4 26 2012

VOICE the georgetown

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Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w April 26, 2012 w Volume 47, Issue 1 w georgetownvoice.com

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april 26, 2012

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Voice Crossword “Finals Week Woes” by Tyler Pierce 1

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answers at georgetownvoice.com

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51. Raccoon relative 52. Leaves of a book 53. Indigenous groups 54. Natty-drinking gym buds 55. Wrath 56. 43,560 square feet 58. Penny 59. Worked the soil

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editorial

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VOICE the georgetown

Volume 46.13 April 26, 2012 Editor-in-Chief: Leigh Finnegan Managing Editor: Keaton Hoffman Blog Editor: Vanya Mehta News Editor: Gavin Bade Sports Editor: Kevin Joseph Feature Editor: Julia Tanaka Cover Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Leisure Editor: Mary Boroweic Voices Editor: Claire McDaniel Photo Editor: Lucia He Design Editors: Amanda Dominquez, Madhuri Vairapandi Projects Editor: Christie Geaney, Cannon Warren Puzzles Editor: Tyler Pierce Assistant Blog Editors: Connor Jones, Morgan Manger, Jamie Niu Assistant News Editors: Julia Jester, Matt Weinmann Assistant Sports Editor: Steven Criss Assistant Leisure Editors: Will Collins, Julia Lloyd-George, Kirill Makarenko Assistant Photo Editors: Julian de la Paz, Matt Thees Assistant Design Editors: Lauren Ashley Panawa

Staff Writers:

Mary Cass, Will Collins, Jane Conroy, Shom Mazumder, Eileen McFarland, Matt Pacana, Paul Quincy, Adam Rosenfeld, Jake Schindler, Melissa Sullivan, Fatima Taskomur, Ambika Tripathi

Staff Photographers:

Nick Baker, Max Blodgett, Kirill Makarenko, Tim Markatos, Jackson Perry

Copy Chief: Tori Jovanovski Copy Editors:

Patricia Cipollitti, Kim Tay

Editorial Board Chair: Rachel Calvert Editorial Board:

Aisha Babalakin, Gavin Bade, Patricia Cipollitti, Keaton Hoffman, Julia Jester, Linnea Pittman, Cole Stangler

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

The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

This newspaper was made possible in part with the support of Campus Progress, a project of the Center for American Progress,

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

Mailing Address: Georgetown University The Georgetown Voice Box 571066 Washington, D.C. 20057

Office: Leavey Center Room 424 Georgetown University Washington, D.C. 20057

Email: editor@georgetownvoice.com Advertising: business@georgetownvoice.com Web Site: georgetownvoice.com The opinions expressed in the Georgetown Voice do not necessarily represent the views of the administration, faculty or students of Georgetown University, unless specifically stated. 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: Voice Photo Contest Cover Photo: “Watcha Lookin’ At?” by Tiffany Kaul (SFS ‘13)

the georgetown voice 3 KEEP OFF THE GRASS

Administration’s attack on GU Day misguided Yesterday, the Office of Student Affairs announced that it would be imposing new restrictions on the previously unmitigated free-for-all that students knew and loved as Georgetown Day. According to an email sent by the Georgetown Day Planning Committee from the Division of Student Affairs’ email address, Copley Lawn will be fenced off and guarded by a cadre of security guards, DPS officers, University administrators, and student volunteers. The group will be tasked with preventing anyone from climbing over the metal barricades or bringing beverages of any kind onto the lawn. This is a clear attempt to clamp down on the festivities that Jeanne Lord has called, “a celebration by the campus community,” rather than “a celebration of the campus community.” Georgetown Day should remain a celebration of a difficult school year, a day when students can let loose and enjoy the camaraderie of the campus community.

Not only is the lawn one of the most beautiful places on campus, it is most amenable to the carnival-like atmosphere of the day—with the exception, perhaps, of the streets of Burleith. Georgetown Day replaced Block Party, a similar celebration that did not please the neighbors.

The University’s decision to ban festivities from the lawn, which is in attempt to appease the neighbors opposing the campus plan, will most likely relegate celebrating students to the neighborhood. With the Zoning Commission set to decide on Monday whether to hold even more Campus Plan hearings, the University’s move will most likely sow poorly-timed ill will among the most vocal of neighbors.

Some have pointed out that the administration brought Georgetown Day onto the lawn—complete with free food and inflatables—to memorialize David Schick (MSB ’01), a student who was killed in an altercation outside Lauinger Library in early 2001.

However, it is hypocritical for the administration to deplore student behavior as an act of disrespect for this student. After Schick’s death, the administration fought his family to keep the perpetrator’s punishment a secret—a punishment which consisted of a ten-page reflection paper and a suspension that was not even carried out. Good-natured celebration is nowhere near as disrespectful as this minimal punishment.

Last semester, the University tried to passively stifle Georgetown Day by neglecting to create an organizing committee as it had in years past. But even this attempt to actively undermine the institution will not stop students from enjoying the day. The community spirit that previously pervaded the lawn will be lost, but students will continue to celebrate their last day of classes in whatever way they see fit. Ultimately, the University’s diminishing of the Georgetown Day festivities is misguided, and entirely misses the point of a “celebration of the campus community.”

RELAY FOR INEFFICIENCY

Relay for Life not the most worthwhile charity On April 20, a crowd of 1,732 students, staff, and cancer survivors gathered on Multi-Sport Field to celebrate Georgetown’s 2012 Relay for Life, the primary fundraising arm for the American Cancer Society. For this year’s festivities, Georgetown students raised $205,093 for cancer research. That number, along with the overall turnout at the event, is a disappointment for a program that earned a peak donation of $402,000 in 2009 and attracted over 3,000 participants in 2011. Despite the drop, Relay for Life is still one of the most enthusiastic and widely attended charity events on campus. While such strong turnout for a charity event is laudable, it is disappointing that students dedicate such a small amount of time to causes that are equally pressing, though less visible in our community of privilege.

Cancer kills over half a million Americans each year; it certainly warrants our attention, and its survivors our respect. But Relay for Life is a woefully inefficient char-

ity. Upon examining the American CancerS ociety’s financial records, it becomes overwhelmingly clear that the funds raised by Relay for Life are not utilized to their full potential. According to Charity Navigator, an Internet watchdog for charitable organizations, in 2009—the the most recent year available—the ACS spent a middling 71.6 percent of its revenue on cancer research, wasting away 6.1 percent on staff salaries and another 22.2 percent on fundraising expenses. Such percentages are mediocre; many charitable organizations with far fewer resources are better stewards of donations. In 2009, CEO John Seffrin earned a chilling annual salary of $914,906. For an organization dedicated to funding research, these statistics are inexcusable.

Relay for Life spends an egregious amount of funds promoting its own brand.

Relay might try to justify these expenditures by claiming that its efforts boost cancer awareness, but among the most statistically

prevalent diseases, cancer is one of the most well-known.

In fact, the key to Relay for Life’s popularity is undoubtedly the ubiquity of cancer. Cancer sees no sex, class, race or sexual orientation. It takes lives indiscriminately, affecting people of every socioeconomic status. Meanwhile, diseases that predominately impact lower socioeconomic classes receive minimal attention. Take HIV/AIDS, which has reached epidemic levels in the District’s poorest wards. Given the available prevention and, albeit expensive, treatment methods available, AIDS ought to be a central focus of fundraising efforts on campus.

Unfortunately, it is not.

It is no surprise that at a university whose student body is overwhelmingly upper-class, white and privileged, cancer is better able to mobilize students on an enormous scale. Of course cancer is a serious killer, but it is a shame that a disease has to hit students close to home for them to care.

GREEN-ISH

Conscious consumerism proves detrimental

Last Sunday marked Earth Day, an occasion meant to raise awareness of environmental issues. The holiday usually produces a number of environmental rallies, film screenings, recycling raids, and other ecofriendly activities. However, increased commercial attention paid to Earth Day over the past few years has unfortunately distorted its true meaning of solidarity with the planet.

The commercialization of Earth Day coincides with the growing popularity of “green” consumer products—all part of a burgeoning “conscious consumerism” trend. Vague labels like “green” and “Earthfriendly” attract the attention of customers who are willing to buy what they perceive as the more morally qualified product, even if it is significantly more expensive. However, such labels are not assigned or verified by any sustainability monitoring agency.

Instead, they are simply clever marketing ploys by companies that capitalize on the

guilt of consumers constantly barraged by the apocalyptic consequences of climate change, genetically modified organisms, and “unnatural” chemicals.

It seems that all a company must do to assuage a customer’s fears is plaster a product with some sort of leaf, tree, or recycling symbol, dubbed “green-washing.” Even bottled water has come to be accepted as ecofriendly so long as one recycles, an attitude that focuses consumer responsibility only on the disposal, not on the actual purchase of a product. In this case, consumers are dissociated from the severe environmental and social harms of water extraction, bottle manufacturing, and transportation. Many do not know, for instance, that communities near the refineries that produce PET, the type of plastic that water bottles are made of, have incredibly high rates of pollution, asthma, and cancer.

Even labels that are legitimately certified by an association, such as the Marine Stew-

ardship Council’s certification for sustainable fisheries, have been shown to employ lax criteria fraught with loopholes. Most recently, MSC approved a fishery which accidentally kills 35,000 sharks and hundreds of endangered sea turtles every year. With such dubious standards, it is not clear whether one should even take “properly certified” products seriously as sustainable alternatives.

Today, to be green is to be en vogue.

While fads that promote environmental stewardship can obviously be positive, conscious consumerism has been manipulated to the point that it is superficial and illusory.

In this case, green-washing works to perpetuate—even justify—unsustainable patterns of unbridled consumption that exacerbate environmental degradation. If we want to truly celebrate the Earth, we must see past easy solutions by stepping out of the paradigm of blind consumption and into that of active sustainability.

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april 26, 2012

Occupy activists look to revive movement with May Day

by Eileen McFarland As the spring months begin, the Occupy movement faces questions about how to stay relevant since the forced evictions of major camps in D.C. and New York.

Members of Occupy Georgetown are similarly grappling with how to create an activist movement on campus. Both Occupy D.C. and Occupy Georgetown hope to build strength by uniting activists from different causes. A May 1 general strike known as “May Day” aims to demonstrate the continuation of the movement.

May Day will differ from the traditional general strike, which involves a widespread re-

fusal to work. Activist Zach Zill, who spoke at a teach-in held last month by Occupy Georgetown, explains that May Day will be “a day for the 99 percent” rather than “a day without the 99 percent.” “This should be a day for the immigrants, the unorganized workers, the unemployed, those facing layoffs or pay cuts, those making minimum wage, the 2.3 million incarcerated people in this country, the women who still make only 76 cents to a man’s dollar,” said Zill.

D.C. is slated for a more modest May Day than those in other cities. It will include an afternoon rally in Malcolm X park followed by a march to the White House in

Occupy activists are confronted by police at the Newt Gingrich protest

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the evening. “I think in New York City it’s going to be huge,” said activist Michael Haack of Occupy Our Homes, an anti-forclosure and housing security group. “People in New York have been working on it ever since Zuccotti was evicted,” referring to Zuccotti Park, the first public site occupied by activists and the enduring center of the movement.

Occupy decided to conduct its general strike on May Day because of the day’s historical significance. May Day became a labor holiday after the Haymarket Affair of May 1886, when anarchists were sentenced to death for a bombing which occurred at a labor rally after a trial that many deemed unjust. The strike’s timing challenges Occupy Georgetown because it occurs the day after classes end.

“We’re not trying to have a big major push to get students to show up to the rally, just because we’re kind of exhausted now that the term is almost over and everyone has finals,” Occupy Georgetown member Rob Byrne (COL ‘12) said. “But we’re going to be advertising it and encouraging everyone to come.”

Occupy Georgetown will also host workshops and meetings on May Day, including a talk with Michael Kazin, editor

of leftist magazine Dissent. Event organizers hope these opportunities will encourage networking among Georgetown activists and reinvigorate activism on campus.

Occupy Georgetown has already reached out to build coalitions with other organizations, such as marching with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to the Trayvon Martin rally in Freedom Plaza.

“GU Occupy is really helpful to the activist, progressive community as a whole,” NAACP copresident Jarvis Matthews (COL ‘12) said. “They have a thoughtout strategy about who they want to build coalitions with and how to accomplish their goals.”

Occupy Georgetown hopes to shift Georgetown’s campus culture to one that is more supportive of activism. “The idea is to get all [student groups that are] left-leaning, or progressive­—or whatever term you want to call them—student groups who are interested in social justice, talking with each other about what’s going on in D.C. or what’s going on campus, and to have them build a better network,” said Byrne.

Although Byrne and other students are involved in Occupy, there are some members of the campus community who do not support the movement.

“Occupy has gone about protesting wrong,” Kathryn Bolas, Director of Communications for Georgetown University College Republicans, wrote in an email.

“Whether or not you agree with the Tea Party, which some Republicans do not, you have to at least admire how they went about protesting their grievances. There was no violence and no arrests, unlike the Occupy protests.”

Occupy has faced criticism beyond its protest methods.

“There’s this famous ‘Occupydoesn’t-have-any-goals,” Haack said. “The best way to think of that is Occupy is a movement of movements. Just like the civil rights movement, it’s a bigger narrative that draws many narratives together.”

Recently, Occupy has also organized concrete initiatives to counter the accusations of aimlessness, such as Occupy Our Homes and Occupy Spring. “Broadly, what Occupy has done and what I think it will continue to do is infuse the language of economic injustice back into the lexicon of the United States,” said Haack. “The goal of Occupy Spring is to actually use that language to get real gains for people. People who are foreclosed or being evicted—keep them in their houses.”

Faculty question Rep. Paul Ryan’s use of Catholic social teaching

by Julia Jester Today, Representative Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) is slated to arrive on campus to speak at the 2012 Whittington Lecture, Georgetown Public Policy Institute’s annual event designed to promote education and awareness about policy issues. Since the announcement of his speech, Ryan has sparked controversy among the University’s Jesuit community over his use of Catholic social teaching in support of his budget policies. In anticipation of his presence on campus, Fr. Thomas Reese wrote a letter to Ryan on behalf of Georgetown’s Jesuit scholars, challenging his use of Catholic social teaching to defend his budget and its destructive impact on the poor.

The letter, which as of Wednesday was signed by over 90 Georgetown faculty members across numerous disciplines, welcomes Ryan and his visit as an op-

portunity for discourse regarding the role of Catholic social teaching in public policy. “Even though Paul Ryan [and his budget have] been criticized by US bishops,” said Reese, “we’re not saying he can’t be here, but what we are saying is he cannot use Catholic social teaching as a cover, or as an excuse, for a budget that cuts programs for the poor. We’re telling students, buyer beware…think critically as you’re listening to all he has to say.”

The letter goes after what they view as the un-Christian aspects of Ryan’s policies. “Your budget appears to reflect the values of your favorite philosopher, Ayn Rand, rather than the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” it reads. Fr. Reese described Ryan’s embrace of Rand as “really remarkable.” “I mean, this woman was very anti-religion and anti-compassion or serving the poor,” he said. “Her philosophy is based on selfishness, and almost pure libertarianism.”

Fr. Reese also criticizes Ryan’s interpretation of Catholic social teaching. “This is where he uses the term ‘subsidiarity,’ Catholic social teaching very much wants things done at the lowest level possible—but the word possible is important there,” he said. “And when something can’t be dealt with at the lowest level possible, then institutions at a higher level have a responsibility to step in and do something.”

Senior Research Fellow Fr. Raymond Kemp, who has a long history of activism on campus, including support for the Georgetown Solidarity hunger strikes in 2005, echoed that Rep. Ryan is welcome on campus, but his ideas should be questioned.

“I just want to make it clear— don’t come to a Catholic institution having used the Catholic social teaching on your budget without expecting a few Catholic [professors] and other professors who teach Catholic teaching to

say, ‘Excuse me representative, but… you’re not going to get an A in this class,’” he said.

GPPI Director Lauren Mullins said that kind of dialogue was precisely the reasoning behind selecting Rep. Ryan as the Whittington Lecturer.“There’s [controversy] right now over competing approaches to how to deal with the growing gap between spending and tax revenue that’s coming up in the next couple of decades,” she said. “While some people disagree with his position, there’s no denying that Ryan is at the center of the efforts to resolve these issues. He’s one of the leading voices on the hill on the future of the budget, so we thought that he would be a great speaker to have.”

Fr. Kemp, echoing his fellow signatories to the letter, says GPPI is right to welcome him to campus. “I think that the GPPI is interested in promoting discussion, dialogue, and debate, I think that the invitation is very well placed…to

have him come here and open up his thought processes to the public policy crowd.”

But while they do not challenge Ryan being on campus, the scholars who signed the letter have different hopes for the lecture, urging students to challenge Ryan. “Part of what we as Jesuits try to instill at Georgetown is the whole idea of service,” Reese said. “We’re supposed to be people for others and because of this great opportunity we have been given, we have a corresponding responsibility to help people who haven’t had all the advantages that we’ve had. You just don’t hear that in the Ryan budget.”

Reese’s motivation behind sending the letter was to challenge Ryan and what he views as Catholic teaching to support his budget. Lucky for Ryan, the scholars included a copy of the Vatican’s Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church to “help deepen [his] understanding of Catholic social teaching.”

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the georgetown voice 5

Letters to University show campus divide on birth control

by Morgan Manger In the past two weeks, President John J. DeGioia has received two letters from groups of students, both on Georgetown’s Main Campus and the Law Campus, concerning the current debate over the University providing birth control under the student health care plan.

The first letter, spearheaded by law student Matthew Sheptuck (LAW ’13), was sent to DeGioia on April 17. Signed by 102 undergraduates, graduate students, and alumni stretching back to the 1950s, the letter professed a desire for the University to clarify its position on the birth control debate, and expressed the hope that Georgetown would stay true to its Jesuit and Catholic heritage. “[The letter] was basically to call on the University to clarify and reaffirm its current policy on the issue and basically to restate the University’s rich pro-life legacy,” Sheptuck said.

Sheptuck and other signatories believe that the dialogue concerning student contraceptive access via campus health care plans has largely omitted or ignored a subset of the student population.These student groups feel that Fluke’s recent campus visit should have

presented an opportunity for campus discussion on the contentious issue instead of just allowing her to voice her own opinions.

“We hope that there will be further dialogue on [the issue], that was one of the main reasons we wrote the letter,” Kevin Sullivan (SFS ’14), a signatory of the letter and board member of the Georgetown chapter of the Roman Catholic fraternal service organization Knights of Columbus, said. “We want an open dialogue as opposed to having a one-sided dialogue, so that we can all be on same ground of discussing. We’re looking for the University to clarify its position so that we can continue with an informed, open dialogue.”

The second letter was written by law students Sandra Fluke (LAW ‘12), Christina Postolowski (LAW ‘12), and Kelly Percival (LAW ‘13), and has been signed by 780 law students, almost of the campus. The letter, which was sent to DeGioia last Thursday, focuses on how, under the Affordable Care Act, Georgetown could wait an extra year to add birth control to its student health care plans because it is considered a religious institution. The letter sought to encourage University leaders not to delay, but instead to add birth control to the 2012 plan.

Crony capitalism at NLRB

In a well-functioning democracy, it would seem that a highranking public official passing on sensitive information to the industry which he or she is in charge of regulating would cause an immense political scandal— especially when the official in question is leaking information to a top advisor of one of the major presidential candidates.

But when that agency is the National Labor Relations Board—the government agency charged with regulating labor practices and certifying unions— Terrence Flynn’s egregious violations have been largely ignored.

Instead, they’re lost among the barrage of other scandals, such as Mitt Romney traveling with his dog tied to his car’s roof or Ann Romney trading barbs with a corporate lobbyist-cum-pundit.

This is terribly unfortunate, because Flynn’s alleged violations are severe, and appear to be unprecedented in the almost 80year history of the NLRB.

Released in late March, the NLRB Inspector General’s report alleged that Flynn, who serves as chief counsel to GOP NLRB board member Brian Hayes and was recently nominated by President Obama to fill one the board’s five slots (pending congressional approval), broke ethics rules by trading private NLRB case information for personal gain to several anti-union firms.

These violations include passing on information to Peter Schaumber, Romney’s labor policy cochair, who left the NLRB in 2010.

Despite the allegations, Flynn has yet to resign, both Romney’s campaign and the White House (which promoted Flynn in January) have yet to comment, and despite the recommendations of the NLRB report, the Justice Department has so far refused to launch an investigation. The presumptive GOP nominee’s silence is particularly distasteful, since, as journalist Josh Eidelson has previously noted, Romney

“We wanted to show Georgetown that there was a lot of student support for contraception coverage.” said Postolowski. “We want to encourage them to cover contraception in 2012.”

Percival added that, “We want to make sure that the University doesn’t make a decision without hearing the students.”

Fluke agreed with these points but also focused on the importance of adding contraception to the health care plan for the well-being of Georgetown students. “Women have those health care needs now and the University should be putting their welfare first,” Fluke wrote in an email. “The current insurance plan is inadequate for them and plagued with breakdowns.”

While the letter was signed entirely by law students, undergraduate groups such as H*yas for Choice have been working to increase student involvement on Georgetown’s main campus.

“We have a similar version of the petition [from the law students] going around for the main campus,” Laura Narefsky (COL ’14), Publicity Director for H*yas for Choice, said.

“We’re hoping to send it in to the administration before the end of school.” is no stranger to weighing in on NLRB matters. On the campaign trail in South Carolina, he called the NLRB “an unaccountable and out-of-control agency.”

And when an internal email was leaked last fall and showed NLRB general counsel Lafe Solomon appearing to joke about hurting the economy, Romney called for Solomon’s immedi-

union Jack

by Cole Stangler

A bi-weekly column on national politics and policy ate resignation. Now that a far greater scandal has directly implicated his chief labor advisor, he has kept mum.

The hypocrisy is stunning. In recent years, Republicans have blasted the non partisan NLRB for being biased against employers. Much like the unwarranted attacks against the Environmental Protection Agency, the NLRB has been accused of catering to special interests, pursuing an anti-business agenda, and doing the dirty work of a non existent

The University has acknowledged the receipt of both letters, but has not responded to either. It has yet to release a statement concerning the school’s official stance on the issue, though in an email Assistant Vice President for Communications Stacy Kerr recognized that leaders have heard from groups on all sides of the issue.

“The leadership of the University is grateful for the respectful dialogue that students and faculty with differing views have engaged in over the past few months,” wrote Kerr. “We are continuing to consider this issue thoughtfully and are fol-

lowing the legislative process carefully.”

Although students involved understand the University’s desire to take time to consider the subject, many think that it needs to participate in the discussiowwn as well.

“All of us, including the University, stand with DeGioia in his calling for a legitimate dialogue about the subject,” Stephen Levy (SFS ‘13), Deputy Grand Knight of the Knights of Columbus and another signatory of the first letter, said. “We’re just asking the University to participate as well. It can be impartial but it can’t be invisible, that’s unfair to students.”

FlicKR

Law student Sandra Fluke has led the charge for birth control coverage for students vast left-wing conspiracy—all of this, despite that the Board has also restricted aggressive action on the part of unions against employers in more than a few cases. But now that a Republican appears to have been using his position on the board to benefit firms that directly undermine the NLRB’s purpose, the GOP has remained entirely silent.

Just imagine the response if a Democrat were found to be funneling case information to unions or to a pro-labor candidate in the 2012 elections. The backlash would have made pot bellied pill popper Rush Limbaugh’s attack on Sandra Fluke seem tame by comparison. In the end, though, it’s not really the Republicans’ silence that has been so upsetting; their reaction is, after all, woefully predictable.

What’s more revealing is the lack of coverage in the mainstream media. With the exception of some very vocal pressure from labor advocates and coverage by labor journalists, the whole af-

fair has received scant attention in the national press. MSNBC, the supposed bastion of contemporary American liberalism, has devoted little to no attention to this scandal. It’s a sad reflection of the press’s disregard for labor issues and of how the interests of organized labor continue to be trampled on by a wide swath of media groups.

While the NLRB has been targeted by big business since its inception in 1935, organized labor has never been as under attack as it is today, nor has corporate America ever been so powerful.

In other words, here was a story waiting to write itself—a major presidential campaign directly implicated in the transfer of public goods and information into private coffers, prime evidence of the kind of crony capitalism that inspired the Occupy movement last September. Unfortunately, it seems the bigger story is that nobody seems to care.

Show Cole how you value his labor at cstangler@georgetownvoice.com

sports

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april 26, 2012

Sims and Clark bid farewell at Hoya banquet

by Tim Shine The Georgetown men’s basketball team may have played its last game over a month ago, but this season officially came to the end last Thursday with the annual team banquet. The players and coaches gathered with a few hundred supporters to reflect on the past season in a ceremony that was more joyous, but just as emotional, as the Hoyas’ NCAA Tournament trip to Columbus, Ohio.

The highlight of the night was the celebration of Georgetown’s three outgoing players: seniors Henry Sims and Jason Clark, and junior Hollis Thompson, who is entering the NBA draft. All three gave heartfelt speeches to the crowd, with Sims and Clark getting particularly emotional.

“I feel like the loss against N.C. State right now,” Sims said, choking back tears.

Each member of the team was first introduced individually by special assistant Kevin Broadus, who turned the event into a roast, poking fun at the players, managers, and his fellow coaches with a series of esoteric pop culture references. (for example, Broadus used obscure Flintstones characters like the Great Gazoo to describe freshman Greg Whittington’s propensity for talking to himself in practice.)

Thompson got his turn at the

podium during the litany of introductions. The junior forward said that he was not going to fire back at Broadus, who called him the future number one pick in the WNBA draft, and instead offered his thanks to his team and its supporters.

The two seniors were singled out for their own moments of recognition at the end of the ceremony. Senior captain and three-year starter Jason Clark took the stage first, reminiscing fondly about his time at Georgetown before getting serious with talk about how leading the Hoyas affected him. Clark eventually focused his message to his younger teammates in front of the stage, beseeching them not to let their time at Georgetown go to waste.

“There is no ceiling,” said Clark. “You guys can be as good as you want to be if you keep pushing each other how we did this year.”

Sims was the final player to speak. That the big man described his time at Georgetown as a “roller coaster” was no surprise to anyone who followed the team. A breakout year this season allowed head coach John Thompson III to joke about the number of “come-to-Jesus” talks he had with Sims’s mother, but for the first three years there wasn’t anything funny about Sims’s failure to develop as a player.

Football honors three players

GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

Last Saturday, the Hoyas named center Kevin Sullivan (pictured above) as the recipient of the Joe Eacobacci Memorial No. 35 Jersey.

This honor recognizes Sullivan, a rising senior who wore number 60 last season, for his dedication.

The Hoyas also named their captains for the 2012 season -- quarterback Isaiah Kempf on offense and linebacker Rob McCabe for the defense. Both had standout seasons for Georgetown in 2011.

— Kevin Joseph

“I lost the love for the game of basketball because when I got here, I wasn’t playing,” said Sims. “When I got here I didn’t understand what hard work was.”

Sims of course eventually learned how to work, and he credited first-year assistant Othella Harrington with foster-

ing the additional development that made him an NBA prospect in his senior season.

The departure of Sims leaves a big hole for the Hoyas to fill, as do those of Clark and Thompson. The loss of its top three scorers will be the dominant narrative for Georgetown heading into next season, but

John Thompson III is not worried. On Thursday, the coach told the crowd that he will be playing up the “woe is me” act to the media, but he won’t believe what he’s saying.

“We’re going to be good,” Thompson III confidently stated. “I wish we could start practice tomorrow.”

the Sports Sermon “I just watched the replay again..... Oooo..My celebration of the dunk really was too much...

Didn’t even see James ..... Omg... Looks bad” - @MettaWorldPeace on world peace diocrity, rarely making the playoffs in front of persistently sparse home crowds.

Of course, there have been some good times for the team.

Jason Kidd came to town and led the franchise to two straight NBA Finals appearances in 2002 and 2003. But even that on-court success comes with footnotes. Those two Finals rival for the worst-rated of the past decade and, in an unprecedented occurrence, New Jersey fans failed to sell out the arena for the games.

Kidd was an exception for the Nets, as he committed to the team when he had the option to bolt for a different, more lucrative destination. Even after his contract extension, though, the Nets went back to their days of mediocrity, until they were forced to

considered by many to be the international version of Michael The swampland of northern Jordan, died in a car accident afNew Jersey does not sound like ter dazzling the league with his the most appealing destination. pure shooting touch. Recently, Yet the Meadowlands Sports the Nets have thrown away Complex, which lies near my boundless potential, though not New Jersey home, has hosted in such tragic fashion. Boneheadguests from Bruce Springsteen ed front-office decisions have to Pope John Paul II over the meant loss of draft picks and, course of its illustrious history. even worse, poor draft decisions.

But of course, the Meadowlands All of the superstars that have is best known as the home to the come to New Jersey over the past heart of New York sports – the 20 years, Petrovic aside, have New York Giants and the New been brought in from the outside York Jets. via trade or free agency.

The Nets play there too. Oh But there’s still promise, wait, my apologies—the Nets as they are just across the river played there. from the biggest market in the Despite being an afterthought world. By joining it next season, and permanent little brother to they will certainly undergo their the crosstown Knicks, the Nets growing pains, but it won’t be have held a concurrently historic as tough as if they needed to reand tragic existence build an ardent fan Pete Rose Central in the Garden State. base. There was Da bettin’ line Since starting league never a true followplay at the Teaneck ing for Nets basketDookies Margin Hoyas Armory in 1967, ball in New Jersey (underdogs) (duh!) the Nets have seen (favorites) – my state is better historic players like known for the DevJohnson Curses Madden Rick Barry, Drazen ils, Snooki, and that Bruins OT Capitals Petrovic, Jason Kidd, smell on I-95. and Julius Erving Personally, I World Series Cologne Yankees pass through their can’t blame the Nets franchise. call the years even Springsteen for bolting to the greener pasBut Monday night marked would refer to as “glory days” tures of Brooklyn. Perhaps the arthe last game for the Nets at dead and gone. The team traded dent Jersey resident, like Govertheir home court in New Jersey away the centerpieces of those Fi- nor Chris Christie, will be upset, (fittingly, with a loss). They are nals teams, Kidd included. but as a fan, I am more concerned currently in a two-year stopover A few seasons later, Kidd with the stability of the franchise in the Devils’ new arena in New- was finally an NBA champion than the nostalgia of a few of my ark, N.J., before permanently with the Mavericks, following a state’s residents. moving to the majestic Barclays disturbing trend of anticlimactic Finishing near the bottom of Center in Brooklyn next season. ends for Nets players. Even the league attendance is no way for With the move, and an owner franchise’s greats, like Kidd, did a franchise to make money, espewith bottomless pockets in not find true success or notoriety cially with the allure of Brooklyn, Mikhail Prokhorov, the Nets cer- until they took their talents else- Prokhorov, and part-owner Jaytainly have a bright future ahead where. Erving, unquestionably Z. Christie will not agree with of them. the most talented player in fran- that sentiment, nor will you be Comparatively, though, any chise history, is rarely remem- seeing him at any Brooklyn Nets alternative to New Jersey is a bered for his Nets days. Instead, games at any point in the future. change for the better. Since their he’s remembered for his cham“You don’t want to stay, we first days in the NBA in the early pionship and game-changing don’t want you,” he said.

1970s, the Nets have never won dunks in Philadelphia.

The thing is – until 2004, a championship. In fact, for the The Nets have come across the Nets did want New Jersey. majority of their existence, the bad luck over their tenure in It’s too bad the state never refranchise has been mired in me- New Jersey as well. Petrovic, ciprocated.

by Kevin Joseph

sports

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the georgetown voice 7

Hoyas salvage disappointing season, beat Syracuse

by Steven Criss After three consecutive losses in April, the Georgetown men’s lacrosse team traveled up to Syracuse University to take on the Orange. With their last win against Syracuse in the Carrier Dome coming in 2006, the Hoyas wanted to break both winless streaks.

This being the second-tolast game of the season and last away game, the team successfully wrapped up the season on a strong note. The first half was quiet offensively for both teams, and the halftime score was only 3-2 in favor of the Orange. But after the half, Georgetown went on a four-goal run that was unanswered until Syracuse scored

GEORGETOWN SPORTS INFORMATION

Matt Winter won Big East Defensive Player of the Week for his play Saturday.

Since Hurricane Katrina crippled their city in 2005, the New Orleans Saints have transitioned from a relatively unrecognized team toa media darling. In their oust from the Superdome, their ascent into the NFL’s elite with their 2009 Superbowl title, and the addition of devastatingly handsome Drew Brees as head of their squad, the Saints had all the makings of a Cinderella story. Right down to Prince Charming, rubbing Vick’s VapoRub on the most adorable child in the world.

But the Saints became much more than that. They were representative of the ravaged community, a larger allegory for the people of Louisiana. They would persevere, they would overcome, and they were the essence of New Orleans.

But after the scandals of past few weeks, the Saints have lost some of their dedicated fan base. Most recently, the Saints franchise has been tainted by its own version of the “Spygate”

Louisiana blues

scandal, with General Manager Mickey Loomis bearing most of the allegations.

Loomis, who left the Seahawks in 2002 to join the Saints, claims innocence in this scandal, calling allegations that he listened in on opposing teams’ coaching staffs “1,000 percent false.” Interim head coach Joe Vitt defends him as well, saying that the accusations are “ludicrous.” Vitt has been suspended for six games, and Head Coach Sean Payton is facing a yearlong suspension because of his involvement in the scandal.

But despite the active defense that the Saints have leapt to, the media has taken the claims very seriously. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell assures that a thorough investigation is in the works, and Louisiana police and the FBI currently are looking into the eight-year-old case. Still, solid evidence concerning the wiretapping has not yet surfaced. Some believe that the sheer bizarre nature of the

two quick goals not long after the start of the fourth quarter.

The final quarter witnessed many of the games highlights, including three goals by junior attack Brian Casey, six face-off wins by senior Brian Tabb, and an impressive defensive performance overall by the Hoyas.

They held a 10-8 lead for the final three minutes to finally defeat the No. 14-ranked Orange, their highest-ranked victory.

Leading this late-in-thegame defensive stand was senior goalie Matt Winter, who had a total of 12 saves and was named the Big East Defensive Player of the Week for his performance. He shut down the Orange in the final minutes, with numerous saves that could have allowed Syracuse enough momentum to take the lead.

This game was important to Winter not only because it ended a three-game losing streak, but also because it was his last chance to face rival Syracuse.

It was also his first Big East Player of the Week honor for his time at Georgetown. “It’s a great honor, especially with so many excellent players in the Big East,” he said of the accomplishment.

Winter attributes the win against Syracuse to several key factors, many of which the team was not able to capitalize on in much of their game play this season. The squad put together

an effective combination of offensive energy and defensive strength that allowed players to take the edge and not let the Orange battle their way back.

Although their record will not get them into the Big East playoffs, the team has enough fight to finish the last two games with the potential that Head Coach Dave Urick has seen all season.

“On the defensive side, it was our excellent play from our team defense that really limited Syracuse to take contested shots,” said Urick. “Our offense carried us in the second half, as well as, Brian Tabb at the faceoff X.” For a team that remains at a .500 winning percentage in the Big East this season, defeating the nationally ranked and previously 3-1 Syracuse was clearly a big win. It brings the team back for the final game of the season on its home field with the confidence necessary to close the season on a high note. The team hopes to keep up the strong defensive play for its last stand, as well as give the seniors a memorable last performance.

“Whenever you travel up to the Carrier Dome to play Syracuse, it’s a game you always want to win, regardless of your overall record,” said Winter.

“Not many people beat Syracuse on their home field, and it

claims must give it a kernel of truth, because even we couldn’t make that shit up.

Loomis himself couldn’t be in deeper. He has already been suspended for eight games for his role in the bounty scandal, which rocked the NFL and its fan base just a few weeks prior.

With the eavesdropping allegations, this case has resurfaced with fast-approaching sanctions.

To the sports fan, this accusation may seem more serious for

In an interview with Mike and Mike radio last week, Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker said that he heard more about bounties at the beginning of his career than he has in recent years. The bounty charge against the Saints though, was apparently well-received by the players.

It can be mutually agreed on, by players and fans across the nation, that intentionally harming other players for monetary incentives is detestable, but unfortunately does not contradict the recent trend across sports.

With increasing athleticism and competition, players and franchises have turned to other means of achieving goals and making quotas. “At all costs” has become a mantra of coaching staff, trending worldwide.

While the coaching and managerial staff may have given the orders, the players were complicit in following their instruction, and, according to some ESPN reports, “enthusiastic” in their participation. Primarily because of this enthusiasm, NFL

Sporty Spice

by Abby Sherburne a rotating column on sports the league. However, the allegations also come at a time wrought with the undercurrent of sports becoming more and more physically dangerous. With this week’s Metta World Peace suspension, and the recent heart attack of Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba, the Backyard Baseball feel of sports has greatly diminished over the past decade, at least in the professional domain.

felt great to accomplish that for our program.”

With 16 seniors graduating this year, tomorrow’s home game against Rutgers will be the last for nearly a third of the current squad. For Winter, this will be the only opportunity to back up his top-notch performance last week, and he is looking forward to the match.

Most of his playing time happened this year, and capping off the season with a commanding win would make for a satisfying Senior Night.

“I am really excited to finish our season off at home on Senior Night,” he said. “It will be a great night for our team to show how we have improved throughout the year.”

Looking back on the season, Georgetown did not meet its expectations of making a run to the Big East tournament. A win tomorrow would mean finishing with a winning record for the season, but the original goals were set much higher.

Next year will be a telling year for the program, as the Hoyas recruit and develop current players in hopes of building a more successful finish.

“I think all of us are pretty upset about not making the Big East Tournament, as well as the NCAA Tournament. I know the guys next year will work extremely hard to get Georgetown back into postseason play.”

fans are outraged. Even fans of the New Orleans team feel like their championship in ‘09 has been tainted by the Saints.

As terrible as both accusations are against the Saints, I think that they are mainly due to timing. Timing and trending.

While that does not mean that they are absolved of fault, they have experienced this unfortunate downfall as a result of their extended Cinderella reign. And, of course, some misguided leadership from GM Mickey Loomis and his supporting cast, but all in all, it was their time to fall.

Just as my precious Pats have been hit by scandal and the Giants have lost Plax (and been accused of assigning bounties—but those were quickly laid aside), teams at the top only have one way to go. Unfortunately, over the next few weeks, we’ll all keep watching sadly as the Saints go marching down.

Rub Vick’s VapoRub on Abby before she goes abroad at asherburne@gtownvoice.com—she’s here all summer!

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the georgetown voice 9

VO I C E P H OTO C O N T E S T 2 0 1 2

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Improvisation, New Orleans

Building with Reflection

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Charlotte Koldeweji Exchange Student 2012

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The Faceoff Lauren McGarry COL ‘15

Kasia Clarke COL ‘13

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Lauren D’Souza COL ‘15

3

Spilling into the Ocean

Zoe Skoufalos SFS ‘15

Brendon Kinsley COL ‘12

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Nostalgia sets in for senior art majors at Spagnuolo

by Mary Borowiec “There are not a lot of outlets for art on campus, and so I think it is hard sometimes to recognize that Georgetown is not all about Business or International Politics,” senior studio art major Nicole Thomas said. “But there is another side to Georgetown.”

And starting this week, that side is on full display.

Running through May 18 in Walsh’s Spagnuolo Gallery and Walsh 102, Senior Art Majors Exhibition: 2012 features the most recent work of Georgetown’s five senior studio art majors: Julia Kwon (full disclosure: Julia is a former design editor for the Voice), Lena Landegger, Victoria Milo, Laurie Tapia, and Nicole Thomas. While the collection is fairly small, with only four or five pieces from each artist on display, the diversity and merit of the works make for a short and sweet show that will appeal to Georgetown’s masses.

Kwon’s “Crescendo Series” kicks off the exhibit with a collection of four large abstract oil paintings depicting interconnect-

ed vines and strokes. Intrigued by “mark-making, stark lines, and intertwined brush strokes,” Kwon began this series by trying to “portray uncertainty along with [her] belief in continuous growth in life.”

The emotion and depth of Kwon’s work are echoed in Thomas’s collection of black and white photographs, entitled “Orange” after her hometown in New Jersey which inspired her work. With photos capturing the everyday in Orange, from graffiti under a bridge to empty playground swings, Thomas’s images reflect “a city that is rough and ugly, yet serene and beautiful at the same time.”

For Thomas, “This project is as much a self-reflection on my childhood and upbringing as it is a portrait of a city.”

Delving into another medium, Landegger’s collection features printmaking and digital prints that investigate themes “from the whimsical to the philosophical to the fundamental.” Though her vision may appear less unified than those of the other collections, the

the Studio Art Majors’ Exhibition continues with the work of Milo and Tapia. Milo’s untitled collection also features oil paintings, but her collection centers on the use

plastic, and light” through a series of remarkable pieces that, after much reflection, reveal human figures entangled in Christmas lights in three of the pieces and a floating

bulb in the fourth. Bright and bold colors complement the muted, dripping style through which the artists captures light.

Tapia’s collection wraps up this diverse exhibition with “Into Identity,” a series of interactive, media-based pieces building on “photography, drawings, digital composites, and audio.”

Seeking to explore the central qualities of her friends and herself, Tapia created digital collage books that allow viewers to learn about these individuals by clicking on pieces that represent different aspects of their identity. Tapia’s work perfectly wraps up this senior showcase, as she was “strongly influenced by the nostalgic feeling of leaving Georgetown.”

While the studio art major is certainly small, this year’s graduates have managed to put an impressively powerful and diverse exhibition And when younger students see this exhibition and are inspired by the talent it showcases, who knows, maybe the next studio art cohort will number in the double digits.

nell, who delivers the best of the secondary performances as the incredibly awkward, sweaterknitting Bill. These characters not only serve to make the film into a bona fide quirk-fest, but it also often turns the plot away in exchange for pushpin humor.

At Tom and Violet’s engagement party, Pratt’s character, who is very similar to the dimwitted Andy he plays on Parks and Recreation, opens up. “This engagement party is a moment to celebrate a future... but not without first exploring a past.”

He then proceeds to belt out a laundry list of Tom’s previous sexual partners to the tune of “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”

The film, though o v e r f l o w ing with humor, occasionally meanders too far away from its goals, as it brims with spurof-the-moment and disjointed characters. This style, which is standard for anything produced by Apatow, tends to be hit-or-miss for many audiences.

However, the steady stream of jokes, on top of the infallible, puppyish smile of Segel, will keep most viewers hooked until the end.

Apatow critics aside, The Five-Year Agreement is a solid, laughter-filled choice if you’ve been longing for a comedy on par with the classic bromance I Love You, Man, if you’re in support of the cheeky humor brought about by recent come-

dies such as Bridesmaids or Horrible Bosses, or if you are simply enraptured by Segel’s teddybear demeanor. But if you’re looking for a good, clean ballgame of a movie, be warned— this film will feel like it lasts five years.

diversity of her portfolio and the range of media she uses—from markers to spray paint—make for some of the most intriguing pieces on display.

Just across the hall from the Spagnuolo Gallery in Walsh 102,

of dripping paint, an innovation she stumbled on when mixing too much water into her paints.

Expanding upon this new technique in her collection, Milo explores “the translucent and transparent substances of glass,

Julian de la paz

Just like the Scorpions, this exhibit will rock you like a hurricane.

Five-Year Engagement will have Segel fans saying, “I do.”

by Will Collins In his latest film, Jason Segel is back to give audiences a peek at what lies beneath his clothing—though, thankfully, not quite to the degree of Forgetting Sarah Marshall. In The Five-Year Engagement, the recent release from director Nicholas Stoller and the prolific producer Judd Apatow, Segel’s signature humor and the film’s raunchy writing transform a movie whose title could very easily be mistaken for your run-of-themill rom-com into a genuinely funny, ballsy comedy that is exactly what we would expect from that trio.

Starring Hollywood’s favorite oaf and Emily Blunt as his British fiancée, Engagement takes up a subject that many romantic comedies tend to roll the credits on. As you can guess from the title, the film tells the story of the betrothed Tom (Segel), a San Fran sous-chef, and Violet (Blunt), a psychology grad student who is looking at programs in Michigan, as they spend an extended period planning their wedding. As what

was planned to be a two-year engagement grows even longer, the pair ’s story creates the atypical romance, but classic Apatow film by playing up the couple’s natural chemistry with a steady supply of awkward situations and punch lines. In one scene, Tom has taken on the daunting task of planning the wedding so that Violet can focus on her research. Tom and his coworker Bill are picking out the floral arrangement for the ceremony when they come across flowers that sound similar to “penis.” The guys joke ambiguously about the size of the white and black flowers with the unsuspecting clerk, until Bill juts in with a raunchy comment that ends the scene instantly.

The casting and use of supporting characters can make or break a comedy, and thankfully it’s the former in the case of Engagement. Suckers for Segel’s kiddish innocence will also be delighted by the array of co-stars, including The Office’s Mindy Kaling, actor-comedian Kevin Hart, Parks and Rec’s Chris Pratt, and Big Lake’s Chris Par-

IMDB

“I’m going to go ahead and say ‘yes’, even though I’ve seen you naked.”

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the georgetown voice 11

“paradise can go fuck itself. ” — The Descendants

GU alums’ lez’hur ledger film reaches cult status This is the Sweetlife

by Julia Lloyd-George The premise of Sound of My Voice, the Sundance breakout from Georgetown alumni filmmakers Zal Batmanglij (COL ’02) and Brit Marling (COL ’05), sounds eerily similar to that of a “B”-grade horror movie—the premise of a mysterious female cult leader who claims to be from the future and takes blood transfusions from her followers hardly makes a film approachable. The artful combination of psychological elements and a sci-fi background, however, makes Sound of My Voice a surprising discovery that gracefully treads the line between cerebral indie and suspenseful thriller.

Starring Marling, who also cowrote with director Batmanglij, the film tells the tale of Peter, an investigative journalist who sets out to make a documentary about cults. He drags his girlfriend on his journey down the rabbit hole, and the two wind up joining the cult after an initial process of “outside preparation” that isn’t explained beyond his mysterious knowledge of the cult’s secret handshake. The opening scene, which shows the couple going through the process of entering the cult, is characterized by expressive cinematography that

constructs a tense atmosphere with a series of close, silent shots. After being blindfolded and driven to the cult’s basement, cult leader Maggie (Marling) begins the process of indoctrinating her followers through a set of bizarre cult rituals.

What begins as a journalistic endeavor for Peter progressively develops into something much more insidious. Early in the film, a short clip of flashbacks provides a crisp summary of the couple’s individual histories that establishes a psychological backdrop for the way they handle the cult experience. A calculating control freak that is openly skeptical of the group, Peter is slowly seduced by the cult leader’s charismatic ability to get underneath the emotional surface of her followers.

Fittingly, Marling’s voice is her most effective tool in her acting arsenal here – it draws the listener in so effectively that even Maggie’s doubtful anecdotes from the future hardly sway her followers.

The long process that brought these Georgetown alumni to pose this question was born out of a friendship formed in the filmmakers’ early student years. After seeing a film by Batmanglij and Mike Cahill (C’01), who collaborated with her on Another Earth, Marling made a point of meeting them

The tea party manifesto

“But still, how can you call yourself a true tea lover if you destroy the flavour of your tea by putting sugar in it? It would be equally reasonable to put in pepper or salt.” Challenge accepted, Mr. Orwell.

Even before the Briton wrote “A Nice Cup of Tea,” setting down 11 golden rules that haughty baristas now take as the word of God, earls and emperors declared the proper way to pour water over a spoonful of bitter leaves.

So when I found myself this Easter break in quite possibly the most pretentious teashop in all of Manhattan, I decided to fly in the face of British prescriptivism. Sure, Orwell wields the cultural capital and literary genius to lead the hipster masses in their quest for the perfect cup of organic matcha, but sometimes I like sugar in my tea, and George will have none of that.

Looking at the open barrels of tea and herbs, I was deter-

mined to do everything backwards. Orwell’s first rule: “One should use Indian or Ceylonese tea.” Instead, I poured a scoop of Chinese oolong into the small pouch that an aspiring screenwriter-turned-daytimetea-master handed me. As for the flavorings, salt? Absolutely.

I threw in a spoonful of some dusty lavender-infused crystals. Pepper? Of course. A pinch of pink peppercorns joined the bag along with a few dried chilies. To top it all off, I blended in some cocoa and cardamom. The spicy tea was delicious, and it was born to be drunk with sugar. As I walked out of the teashop, I imagined Orwell sadly shaking his head.

By trying to combat presumptuous tea making prescriptions, I had amazingly one-upped the British writer in pretentiousness. Loose leaf tea isn’t snobbish in itself. In fact, it’s often cheaper than buying a box of bagged tea, and you can

and getting involved in their films.

Reflecting on those student years in the Q&A session following the screening, she noted that college was the ideal setting for the kind of freewheeling creativity required for filmmaking. “In that incubator, we could just create – we taught each other a lot of things about storytelling and acting.”

As the trio made many short films throughout their time at Georgetown, it naturally followed that they would continue beyond graduation day. The close collaboration between the friends on Sound of My Voice and Another Earth provided invaluable dialogue on both writing style and directing technique. When asked about his directing style, Batmanglij referenced a domestic activity probably never before associated with filmmaking.

“I always think of directing as a sort of sweater-making – it takes a lot of practice.” Cahill, on the other hand, saw directing on a somewhat higher plane: “the most important part is being a barometer of authenticity and finding what is truly human.”

Though it isn’t clear at first, Sound of My Voice uses unusual circumstances to find this humanity beneath the surface. steep it multiple times before tossing the leaves. But no one sane—or on a student’s budget—saunters into TriBeCa teashops to craft their own looseleaf blends. My tea obsession had gone too far.

You see, I started drinking tea in eighth grade just after the D.A.R.E. team came to my school. They terrified me, and not about the dangers of tobacco or alcohol. As an innocently aloof

plate of the union

by Heather Regen

a bi-weekly column about food middle schooler, I didn’t even know what marijuana looked like until they showed the class a picture. While D.A.R.E. aimed to win the War on Drugs, all they did was scare me away from coffee. “It’s a drug!” they warned.

“America is addicted to it. Your parents are addicted to it. You could be addicted to it!”

So when all the cool kids walked to the Coffee Bean after

by Mary Borowiec For the second year in a row, the Sweetlife Festival is taking Merriweather Post Pavilion by eco-friendly storm.

The festival, which takes place this Saturday, once again promises an enticing combination of delicious organic food, live music, and all things green. But for its sophomore year, everything about this “party with a purpose” is bigger, from the lineup to the impressive list of partners supporting this sustainable celebration.

With 20 performers set to play throughout the day at both the Main Stage and the Tree House Stage, the Sweetlife Festival has long outgrown its humble beginnings in a parking lot behind Dupont Circle.

Its musical acts have also expanded to feature such headliners as Swedish DJ Avicii, rapper and songwriter Kid Cudi, and indie rock veterans The Shins.

In addition to the incredible array of musical acts, Sweetlife boasts organic, sustainable dining choices from some of D.C.’s most renowned chefs. From José Andrés’s Pepe Truck to The

school, I ordered tea instead.

Of course, most teas are caffeinated as well, but D.A.R.E. didn’t plaster pictures of the world’s second most popular drink next to distressed addicts.

I still don’t understand why the program spent so much time vilifying coffee, but it certainly did the trick—I consistently pull all-nighters in Lau without a single drop of espresso.

But the price of loving tea is far worse than the headache coffee addicts get after missing their morning cup. Tea drinkers may start out slurping Lipton from a tall plastic glass at Leo’s, but after a while we all start to sound like George Orwell.

It didn’t take me long to realize I had become that person, the one who brings her own ceramic mug and tea strainer to Uncommon Grounds. Yet tea drinkers don’t even need to carry around satchels of organic Moroccan ginger loose leaf to appear ridiculous. A philosophy professor recently

Big Cheese, Sweetlife balances gourmet with more traditional offerings and, of course, endless Sweetgreen salads. With Baked & Wired, Pleasant Pops, and Dolcezza, and others, there will be no shortage of desserts to complement the day of great music and eco-friendly entertainment.

For Sweetgreen founders Jonathan Neman (MSB ’07), Nic Jammet (MSB ’07), and Nathaniel Ru (MSB ’07), “living the sweet life is easy” and an integral part of this music festival. As a result, there are many opportunities to give back and help make this a carbonneutral event. According to the event’s website, Sweetlife attendees can “Get TRASHed… for a green cause,” by collecting cups and bottles from the festival and exchanging them for prizes at the TRASHed store.

Sweetlifers can also take advantage of biodegradable utensils and compost bins to reduce the amount of waste produced by this event. And since nobody’s going to be getting any kind of “trashed” on Georgetown Day, this eco-friendly option might be the best we can do.

shot down my tea-cred as he pointed at my mug and declared, “Need builds thrones!”

Holding up his styrofoam cup with a green tea bag dipped inside, he invoked Rousseau to declare the superiority of his no-frills drink. Apparently the more complicated my tea needs get, the more I’m losing out in the quest for authenticity.

Coffee aficionados get testy with their brewing techniques, but tea brings the moralizing out in people because it’s inextricably tied to ritual.

Whether it’s the Japanese tea ceremony, British high tea, or Kashmiri noon chai, there is a right way to enjoy the drink. It just has less to do with whether or not you take sugar, and more to do with culture and habit. Orwell codified his personal tea ceremony, as have I. Only mine includes steeping the third cup as I watch the sun rise from Lau four.

Have a spot of tea with Heather at hregen@georgetownvoice.com

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april 26, 2012

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

Kip Moore, Up All Night, MCA Nashville While it was once said that nothing could quite describe feelings of love and heartbreak like a country song, the largely unimpressive country releases streaming out of Nashville this year would seem to suggest otherwise. But this blatant disregard for lyrical quality paired with poor attempts at instrumental virtuosity may finally have been overcome by the songwriter-turned-singer Kip Moore. Up All Night, Moore’s debut album, introduces a much-needed believability to his lyrics and vocals, which allows the LP to shine above today’s cookie-cutter country.

Up All Night begins with simple Telecaster riffs alternating with a crying pedal steel guitar that melts into Moore’s slightly scratchy drawl on “Drive Me Crazy.” This loveand-loss track begins a story arc that flows through four songs on

the album. The couple reunites on “Crazy One More Time,” a request for one last moment of joy. But that instance is soon overshadowed by a sentiment of loneliness, which characterizes “Where You Are Tonight,” a song built around rapid-fire questions and vocals dripping with longing, anger, and eventual resignation.

Slowly fading repetitions of “wonderin’ where you are tonight” lead to the ultimate conclusion of this love story in “Fly Again,” when Moore launches into a track filled with distorted guitar riffs and themes of drugs, alcohol, and guns, giving the LP a necessary edge after a collection of slower ballads.

The title track, along with “Beer Money,” contributes to the pace of the record. While these two songs appear at first glance to be classic honky-tonk anthems—complete with beer, trucks, girls, and guitars—the tracks are transformed

by Moore’s versatile vocals into something more closely resembling his ballads of unrequited love. His voice is simply too mellow, and he holds the notes out just long enough to add a touch of nostalgia left over from the painful verses of “Everything But You” to the wouldbe party anthems. Moore is certainly capable of projecting confidence and impulsiveness, which is clear on “Reckless (Still Growin’ Up)” and “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck,” but

Take it with a grain of salt

Dear Emlyn, I’m obsessed with movies, and there are a LOT that I want to watch with my girlfriend. But we only have three weeks left in the semester! She probably does not care to see all of them, but HOW DO I KNOW WHICH ONES SHE DOES CARE TO SEE?!

I mean, I can’t ask her directly, that’s weird. On top of this, we have to wait until the fall to watch the next season of Breaking Bad, and that’s just a tragedy. Fix my problems.

—Swaggy Swate Swaggy Swate, I live to fix your problems, so thank goodness you wrote in. Let’s see what I can do.

While I’m sure your girlfriend would love to watch all of them, time is indeed of the essence. Nothing I can do about that one (besides suggesting that you skip copious amounts of class to watch movies,

which is always okay no matter how much time is left in the semester). You have a couple of options for deciding what to watch: you can live life on your own terms and be all like, “we’re watching what I want to watch!” Perhaps it’s a little selfish, but that way you don’t have to worry about your girlfriend and her feelings and stupid stuff like that. You can also use a method that I developed to determine my dog’s favorite toys. Pick up the stack of films, wave them in her face, and then throw them all in different directions. Whichever one she runs after first is the one she wants to watch most. Other than that, maybe just ask her directly, even though you find that weird for some reason. Deal with it.

And sorry about Breaking Bad, I’m waiting ‘til the fall as well. We can get through the meth withdrawal together.

he occasionally holds back to capture the perfect amount of authenticity in his music.

Kip Moore may not live out his songs like some other country artists, but his personal (and authentic) songwriting makes us believe every word. Up All Night demonstrates Moore’s expert command of vocals and lyrics, making us see what he sees and feel what he feels. And that’s what makes a great country album.

Voice’s Choices: “Somethin’ ‘Bout a Truck,” “Faith When I Fall” —Kirill Makarenko

Maps & Atlases, Beware and Be Grateful, Barsuk Records With Blunderbluss, his first solo release, Jack White decided to bring it all back home. Moody yet serene, the album conjures images of The Who, which will Dear Emlyn, This summer, I will be traveling abroad to teach English in a foreign country. I would name the location, but it would give away my identity!

(And we certainly don’t want that.) I was added on the Facebook group for the student teachers a couple of weeks ago, and this one fine gentleman

You’ve Got Issues

by Emlyn Crenshaw a bi-weekly advice column caught my eye. I mean, it definitely wasn’t love at first sight; it’s a Facebook profile photo, for Pete’s sake.

But there was something, almost providence, that guided me to him.

He is a photographer, like me, and his photos are out of this world. Yes, I did stalk his profile. I guess what I am getting at, is it weird that I have developed some sort of interest in this guy? It’s definitely not true love, but there is something, maybe an inkling

probably appeal to die-hard fans of The Black Keys, and though the sound is sometimes smoky, it will not leave you coughing. Instead, guitar rock mogul White has released an album that can be appreciated by devout followers of his namesake band, as well as a newer, unfamiliar crowd.

Starting like a jazz piece, album opener “Missing Pieces” has a more syncopated beat than any of his previous work, but still has the bounce present throughout Icky Thump. The following tracks feature metallic acoustics, lustrous piano complementing guitars, and even reprise some of the Americana tones he hinted at in the latest White Stripes release. Having already performed the crunchy single “Sixteen Saltines” on Saturday Night Live nearly two months ago, many believe that Jack has reverted to the classic distortion of his earlier days. However, this album demonstrates that he is willing not only to bring those sounds back, but also to capitalize on a more mature aesthetic.

“Weep Themselves to Sleep” begins as if it were straight off Who’s Next, but kicks into the verse as though it were a sneaker-wearing Tom Petty jam.

Homages are a necessity for of hope inside of me, that when we meet, there will be that spark. In the meantime, however, here I am, sitting, wishing, and waiting, on the dock of the bay, wasting time.

—#GirlsJustWantToHaveFun Dear #GirlsJustWantToHaveFun, Before I begin, your summer sounds a heck of a lot more impressive than mine. Not that it’s difficult to be a more impressive person than I am, but still. Mad props, and Godspeed.

Ahhh, the ever-confusing Facebook crush. It’s a modern phenomenon that happens to the best of us. So, don’t worry at all about the stalking—what else is Facebook even for? Farmville? I have to say that I don’t think your situation is that weird; you have a common interest in photography, you’re going to have the shared experience of teaching English abroad, and presumably his profile picture was all kinds of hot

White, but he always manages to formulate his own particular style with his one-of-a-kind squeaky voice, unrivaled chord progression, and head-turning lyrics. Though not really reminiscent of middle schoolemo “Love Interruption,” the second single off Blunderbuss, opens with the morbid words, “I want love to: roll me over slowly, stick a knife inside me, and twist it all around.”

Jack White boarded the crazy train in recent years with his downright weird group The Dead Weather, which came right off his stint with The Raconteurs, where he gained moderate indie success outside of his more famous group. He has certainly moved in and out of grooves, but always manages to keep a definite strand of the blues, which he employs in full form on Blunderbuss. Jack will also have credibility with diehard fans, not through name alone, but by conjuring enough thrashy guitar and obsessive lyrics to satisfy those still blasting “Fell In Love With a Girl” on their Walkmen.

Voice’s Choices: “Sixteen Saltines,” “Trash Tongue Talker” —Will Collins (otherwise your stalking would have been short-lived, duh). So no worries on that one; it’s totally okay that you’re looking forward to meeting this kid.

That said, don’t get your heart set on your fantasy Facebook fellow. Remember that people make their own virtual profiles and basically depict themselves in the way that they’d like to be seen, so who knows what kind of personality quirks this guy may have that he manages to hide on Facebook. Six sons and daughters by the time he reached the ninth grade, inability to form coherent sentences, no knowledge of the Legally Blonde films…you could be dealing with some scary stuff.

Just take everything you read with a grain of salt and see where things go once you meet him in the flesh.

Send your wildest inquiries to ecrenshaw@georgetownvoice.com

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14 the georgetown voice

april 26, 2012

Gay-dar culture doesn’t encompass range of sexuality

by Connor Jones About 16 months ago, Michael, my best friend since age six, told me that he was gay. He knew I had no problem with gay people in the abstract, but he also knew that I, 16 years old and from Georgia, had scarcely interacted with anyone of alternate sexual orientations.

Nothing changed; Michael is still my best friend. What troubled me, however, were the stories of bigotry he experienced growing up, of which I had only been peripherally aware. Only with his reminder did I realize just how liberally the word “faggot” was used all throughout elementary and middle school. In eighth grade, our health teacher basically told us that LSD would turn you gay, as it would make you suddenly want to make out with other men. The class responded with the requisite disgust and mutterings of “so gross,” thoroughly alienating the kids who might actually be attracted to the same sex.

Fortunately, our peers slowly became more tolerant, and there was little hostility when Michael came out midway through senior

year. Unfortunately for me, however, some of our classmates suddenly wanted to be best friends with Michael, solely to show how tolerant and open-minded they were. To them, his presence was a novelty. We joke now that they treated him like their pet. Yet, while this group of people was so interested in showing everyone how liberal and free-thinking they were, one girl presented me with an odd observation: “It’s so funny. Of the two of you, we all thought you were the more likely to be gay.”

While I may disagree with how they arrived at their conclusion, I understand what they meant. Michael is muscular and athletic, while I’ve always been scrawny. At the time, he was also more reserved than I was. Stereotypically, gay men are interested in arts and theater, whereas straight men excel in athletics.

Straight men are supposed to be brusque and gay men are expected to lead conversation. Taking this either consciously or unconsciously, everyone would target me before Michael.

In prejudging us both, our peer revealed her belief in the very stereotypes with which she sup-

posedly disagrees. Deciding who can who can’t be gay based on appearance inherently involves reliance on the social constructs that, in the past, have only been used to degrade and demean LGBT men and women. A man with a high voice is only considered gay because the discussion around homosexuality originally relied on gross misconceptions that gay men wanted to be women. Enemies of gay rights used to be the ones who openly acted on these notions, socially alienating those men, whether they were gay or not. Now, though, even gays and allies act as though they are entitled to make these decisions about people. What previously might have been called “discrimination” is now simply “gay-dar.”

The snidest judgments I’ve seen have come from gay men at Georgetown. Someone I knew used to look at the Facebook photos of my friends, tell me which ones of them were gay (despite never having met them), and proceeded to call the ones that weren’t openly gay “faggots.” Although this is an extreme case, this person felt justified because he somehow “knew” that my friend was gay, and that he is deigning

to gay people everywhere by not being open about it. And he knew that just from a picture.

People like him often forget that there are many who have legitimate reasons for not coming out quite yet. One person I know comes from a conservative, evangelical family. He may wish that he could come out, but he knows if he did, his parents would refuse to pay for his education. Sneering at someone like him for remaining in the closet is completely unjustified. While being true to oneself is a high goal, I hold education above it. Anyone who seems gay but is not out could be in a similar situation, and we can never know enough about everyone’s personal circumstances to make any sort of judgment.

Further, gay-dar is a fully onedimensional concept. It puts people into two categories—straight or gay—despite the spectrum of human sexuality, which includes bisexual, transsexual, and asexual, among othersl. No one considers someone’s outward appearance and says, “he’s so bisexual.”

Another friend of mine at Georgetown happens to be bisexual. Although he is not ashamed of his identity, he is not openly

bisexual. So, when his peers saw him kissing another man at a party they automatically assumed that he was exclusively homosexual. Bisexuality was never considered. Even though lip service is granted every letter in LGBT, many only seem to pay attention to the first two.

The paradigm in the gay rights movement has been to empower homosexuals to come out to their family and friends, and this goal has largely been accomplished.

Gay communities exist across the United States, and the stigma of being gay has been highly diminished. Still, people never seem to consider that men and women who exhibit certain stereotypical behaviors could be something other than exclusively homosexual, or not even homosexual at all.

This attitude is the same one that alienated gays and lesbians from their communities in years past, and should not color discussion of sexuality in this country.

majority of my friends were Catholic, or had some other Christian denomination in which they had been immersed for their entire lives, and they were all very open and seemingly devoted in their respective faiths. My first semester here, I spent time avoiding the religion conversation; I felt like I was somehow less developed than my classmates because I had never spent time addressing the question.

As spring semester of my freshman year rolled around, I enrolled in Problem of God with a Jesuit professor. Less because of interest and more because one of my friends had preregistered for it, but I was

getting the requirement out of the way. However, it quickly became my favorite class, and doubtlessly due to Father Fields’s brilliance. I looked forward to listening to my classmates, and watching enriching discussions unfold.

That was the best part of class— arguing, questioning, and forcing myself to delve deeper into the problem of God. My peers and professor were receptive to my ideas and constructive in their responses.

The inclusive class was novel for me; I had never experienced such a thorough and open evaluation of faith. My classmates surprised me daily with their insights, their logic complementing that of Plato and St. Augustine.

But as I waded deeper into the conversation, it started to sneak into my life outside of class. I couldn’t get past reasoning my way through class, playing devil’s advocate if you will, and as we continued to raise questions about religious philosophy we only made our way to more questions. And then we’d move on.

Not answering these questions, these pressing questions, frustrated me. I didn’t understand how my classmates, who seemed to blindly follow this faith without reason, could move on so seamlessly!

I couldn’t help but feel deficient, like I was lacking some essential component of being a

Georgetown student—you know, understanding the purpose of life and all. I decided to go to Fr. Field’s office hours to see if I could talk my way through some of the topics I was grappling with.

By some inexplicable force of who knows what, I started bawling in office hours. Not tearing up, but bawling. Yet the conversation couldn’t have been more valuable; I was put at ease by his calming presence and repeated offers of cups of Earl Grey. While I didn’t get concrete answers for all of my questions, that was my turnaround point. Talking with him made me realize that my questions were examples of my faith, and that my need for answers only affirmed what I had believed all along.

Mind you, I can’t tell you what that is, but I know it’s something. In late-night talks, I’ve tried to articulate my problems with Catholicism, and it always comes down to reason. I’ve come to realize that I won’t be able to reason my way past portions of all recognized denominations, and that I’m just fine with that. I believe in something, and it’s helped me get through some tough times and self-evaluations.

Recently, a friend of mine from home died in a car crash. I immediately found myself seeking refuge in the meditative

homilies at Dahlgren and Copley Crypt. I realized I was reiterating the words of the priests to my friends from home, in some attempt to make sense of the terrible accident.

Despite my lack of affiliation with the church, the faith community here welcomed me with open arms. The most incredible thing is that it’s not all one faith. It’s a mosaic of faiths, backgrounds, and experiences, all trying to answer some higher calling.

With this faithful community of Jesuits, atheists, and everything in between, I’ve been able to deal with some pretty difficult transitions. While I could chalk it up to my turn-around experience in office hours, I’d rather attribute it to the Georgetown community, which helped me to believe that I believe. For me, that reaffirms that Georgetown is the inclusive and fostering religious community that I was promised in NSO as a naïve freshman. And I got a hell of a lot more out of it than a checked requirement box on MyDegree.

Connor Jones is a freshman in the College. He might try not to stereotype, but even he agrees Georgetown Day needs inflatables.

Religious plurality at Georgetown inspires contemplation

by Abby Sherburne At Georgetown, religion is everywhere. And for me, whose only religious experience precollege was a third-grade Christmas gift exchange in which I gave a teacher a Barbie I didn’t like, a Jesuit university was quite the jump. And while my Catholic friends here might remind me that this is “barely Catholic” in comparison to their private high schools, I feel the strength of faith everywhere I go.

When I first matriculated at Georgetown, I could not have anticipated the impact that faith would have on my time here. The

Dahlgren Chapel is a spritiual center for students on campus.

GEORGETOWN.EDU

Abby Sherburne is a sophomore in the College. She also believes in having Copley Lawn and inflatables on Georgetown Day.

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15

Hunger Games obsession helps ease post-graduation fears

by Sara Ainsworth Sophomore year is coming to an end, and the dreaded slump has set in. Combined with the recent streak of bad weather, this has lead to a complete and utter lack of desire to do anything. I’ve found other ways to occupy my time, like thinking about how I’m pursuing a degree that, especially in these tough economic times, isn’t exactly practical—it’s sometimes pretty difficult to see how the skills the SFS has taught me can translate into a career. Still, one cannot spend hours dwelling on insecurities without going insane, so I have turned to my favorite fictional world for solace—Panem.

The 60s had Star Trek, the 70s had Star Wars, Harry Potter graced

the start of the 21st century, and arguably, this decade will have the Hunger Games. As far as Hunger Games fangirls go, I am certainly not the most rabid, I am among them nonetheless. I have successfully downloaded a Hunger Games ringtone, started planning to be Effie for Halloween, and spent my weekend rereading the first two books and watching the movie, again.

Clearly, I have been shirking certain academic responsibilities.

While my level of enthusiasm for this franchise may seem minor league-level pathetic, and secretly I remain a 15-year-old girl inside, I have thus far managed to be discreet about my fangirl status. What haven’t been discreet, however, are my pernicious thoughts on the future.

If only a degree was offered in kicking ass and taking names.

IMDB

Down, but never out

It’s an all too common conversation opener at NSO: “Well, my dad’s from Singapore, my mom is French and Japanese, but I grew up in South Africa and then went to high school in New York City…”

In these situations, quite a few Georgetown students can rattle off impressive and exotic responses about their own backgrounds, very often in several languages.

I’m not one of them. After the cosmopolitan Hoya has recited a laundry list of enviable places of origin, it’s my turn to declare that I hail from Michigan—more specifically, from the Detroit area.

My interlocutor usually responds with something to the effect of, “Ouch,” or “Oh, I’m so sorry.”

Harsh, maybe—but admit it, the images that just came to your

mind were ones of crime, poverty, and generally unremarkable urban blight. This is a problem, though it’s not the fault of any one person. Unemployment, violence, and factory closings are the stories that get published about Detroit, all set to a dreary Michigan winter backdrop. True, the city has been plagued in recent years by economic troubles and political corruption, but these facts don’t justify the fetishization of the hardships the city faces.

Chief offenders include a dramatic French photo series entitled “The Ruins of Detroit” and the British documentary Requiem for Detroit, the first of which most clearly exemplifies what has come to be known as “ruin porn.” Usually the work of outsiders, this art form capitalizes on the public’s

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Fretting away one day, I struck gold in an international relations-style analysis of the Hunger Games from my quantitative methods professor. Being a true SFSer, using IR to interpret anything turns me on, especially if it’s fiction. This article was the most excitement I’ve found in academia since I attended a lecture freshman year about realism and the use of fear as a weapon in Harry Potter.

Using game theory and the economics of tesserae, the author analyzed the probability of survival in the Hunger Games. But this was only the beginning of my IR trek through the wonderful world of Panem. Going on to read more articles that used IR to interpret the Hunger Games, I found myself reinvigorated by my degree and the future that it will provide me.

These articles not only let me indulge in my Hunger Games fixation, but also assuaged some of my seemingly inescapable fears.

Everywhere I turn, it seems that my friends are having crises about their futures, and those fears have undoubtedly had an impact upon me. Sophomore year has come to represent the metaphorical end of the lax approach to life. Junior year is looming and apparently so is my future, at least according to every serious-minded sophomore I have talked with these past few weeks. Tests ending with -ATs

need to be planned for, internships applied for, and the practicality of my major choice needs to be addressed. In the choice between fight and flight, I have decided to forego both, and instead simply burrow into my comforter with a book, hoping that I will wake up a freshman again.

This is where the Hunger Games, or at least its analysis, arrives to save the day. While I might have not been as fearful for the future as others, questions about my degree have become omnipresent. How can I apply theories to real life when we are taught that so often they are wrong? These analyses offer a small glimmer of hope that my degree will not only be a great party trick, but will also be practical. Everyone loves a guest who can pull wild theories out of her ass and sound intelligent doing it.

We all need to remember that while we are taught all these abstract ideas, we are also taught to think critically. This means that as Georgetown students, who likely have at least a modicum of intelligence, we can creatively use our education to reach whatever goal we are aiming for. If game theory can apply to the Hunger Games, then modernization theory can definitely apply to less trivial endeavors, no offense to Susan Collins.

It is time for those of us, myself included, who foresee an im-

morbid fascination with decay— in this case, with the deterioration of a formerly booming industrial center.

They’re just pictures, and they’re interesting to look at. I’m perfectly willing to admit that the art deco style popular at the time that Detroit’s most iconic buildings were designed lends itself particularly well to the kind of poetic dilapidation that art-

accurately, the money that doesn’t flow in).

But on another level, it’s about pride. Believe it or not, Detroit was once called “the Paris of the West,” celebrated as a beautiful and opulent city that was the heart of an industry of incomparable economic and cultural influence. Later, it was known around the world for the Motown sensations recorded at Hitsville, U.S.A. The 21st century has witnessed a jaw-dropping 25 percent population decrease, but back in the 1950s the Motor City was home to nearly two million people.

Detroit isn’t all history and no future. Though the recession has hit the area particularly hard, the auto industries seem to be on their way back up. Furthermore, Detroit is a thriving cultural center. Home to the Heidelberg Project—two blocks of houses transformed into works of art—as well as a vibrant urban farming movement and a world-famous electronic music festival, the city could very well become the next hipster haven.

The issues at play in Detroit and in cities like it (many other former industrial centers of the Rust Belt fall into this category)

Carrying On

by Tori Jovanovski A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

ists like Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre have an eye for. But very real people with very real problems live in Detroit, and it’s downright tasteless to take advantage of a population suffering the consequences, wholly beyond their control, of a love affair with capitalism. A city down on its luck should not be turned into such an object of shame and pity. For one thing, this misrepresentation of Detroit affects potential investors, who in turn determine the money that flows into the city (or, more

minent post-graduation catastrophe to take a leaf out of Katniss’s book. Life does not go the way we plan; it never has and never will. We can sit around insipidly like Bella from Twilight waiting for things to change, or we can be proactive and make the best of each situation presented. To continue the analogy, life is no different from the arena - we have to take what the Gamemakers give us and do the best with it.

Maybe, if we’re cunning enough, we can throw it in their faces.

We also need to remember that we are going into the playing field not as underdogs, but as Careers. Our Georgetown education has offered us preparation for the real world that is better than most other institutions can provide. As long as we remember the values and knowledge imbued in us by the faculty, staff, and students of this school, there is no reason why we should not be able to overcome every obstacle we’re faced with.

Graduation is fast approaching. So let the games begin, and may the odds be ever in your favor!

Sara Ainsworth is a sophomore in the SFS. She is willing to fight to the death for access to Copley Lawn on Georgetown Day. are complex, and shouldn’t be exploited in the name of entertainment. Detroit doesn’t need your pity, but it doesn’t need your scorn, either. As anyone who has watched the now-famous Chrysler commercials during the past two Super Bowls can attest, groups that strive to speak for Detroit as a whole aim to cultivate an aura of toughness. They choose “fighters” like Clint Eastwood and Eminem to convey their message, which to me proves to be the difference between “ruin porn” and the scrappier, Gran Torino-style portrayals. Whereas the former strips Detroit of its dignity, the latter acknowledges adversity without turning the city into a caricature of indigence and crime. A flag that bears the Latin inscriptions, “Speramus Meliora” (“We hope for better things”) and “Resurget Cineribus” (“It shall rise from the ashes”) seems apt for this city, which isn’t giving in just yet.

Tori Jovanovski is a junior in the College. She’ll defend Detroit, but she agrees that Georgetown Day has gone downhill.

JEFF HAAKE

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