Reflections on correspondence: Choosing a personal reality

By Rachel Levine / February 10, 2005

For the longest time, I couldn’t understand why I wrote him so many letters. I realized, eventually, that it was because I felt substantively different interacting with him—even if it were only in writing—from how I felt when I was interacting with anyone else. My interests and experiences hadn’t changed, yet I felt like a...

Making sober decisions

By Maroon Editorial Staff / February 3, 2005

Every year, thousands of students lose their lives to alcohol-related accidents. Such statistics have motivated many universities around the nation to enforce a “dry campus” policy, banning all students—including those of legal age—from consuming alcohol anywhere on campus. But does such a policy really confront the issues that drive students to excessive drinking, and does...

The world is too much with us; late and soon

By Daniel Gilbert / February 3, 2005

Editor’s note: This is an installment in a series of articles about a summer spent teaching English in the Peruvian village of Cochas. One night last week, I could not fall asleep. Exhausted, I lay in bed trying not to think too much, but feeling my sleepiness slowly begin to depart in spite of my...

Will the right FCC chair please stand up?

By Monica Groat / February 3, 2005

The Super Bowl used to mean two things to the majority of us: Commercials and the inevitable analysis of the commercials the following day. Yes, there was a football game and a half-time show featuring either an aging ’70s has-been rocker or Britney Spears’s little sister’s best friend’s brother-in-law. But it’s the commercials you remember....

Friendster commodifies notion of “friend”

By David King / February 3, 2005

I’ve noticed kind of a disturbing phenomenon with Friendster. At least seven times now, people I know have tried to add me to their lists of friends. No, nothing special about that. But when they wanted to add me, they didn’t send a personal message with the invitation. It was just, “add me.” Once, it...

Lock up or lock down

By Maroon Editorial Staff / January 31, 2005

A series of thefts in Pierce Hall this weekend has some members of the dorm community reevaluating their standards for security, privacy, and convenience. While the Maroon understands the appeal to keep doors unlocked in a laid-back dorm environment, we hope students will be extra-vigilant with their possessions in light of these developments. But the...

It’s not easy being a conservative teen

By Barney Keller / January 31, 2005

Kermit the Frog has it easy being green, trust me. If he were a conservative on a college campus, he would know the true meaning of having a hard time. We live in a country where a clear majority just voted for one of the most reviled Republicans in American history, and we attend a...

Reevaluating the new global war

By Adam Weissmann / January 31, 2005

As President Bush commences his second term in office, perhaps it is an appropriate time to reevaluate the motives behind the current global war. To begin with, many dispute the war’s exact purpose; is it a conflict between the West and fanatical Islam, a global effort to spread democracy and freedom (as indicated in Bush’s...

The FDA: profit-seeking or profitless?

By Rebecca Knapp / January 31, 2005

In 1906, Upton Sinclair wrote The Jungle, the Food and Drug Act was passed, and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was born. Founded on the premise that consumers can’t distinguish between a bottle of cough medicine and poison—or between a scientific drug study and an advertisement for a miracle cure—the FDA was meant to...

Media and dissent in the Arab world

By Hollie Russon Gilman / January 31, 2005

“Dissent protects democracy.” This was one of my favorite buttons at the Kerry office. I love this phrase because it strikes at a key principle of democratic government. When I attended the speech of Hafez Al Mirazi, the Washington Bureau Chief of Al Jazeera, on Monday at the International House, I was enraptured when he...

An African arrival: confusion and delight

By Emily Alpert / January 28, 2005

January 27, 2005—CAPE TOWN—Having ascended a series of swooping hills, our luggage-bloated van slowed to a stop. We’d been circling the tiny residential district of Tamboerskloof in Cape Town, South Africa, looking for the guest house we’d be lodged in during our stay. Incredulous, we stared up at the pert, meringue-colored Victorian perched atop a...

Surviving psychotherapy without sarcasm

By Rebecca Phillips / January 28, 2005

January 27, 2005—PARIS—I don’t know very much about cars, but as the former driver of a used 1998 V-70 Volvo sedan, I do know that every few years, a car needs servicing. It is my belief that the same philosophy holds true for human beings—that is to say that we cannot continue to run flawlessly...