, but a sure-fire way to meet other musicians around campus. And its worked incredibly well—the Guild of Bands grows in size each semester.

Yr Blues

by Daniel Cook

a bi-weekly column about music Beyond practice space, some maintain that a lack of venues kills the scene—yet another fallacy. We have Bulldog Alley, Alumni Lounge, Walsh Blackbox, Red Square, and Gaston Hall, not to mention more interesting locales like the LXR Rooftop or the steps of White Gravenor. In reality, there are few convenient places to play

Wills, broke into the Billboard Heatseekers chart. Despite gaining acclaim and popularity in their homeland, the group has yet to cultivate a large fan base in the US. After a half-year hiatus, Shout Out Louds are back with Work, a bona fide 80s mope tribute. This is hardly a knock on their style, though. The Cure’s influence on the group’s sound is apparent when Adam Olenius’s accent leaks through and keyboards follow point for point with synthesized strings and horns.

The understated way the group plays is both refreshing and easy on the ears. It’s fun, sing-along pop without the guilt.

Without the typical bouncing bass lines, loud drums, and big guitars more prevalent in pop rock, lead guitars strum through reverb and drop swift, zippy lines without attracting too much attention to themselves.

Even as a guitar scratches out a solo, your ear is paying more attention to the one playing the melody. In a period where electronic effects and distortion are as popular as ever, it’s nice to hear a band playing well as an ensemble on instruments that don’t need access to a 3G network. Shout Out Louds don’t try at Georgetown, but there are so many potential venues that it basically mitigates the point. It just takes an open mind and a bit of creativity.

The real Achilles heel of the “Georgetown Music Scene” isn’t a lack of decent bands, places to play, or even a stratified audience. It’s a leadership vacuum—there are too few students who are willing to shoulder the burdens of logistical organization. When attempted by a small contingency of students, putting on a show can be a ton of work: not only do you need to prepare your songs and play well, but you also need to promote the event, transport equipment, set everything up, avoid pissing anyone off, thank everyone for coming, take everything down, and then summon the will to do it all over again a few weeks later. Even at a pace of playing, say, one show per month, it can be an intimidating amount of ef-

anything tricky, or new: no crass lyrics, no super producer, and no celebrity collaborations—just an honest effort.

The songwriting is neither sappy nor overwrought, the bridges are brilliant, the riffs stay light and the chord progressions stay unpredictable despite walking the dangerous line between indie pop and pop punk. At some points the synthesizers get a little campy, but face it, they’re endearing. This album also brings the loser/lover figure back to rock music. With the majority of new music being either danceable or introspective, there hasn’t been a rock figure you can feel sorry for yourself with. It just makes me sorry I missed the Smiths.

Work is a darn solid effort, but it just isn’t memorable enough.

Our Ill Wills had a bolder sound, where Work is too shy. Without big hooks or emotional suspense the album loses the attention of its listener. Imagine Peter, Bjorn, and John fronted by Charlie Brown. Sure, he’s likeable, but he’ll never be the most popular kid in school.

Voice’s Choices: “1999,” “Fall Hard,” “Paper Moon” —Nico Dodd fort, especially if it involves borrowing equipment or trying to convince your friends to come see you play yet again.

Georgetown simply lacks an industrious middle-man or woman—someone who wants to set up shows day-in-and-dayout, run sound checks, and chase down bands with no compensation besides the basic satisfaction that accompanies hard work and the opportunity to enjoy student-produced music. The “scene” desperately needs its own Bill Graham or a Todd P—a role Georgetown musicians, myself included, have failed to fill.

It may just be laziness or pessimism, but unless Georgetown student bands figure out a way to share organizational responsibilities more efficiently, the scene will continue to wait for is logistical messiah.

Offer Dan a ride in your van at dcook@georgetownvoice.com

fiction

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 13

In Between

by Stephano Medina They were blocks of homes and hardware stores, each a different shade of the same rust and brick. Sidewalks glistened with the morning’s rain and shallow gutters were aspiring to mirrors. The road ended at 36th Street three miles down, far past the attention and eyes of anybody worth a walking damn. Behind the parallel rows of bricks rose higher buildings, the concrete middle-men between street-side America and the steel tower horizon.

A young seventeen could walk down the middle of that street and see the city rise slowly on either side of him, increasing in metallic splendor from shining gutters to the scrapers’ gleaming panes. He could walk down that street, in the dead set middle, and see himself six months after a fork of forest fire trails, finally clear of months of doubt and the spectre of other possibilities. He could look up and see Indian summer painted above his head, the woods typically brimming with life while hiding all of any beast.

Before eighteen, seventeen would learn that it was the dead wind that made the trees seem alive, that tossed the autumn into his hair, that even made half the sounds he took for the unseen birds.

But before that second fork, that still seventeen could walk down the soft floor and see instead the city, the city that doesn’t hide its beasts, or, thankfully, its birds. He could stray away from the center of such a street and kick the sunlight up from the gutters to join the gleams. Miles away from the street’s end, his lips were hardened into a softness that begged to be touched, that pleaded not to be peeled. He could walk and notice that all the sitting cars rose like small hills from the asphalt, the spring peonies

born from that morning’s rain. He could imagine the thing girls with their large hats and swaying bags to be the lovely tendrils of a rustled grapevine.

There he might have prayed, prayed that his imagination would stay safe, would always strafe away from all too natural judgments. He wanted to sit now with this pleasant season, this afternoon of waltzing extremes, each height with each trough, so delicious.

Despite alone, any sentence, any at all, was still dangerous, chances to be proved base and unequal to what he lived off of. An afternoon of simple color, with every sensation enjoying its own moment; nothing he knew had to be said. The pants over his legs riding caressingly up against his thigh as he walked. Breezes that seemed to flow for the curves of his face. Breaths that brought into his legs the scent and tempo of a beating world. Each new second a surprise equal to the uniqueness of a new life, each new constellation of salt and rock on the sidewalk, each new taste of world.

Rather than grow faint, unsustainable, the stream of beauty, of terror, of crust and marbled pearl seemed to guarantee the next one, implying in themselves that nothing less could follow. With this to us unimaginable confidence, he jaunted smiling at the passing alleys from the corner of his eyes: he knew himself untemptable.

And then a company of grey sparrow flew over from the right-hand trees, and again each new dozen that followed swelled his incredulity, until it didn’t anymore, and a seventeen walking under them, a boy, could have after moments looked back down to walk further along the street, knowing that if he ever wanted grey sparrows to see, there they would be in the sky’s stream.

This promise was, like every other one, unspoken. But as a seventeen walks further along his way to the unthought of end to a three-mile street, or before the next months-away fork, he might think that the promise the silence stood on was itself standing on a hidden promise, a promise glossed over, a promise intentionally hidden and intentionally forgotten. The word “bird” would hide the thighs swaying up the street, just as “why” would move the cars too quickly to be hills. The sun itself could survive a moan, the autumn live past sighs, but thoughts more than a whisper swell too loud. He had promised not to speak.

It was six months ago, two weeks after escaping Side View, that the boy had come to a forest fork, the right road heading home, to words and people, economies and to his name. But there was also another road, that was not he could admit much of a road, just like the fork was not he could admit much of a fork, which lead into a forest scored like music for the wind, an instrument for any a whistler with breath to spare from panting. Today leaves are there, leaves to be rustled and breathed into. In the autumn there would be plenty cool breezes to do the job. Gaps within and between moth-eaten maples left room enough for cities, and grapevine tendrils swayed as hips might have done. He saw a beauty natural talent could improve, a fantasy with only thought for an enemy. He saw cities softened by rain and light, girls dancing with every step, and cars grown safe as burial mounds.

In the autumn he knew a seventeen could walk through that wood, all the way to 36th Street even, in the dead set middle of the road even. Six months ago, sixteen saw that silence, and with the last spoken words spoke a promise that silence was divine, that trembling beauty could quiet, and promised his desperation that it would be enough.

voices

14 the georgetown voice

february 25, 2010

Intellect virtually absent in the online classroom

by Robert Duffley Usually after asking me for technological aid, my grandfather loves to tell me about the era before computers defined communication—proudly showing me his old but still functional typewriter.

Many truly gifted writers, he says, never made the jump from typewriter to computer, preferring the ability to interact with text in ways computer screens don’t allow.

I never used to empathize with Luddites, but as Georgetown professors have begun asking me to blog about reading assignments and returning essays via e-mail with comments and corrections made using track changes, I’m starting to feel pangs of sympathy for the disgruntled typists, still clattering away at their cherished relics.

On all other fronts, I’m all for the takeover of technology. I scoff when my mother can’t send a text message, and I know I wouldn’t make it through the day without iCal. But the forced migration of

academic endeavors to the Internet leaves me feeling cold and amateurish.

My loudest complaint is the impersonality of the online model. There’s something reassuring and intimate about a hand-corrected paper. To print a paper is to finalize it, making change all but impossible. Printing a paper brings the writer’s ideas and craft into the physical world. In a realm as tenuous and self-conscious as academia, tangibility provides a reassuring degree of legitimacy.

A professor’s handwritten corrections are a sign that, even if the grade is poor, the student’s effort received individualized attention. Inserting feedback via track changes, or any online form, is chillingly anonymous and curt.

“Class Blog” may sound hip and sleek in the mind of a department chair, but any student who has ever spent twenty minutes procrastinating in Lau knows that, while some legitimate online academic endeavors exist, they are vastly outnumbered by sites where amateurs roar their

often baseless and ad hominem opinions into the electronic abyss. By name alone, blogs imply a casualness and informality that doesn’t mesh with the serious thought elicited by professors’ prompts. For me, at least, “blog assignment” will always summon up images of Perez Hilton and LiveJournal, not the sober academic forum I’m sure my educators intend.

I am not wholly against the idea of online academic discussion, or generally using technology in the classroom. Videos, PowerPoint presentations, and picture can do a great deal to enrich lessons. MIT’s OpenCourseWare system, which provides academic materials for free online, is another example of a truly ingenious modernization of academia and the sharing potential of the Internet. Georgetown is experimenting with this medium and could see benefits—and possibly an increase in institutional cachet—if it expanded its own online course offerings beyond the current eight.

And while online discussion of course material could be beneficial, the ideal is currently far beyond reach. As the matter stands now, replacing short essays turned in for feedback with essays copiedand-pasted into a three-inch Blackboard window actually weakens students’ grip on the fundamentals of structured writing. And if I wanted significant portions of my interaction with professors and classmates to take place online, I could have pursued admittance to the University of Phoenix.

To best use the web’s collaborative technology, the school must concentrate on devising new ways to propose and discuss ideas, rather than new ways to submit them.

Especially when teachers are slow in responding to online assignments, the enterprise becomes not just alienating but also futile. The University’s blogs should instead become arenas for instant, collaborative feedback on students’ original work, not informal substitutes for short essays.

I’ve heard that this sort of collaboration is what the University is

striving for, but at present the system is still too blocky and hard to navigate in most cases. And I can’t shake the feeling that the driving reason behind the integration of technology into the classroom is that administrators enjoy the hip feeling that accompanies namedropping new-fangled terms like “tweet” and “thread.”

Then again, it may just be that this is the logical progression of things, and I am merely a myopic stick in the mud. If so, I will continue to mutter my discontent as the world rushes past me, toward an enlightened state I see as artificial and impersonal. I will humbly ask for a place beside the typewriter enthusiasts, perhaps one day showing my grandchildren the simple but beloved machines I call “printers” and “staplers.”

Robert Duffley is a freshman in the College and assistant design editor for the Voice. His favorite website it wtfjapan seriously.com.

My brother Kyle: A special lesson in human value

by Keaton Hoffman As the Winter Olympics come to a close, the time comes once again for us to return to our routine TV schedules, oblivious to the physically disabled who are competing in the Winter Paralympics. The games resemble the Winter Olympics, with patriotic fanfare and fierce competition, except these athletes are, of course, handicapped. With only five sports—alpine skiing, biathlon, cross country skiing, wheelchair curling, and sledge hockey—the Paralympics is a minor spectacle compared to the lavish and gaudy celebration that precedes it. While the International Olympic Committee pats itself on the back for representing a disenfranchised minority, much of the world is unaffected. And even though I have a handicapped older brother, I count myself in that apathetic majority.

My older brother Kyle suffers from a rare and serious congenital disorder, which (for those biology majors out there) consists of an extra 15th chromosome fragment, similar to the way mutations on the 21st chromosome cause Down Syndrome. With fewer than 100 known cases ever reported,

the doctors still have no idea thing alone, needing full-time for my parents to bear. Because how to treat or deal with his supervision by trained profes- both my parents work full time, illness besides pumping him sionals. Struggling with sei- we were physically unable to with drugs at every meal. The zures and symptoms of autism, care for Kyle any longer. symptoms are severe. Low In our home state of muscle tone makes all California, the system movement difficult. Hardthat looks after people ly able to walk or speak, he with mental disabilities struggles with many of the has not been kind to my same physical detriments brother. Barred from as those athletes who comfacilities based on his pete in the Paralympics. gender, his size, his conMy brother’s condition dition, his day-to-day also makes him severely inadequacies, his medications, and his violent mentally retarded. My partendencies, the state has ents first noticed his inteltossed him around with lectual impediments when, minimal care for his wellat two years old, he seemed to struggle with learning being. Currently, he has how to speak. They never no home, kicked out of expected that, at age 19, the last facility for being he still wouldn’t be able to “too much to handle.” convey meaning through Fighting the clock and a speech. chronically underfunded As a student attendsystem, we have only two ing one of the nation’s top options: my parents must universities, I’m graded either quit their jobs or Courtesy KEATON HOFFMAN and valued based on how send him to a facility that I express what I know, in Kyle and Keaton Hoffman outside their home in CA. resembles a prison more a constant struggle to assert in- he has no choice but to take a lot than a home. tellectual prowess. But how do of medication. The drugs keep While it’s hard for me to see I reconcile this system of valu- him alive, but they also alter my brother scorned by his couning people with the abilities of his hormone levels, making him try like this, in a way, I undermy brother, who won’t ever be excessively violent. I’ve had to stand. Why should we expect able to read? Does his lack of fend him off from attacking my anyone to care for those who lack ability make him less valuable little sister and mom, because he the very cognizant functions that than me? didn’t get the cookie he wanted. make us human? Why should Kyle can’t go to the restroom By the time he reached his early we pour our tax dollars into proalone, can’t eat alone, can’t bathe teens, the weight of caring for grams that care for children who, alone—he can’t really do any- my brother became too much thanks to modern genetic tech-

nology, can be terminated, avoiding all the hardship? What value does he have to our society? He can’t vote, marry, procreate, pay taxes, work, create art, converse.

Hell, he can’t even compete in the Paralympics. What good is he?

I’ll tell you what he’s good for. On a day when you’re feeling stressed from trying to live up to all of the expectations that everyone has for you to be the best, the strongest, the prettiest, the smartest—he is serene. Seeing him laugh as he watches an episode of Barney that he’s seen hundreds of times teaches me that my value comes not from my accomplishments, but from being who I was made to be. He is who he is.

So while I think it’s great that we honor our handicapped athletes in the Paralympics, I also know that their value doesn’t come from their performance on the slopes or on the rink. It comes from inside. From who they are.

And Kyle doesn’t need a gold medal for the world, the state, or you to know that he’s worth something.

Keaton Hoffman is a freshman in the School of Foreign Service and copy editor for the Voice. He still loves Barney, too.

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15

Yoga’s not about looking good in your lululemon

by Madeleine Joelson Georgetown students love their exercise. Anyone who goes to Yates around 5 p.m. knows that you have a better chance of getting into Otto Hentz’s Problem of God class than finding a vacant treadmill. The alternative is sharing the sidewalk with the swarms of outdoor runners— huffing and puffing along, looking miserable. But Georgetown

has another category of overzealous athletes, easily recognizable by the yoga mats sticking out of their backpacks.

Most of the yoga-goers that you see on a daily basis are probably on their way to Down Dog, the hot yoga studio on Potomac.

Unlike Bikram, hot yoga takes place in a room whose temperature is kept at about 95 degrees.

And while Bikram is a series of 26 separate poses, hot vinyasa is more like one long dance with

JIN-AH YANG

Ommmmmm my Buddah, I’m never going to reach Moksha with her here.

breath-linked movements. But in this particular studio, there isn’t actually that much room to move beyond your mat. I can’t figure out how they fit so many sweaty bodies in that tiny, sweltering yoga studio, but every time I go, it seems to get more crowded.

Judging by the G-inscribed paraphernalia in Down Dog’s changing area, most of these yogis are Georgetown students. I started practicing last semester, and it seems like I can hardly do a flip dog without hitting a Georgetown student next to me. The preponderance of Hoyas at Down Dog made me wonder why these girls in their snazzy lululemon outfits decided to become such dedicated yoga students.

I’m afraid the answer may be just that—the clothes, and, more specifically, looking hot in said clothes. Yoga has developed a secondary function, as a platform for athletic-gear fashion statements. A quick scan around the Down Dog studio reveals a concentration of stylized “A” lululemon logos outmatched only by the store itself.

The influx of spandex-sporting, yoga-mat-toting students trekking down to M Street means not only an increase in yoga clothing sales, but also a sharp decline in studio floor space for

Real fans tailgate ... why don’t we?

A couple of days into the new year, I found myself standing in the middle of a massive parking lot wearing three pairs of pants. I tried to shield myself from the harsh, freezing wind by taking shelter against the side of a Winnebago that probably had not seen a good day since the Carter Administration. Around the lot, men huddled over fires in metal trash cans, evoking scenes from every post-apocalyptic film ever made.

Contrary to what you might guess, I was not trying to recreate The Road. In the dead of winter, I, and the tens of thousands of other people in the parking lot, were waiting for the start of the final football game ever played in Giants Stadium, featuring the New York Jets and the Cincinnati Bengals.

I say that we were waiting for the start of the game, but that’s not really accurate. We knew when the game would start, but we were in no particular rush to hurry into the stadium. In our encampment, there were two grills burning, a table full of food, coolers full of beer, and a fire to keep us warm. The aforementioned Winnebago had a bathroom, meaning that we didn’t have to cross the lot to brave the public Porta-Potties.

The tailgate is a sacred tradition in my family. For the unitiated, tailgates are basically boozy picnics in sports stadium parking lots. For as long as I can remember, my father, uncle, and their friends have been leaving for every Jets home game as much as four hours before kickoff to get a prime spot in the parking lot and party with

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friends in the lead-up to the game. I have been lucky enough to go to several of these tailgates, which only became more fun as I got older and started bringing my own friends to join in the revelry.

To fight off the extremitynumbing cold, my friends and I would take shots of Jameson’s

Carrying On

by Daniel Newman A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

at regular intervals. Throw in some fresh-cooked steak, fried chicken, and a handful of beers, and we could easily last the three hours until the game finally started.

But being at the tailgate last month just made me sad that we don’t have the chance to enjoy them at Georgetown.

Between having a football team that could be outcoached by Helen Keller and a basketball team that plays in an arena in the middle of downtown

my mat. I’m not complaining about the situation, though. I want the studio to do well, because if it ever went out of business, I don’t know what I would do with myself. Yoga keeps me relaxed, grounded, centered, and happy. I may sound like a crazy new-age hippie, but to me, there is simply nothing better.

That said, the idea of doing yoga just to look good in my yoga clothes is bizarre to me.

Of course, the added benefit of a strong, toned body is nice, but yoga is supposed to be about harmonizing the mind, body, and spirit—not just working out the body.

I find that some people hate doing yoga just as much as they hate going to the gym or running. I see the same pained expressions on their faces as they move through their sun saluations as I do when I see them sprint down the sidewalks. I understand the “no pain-no gain” mentality, but it seems out of place in a yoga studio. So many people dread and complain about those 90 hot minutes, and yet they force themselves through it. I admire the tenacity, but, honestly, yoga is meant to be enjoyed. It is impossible to reap its full rewards while hat-

Washington, the opportunities for tailgating are few and far between.

Being in the middle of an urban environment seriously hinders potential tailgaiting. The most essential part of tailgating is the tailgate, meaning that there need to be cars involved, or failing that, a decent-sized parking lot. The University understands this, which is why the school-sanctioned tailgate at homecoming took place in the parking lot outside of McDonough.

Sure, I’ve done my share of pregaming for basketball games and other school-sponsored events, but its just not the same. A 30 rack of Keystone Light is only so satisfying, especially when compared with the full meal, complete with five or six different types of meat, that you can enjoy while tailgating.

Clearly on-campus living severely hinders my tailgating aspirations, and my near-catatonic laziness certainly does not help matters. At this point, the most my friends and I can usually muster is heating up some Pizza Bagels, opening a few bags of chips from Vittles, and, if someone is feeling really adventurous, testing one

ing every second of it.

I’m not saying that everybody needs to love yoga as I do, but it would be nice if all these people doing vinyasas next to me actually knew what it meant to practice yoga. I’m not a guru, but there is a certain attitude that is not conducive to the practice of yoga.

Often, when I tell people how much yoga I do, the response is, “Wow you must be so in shape!

How much weight have you lost?” The answer? I have no idea! I guess I’m in shape, but who knows?

The point is that when I go to yoga on a regular basis, I am happy with my body, my life and myself. Yoga doesn’t have to be—and in fact shouldn’t be—a serious, solemn affair, and it’s fine if yoga is not the most important thing in your life. But if you see it as just one more way to judge yourself and everyone else, then you’re probably better off just going to the gym. I’m pretty sure you can wear cute clothes there, too.

Maddy is a freshman in the College. Her favorite yoga position is the Ananda Balasana—the Happy Baby pose. of those guacamole kits from Trader Joe’s. And, of course, decimating the 30 rack of Keystone Light.

The key aspect of tailgating is not the drinking, though, but rather the combination of the outdoors and food. Out in the elements, providing sustenance for each other, tailgating is how the obese modern American man gets in touch with his hunting ancestors. Instead of a bow and arrow, there is a small Weber charcoal grill.

Instead of a live deer, there are hamburger patties. Tailgating may not be the most challenging of activities, but it has its own unique charms.

For now, though, we are all reliant on Georgetown’s homecoming tailgate to satisfy our need for drinking and eating in a parking lot. Given the way the football team plays, perhaps the University should replace the multisport field with a parking lot.

Daniel Newman is a senior in the School of Foreign Service and a contributing editor for the Voice.

He prefers hotdogs to hamburgers.