Immigrants hurt by post-9/11 America

By Emily Alpert / October 2, 2003

In the film _Dirty Pretty Things_, the main character, an illegal Nigerian immigrant in London, remarks, “We are the people you do not see.” As a class of people made invisible through both draconian laws and national hostility, immigrants do thankless work and, well, aren’t thanked. Public opinion generally reviles immigrants, though a comprehensive study...

Palestinian priorities must change

By George Anesi / October 2, 2003

In negotiating and peace-making, compromise is necessary. In history, there has been no successful or sustainable peace agreement in which one side was forced to give up nothing and yet received everything it requested. That said, anyone who claims to want peace in the current situation between Israelis and the Palestinians must also be willing...

U of C midwifery practice in danger of being forced to close its doors

By Nancy Gift / October 2, 2003

As members of a community of educated people, we at the University of Chicago seek options in health care. Dr. Sara Van Orman, one of the primary care providers for U of C undergraduates and director of the Student Care Center, is particularly popular because of her excellent listening skills and the respect she gives...

Pierce rises above poor reputation

By Patrick Burke / October 2, 2003

Pierce Tower is probably the most bashed dorm on campus. Its rooms are compared to closets and prison cells. Its food is likened to road kill and British cuisine. Outsiders are shocked to hear that co-ed bathrooms can exist somewhere outside of Amsterdam. Having heard all this trash talk before I received my housing assignment,...

Explore the South Side or suffer the consequences

By Emily Alpert / September 11, 2003

Most of us are willfully, pathologically blind to the South Side. The blinders originate sometime during O-Week, or maybe earlier, as we begin to set our boundaries. For some, they extend to Cottage Grove Aveneue and Hyde Park Boulevard; for others, even closer, at 53rd Street and Drexel Avenue. The O-book even provides a map...

In defense of the forgotten, Librarian Avenger opens possibilites

By Kenneth Aliaga / September 11, 2003

Now that the summer is coming to an end, it’s time to ask ourselves what significant trend marked the summer of 2003. A national epidemic of inexplicable weight-loss that affected all demographics? No…sigh. Movie sequels that lived up to their predecessors if not surpassed them? Unfortunately not. Over the course of the summer, we witnessed...

Of Idolatry and international politics

By Andrew Moesel / September 11, 2003

It is a pop culture juggernaut that transcends nationality, race, gender, sexual orientation, and even good taste. A show called Pop Idol debuted in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2001 and enjoyed instant success—the winner, and even the runners up, were given multi-million dollar contracts and spent weeks topping the charts. Next, the concept...

Now that you’re here, take a break

By Tim Miller / September 11, 2003

So, welcome to the U of C. I’m probably about the 3,000th person to tell you that. You are by now buried under a pile of Chicago Life sessions, placement tests, and “must do” orientation events. You are undoubtedly besieged by a legion of O-Aides, program assistants, recruiters for RSOs and other student groups, ad...

Surreality TV — Why do we watch?

By Joel Lanceta / August 21, 2003

One of the benefits of living in an apartment here over the summer is I get an entire surround-sound entertainment system all to myself when I’m home at nights. (The downside being that the reason my roommates are never around is because they have girlfriends.) So while extending my experiences in surfing the multitude of...

Bush’s “Old Boys’ Club” looking for good numbers

By Joshua Steinman / August 21, 2003

At the beginning of “The Thomas Crown Affair,” the title character, played by Pierce Brosnan, walks into his office at the top of a building that he owns, assertively strolls into his corporate bullpen, glad-hands some workers, says hello to his secretary, and then turns around and says to a character off-camera, “Give me good...

FCC votes to deregulate media laws

By Mitchell Szczepanczyk / August 21, 2003

The corporate media supposedly had their day on June 2, 2003. By a 3-2 vote, the Federal Communications Commission voted to rescind most of the ownership rules on media ownership, which would mean that one or two individuals could come to own most of the media properties in an entire city. After all, FCC chair...

Injustice of the Equal Protection Clause

By Samuel Owens / August 1, 2003

Nietzsche wrote of the unjust nature of laws predicated on class inequality. Within America, it seems that the just spirit of the laws transcends the limitations of behavioral evolution. While our Constitution upholds the inalienable rights of all people, we still harbor ancient mores of racial and cultural based inferiority. What is the redeeming value...