9 29 2011

VOICE the georgetown

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VIGIL COMMEMORATES VICTIM OF GENDER VIOLENCE PAGE 4

QB PAIR STABILIZES HOYAS PAGE 6

MR. WARHOL COMES TO WASHINGTON PAGE 10

Georgetown University’s Weekly Newsmagazine Since 1969 w September 29, 2011 w Volume 45, Issue 6 w georgetownvoice.com

2 the georgetown voice

september 29, 2011

Foxdog

by Nico Dodd

Voice Crossword “Germ Theory” by Scott Fligor

Across 1. Reddish horses 6. Oscars’ org.

11. Antonio or Francisco, e.g.

14. Tree resin 15. ___ Diem 16. Golf support 17. Cowpox derivative 19. “___ Poetica”

answers at georgetownvoice.com 20. Formerly, once 21. Security handout 22. Pascal or Tesla 23. Cathedral recess 25. Spot check finding?

27. Compelling charm 31. Gen. Robert ___ 32. I.B.M. competitor 33. Egyptian capital 35. Derek and the Dominos hit 38. Common owl type 40. Broadway signs 42. Fleece 43. Sing like Bing 45. Three for three, perhaps 47. Diminutive suffix 48. Nolo contendere, e.g.

50. 17-across target 52. Gandhi’s title 55. “Able was ___...”

56. Abreast of 57. Useless 59. Drive-___ 63. Syndicate 64. Variolation 66. O2 tank unit 67. Royal retinue 68. String quartet instrument 69. Metro stop: abbr.

70. Cosmetician Lauder 71. Some art deco works

Down 1. All-night party 2. WWII Gen. Bradley 3. Basics 4. Divine drink 5. ___ Lanka 6. Military colleges 7. Actor Damon 8. Trojan king 9. Apex 10. One in a hundred: abbr.

11. Donated hockey trophy 12. Eagle’s roost 13. Embeds 18. Sentra maker 22. “___ directed” 24. Quick shot?

26. Exclusively 27. Business channel 28. Listen to 29. High anxiety cause?

30. Front seats 34. “Give me a sec…”

36. Composer Schifrin 37. Discover alternative, for short 39. Pitcher Ryan 41. Sushi choice 44. Catch 46. Intellectual prop. lic.

49. Like some acids 51. Varsity award 52. Parotitis 53. Dumb/Deaf as ___ 54. Have ___ (be able to escape) 58. Plot part 60. Rapier handle 61. Part to play 62. Pizza/grill chain, informally 64. INS, formerly 65. Trick winner

Are you a logophile?

Share your love of words and help us write crosswords.

E-mail crossword@georgetownvoice.com

editorial

georgetownvoice.com

VOICE the georgetown

Volume 45.6 September 29, 2011 Editor-in-Chief: Tim Shine Managing Editor: Sean Quigley Blog Editor: Leigh Finnegan News Editor: Holly Tao Sports Editor: Daniel Kellner Feature Editor: Kara Brandeisky Cover Editor: Iris Kim Leisure Editor: John Sapunor Voices Editor: Kate Imel Photo Editor: Max Blodgett Design Editors: Michelle Pliskin, Catherine Johnson Projects Editor: Rob Sapunor Crossword Editor: Scott Fligor Assistant Blog Editor: Ryan Bellmore Assistant News Editor: Neha Ghanshamdas Assistant Sports Editors: Abby Sherburne, Kevin Joseph Assistant Leisure Editors: Mary Borowiec, Heather Regen Assistant Photo Editors: Julianne Deno, Matthew Funk Assistant Design Editor: Kathleen Soriano-Taylor Contributing Editor: Nico Dodd

Staff Writers:

Nick Berti, Geoffrey Bible, Rachel Calvert, Mary Cass, Emma Forster, Kirill Makarenko, Kelsey McCullough, Sadaf Qureshi, Adam Rosenfeld, Melissa Sullivan, Nick Thomas

Staff Photographers:

Sam Brothers, Lucia He, Jackson Perry

Copy Chief: Aodhan Beirne Copy Editors:

Claire McDaniel, Kim Tay

Editorial Board Chair: Jackson Perry Editorial Board:

Gavin Bade, Rachel Calvert, Ethan Chess, Sean Quigley, J. Galen Weber

Head of Business: Keaton Hoffman The Georgetown Voice

The Georgetown Voice is published every Thursday.

the georgetown voice 3 LET’S GET ETHICAL

City leaders disappoint on ethics reform In recent months, D.C.’s government has come under fire for corruption and shady relationships with lobbyists. Now, more than ever, the D.C. City Council needs ethics reform.

Last month, a committee formed by the Council published a report that delivered a sharp rebuke to Mayor Vincent Gray’s administration. It concluded that the administration’s hiring practices reflected “nepotism and cronyism” and violated local and federal law. Furthermore, Sulaimon Brown, a former political opponent of Gray’s, claims he was paid by the Gray campaign to disparage Adrian Fenty in the primaries. Even more reprehensible is the fact that Brown was hired immediately after the mayor’s election to work as an assistant in the Department of Health Care Finance with an exorbitant $110,000 salary. Although he was quickly fired when the scandal broke, the sordid affair is the latest in a long string of

corruption scandals for the Council.

Another longstanding problem at City Hall has been council members’ use of lobbyists as legal representatives. Both council members and lobbyists have been coy about whether fair market rates are being charged, an ambiguity that raises even more doubts about the relationships.

Council members have been facing questions about a broad range of issues, from campaign finance to constituent service funds and car payments. As the public continues to lose faith in its elected officials, it’s unfortunate that the Council is just offering more of the same. The plethora of ethicsreform measures that council members have loudly unveiled in the last month seems geared more toward salvaging their public images than actually reforming governance.

Rather than working together toward a common proposal that addresses actual problems, council members have been too busy

scheduling press conferences to suggest reforms that are, in fact, already law. Now is not the time for useless grandstanding.

Although we can hope that the Council can actually institute meaningful reforms, past experience makes many pessimistic.

Terry Lynch, a veteran of an unsuccessful attempt at ethics reform in 1992 and executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations, told the Washington City Paper that hoping for the Council to hold itself accountable is “like telling a tiger don’t eat meat.”

As D.C. faces tremendous challenges across all aspects of government, it’s unfortunate that our elected officials bring such dishonor to their offices and blithely sweep aside ethical concerns unless showing concern wins them elections. It’s no surprise that City Paper’s Alan Suderman mused, “Maybe what D.C. needs isn’t just better laws—it’s better councilmembers.”

TOO MUCH DOUBT

Davis died unjustly, but hopefully not in vain On September 21, Troy Davis was executed at a Georgia state prison after 20 years on death row.

His case received minimal press attention for two decades until the week before his execution date, when an impassioned effort to save his life began across the world.

The use of the death penalty in a case with “too much doubt,” as Davis’s supporters chanted outside the prison, sparked outrage as petitioners critiqued Georgia’s insouciant decision to kill a man who was never proven irrefutably guilty.

While many have rightfully claimed that an answer to injustice in criminal cases like Davis’s is the elimination of the death penalty, the case also stands as a reflection of the many cracks in our flawed judicial system.

Injustice for Davis began in 1991, when he was convicted of killing Mark MacPhail, an off-duty police officer, despite the lack of

physical evidence directly connecting him to the murder. It continued in 2009, when the Supreme Court ordered the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia to hold an evidentiary hearing, where the majority of the testimonies that had identified Davis as the killer was recanted.

Though some of the new testimonies implicated the same man that Davis had always maintained was the actual killer, the judge decided not to consider them in his ruling. In several of the affidavits, witnesses suggested that they had been coerced through fear into signing statements that said Davis had confessed to the crime.

At the time of his execution, the only legitimate physical evidence presented by the prosecution team was from a shooting incident Davis had been involved in earlier; the inadequate argument was that because the bullets were similar in both cases, Davis must have been MacPhail’s shooter as well.

On September 21, a final injustice was served to Davis as the Supreme Court delayed his execution for four tense hours of deliberation before finally allowing Georgia to execute him. By 11:08 p.m., the time of his death, it seemed clearer than ever that capital punishment had been unfairly and cruelly delivered in a case that clearly left room for speculation on its defendant’s guilt. Davis’s execution stands as evidence of the pitfalls of America’s use of the death penalty.

Though it would be a major step in the direction of justice, eliminating the death penalty will not entirely fix the criminal justice system. Reforming the system to reach more just outcomes requires a continual effort on many fronts, not just in the struggle against the death penalty. As we’ve seen with Davis’s case, if we wait until another crisis of faith in our system before we try to change it, it will probably be too late.

OUR VENISON DENIZENS

This newspaper was made possible 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.

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On this week’s cover ... Dupont Circle Cover Photo: Richard De La Paz

Fairfax County deer culling is good for all Last week, deer hunting season officially commenced in Fairfax County. This year, the county’s government has allowed bow hunters to hunt deer in the county’s 18 parks as part of an effort to combat dangerous and ecologically harmful deer overpopulation in the area.

Though the policy has drawn outrage from animal rights groups and concerned citizens, the move should prove a costeffective and environmentally unobtrusive solution to a dangerous problem.

The deer population has exploded in Fairfax in recent years because of a lack of natural predators. In some areas there are 400 deer per square mile, vastly exceeding the ratio of 20 deer per square mile considered healthy, according to a statement in the Washington Post by county wildlife biologist Victoria Monroe.

The large deer population has also become a safety hazard. The county’s website

claims that an average of 4,000 to 5,000 deervehicle collisions occur each year. In August, a motorcyclist died after hitting a deer.

County administrators have recently been attempting to combat the problem through various methods, even allowing police SWAT teams to practice their sharpshooting on deer in county parks. Last year, 815 deer were harvested. It is important to note that there have been no human fatalities since the program’s implementation.

Though these efforts are designed to preserve the county’s ecological balance, animal rights groups have protested the culling programs, including one demonstration in 2009 that led officials to close Colvin Run Park during a hunt due to safety concerns.

Last year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent out an email begging for support for “deer suffer[ing] in agony” and “abandoned fawns” who starve after their “parents are wounded or killed.”

This program is not an issue of illegal poaching or systematic animal abuse; it is hunting sanctioned and encouraged by scientists in response to a clear overpopulation problem that is harming humans and deer alike. Groups like PETA seem to misunderstand the problem—being hit by a car and left to die on a road or slowly starving to death because of overgrazing are more painful way for a deer to die than being killed by a government-licensed hunter.

While there are certainly legitimate causes for animal rights protests, the deer culling program should not be one of them.

PETA’s rote objection to this necessary program threatens its ability to rally broad outrage against truly unethical treatment of animals. Animal rights activists should recognize that these programs are necessary and beneficial for all inhabitants of Fairfax County, whether deer or human.

news

4 the georgetown voice

september 29, 2011

D.C. mourns another victim lost to gender violence

by Patricia Cipollitti Last Sunday, a candlelight vigil was held in Dupont Circle to honor the late Dr. Gaurav Gopalan, a gay man and prominent member of Washington, D.C.’s LGBT community He was found dead in women’s clothing on an 11th Street sidewalk two weeks ago, a victim of gender violence.

Over 200 people attended the vigil. They gathered to commemorate him by telling anecdotes about his life and reading passages from his favorite Shakespeare plays. One of his friends said that Gopalan would have responded to being mistaken by the police as a transgender Latina or MiddleEastern woman with his char-

patricia cipollitti

Friends remember a man who belonged to many communities.

acteristic “mariachi cackle of a laugh.”

D.C. Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) was also in attendance, and called police and other city authorities to action.

“We need to find this killer because, having done this once, there is every reason to believe they will do it again,” he said.

Though Gopalan was found in women’s clothing, he was not transgender. However, his murder was potentially a part of a string of murders and violence in D.C. against transgender women.

The last reported murder was that of Lashay Mclean, a young transgender woman, on July 20.

Craig Dylanwyatt, a gay D.C. resident who attended the vigil, agreed with other LGBT activists that these victims have “not received the same priority attention” as other, non-gender deviant cases.

It took a week for the authorities to rule Gopalan’s case a homicide, and it has not yet been ruled a hate crime.

“These murders show that there is a need for people in authority positions, like the government, the police department, and

GU alumni donations recession-proof

by Rosie Bichell While many universities’ alumni donations have been impacted by the economic downturn, the Georgetown Fund, Georgetown’s alumni giving fund received more donations during the 2011 fiscal year, which began on July 1, 2010 and ended June 20, 2011, than in the 2010 fiscal year.

The “Great Recession” has caused an overall downward swoop in alumni donations for American institutions of higher learning during the fiscal year of 2009, with only minor improvement in 2010, according to The Chronicle of Higher Education. However, Jeffrey Donahoe, the Director of Development and Campaign Communications at the Office of Advancement, said the undergraduate alumni giving numbers and trends are positive compared to the year before.

“The overall number of undergraduate alumni who gave was up during the fiscal year of 2011,” Donahoe said.

Out of 17,000 donors, more than 11,500 main campus alumni donated to the Georgetown Fund,this past fiscal year, amounting to about $7 million, compared to only $5.5 million from the year before. The donation size increased slightly from last year for both the Annual Fund and the Georgetown Fund. In 2010, average gift size was $735 for the Annual Fund and $428 for the Georgetown Fund. In 2011, however, it was $755 and $505 respectively.

Although the overall amount of money donated has not been negatively affected, the percentage of alumni who donated has. The 2011 fiscal year only saw undergraduate alumni participation of 26 percent, which “is slightly down from the 2010 fiscal year,” Donahoe said.

“The number of donors can go up and the participation rate still go down because participation is the number of donors as percentage of the total number of alumni,” Donahoe said. “The pool of alumni grows larger ev-

ery year with the addition of almost 1,600 new alumni. More alumni are being added than lost.”

Although some alumni donate to specific parts of the University, such as the library or Campus Ministry, most alumni donations made to the Georgetown Fund go towards the 1789 Scholarship Imperative. “[The 1789 Scholarship Imperative] is the university’s number one giving priority,” said Donahoe.

The 1789 Scholarship Imperative lists the goal of awarding 1,789 students annually with $25,000 scholarships each on its website. The increase in donations from 2011 added up to approximately sixty more undergraduate scholarships, which Donahoe said is making a profound difference for students. “[I think that when donors] can see the impact of their giving in the number of scholarships raised and students supported, they feel the value of their gift, no matter the size,”

other public services to get the word out,” Dylanwyatt said.

Many LGBT activists hope that the crime against Gopalan, an aerospace engineer and a beloved member of the D.C. theater community, will bring more police attention to crimes of gender violence.

“Normally, [these kinds of things happen] to a commercial sex worker. Now, this is the murder of someone who was prominent. Now it sparks,” Earline Budd, who works for Transgender Health Empowerment and who was at the vigil, said.

Budd said that the presence of Councilmember Graham at the vigil and the sentiments expressed in a letter written by D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton that was read out at the vigil were “thundering call[s] for action” and indicated that more pressure will be put on the authorities to close this case.

“We need a solved crime,” Budd said. “There are too many unsolved cases like this one.”

Sivagami Subbaraman, director of Georgetown’s LGBTQ Resource Center and a friend of

Gopalan’s, emphasizes that Gopalan’s murder also affects students at Georgetown.

“We are also citizens in a larger community because we are an open campus and students step out,” Subbaraman said. While the LGBTQ Resource Center holds many educational programs to increase knowledge about LGBT issues and develop campus-wide tolerance, Subbaraman stressed that “just because there is a Center doesn’t mean [violence] won’t happen here.”

“I think all students should care [about promoting tolerance and stopping gender violence] regardless of sexual orientation,” Subbaraman said. “If you don’t care about everybody’s safety then you, yourself, can’t be safe.”

Subbaraman believes that tolerance is an issue pertinent not just to Georgetown students, LGBT and straight, but to people from everywhere on the sexual spectrum in the D.C. area and beyond.

“That’s why the vigil was so powerful—it highlighted the fact that [Gopalan] was a part of a lot of communities,” she said.

Rao discusses India, education

tim markatos

On Tuesday evening Indian Ambassador to the United States, Nirupama Menon Rao spoke in Gaston Hall.

She stressed the importance of international cooperation as well as the increasingly active role of developing countries in the global scene.

Rao expressed great concern over education and its power to induce social change.

The ambassador’s address ended with a question and answer session during which she delivered diplomatic responses to eager students.

—Neha Ghanshamdas

news

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 5

Dean Martin Iguchi talks new programs, ideas for NHS He plans to work with students and faculty in the NHS in the next few months to identify ways the school could make long-term partnerships and contributions to health care locally and internationally.

These programs would emphasize students working across disciplines. In addition to participating in the clinical and scholarly aspects of the programs, students would also be responsible for administrative aspects like program development and maintenance.

“I am very interested in further developing a social action agenda,” Iguchi wrote. “Georgetown has a long tradition of service.”

The partnerships would likely address health issues like cancer screening, heart health, and diabetes management.

Iguchi also said that he would be working on expanding the school’s online nursing master’s program. The NHS launched three online nursing graduate programs (Family Nurse Practitioner, Nurse Midwifery and Women’s Health, and Nursing Education) in the spring of 2011.

“This program holds incredible promise for the health of the nation by educating more Georgetown nursing leaders to work in clinical and community settings, particularly in rural and underserved areas of the United States,” Iguchi wrote. According to Iguchi, there are currently 100 students enrolled in these nursing programs from 21 states and the District of Columbia.

Previously, Dr. Bette Jacobs and Dr. Julia DeLoia served as the NHS deans. Jacobs served as dean for 11 years, from 1999 to 2010, and DeLoia served as an interim dean for the past year while the search for a permanent dean took place.

Dr. James Welsh, the Assistant Vice President for Student Health, chaired the search committee for the new dean.

“Dr. Iguchi was absolutely the type of person we were looking for,” he wrote in an email. Iguchi “had demonstrated success as a leader, as a scholar and researcher,” according to Welsh.

Iguchi noted the achievements of his predecessor, includ-

ing the renovation of St. Mary’s Hall, the construction of the Discovery Center, and a growth in undergraduate applications.

Personally Iguchi said that he sees possibilities for continued growth in all of the academic programs in the NHS, and said

D.C. schools still struggling

their format, and the ones in wealthier areas are carrying on just fine.

For example, barely a quarter of students at the Winston Education Campus, a K-8 school in Southeast, are proficient in math and reading.

In contrast, the proficiency level is 90 percent at Alice Deal, a traditional middle school in Ward 3.

It’s plain to see that this solution isn’t working so far. Wealthier students still have a much better chance at a quality education than poor ones, whether it is because they live within the better school’s boundaries or because they have

per-pupil funding suffers because of it, and they are left with old buildings and technology, a want of money to replace them, and the most challenged children—often the ones whose parents were not involved enough to enter the lottery.

The effects on extracurricular programs and elective classes are enormous. Alice Deal students can choose from Spanish, French, and Mandarin Chinese, and it has nine sports and countless activities available through the school—including fencing and African drumming. Go across town to the Brookland Educational Campus at Bunker Hill, though, and there is one part-time Spanish teacher, three sports options, and chorus.

If the goal is securing educational opportunities for all, “school choice” is clearly not a viable option.

Neither are these PS-8 campuses. They may keep students in the District, but real improvement will only come to these disadvantaged schools once the District and the nation as a whole take a holistic look at the causes of educational inequality. It is impossible to separate the struggles of poverty from the struggles of students at Brookland or Winston.

by Holly Tao The School of Nursing and Health Studies operated without a permanent dean for one year, from June 2010 to June 2011. After a year’s search for a new dean, Dr. Martin Iguchi was appointed Georgetown’s new Dean of the School of Nursing and Health Studies in July.

Iguchi said that during his tenure, he will work on expanding the school’s online nursing master ’s program and establishing relationships with health-related community-based organizations inside and outside of D.C. Iguchi, who served as the chair of the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of California Los Angeles’s School of Public Health, said Georgetown’s Jesuit values and focus on social justice were what attracted him the University and led him to leave “a comfortable position” at UCLA. “Our students and faculty are truly inspiring,” Iguchi wrote in an email.

As time goes on, more and more cracks have begun to show in exD.C. Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee’s educational reforms.

Even as investigations into the citywide standardized test cheating scandal continue, the focus turned this week to the sad state of many middle schools in the District.

Problems with D.C. middle schools stem from several factors.

One cause is an increased enrollment in D.C.’s kindergarten and preschool programs, something that hasn’t happened in decades.

Meanwhile, Rhee closed the doors on 23 middle schools in 2008, keeping with her ideology of shutting down underperforming schools.

This left many areas without enough middle school space for all their students. Ward 5 lacked a junior high school altogether.

Subpar conditions in middle school have consequences. It is widely recognized that D.C. students often do not enter high school fully prepared. Half do not graduate on time.

Since Rhee’s solution was to eliminate the traditional middle

school in these communities, the District created 17 (one has been added since) preschool to eighth grade campuses to fill the void.

The DCPS team hoped these new schools would slow the flow of students—especially wealthy ones— from leaving DCPS because of deficient middle schools.

Rhee also cited research that students generally perform better in a PS-8 environment. However, the findings were based on standardized test scores, hardly a reliable measure of achievement and student growth. The research she used is heavily disputed in the academic world.

So far, the schools have performed well in one respect: parents are pulling their middle-school aged kids out of DCPS at decreased rates. The more important question of student achievement, however, has still gone unanswered.

The DCPS middle schools, whether they serve grades PS-8 or 6-8, are still performing along with typical socioeconomic expectations.

That is, the schools in poorer areas are still struggling, no matter what

city on a Hill

by Gavin Bade

A bi-weekly column on D.C. news and politics parents who can drive them across town to class each day. A lottery system allowing for out-of-boundary children to attend the District’s best middle schools has been good for those lucky enough to be accepted, but it has been negative for those left behind.

The worst schools languish with lower enrollment, both because of parents leaving the District and students attending other DCPS schools through the lottery program. Their

there are no plans to reduce any programs.

Iguchi plans to continue his own research in HIV/AIDS, drug abuse, and drug policy while at Georgetown, and to work with students and faculty to expand research in those fields within the University.

courtesy martiN iGUcHi

Dean Martin Iguchi is planning on new programs for his NHS tenure.

Programs like Sweat Equity, which this column addressed two weeks ago, are a good start, but on the whole there are simply not enough resources from all levels of government going to fight poverty and the root causes of educational struggle.

Good teachers are important.

Testing is important. But crafting a safe, secure community environment that allows students to thrive is as meaningful as anything. Unfortunately, assistance programs for the poor have been cut on both the state and local levels nationwide, as have education budgets.

Sooner or later, leaders in D.C. and throughout the nation will figure out that fixing education doesn’t require shifting students around to different buildings or better schools within a District. It requires making educational needs, anti-poverty programs and civil society projects funding and legislative priorities. Until they do, generations of D.C. citizens will continue to struggle through their separate and unequal education facilities.

Let Gavin know how you got schooled at gbade@georgetownvoice. com

sports

6 the georgetown voice

september 29, 2011

Dual quarterbacks excel in explosive Hoya offense

by Kevin Joseph Typically, it never works out.

Football teams, whether at the professional or collegiate level, almost always name one quarterback––a single voice and leader––to orchestrate their offense. The Georgetown football team, however, has successfully bucked this trend thus far this season, having been propelled to a 3-1 record on the backs of quarterbacks Isaiah Kempf and Scott Darby.

Since last season, head coach Kevin Kelly and his staff often hesitated to name a starting quarterback, perhaps demonstrating a lack of faith in either Kempf or Darby.

Any time one would struggle, the other would replace him, resulting in a stagnant offense toward the end of the season. Kempf’s phenomenal performances early this season suggested he may finally be ready to offer the team some consistency, and the Hoyas believed they had their 2011 quarterback.

The junior certainly responded in the first week of the season, leading the Hoyas’ 40-point outburst in their opener against Davidson. After a gritty defensive battle against Lafayette a week later, the two quarterbacks split time against Yale when Kempf fell to an injury. This past week, whether Kempf was healthy or not, Darby stepped in and never looked back, passing for four touchdowns and rushing for one on his way to Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week award.

It was the kind of performance Kelly knew Darby was capable of producing.

“Scott had an excellent football game, ” Kelly said. “He is an excellent quarterback and I was really happy for him, especially after preseason when he was not named the starter. He handled it with class.”

Looking at the Patriot League as a whole, Kempf and Darby’s numbers do not appear too impressive, especially compared the play of Lehigh quarterback Chris Lum. But the Kempf-Darby combination has elevated Georgetown to second in scoring offense in the league, right behind Lehigh. Likewise, their offense as a whole has been both efficient and productive, averaging 382.5 yards per game through the air and on the ground.

These two premium interchangeable parts are a rare luxury for any sports team and even hold true for the Georgetown defense. If one took Andrew Schaetzke off the defensive line or removed Jeremy Moore from the secondary, the defense would certainly take time to adjust.

Instead, the defense as a whole leads the Patriot League in rushing defense, holding opponents to just 70 yards per game on the ground.

Linebacker Rob McCabe leads the league in tackles, while Schaetzke and junior linebacker Jeremy Grasso have combined for an impressive eight sacks. Kelly is an avid fan of the work defensive coordinator Rob Sgarlata has done featuring these players, especially Schaetzke.

“We have some good schemes Coach Sgarlata has come up with, and of course we have Andrew,” Kelly said. “He can rush the quar-

Courtesy SPORTS INFO

Max Waizenegger scored two touchdowns in the Hoyas rout of Marist last Saturday.

terback and a lot of guys have to scheme [for] him … We have a lot more speed than we have in past years.”

But it was the offense that shined this past weekend. Their 52-28 beatdown of Marist was easily the greatest offensive display of Kelly’s tenure at Georgetown and a great reflection of the unit’s progress under secondyear offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude.

Numbers aside, the Hoyas are just hoping for a continuation of their excellent play this weekend when they face the upstart Bucknell Bisons. Bucknell is off to a 3-1 start despite having modest expectations coming into the season.

Consequently, the Hoyas are not approaching the game lightly.

“Bucknell presents a lot of problems schematically,” Kelly said.

“They run the ball very well and [quarterback] Brandon Wesley is an

excellent athlete. He’s very slippery and makes some plays, so we have a lot of challenges ahead of us in defending Bucknell.”

A Georgetown victory will go a long way to securing the school’s first Patriot League title, Kelly’s stated goal since his start at Georgetown. Kelly shouldn’t stress too much, though. Both quarterbacks will be ready to step in and lead the offense with fervor at a moment’s notice.

the Sports Sermon “The señorita should go cook and not dedicate herself to soccer. Women exist to cook and serve men, not to get involved in soccer.” - Peruvian soccer player Víctor “Loco” Ulloa the all-time rushing record, simply because he couldn’t take the culture of losing that permeated the organization.

To make matters worse, in 2008 the Lions went an appalling 0-16, the first winless season since 1976, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, an expansion team, was unable to win in its first season of existence.

But 2011 has thus far been an entirely different story for the Bills and Lions. After three weeks, both stand at a comfortable 3-0, in first place in their divisions and with

winning season—never even a winning conference record.

In an action-packed week And just a year after the Lions of football, no story was more set their mark of futility in the surprising (and exciting to NFL, the Hoyas followed suit fans in economically anemic with their infamous 0-11 2009 post-industrial Great Lakes campaign. towns) than the unexpectBut it isn’t just its past reed and oddly simultaneous cords that make the Georgeemergence of the Buffalo Bills town team such an underdog. and Detroit Lions as winning The team also plays in front teams. Along with the deof the smallest crowds, on the fending Super Bowl chamsmallest field, with one of the pion Green Bay Packers, the smallest budgets, in one of two long-hapless franchises the worst conferences in all of are the only undefeated teams Division I. If that doesn’t sugin the NFL. gest that the odds are against While lookus building a jugPete Rose Central ing at a “zero” in gernaut, I don’t Da bettin’ line the loss column know what will. must be a new Nevertheless, dookies Margin Hoyas and bizarre feelthe Hoyas stand a (underdogs) (duh!) ing for Lions and (favorites) cool 1-0 in conferBills players, the ence play headYanks Tigers Aces High ing into the thick Bills organization, Sox Braves Scrub Series of their Patriot at least, has some familiarity with NBA Owners League schedule.

Players $$$$$$$ success. Between The record is eeri1988 and 1999, the team made confidence bursting through ly similar to last season when the playoffs a remarkable 10 their Under Armour. They the team started strong, only times, including four straight have filled the underdog void to fade down the stretch. In Super Bowl appearances, an in a season that looked set to fact, the Hoyas look perfectly achievement unparalleled in be dominated by the usual set up for another embarthe history of football. How- suspects. rassing finish after breezing ever, they also hold the dubiBut the Bills and Lions are through the warm-up portion ous distinction having lost all far from alone in the quest to of their schedule. The imposfour of those championship overcome their culture of fail- sible doesn’t just happen bouts—a feat unmatched in ure. This year the Hilltop has overnight so there’s no logiall of pro sports. its own underdog story in the cal reason for thinking the The Lions, meanwhile, making as Georgetown foot- Hoyas have a shot at making have never been to the Super ball–the perennial Lions of history.

Bowl, having made the play- the Patriot League–stands at a But then again, the Lions and offs just 14 times in more than cool 3-1 and is legitimately in Bills are 3-0—what’s been logi70 years of history. You have to the running for a shot at the cal about this football season? go back to the ‘50s to find the conference title.

So while it may be a farlast Lions team that mounted Actually, the Lions and fetched idea to even pencil a real championship chal- Bills might even be a bit of- the Hoyas in for a Patriot lenge. The Lions have been so fended to have their records League title run at this point, bad for so long that arguably compared to Georgetown. don’t let it catch you by surtheir greatest player ever, the Georgetown’s brief history as prise either. Winds of change immortal Barry Sanders, quit a Division I-AA football pro- are swirling around the gridfootball well before his time gram offers few highlights. iron these days. Who knows was up, just before clinching The team has never had a what could happen?

by Daniel Kellner

sports

georgetownvoice.com

the georgetown voice 7

Dennin looks to go the distance Soccer stifled in stalemate

by Melissa Sullivan After missing most of last season because of a sports hernia, senior distance runner Mark Dennin, has recovered and returned to the Georgetown men’s cross country team.

Dennin, a key component of the 2009-2010 team, hopes to be back to full health this season as the No. 22 Hoyas compete with a stacked Big East field that includes five other ranked teams.

Dennin has been one of the Hoyas most successful runners in recent years, snatching eighth place at the Big East

Tournament two years ago and fifth overall at the Atlantic Regional meet. With the fastest timed 5000-meter race on the team (14:10.04), Dennin will play a big part in any success the Hoyas have this season.

“If we look at our whole roster, he is our best returning runner to our team,” head coach Patrick Henner said. “In my coaching experience, if people go through [a sports hernia injury] and come back, they come back at an even higher level than before.”

This leadership role is nothing new to Dennin. He was one

Courtesy SPORTS INFO

Mark Dennin has returned from injuries to once again set the pace for the Hoyas.

Wild, wild, wild card Why is everything changing in sports? The NCAA’s conference realignment is the greediest game of musical chairs ever.

The NFL had to fight through a lockout, and you better believe Roger Goodell hasn’t finished pursuing an 18 game schedule.

The NBA likely won’t have a season this year. And perhaps the oldest of the major American sports, baseball, has been questioning its playoff model for the last couple of years.

Commissioners, league executives and owners are always looking for the next best thing.

Sometimes it seems that they want to have the most innovative toys to show off to their colleagues.

But why does baseball—in the midst of one of the most

dramatic season endings in a while— have the itch to change it up too?

Since the Wild Card’s inception in 1995, which was meant to reinvigorate fan interest after the 1994 labor strike, the last month of the season has been a lot more exciting. It’s also the reason the 1997 Marlins, 2002 Angels, and the 2004 Red Sox won the World Series. Most importantly, it’s also the reason why two playoff spots are being decided on the very last day of the season.

Despite its success, there remain some in Major League Baseball that want to change the playoff system. The most popular alternative would be to introduce another wild card in each league and in-

of the top distance runners in Pennsylvania in high school before he came to Georgetown.

However, Dennin acknowledges that he has changed as a runner during his time on the Hilltop.

“I think I’ve matured a lot,” he said. “I’ve become a lot better at taking each race and making it kind of races within races. I’ve become a lot less nervous about everything going perfectly. “ Aside from his extraordinary determination in returning from injury, Henner said consistency, drive, and dedication within the races have helped Dennin stand out among some of the best distance runners in the country.

“I want to race at a pretty high level and make every race count,” Dennin said. “I want to have a good race every time I go out. In that respect, I want to keep on building better and race better.”

Henner hopes that the consistent effort Dennin puts into his training and racing will help this season be his most successful as a Hoya.

“I think that the biggest thing is racing consistently well,” Henner said. “I think that this is a true team sport, and I think that [he will] be as strong of a contributor to the team’s success as possible. If he does that I think he will find individual success, as well.”

Dennin says the main lesson he’s learned at Georgetown is to take on whatever challenge is thrown at him.

“I’ve learned to roll with the punches,” he said. “The best I can do is give 100 percent and stay focused.” crease the total number of playoff teams to ten.

If there is one case to make against MLB’s playoff format is that there aren’t enough teams that make the postseason. The NBA and NHL each have space for twice as many teams, while the NFL has 12.

A league where half the

Backdoor Cuts

By Nick Berti a rotating column on sports teams make the playoffs?

Might as well give everyone a trophy. MLB’s exclusiveness is good. The postseason doesn’t drag on for two months, and the dramatics are packed into a much smaller time frame. In baseball, the regular season actually matters.

by Abby Sherburne The Georgetown men’s soccer team couldn’t hit net in Tuesday’s marquee matchup against Penn State.

Luckily for the Hoyas, the Nittany Lions were stifled as well, leading to a 0-0 draw. It marked the Hoyas’ first scoreless tie of the season as they get set to ride their good form into Big East play next week.

Despite the lack of scoring, head coach Brian Wiese felt his team controlled the pace of the contest and said the Hoyas were hardpressed not to come away with more from the game.

“I thought we ran the match the first ... sixty minutes,” Wiese said. “We were unlucky not to get the lead on a couple occasions. I think we lacked a little bit of sharpness.”

In addition to the score line, the Hoyas also tied the Nittany Lions in shot attempts. But Georgetown held the edge in shots on goal, taking three while not allowing any in a stalwart defensive performance.

“I thought it was a pretty complete performance,” Wiese said. “I think defensively, the guys were very well organized, they were aggressive.”

Neither team got forward in the first half, setting the tone for the scoreless finish. Nevertheless, Wiese believes the team played extremely well in the first

Last night was a great example. With two Wild Cards per league, last night’s drama doesn’t exist. The Red Sox and the Rays would both be in the playoffs. Same with the Braves and Cardinals.

Sure, the Angels would’ve made things interesting as of a couple of days ago, but I like two teams fighting for one spot, instead of three going for two.

Expand the postseason and Dan Johnson’s game-tying, home run, with the Rays a strike away from the offseason, becomes just another home run. Jonathan Papelbon’s ninth inning implosion is just another blown save. Instead, these are classic moments that live in fans’ memories for years to come.

The best part of this whole thing? Red Sox fans rooting

frame, controlling the game despite failing to manufacture chances.

“At halftime they had all the adjustments to make,” Wiese explained.

“They were having the problems.”

The second half saw the Hoyas produce three quality chances, but none could reach the back of the goal.

The first and second shots came from senior Ben Slingerland and freshman Austin Martz, while sophomore Steve Neumann had an opportunity to score in the game’s final moments.

The second half push left the Hoyas knowing they could have won the game.

With their lone loss coming against VCU in the first contest of the year, the Hoyas remain a formidable force as they approach the heart of their Big East schedule.

The men are ready to put Tuesday’s contest behind them and return home.

When asked about what to expect on Saturday against DePaul, Wiese responded with little hesitation.

“That’s really the big game of the week,” he said.

“Our focus is squarely on the Big East. Big East play trumps everything else, and while it’s good to get results on the road against a top20 team, everything’s about DePaul. It’s a hatch.”

The Hoyas will take on the Blue Demons in their second Big East matchup of the year. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. on North Kehoe Field.

fervently for the Yankees. I’ll never let them live that down.

Also, how would a tiebreaker even work if three teams tied for two spots? It might take longer to figure that one out than the entire American League Division Series.

Let’s just keep it simple.

It’s worked for 17 years and I’m pretty sure it’ll keep working. I know I may sound like someone afraid of change, but I’m not. I’m not a baseball purist who despises the Wild Card—in fact, I like change.

But it doesn’t make sense to leave the happy medium MLB Commissioner Bud Selig found in the ‘90s. Just because everyone else is doing it doesn’t make it cool.

Blow a lead with Nick at nberti@georgetownvoice.com

8 the georgetown voice

Lambda rising:

feature

september 29, 2011

How LBGTQ activism came to Dupont

by Rachel Calvert When it was first published in Oct. 1969, the Gay Blade, a gay-centric newsletter that was later renamed the Washington Blade, had a curious distribution strategy. Nancy Tucker, a founding co-editor, personally delivered the issues directly to bars.

“We went where the people were,” she said. “When we had an issue that had come out, if it was early in the evening, I would walk around and hand them out to people and dump a pile on the cigarette machine.”

Her approach also improved with experience. “I learned that if I went out too late people were too absorbed in their cruising and didn’t want a perky little lesbian walking up to them and handing them a copy of the Blade,” she said.

The Blade was founded out

of the D.C. chapter of the Mattachine Society, a gay advocacy group. It was a compilation of the various gay-oriented events going on in the city, alongside practical advice about how to protect one’s rights in the face of a homophobic police force.

As the first editor of the thenmonthly publication, Tucker saw the publication as a social force.

“What I wanted to do as editor was to create a community and let everyone know about these organizations that existed, so people could get to know like-minded people and have a life outside the bars, which is what most people had at the time,” Tucker said.

Before the District’s gay liberation movement achieved its political goals, it thrust itself

into the public sphere through homegrown social and political institutions—like the Blade— most of which grew up in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.

These institutions helped the D.C. gay community trump the homophobic policies and practices of the D.C. police force, realize gay marriage, and combat blatant employment discrimination in the federal government.

This summer, D.C. experienced a slew of transgender assaults and homicides, including the assault of Chloe Alexander Moore, a transgender woman living in D.C., by an off-duty MPD officer. Advocates like the DC Trans Coalition have indicted MPD’s hate crime policies, saying that they fail to hold officers accountable to the D.C. human rights law.

Charles Howell, an early member of the Gay Activist Alliance, sees parallels between what he experienced and how the transgender community is being treated now. “We’re looking at the same type of behavior today with the police treatment of the transgender community,” he said. “It’s the same attitude they had against gay men in the ‘50s and ‘60s.”

But the memory has not been forgotten. Mark Meinke, founder of the Rainbow History Project, an organization that seeks to preserve the cultural history of the District’s gay community, saw the Blade and other homegrown institutions as key to progress on gay rights. “You have communication beginning to pull people together,” Meinke said. “Communities often exist anyway. They just have to recognize they’re a community.”

ACTIVIST BEGINNINGS

Dupont Circle was an epicenter of LGBTQ culture and politics from the 1970s onward.

RICHARD DE LA PAZ

Like many components of the national gay liberation movement, D.C.’s gay activism grew out of the 1969 Stonewall riots in Greenwich Village, where protestors mounted spontaneous, violent demonstrations against the homophobic police raid of the Stonewall Inn. According to Tucker, these riots engaged the era’s younger generation of activists, informed by their experiences as Civil Rights and anti-war activists. “It was no longer a civil libertarian movement with button down suits—it was gay liberation with bell bottoms and beads,” Tucker said. “It went from there.”

In the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, the District’s nascent gay liberation movement drew on these activist roots, starting with a group called the Gay Liberation Front. Members of the

GLF lived in a collective, first at 1620 S Street NW, then at 1624 S Street NW. They mounted radical protests, like pickets and “zaps,” quick-fire performance demonstrations aimed at attracting media attention. They ran the first gay youth group, which focused on homeless gay youths, and briefly published a newsletter for this audience, called “The Breadbox.”

In 1972, the GLF staged an informal pride event that consisted of a speak-out in Lafayette Park and a picnic on the area surrounding the intersection of P and 20th Street—fondly referred to as the “P Street beach.” The extralegal affair was not repeated in subsequent years. However, in 1975, Deacon Maccubbin, briefly a GLF member, orchestrated the first cityrecognized gay pride parade, which took place on 20th Street in front of his bookstore.

“What Deacon started in ’75 is still continuing,” Meinke said.

“Deacon started out as a hippie and ended up as a great businessman.”

Maccubin was also an integral force behind the 1724 S Street building—an informal community center both for the leftist antiwar movement and the gay community. Comprised of small shops and office space, the building became an informal community center that housed groups like the D.C. Switchboard, the Defense Committee for the Black Panthers, and the Youth International Party. It also served as a meeting space for the Gay Blade and various gay youth groups. In 1971 he opened a head shop called Earth Works, followed two years later

by Lambda Rising, which would eventually become one of the most famous LGBT bookstores in the country.

feature

georgetownvoice.com “When Deacon took over Alternatives and turned it into Earth Works, one of the first things he did was put up a bulletin board that lasted until he closed it a few years ago,” Meinke said.

The shop was a hub of civic and social engagement for the gay community, and the bulletin board symbolized the cohesiveness engendered by 1724 S Street. As Meinke put it, “It’s where you went to find roommates, to find a ride.”

At the same time, the gay community began publishing the Gay Blade, whose activist roots shaped its mission of disseminating critical safety information.

“I think it accomplished the two goals: the goal of Mattachine to inform the members of the community about their rights and about the dangers of the community, including the entrapment by police of men prowling for dates in bars and on the street,” Tucker said.

COMMUNITY THROUGH CLUBBING While Dupont, in particular, was a hotbed of 1960s counterculture and activism, “it certainly wasn’t as gay as other parts of the city until the late 1970s,” Meinke said.

“The counterculture was part of what drew gay youth to the area. Dupont in the 1970s was kind of slummy, cheaper—it was easier to find rooms.”

The combination of cheap rent and an already vibrant nighttime cruising scene made Dupont a natural location for

gay bars.

“Dupont only became an area that people flocked to in numbers when there were clubs there,” Meinke said. Before Dupont, clubs that catered to gay men—and some lesbian clubs—were mainly in the Capitol South.

Craig Howell, an early member of the Gay Activist Alliance—later the Gay and Lesbian Activist Alliance—lived in the apartment building next to Mr. Ps, a bar owned by George Dotson and Glen Thompson.

Thompson also founded Badlands, the first incarnation of the now-defunct gay club Apex.

“They were always very popular—always well-visited and noisy,” Howell remembered. “The neighbors didn’t complain much because we were all gay anyway and glad to have them there,” Howell said, referring to the initial wave of bars. “I thought I had died and gone to heaven.”

While the closing of Grand Central led the owners to foray into Dupont Circle, it was urban development that forced many other clubs to relocate to Dupont. Capitol South, though, would remain a fixture in gay nightlife until the city invoked eminent domain to claim the clubs’ properties for the Nationals Stadium and other developments in 2005.

According to Meinke, Dupont Circle was already characterized by a heady gay social scene before Mr. P’s and the Frat House opened their doors.

The “P Street beach” on 21st

RAINBOWHISTORY.ORG

Legalize gay pride: D.C.’s first extralegal pride festival.

the georgetown voice 9

began connecting two popular cruising areas for gay men.

One was known as “The Block,” referring to the 31st and Dumbarton Street block.

“Particularly gay men from Georgetown and others from the area would walk the block and others would drive around the block and meetings would be arranged,” Meinke said. Other wellvisited cruising areas were scattered around the northern Dupont area, centered on Connecticut Avenue.

Those seminal Dupont clubs—Mr. P’s, the Frat House, and Badlands—opened their doors to the weekend path more travelled. “If you didn’t get lucky walking Georgetown you might head up to Dupont to see if you can get lucky there. You might stop and have a drink at The Frat House or Mr. P’s, and you might get lucky there,” Meinke said.

POLITICAL CLOUT All of this activist buzz and social cohesion contributed to the District’s burgeoning gay rights movement, as it pushed for reform in the newly independent government.

Now with an ever-growing, public gay pride parade—with 10,000 attendees by 1979—and a gay-centric paper, the community was becoming a publicly recognizable force with tangible political clout.

“Once you have civic and social organizations, Meinke said, “then you have politicians trying to get your vote, then suddenly you have visibility and power.”

After D.C. received the right to govern itself through the Home Rule Act of 1973, gay rights activists channeled that power into the newly established City Council and Congressional races. At the local level, the movement targeted discriminatory employment practices and arrest policies.

Frank Kameny, founder of the D.C. Mattachine Society chapter, was dismissed in 1957 from his position in the Army Map Service for being gay. He appealed his case to the Supreme Court, but was denied.

He founded the Mattachine Society to be an offensive advocate for reform, a rarity among the passive homophile organizations of the era.

When Congress allotted D.C. a delegate position in the House of Representatives, Kameny ran as the first openly gay Congressional candidate.

He came in fourth out of six— a relative victory for an unknown candidate representing

RAINBOWHISTORY.ORG

Coming to cigarette machines near you: the Gay Blade premieres. the interests of a marginalized group.

“Local politics was partly spurred by this very election,” Kameny said. “Local politics was creating itself. The Reform Democrats had formed and they invited us in.” Kameny was later appointed to the Human Rights Commission and helped draft the D.C. Human Rights Act. “Kameny’s campaign showed everyone that there was a gay community in D.C.,” Howell said.

That voting force proved particularly potent in the 1979 election, when it put its force behind Marion Barry, then a Ward 8 Councilman.

“Marion Barry was really ahead of the curve in recognizing that there was a substantive gay community in the city,” Howell said. “His election was considered quite an upset and the gay community got credit for that upset.”

From then on, the gay community became an important political constituency.

Although they never explicitly endorsed any candidate, the GAA implemented a ranking system based on questionnaires, beginning with D.C.’s first elections. “Usually the second or third best would get elected,” Howell said.

“From that point on we were seen as integral to D.C. politics,” Kameny said. “Increasingly we took more and

more of a role in legislation.”

As a result of these efforts, the GAA and its fellow advocacy groups realized their political goals. This included the City Council’s defunding of the police department’s Prostitution, Perversion, and Obscenity Squad (also known as the “mole squad”), part of whose job description was to arrest gay men. Even after the mole squad’s formal abolition, “it still took a long time for the police to stop treating us like second class citizens,” Howell said.

To Kameny, social and activist organizations like the ones incubated in Dupont—in buildings like 1724 S Street— play an integral role in such political aims. “They provide a formalized mechanism for achieving these goals,” Kameny said. “Any one individual can agitate as I did and as other people, but if you find a couple of other people who agree with you and say let’s work together and there you have an organization, and things get done politically through organizations that have their particular goals and try to make the changes necessary.”

“There may be a price we pay for our success,” Howell said. “Now we’re more accepted by the community and being out doesn’t have the risk involved it once did, and people start saying we don’t need these institutions anymore.”

leisure

10 the georgetown voice

september 29, 2011

Mr. Warhol goes to Washington

by Mary Borowiec Andy Warhol, the king of pop art, once asked, “Isn’t life a series of images that change as they repeat themselves?”

This query perfectly captures Warhol’s revolutionary take on the copy of ordinary images as a form of fine art, as Warhol chronicled the assembly-line stimulated mass production and compulsive consumerism of the 1960s throughout his career.

While he may be best remembered for his iconic reproductions of consumer goods and his celebrity snapshots, a

different side of Warhol—specifically his experimentation with abstraction—has hit the Mall in a series of exhibits and events this fall.

To commemorate Warhol’s pioneering career, Warhol On the Mall features a new exhibit at the Hirshhorn Museum, Andy Warhol: Shadows, and Warhol: Headlines at the National Gallery of Art. Along with these openings, which run until January 15 and January 2, respectively, Warhol’s works will be celebrated throughout the coming months both on the Mall and in locations around

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Anthony Weiner couldn’t bullshit his way out of a 30 page paper on this piece.

D.C. Warhol On the Mall brings audiences a little closer to the icon through gallery events, talks with gallery curators, discussions led by Warhol scholars, and documentary showings that explore the work of an artist who has continued to fascinate viewers long after his death.

Although both Warhol exhibits diverge from the more ubiquitous, expected Warholian pop art pieces, the Hirshhorn’s Shadows challenges our conception of Warhol’s repertoire in a clearer way, exhibiting his early trials with abstraction.

Titled after Warhol’s photograph of a shadow at the corner of his office, this monumental piece cannot be appreciated by looking at one solitary canvas. The work was formed as a combination of parts, and it’s displayed as such. Composed of 102 panels lined edge-toedge, the immense piece spans almost the entire wall of the Hirshhorn’s rotunda gallery.

While the form of the shadow, or a variation of it, is apparent on each canvas, Warhol’s vibrant palette of color

and the positive and negative imprints created through the play of black and white create an intriguing pattern as the canvases progress. In this way, the viewer ’s perspective continually shifts from one image to the next, giving the piece an interactive spirit. Likewise, the texture of acrylic paint overlaid on the silk-screened images grounds the repetition, giving Warhol’s typically mass-reproducible images a handmade and personal quality.

In keeping with this spirit, Warhol’s often comedic yet critical social commentary provides the theme of the National Gallery’s exhibit, Warhol: Headlines. The exhibition explores how Warhol’s fascination with news—particularly headlines— influenced his art.

Headlines proves a fascinating exhibition, because unlike the abstract subject matter of Shadows, the content of his variations on national and global news takes a direct route while reflecting on the political and social happenings of the ‘60s.

For instance, one particularly politically charged piece over-

lays teletype texts announcing JFK’s assassination with popular photos of the beloved president and his family.

Moreover, Warhol’s work mirrors how the medium of news shaped his generation.

Ranging from the comical headline about the “Tuna fish disaster,” which killed two suburban housewives, to the socially conscious and somber reproduction of “Fate Presto,” which recounts the devastation of an Italian earthquake, this exhibition captures the breadth of both society’s and his own fascination with news.

Adding another dimension to this interesting collection, the gallery layout of Headlines is organized chronologically to parallel Warhol’s artistic development, allowing the viewer to observe the evolution of the “machine like aesthetic for which he would become famous.”

While Warhol may be remembered most for his innovations in pop art, Warhol on the Mall and the variety of exhibits and events it boasts prove that Warhol was more than just a Campbell’s Soup promoter.

the girls Adam and Kyle pick up at clubs than a doctor. Kendrick is very good at playing the role of the overwhelmed young professional, as she did in Up in the Air, but she doesn’t display much range here, even as her relationship with Adam evolves beyond a strict doctor-patient one.

Adam also befriends two older cancer patients, who introduce themselves by name and cancer type. “Alan, stage three melanoma,” offers Adam a weed-laced macaroon and a good laugh, distracting him from the dread of his first chemo treatment. This sets up a discomfiting scene where Adam wanders through the hospital corridors as high as a kite and pumped full of chemicals, giggling at children’s murals and morgue-bound gurneys alike.

Tough scenes like that make it hard to imagine 50/50 succeeding without the nuanced performance of Gordon-Levitt. Alongside Rogen, he proves adept at the improvisational comedy that his co-star is known for. At the other end of the spectrum, he convincingly acts

out some truly stirring moments of despair. He singularly carries the movie, and deserves much of the credit for its impressive emotional balance.

50/50 is loosely based on the true story of writer Will Reiser’s bout with cancer alongside reallife buddy and co-producer Rogen.

One way Reiser and his friends dealt with his cancer was by joking about it, and saying they’d make it into a comedy someday. If the humor in the film seems too Apatowian or the tone too unsentimental,

it’s because that’s how one 24-yearold comedy writer was most comfortable dealing with cancer.

As its title suggests, 50/50 strikes a careful balance between the tragic and the comedic. The transitions between the two are abrupt and frequent, and while it’s a short movie, it’s a fairly exhausting roller coaster. Viewed simply as a buddy comedy, 50/50 is a success.

But that it is able to address a deeper issue in a moving way without compromising on laughs is its most impressive achievement.

50/50 balances heartbreak with humor

by Jake Schindler If you caught a TV commercial for 50/50, you’d be forgiven for expecting standard Judd Apatowesque fare with a macabre plot twist—spinal cancer—providing new and interesting ways for Seth Rogen and company to get laid and/or high. The marketing is a bit of a misrepresentation of the movie’s tone, but it’s not exactly A Walk To Remember, either. Toeing the line between these two emotional extremes is a sincere story about two funny guys confronting a serious disease.

Adam (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a Seattle twenty-something with a job, a house, and pretty serious girlfriend named Rachael (Bryce Dallas Howard). He works at a public radio station with his best friend Kyle (Seth Rogen), a boisterous ball-buster who is, well, just like every Seth Rogen character. When Adam goes to a doctor complaining of back pain, he is informed (with truly awful bedside manner) that he has a massive tumor on his spine. He is forced to go

to WebMD, where he finds out his expected survival rate is 50 percent.

He tells Rachael; she wants to take care of him. He tells his mom (Anjelica Huston); she wants to take care of him, too. He tells Kyle; he nervously musters a few jokes to lighten the mood. The viewer soon suspects that his mother might be too overbearing a caretaker, and that his increasingly distant girlfriend poses the exact opposite problem.

Kyle, for his part, sticks by his friend and delivers near-constant laughs when he’s on screen, which is therapeutic for both Adam and the audience. But his joking around belies the fact that he too has no idea how to cope with his friend’s disease. On the night before a major surgery, he should be comforting Adam but gets drunk instead—he might be the more terrified of the two.

Aside from Kyle, Adam’s most important sources of support come from inside the hospital. There’s Katie (Anna Kendrick), a 24-yearold hospital-appointed therapistin-training who looks more like

imdb

“Wait, Brian. Dude. There’s a 666 birthmark on your head. You’re the devil.”

georgetownvoice.com

“if they take my stapler, i’ll set the building on fire” —Office Space

the georgetown voice 11

Oktoberfest taps into D.C. Reviews, Haiku’d

by John Sapunor Americans are proud of their beer. We name baseball stadiums and theme parks after beer companies, our children know what Budweiser is before they learn how to write their names, and we have made a tradition of cracking open a beer while watching—well, while watching anything.

But while Americans are guzzling Bud Light and watching NFL games this Sunday, they’ll be missing out on the greatest beer tradition this world has to offer: Oktoberfest.

Unless you’re lucky enough to be studying abroad in Germany, chances are you won’t be able to make it to the Bavarian beer bash that begins at the end of September and continues through the first weekend in October. But the good news is that D.C.’s bar scene stages its own kind of local celebration, so get your lederhosen

on, pull your socks up, and get your arsch over to a nearby imitation Oktoberfest. (Sorry people born after 1990, but you’ll have to make due with a Beerfest marathon.)

Through October Biergarten Haus on H Street, the local mecca of German beer, will have imported beer on tap, oompa bands on Friday and Saturday nights, and an atmosphere that is undoubtedly the best D.C. has to offer for the occasion. A restaurant that is decorated like a 19th century beer hall and prides itself on celebrating Oktoberfest year round will not be taking this occasion lightly. So if you’re searching for the real St. Pauli Girl, want to practice your German, or are just in the mood to drink away the pain of your recent eviction notice, Biergarten Haus is a great option.

Oktoberfest is known for its food as well as beer, so a nice stroll

If you ever see a street this empty, watch your back for zombies.

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No illusions about absinthe

Ever read any Baudelaire?

How about Oscar Wilde? Admired a Van Gogh or Degas? Most famous artists of the late 19th century can attribute their creative genius to one powerful, mysterious type of alcohol: absinthe.

While you may not be familiar with its literary legacy, everyone seems to know the legendary hallucinogenic properties of absinthe.

Recent movies such as Moulin Rouge and Eurotrip have popularized the idea that absinthe causes the imbiber to see visions (“green fairies” being the most popular).

But for those who may be considering trying absinthe in the hopes of dancing with green fairies of their own, let me share a secret: it’s not true.

The rumors about absinthe’s hallucinogenic properties usually

circulate around one of its key ingredients, wormwood. Absinthe’s unique taste and traditional green color come from the herbs it is steeped with during the distillation process, with wormwood, anise, and fennel being the most concentrated among them. Wormwood contains a chemical compound called thujone that was originally blamed for absinthe’s psychedelic properties.

By injecting lab mice with the compound, it was determined that thujone can cause muscle convulsions and seizures. This discovery has influenced most of the claims, both historic and recent, about absinthe’s, ahem, flair. However, traditional absinthe and its current incarnations contain much less of the chemical than would be required for a human to hallucinate

up Wisconsin Avenue for a meal at Old Europe may be a healthier alternative to straight-up binge drinking.

That is, until you get there. This D.C. establishment has been serving traditional German food for decades, and through the end of October, they’ll have polka bands performing Wednesday nights and live piano music Saturday and Sunday nights.

Your voice may be tested if the restaurant breaks out in song, so start practicing.

But maybe food and beer isn’t enough—you still wish you were in Germany right now, drunkenly picnicking with millions of thirsty Europeans. Fret not, because on Friday, October 8 you’ll have the chance to stomp your feet to some German tunes at the Goethe Institute, right by the Gallery Place Metro stop. For $45 (a steep price, but not as steep as trans-Atlantic airfare) you get access to an open bar, pretzels, traditional and contemporary German music, and a German film.

With a jam-packed Oktoberfest lineup in D.C., Georgetown students can show their true international stripes and connect with their inner Schweinsteiger. Just one word of caution: when you get back from an Oktoberfest party, don’t let your inebriated friends buy any airplane tickets online. You have to book your hotel for the Munich Oktoberfest months in advance, and if you’ve seen Hostel, you should know never to ask German locals for a place to stay. even a small fairy, much less enter full-on convulsions.

This fact did not stop the teetotalism movement of the early 20th century from lobbing propaganda attacks at the drink, attacks that were surprisingly analogous to those used in today’s war on drugs. As absinthe was the

Whiskey business

by Mary Cass

a bi-weekly drinking column drink of choice in most areas of France,and was popular among thirsty citizens of all classes, it was a natural target for slander.

Stories circulating about the drink’s tendency to drive men to become alcoholics, neglect their families, and even commit murder (or maybe just cut an ear off), combined with scant scientific

Footloose This is a remake Of Kev Bacon’s masterpiece Are you shitting me?

The Ides of March George Clooney should learn From Mitt Romney and Perry Handsome wins White House

Moneyball Jonah Hill and Brad Doing stats and playin ball They got to third base What’s Your Number If this was the last Rom-com in the world, I would Still choose my right hand

Courageous If god existed And he saw this piece of trash He’d stop believing The Thing This is a remake Of Kurt Russell’s masterpiece Are you shitting me?

—John Sapunor, Heather Regen

knowledge about wormwood, was enough to make absinthe fall completely out of favor during most of the 20th century. Absinthe was concurrently banned in many countries.

Recently, however, absinthe has experienced a revival—not just in pop culture, but in the liquor store.

Many countries (including the U.S. and the members of the E.U.) lifted their bans in the early 2000s with the requirement that wormwood content remain controlled. As a result, it’s becoming more and more common to see absinthe on menus and shelves. There are even bars in D.C., like the Black Squirrel in Adams Morgan, that serve up absinthe using the traditional method: soak a cube of sugar in the drink, position the sugar cube on a spoon above the glass, light the sugar on fire, let burn, and stir. Exciting!

Absinthe may not be the trip

you expect it to be, but it can still make for a great addition to any drinking schedule. Although the taste leaves much to be desired, absinthe usually contains at least 50 percent alcohol and can reach levels up to 75 percent. Compared to vodka or beer, absinthe is certainly enough to knock anyone on their back for a night. And although the active ingredient in wormwood doesn’t have any serious effects in low doses, it may still have some mild ones, not to mention possible effects from the chemical properties of the other plants absinthe is steeped with.

After all, it did inspire some of the most prolific artists and authors of our time—there must be something to it. Just don’t expect to chat with any tiny men after drinking it.

Get Mary’s absinthe recipe at mcass@georgetownvoice.com

leisure

12 the georgetown voice

september 29, 2011

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

Blink-182, DGC Records

Neighborhoods,

After eight long years of uncertainty and chaos, Blink-182 has returned with Neighborhoods, the group’s first full-length album since 2003. Though numerous botched attempts at a comeback seemed to signal the band’s dying moments, Neighborhoods explodes from the ashes of heated arguments and broken friendships to proudly declare, as vocalist Mark Hoppus did at the 51st Grammy Awards, “Blink-182 is back!”

Indeed, the group picks up where it left off, with drummer Travis Barker’s intricate and explosive beats paving the way for lead singer Tom DeLonge’s unmistakable voice on album openers “Ghost on the Dance Floor” and “Native.” But while Blink-182’s trademark punkpop style remains the same, Neighborhoods provides some

evidence of musical growth.

The electronic tones slithering through the intros and outros of “Snake Charmer” and “Up All Night” add a new soul to the band’s much-awaited rebirth.

Even with the addition of a few new sounds, Neighborhoods is missing the carefree irresponsibility of Dude Ranch or the mindless absurdity of Enema of the State. That silliness has given way to tremendous, choking melancholia. It’s made tolerable only by tracks like “Heart’s All Gone,” whose breakneck pace highlights the band’s unchanged mastery of simple guitar riffs.

This pattern breaks with “Fighting The Gravity,” a cosmic-sounding electronic piece rooted in an awareness of senselessness and emotional loss.

The album veers slightly from its emo tilt at the start of “This Is Home” and “MH 4.18.2011,” but both tracks quickly devolve into silly whining about societal problems. It’s hard not to groan when Hoppus sings, “Hold on, the worst is yet to come.”

But while the lyrics may be up for criticism, Neighborhoods proves Blink-182 hasn’t lost its ability to create satisfying poprock tunes. A little older, and perhaps slightly wiser, the band still possesses its trademark energy and charm, even if the

Please don’t Google me

In my last column, I argued that with people already overwhelmed by the likes of Twitter and Facebook, Google Plus did not offer enough to justify investing even more time in a social network. It didn’t seem like a controversial statement to me.

I was wrong. The morning after the article was posted online, I awoke to a flurry of comments from enraged Google Plus enthusiasts who gaped at the “level of minimal effort” I put into discovering all of the incredible features of the site.

To these converts, it was obvious that I wasn’t singing the praises of Google Plus simply because I did not understand its superiority. Besides my lack of effort and understanding, I

was also supposedly not using the site properly.

According to the commenters, I had neither an informative nor public “About Me” section. People would never add me to their circles if they were oblivious to what I was interested in. In addition, I mostly limited my circles to the same people I was friends with on Facebook, a rookie mistake.

My posts were private to all but my Friends circle. But the most common suggestion was that I should participate “in discussions with total strangers.”

Aside from the person who posted in a Google Plus discussion that this might have been a conspiracy by Google to generate traffic on the Voice website, all of their complaints were

juvenile sex humor is mostly gone. Now all we need is a new Alien Ant Farm album.

Voice’s Choices: “Snake Charmer,” “Ghost on the Dance Floor” —Kirill Makarenko

Feist, Metals, Interscope Records Metals sounds as if Feist drove away from home in a car filled with every instrument she could find at the flea market.

She went into the Canadian wilderness and made music with anyone she met out there. At least, that’s what it looks like from the album cover with her chilling out on a tree limb.

Her previous work sounds like it was meant for small rooms. This album could be played in stadiums or banquet halls. Her earlier work’s groovy true. I do not share personal information with people I do not know. Nonetheless, several of these people proceeded to add me to their own circles and encouraged me to add them back and share more so that I could see how phenomenal Google Plus really is.

byte me

by Kelsey McCullough a bi-weekly column about technology I became increasingly uncomfortable with each new person who added me. While the majority of Google Plus users are most likely well-meaning people hoping to engage in some interesting conversation, the thought of interacting with a stranger online just reminds me of To Catch a Predator.

keys and sparse drums showed off her voice, while Metals focuses on instrumentation, a faulty preference on Feist’s part.

Metals is far less slick and polished, favoring a folksier tone. Keys and even basic piano are absent from the bulk of the tracks in favor of twangier guitar, punctuated horns, and vocal overdubs. The best example of this is “Undiscovered First,” which starts out with a slow guitar strum and builds to gritty blues stomp. “Graveyard” uses the same method, ending in a chorus of Feist belting out. If only the rest of the album were as gratifying.

“Cicadas And Gulls,” an acoustic ballad, makes one pine for the deep guitar tones of “Let It Die,” or even “Gatekeeper.”

The sound is more Jack Johnson or Norah Jones than Astrud Gilberto.

Plenty of echoing drums and 4/4 rhythms could be seen as an attempt to give Metals a raw element. However, the album’s reliance on studio tricks and strings loses the music’s focus.

In 2005, Feist often performed solo onstage and created soundscapes with loop pedals. The sparseness and subtlety of that performance style is nowhere to be found.

There are a few points on the album where the music gets inMy previous column was written from the perspective of a college student, with the target audience being other college students. I admit that Google Plus seems to have filled a niche that I did not previously acknowledge, or even know existed, but it is not one in which most college students find themselves.

For the average student at Georgetown, social media is a tool used to enhance their social life, not establish it. And when Georgetown students find themselves looking to have a stimulating conversation about shared interests or current events, they can fortunately talk to people in their classes or clubs instead of opting for online socializing.

If enjoying Google Plus means that I need to start en-

teresting, though. Lots of slow songs don’t stand out, but when Feist raises her voice like Christina Aguilera in “A Commotion,” the tune thumps by brassily and awkwardly.

All the songs are vaguely about relationships, so there are few quotable lyrics. Apparently, Feist hasn’t made any progress in her love life.

Overall, Metals is less intimate and more dramatic. It’s hard for Feist’s lonely lyrics to stick when she’s surrounded by all the sound. The exception to this is “How Come You Never Go There.” As it is piano-driven and more simplistic than the other songs, the listener can actually hear Feist’s voice clearly, making this track stand out among the rest. It’s essentially a reminder to the listener of Feist’s old days, back when she still sounded like a solo artist.

Despite the fancy horn section, Metals’ weakness is its failure to capture the soulfulness that was the best part of her earlier work. Feist as a rock band turns out to be not nearly as fun as Feist singing the blues.

Voice’s Choices: “Anti-Pioneer,” “Undiscovered First,” “How Come You Never Go There” —Nico Dodd gaging in conversations with people I’ve never met before, then count me out. After growing up with my parents’ constant reminder not to talk to strangers, having an unfamiliar assortment of people tell me I need to start talking to them is as uncomfortable as someone offering me candy from their van.

I really wanted to like Google Plus, but I don’t have the time to make myself use it.

At this point, I’m surrounded by enough people offline to keep conversation interesting.

Maybe someday I will have to scour the internet for compelling conversation partners, but until then, I think I’m going to delete my Google Plus account.

Don’t email Kelsey at kmccullough@georgetownvoice.com

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the georgetown voice 13

Dear Georgetown University Debate Club,

First of all, our heartfelt congratulations for your good fortune of moving into Leavey 413! We understand this is a scary period for you guys, and we want to ease the transition into your new debate clubhouse. Just remember, if you treat this like anything resembling a home, you will shortly be replaced with the Medieval Club, the Knights of Columbus, or Ritmo y Sabor.

So in order to appreciate—but not grow too attached to—your new office, let’s get started on the tips.

Do not, under any condition, enter the ceiling. It may be tempting and you could crawl, allegedly, right back to your old digs, but it would not be prudent.

Now we’ve got a dark room in here which may seem useless for you guys. But we suggest that you develop photos of yourselves. Big, glossy, billboard-size photos to try to scare the other debate teams.

JULIA KWON

We also have copies of every Voice issue since the late ‘80s in here. You can burn those if you want. It gets cold in here a lot.

If you need any fridges, just ask. They’ve been accumulating in Leavey 413 for close to 20 years now, and if you fill them to their maximum potential you can fit about 50 Natty Caddies in them.

On one of the walls we have a memorial to Heavy T, a very obese kid from D.C. who once evaded police so he could continue to eat. He is a legend. Always respect him and never take down the memorial, or his angry ghost will track you down and force you to eat your weight in cakes.

There’s a velvet painting of Elvis above where our Cover Editor used to sit. If you’re up late enough in the office he WILL start crooning for you. You ain’t nothing but a hound dog baby!

The sports section’s corner is a mixture of tributes to the former great basketball teams as well as trophies that we assume were awarded for mutton bustin’ and boxcar racing. And over in the news alcove you’ll soon learn to master debate to a $10 dollar bill.

Our business office has never been used for business as far as we can tell, but it has been used for business time. Speaking of which, the amount of bodily fluids in here exceeds the amount at a Lady Gaga party. Avoid touching everything.

So remember, don’t make this too homey, but make it your own. Your current pad down the hall looks pretty barren and that just won’t fly in 413. So rock out a little in the office. Party a little. Debate a little. Pull all nighters every week. If you’re not seeing the sun rise outside the window over Henle Village, you’re doing something wrong.

JULIA KWON

Also, watch out for Alan.

In all likelihood you won’t run into any difficulties in your new space, but always remember: there is no such thing as a free office and every week is Shark Week in Leavey 413.

Love, The Georgetown Voice

voices

14 the georgetown voice

september 29, 2011

Georgetown and the CCP: an exclusive relationship

by Daniel Lamagna Let me say from the start that I have nothing at all against dialogue. However, when dealing with an authoritarian regime like the Chinese Communist Party, there seems to be a fine line between an open exchange of ideas and an approach to engagement that is more permissive than it is persuasive.

As Jackson Perry’s recent Voice feature story (“A global university: Georgetown’s deepening relationship with the Chinese Communist Party,” Sept. 15, 2011) discussed, this is especially true in the case of Georgetown’s interactions with “two of the most orthodox” organizations in the CCP: the Central Party School and the State Administration for Religious Affairs.

The question comes down to this: what’s the use of dialogue if neither party is willing to honestly discuss the relevant issues?

If you knew that your neighbor across the street beats his wife, and you wanted to stop it, you might try to meet with him to engage in constructive dia-

logue. You’d probably talk about why he shouldn’t beat his wife, why you don’t beat your wife, and why not beating wives is better for everyone. Many would find your approach a little naïve, but few would question your good intentions.

However, if you never invited his wife to join the discussion, and your “dialogue” instead consisted of long cordial visits and occasional side trips to New York City, the integrity of your relationship would be in serious question. Your intentions would seem even more dubious if your neighbor also happened to be tremendously wealthy, and his power and influence had been on an upward trajectory for the past 20 years.

Domestic violence isn’t anything to joke about, but this scenario is a good metaphor for Georgetown’s weak approach to engaging the CCP and addressing its deplorable human rights record. Furthermore, my recent experience indicates that the relationship between the University and the Chinese government has resulted in an academic en-

vironment at Georgetown that is less than completely free.

Earlier this month, I met with Wei Jingsheng, a prominent Chinese pro-democracy dissident who was imprisoned for 15 years and now lives in exile in the U.S. We discussed the need to raise awareness about human rights in China, and Wei expressed interest in participating on a panel with Georgetown professors to discuss the issue.

But after asking several Georgetown centers and professors to consider inviting Wei, I was shocked and disappointed by their response.

Not only did the majority of professors seem reluctant to even entertain the idea, many advised that Georgetown’s “extremely sensitive” relationship with the CCP made inviting a pro-democracy dissident to campus too “delicate.” One faculty member said that while he supported the concept, he feared possible “repercussions” from the University. Several people preferred to speak in person rather than communicate by email.

It is both incredible and unacceptable that the Georgetown community would “self censor” and allow itself to be intimidated by the CCP. This concern seems even more relevant in light of the fact that, despite our relationship with the Chinese government, Georgetown professors like James Millward continue to have their visa requests for research denied. The Chinese government also has not become any less oppressive toward its citizens, despite years of dialogue with democratic countries. In fact, recent reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch assert that the CCP’s abuses against its own citizens have actually intensified in recent years.

Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, has also expressed doubts that change in China will ever come from its leadership.

In an interview earlier this year with Charlie Rose, he said that the only way to improve human rights in China “is to make it clear to the Chinese people as a whole that the U.S. stands with

them in their desire for greater freedom.”

Like the U.S. government, Georgetown also has an opportunity to let the Chinese people know that we stand with them.

However, we can’t do this through quiet meetings in Georgetown’s academic centers behind closed doors. Instead, a serious commitment to a dialogue on human rights requires the discussion to move into Georgetown’s public square and involve inviting both CCP officials and human rights activists to the table.

Our relationship with the Chinese government presents both a challenge and a tremendous opportunity. We can continue to take a passive approach toward human rights in China, or we can act upon our commitment to be men and women for all people, whether they live close by, or thousands of miles away.

vaccine is among the safest. This is not only concerning because a national political candidate is not held accountable for deeply misleading statements, but also because it may have branded the HPV vaccine as dangerous in the minds of many who might benefit from it.

Is it legal for a politician to lie publicly about something as important as a life-saving vaccine?

Conventional wisdom would dictate that the stringent truthin-advertising laws that apply to consumer products would also apply to political candidates, but that isn’t actually the case. According to

the Federal Communications Act, Title 47, Section 315 (Candidates for Public Office), “If any licensee shall permit any person who is a legally qualified candidate for any public office to use a broadcasting station … such licensee shall have no power of censorship over the material broadcast.” In other words, yes: there are no federal laws against false political statements.

This article is taken so seriously that in the 1972 U.S. Senate race in Georgia, the FCC forced broadcast stations in Atlanta to accept a paid political advertisement from a selfproclaimed “white racist” candidate. The advertisement used racial epithets and made a number of other derogatory statements toward African Americans. The candidate, J.B. Stoner, received 40,000 votes in the Democratic Senate primary, finishing fifth. While Stoner’s remarks are easily dismissed as ignorant racism, other campaign trail falsehoods, especially personal attacks, can have a far greater impact on our political process.

In 2004, a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth ran a series of television advertisements in hotly contested states in the months leading up to that year’s presidential election claiming that that Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was unfit to serve as president because of his alleged “willful

distortion of the conduct” of American servicemen during the Vietnam War. The former servicemen who appeared in the advertisements stated that they had served with Kerry or had direct contact with him, and they told viewers that Kerry was dishonest, unreliable, and unfit to lead. It turned out that only one of the men in the ads had served with Kerry.

A later advertisement featured dubious testimony from a veteran who claimed he “spent more time on Kerry’s boat than any other crew member” and that Kerry’s statements about time spent in Cambodia on a secret mission in 1968 were categorical lies. Investigations by the Los Angeles Times and New York Times revealed that the veteran speaking in the advertisement had not served with Kerry, and that his claims about Kerry’s comments on the Cambodia mission were untrue.

In 2006, the group was fined $299,500 by the Federal Election Commission, not for false advertising, but for failing to register and disclose reports as a federal political committee. It didn’t matter at that point, though—the damage had been done. It’s impossible to know if the Swift Boat ads cost Kerry the election, but they certainly didn’t help.

The current speech protection law is based on the concept of a free

market of ideas: if a candidate lies, fact checkers expose the lie, giving voters the correct information on which to base their decision. Ultimately, however, political groups know that most voters will never learn of the corrections, giving them little incentive not to propagate lies.

A new law making candidates and politicians liable for their false statements would elevate the political process in our country, both in election years and years in between. Standard and Poor’s downgraded the United States’ credit rating largely because Congress is now seen as unable to reach the agreements necessary to pay our bills. Additionally, the current nasty and divided political environment deters otherwise promising leaders from running for office.

The Republicans’ lack of a viable, electable candidate is a testament to this idea.

Until there is a change in truthin-advertising laws regarding politics, candidates and their affiliated groups will continue to distort our political process, leaving voters on the losing end every time.

Daniel Lamagna is a junior in the College. He would have a lot more friends if the M in his last name were an S.

Candidates full of hot air and not running out of steam

by George D’Angelo While watching a recent Republican Presidential debate, I was puzzled by the reaction to Rick Perry’s signing an order that required mandatory vaccination against human papillomavirus for sixth grade girls in Texas—an uncharacteristic move for a staunch social conservative like Perry.

Days later, Michelle Bachmann made false statements about the vaccine’s safety, which have since been publicly rebuked by experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who claim that the

“Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to you.”

FLICKR

George D’Angelo is a senior in the MSB. He still thinks nothing happened between President Clinton and his intern.

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the georgetown voice

15

Smithsonian 9/11 exhibit captures a moment in time

by Udayan Tripathi Partially overlooked in the glut of media coverage of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks were two exhibits here in Washington which used artifacts from the three attacks. For just nine days leading upto September 11, the Smithsonian Museum of American History displayed a small collection of visceral reminders of 9/11 that gave viewers an intimate sense of what exactly happened to victims that day.

The exhibit was designed modestly to remove the typical museum separation between visitor and exhibition. Walking around the space was unnerving, not because of the

objects but because of how little presentation there was. This was 9/11 told as the tragedy of simple and profound loss, rather than of geopolitical event or an attack on America.

I found it impossible to entirely dissociate the greater meaning of 9/11 and the decade that followed it from the exhibition, but for an hour or so in that small part of the museum I got a sense of the sheer carnage and terror of the day itself as felt by the people who were there.

Part of the exhibit assembled a slice of life and death at the moment of impact at the Pentagon, which goes some way to show what truly happened. An office phone, a dog

The “Tribute in Light” exhibit lights up the New York City skyline.

FLICKR

Qwikster off to a slow start Last week I got an email from Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, that began, “Dear Emma, I messed up. I owe you an explanation.” Well thanks, Mr. Hastings, but … excuse me? I do have a Netflix account, but the letter seemed a little more personal than anything I usually hear from heads of major companies.

Since 2004, my family and I have been loyal subscribers to Netflix, the company that has dominated the movie scene during the Internet era, providing movies and TV shows to home viewers, first as a snail-mail-only service, and then expanding its business to include streaming video content. I consider Netflix streaming videos the best gift my mother ever gave me (free access to every episode of 30 Rock whenever I want, sans exorbitant Gelardin late fees? Yes please).

Despite the service’s obvious benefits, over the past two

months, Netflix fans and observers have mounted a full on protest via Facebook and Twitter against the company’s poorly-rolled-out price hikes, website changes, and now—perhaps worst of all—the announcement to soon spin off its DVD-shipping business as an independent company called Qwikster.

The new pricing scheme—a shift that doubled rates for those who subscribe to both the streaming and the mail services—was cast as a necessary step to cover the cost of mailing DVDs while providing more money to spend on licenses for streaming content. DVD by mail is expensive, outmoded, and no longer viewed as a growth business for the company, but the subsequent negative press and customer feedback that the shift has garnered has certainly not helped the company’s sudden decision to split its business in two.

Let the Voice be your voice. We accept opinions, letters to the editor, personal experiences, and creative writing that are exclusive to the Voice. Submissions do not express the opinion of the board of the Voice. The Voice reserves the right to edit submissions for accuracy, length, and clarity. To submit, email voices@georgetownvoice. com or come to the Voice office in Leavey 413.

Opinions expressed in the Voices section do not necessarily reflect the views of the General Board of the Voice.

collar, coins, and a clock all appeared frozen in place, just as they were 10 years ago. Some, like the clock and phone, stopped functioning because of the impact and serve as powerful reminders of lives lost, frozen in time. It was difficult to not stand in front of them and feel a deeply unsettling quiet.

Less powerful were the artifacts from United 93, the interior of which looks just the same as any Boeing 767. Visually, little differentiates the debris from United 93 from other airplane disasters. A movie about the United flight, however, more powerfully portrays what it may have been like onboard that plane. While the debris looks familiar, the circumstances were not— and the exhibition captured that discrepancy well.

Another display featured a single smashed door of a fire engine used on the morning of 9/11.

The bravery of firefighters in lower Manhattan that morning is universally recognized as extraordinary.

The door, with its smashed-in window frame, echoed the heroism of the 343 firefighters who died at the World Trade Center.

In displaying just the door, the immensity of the tragedy is lost, but the personal physical struggles In his email, Hastings compared Netflix to companies like AOL and Borders bookstores— companies that are great at what they do, but fall behind when they fail to adapt their initial business models to changing technology. As Hastings and others have said so many times, Netflix believes that streaming is its future and is trying to get users to go all-in on the service in order to help it continue to grow and be self-sustaining as

Carrying On

by Emma Forster A rotating column by Voice senior staffers

an independent business. This business split may be the death of DVD-by-mail, so separating the DVD division of Netflix from the rest of the company might let it better focus on that future.

So what’s the big deal? Netflix disrupted, and eventually superseded, the previously dominant Blockbuster model for movie rentals. Hastings is probably paranoid, then, that Netflix is vulnerable to the same kind of disruption. Isn’t Netflix just trying to stay ahead of the curve? Hastings inadvertently answers this question in his message when he observes that “it is possible we are moving too

of those working at Ground Zero that day are magnified. One door from one truck, instead of becoming an emblem, becomes just a poignant shred.

At another exhibit across the mall at the Newseum, a portion of the North Tower’s radio mast has been installed. Vast and broken, bent at the top, this massive section of steel much more resonantly portrayed the scale of the towers, and of the loss. This was the highest part of the once-tallest building in the world. It now sits a mere five stories off the ground.

I was in New York this weekend and saw skyscrapers everywhere, including the fast rising new One World Trade Center. The Twin Towers were each more than double the size of most other buildings in New York. That they could come down at all continues to seem impossible. That they actually did just adds to the shock.

Each of the three sections of the Smithsonian exhibition contain structural pieces from the impacted sites: a structural joint from the World Trade Center, a large section of the fuselage of the Boeing 767 from flight United 93, and a column reinforcement bar from the Pentagon. The sheer force of impact bent fast.” It seems, however, that it is this same enthusiasm for keeping business fresh that is at the center of Netflix’s recent problems.

In the process of all this smart business, though, Hastings seems to have forgotten the most important part of any business—the client.

Companies that truly value their customers make the customer experience as seamless and easy to understand as possible. What Netflix had done seems to be the exactly the opposite. My mom has a hard enough time as it is figuring out how to make our DVD player work—with the doubled price and hassle of juggling two different movie accounts, she is more likely to run out to Target and pick up a copy of whatever she’s interested in watching. No one questions that Netflix provides a valuable service to its customers.

But subscribers disgruntled by all the jerking around can easily back out of the service altogether, and many have.

Despite the loss of customers (and the recent loss of content from Starz), Netflix told investors it still believes “that the splitting of our services was the right long term strategic choice.”

They might be right. The key advantage of Netflix’s new model is that it will give each side of

all three pieces. All of them have fire scarring which shows the intensity of the heat of the jet fuel flames.

These tributes measure up well to the two most powerful 9/11 exhibitions in the past decade: the 2002 light exhibit, “Tribute in Light,” in New York City which faithfully kept to the towers’ outlines, while defiantly refusing their absence and 2006’s “Here Is New York, a Democracy of Photographs,” a collection of 1,500 inkjet photographs from that day. Their power lied in providing an overwhelming immersion into the enormity experienced then; their success was in being emotional responses rather than emblems, archives, or graves.

Of the remnants that we have, the airline parts at each site unify this triple tragedy. These burnt and twisted pieces of civilian life remind us ten years later of how the abuse of peaceful engineering achievements wrought this ugly and morbid scar on our nation’s history.

Udayan Tripathi is a senior in the SFS. He might be from Bombay, but his favorite gin is Hendrick’s. the business—the DVD side and the streaming side—flexibility to manage its service in a way that pleases its own customers. As a combined service, any move to strengthen one side of the company over the other would have been perceived negatively by one group of customers. Netflix believes that its DVD shipments will peak in 2013; after that, as fewer and fewer people subscribe to DVDs, it’s going to have to raise prices to support the physical infrastructure needed to ship out the discs.

So yes, for those of us who like using both streaming and DVDs, these changes really stink.

But consumers should understand that it’s not the result of an accident or lack of foresight on Netflix’s part—it’s the opposite.

That is, if you think that Netflix’s new pricing and the company’s division into two entities is an alienating move, you’re right.

That is the point. Whether the company will be able to avoid a subscriber exodus and the collapse of their stock price, meanwhile, remains to be seen.

Emma Forster is a junior in the College. Emma’s idea of world peace is everyone having the same Netflix password.

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An open letter to Todd Olson, Jeanne Lord, and Erika Cohen-Derr We get it: You can’t have people falling through the ceiling. But punishing people who don’t fall through the ceiling—and the 42-year-old newspaper they work for—isn’t fair.

The three students who caused $4,000 in damage by crawling through the ceiling on the fourth floor of the Leavey Center to evade Department of Public Safety officers certainly deserve to be punished to the full extent of the law and the University Code of Student Conduct. But moving The Georgetown Voice to smaller, inadequate office space penalizes the rest of the paper’s staff, who were not involved in the incident, and jeopardizes the future of a critical University institution.

That institution has launched the careers of the 57 alumni and alumnae signed below—and many others. Some of us work in journalism; some of us took other career paths. But for all of us, having adequate space to meet and work together as reporters, editors, writers and staff nurtured the reporting, editing and management skills that Voice alums are known for. Our ability to forge those careers—just as many Voice alums before us—has bolstered the University’s reputation as an academic powerhouse and a seedbed for reporters, editors, lawyers, academics and more.

Taking away that space cripples the paper’s ability to do the reporting that makes it an integral part of life on campus—not just for the Voicers of today, but for the students who come after them.

We’re disappointed that you have chosen to evict the Voice from its long-time home on October 3. We urge you to consider the long-term implications of this decision— something the three ceiling-crawling students failed to do—and let the Voice remain in 413 Leavey so that future Hoyas will have the opportunity to express their creativity and talent at one of higher education’s best weekly student-run newsmagazines.

Respectfully, Rob Anderson (CAS ’05) Marco Asencao (CAS ’05) Anna Bank (CAS ’09) Jennifer Ernst Beaudry (CAS ’02) Kathryn Brand (CAS ’07) Juliana Brint (SFS ’11) Mike Bruns (CAS ’07) John Cantalupi (SFS ’08) Selene (Steneck) Carey (CAS ’00) Kevin Casey (CAS ’99) Jorgen G. Cleemann (CAS ’02) Will Cleveland (SFS ’04) Perry Collins (CAS ’07) Scott Conroy (CAS ’05) Julia Cooke (CAS ’05) Gilbert Cruz (CAS ’03) Jessie Dalrymple (MSB ’99) Deirdre Davidson (CAS ’97) Mike DeBonis (CAS ’04)

Danielle J. DeCerbo (CAS ’03) Liam Dillon (CAS ’05) Tim Fernholz (CAS ’08) Cindy Fisher (CAS ’04) Samantha Friedman (SFS ’05) Kate Greenberg (CAS ’03) Peter Hamby (CAS ’03) Shira Hecht (CAS ’10) Matt Hopkins (CAS ’03) Brendan Kredell (SFS ’01) Clare Malone (CAS ’09) Noreen Malone (CAS ’07) Peter McLaughlin (CAS ’07) Kate McCue (MSB ’00) Blake Tyler McGee (SFS ’03) Will Mitchell (CAS ’06) Eric Mittereder (SFS ’08, LAW ’11) Chris Norton (CAS ’07) Kazuo-Joseph Oishi (NUR ’05)

Gina Pace (SFS ’03) Phil Perry (CAS ’08) Jeff Reger (SFS ’10) Kim Rinehimer (CAS ’06) Donald Sherman (CAS ’02) Brandon Sloane (CAS ’06) Doug Smith (SFS ’97, LAW ’02) Sonia Smith (SFS ’06) Bailey Somers (SFS ’05) Will Sommer (SFS ’10) Chris Stanton (CAS ’07) Mike Stewart (CAS ’08) Dave Stroup (CAS ’06) Shaun Tandon (SFS ’99) Garrett Therolf (SFS ’01) Nancy Trejos (CAS ’98) Sarah Trice (CAS ’03) Christopher Trott (SFS ’03) Emily Voigtlander (CAS ’10)