go hoyas!

I work at Georgetown University as a research assistant. I am a feminist and believe in reproductive choices on demand without apology. I'm proud of our university's president, who sent this email today to our campus community.

Please note: any comments that I consider irritating, obnoxious, rude, anti-woman, inflammatory, ignorant, or anything else worthy of my disapproval will be deleted. Consider yourself warned.

March 2, 2012


Dear Members of the Georgetown Community:

There is a legitimate question of public policy before our nation today. In the effort to address the problem of the nearly fifty million Americans who lack health insurance, our lawmakers enacted legislation that seeks to increase access to health care. In recent weeks, a question regarding the breadth of services that will be covered has focused significant public attention on the issue of contraceptive coverage. Many, including the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, have offered important perspectives on this issue.

In recent days, a law student of Georgetown, Sandra Fluke, offered her testimony regarding the proposed regulations by the Department of Health and Human Services before a group of members of Congress. She was respectful, sincere, and spoke with conviction. She provided a model of civil discourse. This expression of conscience was in the tradition of the deepest values we share as a people. One need not agree with her substantive position to support her right to respectful free expression. And yet, some of those who disagreed with her position – including Rush Limbaugh and commentators throughout the blogosphere and in various other media channels – responded with behavior that can only be described as misogynistic, vitriolic, and a misrepresentation of the position of our student.

In our vibrant and diverse society, there always are important differences that need to be debated, with strong and legitimate beliefs held on all sides of challenging issues. The greatest contribution of the American project is the recognition that together, we can rely on civil discourse to engage the tensions that characterize these difficult issues, and work towards resolutions that balance deeply held and different perspectives. We have learned through painful experience that we must respect one another and we acknowledge that the best way to confront our differences is through constructive public debate. At times, the exercise of one person’s freedom may conflict with another’s. As Americans, we accept that the only answer to our differences is further engagement.

In an earlier time, St. Augustine captured the sense of what is required in civil discourse: “Let us, on both sides, lay aside all arrogance. Let us not, on either side, claim that we have already discovered the truth. Let us seek it together as something which is known to neither of us. For then only may we seek it, lovingly and tranquilly, if there be no bold presumption that it is already discovered and possessed.”

If we, instead, allow coarseness, anger – even hatred – to stand for civil discourse in America, we violate the sacred trust that has been handed down through the generations beginning with our Founders. The values that hold us together as a people require nothing less than eternal vigilance. This is our moment to stand for the values of civility in our engagement with one another.


Sincerely,

John J. DeGioia
President
Georgetown University

craving wisdom, he bites into memory

The Day I Saw Barack Obama Reading Derek Walcott's Collected Poems
by Yusef Komunyakaa

Was he looking for St. Lucia's light
to touch his face those first days
in the official November snow & sleet
falling on the granite pose of Lincoln?

If he were searching for property lines
drawn in the blood, or for a hint
of resolve crisscrossing a border,
maybe he'd find clues in the taste of breadfruit.

I could see him stopped there squinting
in crooked light, the haze of Wall Street
touching clouds of double consciousness,
an eye etched into a sign borrowed from Egypt.

If he's looking for tips on basketball,
how to rise up & guard the hoop,
he may glean a few theories about war
but they aren't in The Star-Apple Kingdom.

If he wants to finally master himself,
searching for clues to govern seagulls
in salty air, he'll find henchmen busy with locks
& chains in a ghost schooner's nocturnal calm.

He's reading someone who won't speak
of milk & honey, but of looking ahead
beyond pillars of salt raised in a dream
where fat bulbs split open the earth.

The spine of the manifest was broken,
leaking deeds, songs & testaments.
Justice stood in the shoes of mercy,
& doubt was bandaged up & put to bed.

Now, he looks as if he wants to eat words,
their sweet, intoxicating flavor. Banana leaf
& animal, being & nonbeing. In fact,
craving wisdom, he bites into memory.

The President of the United States of America
thumbs the pages slowly, moving from reverie
to reverie, learning why one envies the octopus
for its ink, how a man's skin becomes the final page.

from a visit to DC's Eastern Market

Yes, it's true, I am:



By local-to-DC photographer Claude Taylor. I bought myself a medium-size framed copy of this and will feel inspired by it for years to come.

fun with food and science

I'm a big fan of eating my colors. There are a lot of fun ways to do this with seasonal produce and thinking about food is one of my favorite activities. Recently, I roasted some farmer's market purple cauliflower with olive oil, lemon juice, minced garlic, and salt and pepper. Below, check out the hot pink coloration that resulted! Very cool!

You're probably wondering about the color, by the way, which is not artificial. Purple cauliflower's color is caused by the presence of the antioxidant group anthocyanin, which can also be found in red cabbage and red wine. (cite)

Jon Stewart/ Stephen Colbert rally wrap-up

I could barely see most of the rally (my first as a DC resident) and settled for hearing it on the speakers. So if you watched it on TV, you had a better view than I did! I was somewhere to the left of this NYT photo:



Here is a good recap of the highs and lows and here is a list of some of the posters. I also saw signs saying "I am a homosexual, not a man-beast" (one wonders why the sign-bearer couldn't be both?); "keep fear alive" carried by a woman dressed as a bedbug; "I can't wait to go home and watch this on the internet"; "this sign was a pain to carry on the Metro"; "hijabis for sanity"; "Wisconsin is a myth" (huh?); and a two-sided sign saying "today Glenn Beck is peeing his pants, best day ever" and on the other side, "we are a liberal atheist military family and WE VOTE." (I did not carry a sign. I did wear a pin that said "out of the closet and into the street.")

Plus, I got to see friends who live locally as well as friends visiting from Austin and Vermont! I didn't get a lot of pictures, as it was a crowded madhouse at the scene, but below are a few of my snapshots. All's well that ends well.

PS. Check out this great aerial shot! (Not mine)

kinda famous 2.0

Another of my photos was featured by the DCist. I haven't lived in the District for very long, but I seem to be earning my local cred just fine. Fancy that!

kinda famous

One of my pictures was featured by the DCist! Very cool. Here's the picture: