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Negative public perception — perpetuated by television shows, such as The Wire — has earned Baltimore a reputation as a dangerous, crime-ridden city. What is less clear, however, is the extent to which the dangers and risks of the city extend into the “Hopkins bubble.”
Tuesday was the first day of the government shutdown, a term that simply means funding to government agencies expired, and no replacement appropriations bill was passed. Much finger pointing, tweeting and name-calling ensued. I could use this space to lay out who I feel is to blame, but that would require more of a full volume rather than a single page, so I will have to settle for a different narrative. Instead I will focus on how the Republican Party came to this impasse over the last five years, and what the new Republican Party means for the future of conservatives.
In the developed economies of the 21st century, it is nigh unthinkable to leave home without a smartphone, the metallic extension of the human body. They are one of the most pervasive and disruptive technologies of the past hundred years, and have already invaded our minds. Recent data from New Relic, a company that monitors application performance, shows that four times more Android phones and tablets are activated each day than are babies born. We check those devices every six and a half minutes.
My grandma had an on-again, off-again relationship with antidepressants for her whole life. The cycle would begin with her lying in bed in the dark, crying and moaning. After months of persuasion the family would convince her that the level of sadness she was experiencing wasn’t normal and she’d start taking medication. After six weeks or so, she’d be out of bed, running errands, and even smiling. Once she reached that point, though, she’d stop taking her antidepressants, thinking that she didn’t need them anymore because she was happy. Then the cycle would begin again.
Blogging, tweeting, texting, status updating – the list goes on. Whatever happened to long, handwritten notes to friends just because they were on your mind? And what about printed publications? Where are the stacks of magazines that once cluttered the coffee-tables all across America, or the poorly refolded Sunday paper that would still be on the kitchen table come Monday morning?
For many young people, going to college inspires a sense of independence and self-discovery. Finally freed from parental control and oversight, students feel compelled to strike out on their own, forge their own identities and form their own opinions. Inherent in this feeling is a growing skepticism of the customs they’ve practiced since they were young and a growing willingness to challenge what their parents have always told them to be true. Nowhere is this more evident than in the tendency for college students to drift away from religion.
With the installation of Willem de Kooning’s Reclining Figure, the Hopkins public arts initiative has taken a major step toward making art a vital part of life at Hopkins.
Many bright students who live and study at Hopkins view themselves as politically active. However, on a larger scale, political dialogue remains silent. This is unfortunate because a strong political dialogue is essential to the college experience. As the university setting provides the ideal backdrop for debates between a large population of thoughtful, diverse peers, students should take advantage of expanding their views during their undergraduate years.
This past week, heavily armed terrorists killed more than 60 innocent civilians at the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. Among the dead included 2004 SAIS alumna Elif Yavuz, her partner Ross Langdon and their unborn child. Langdon was an award-winning architect and humanitarian who designed buildings across Africa, specializing in human development and sustainability. Yavuz was a malaria specialist who had worked at the World Bank, conducted fieldwork with AIDS patients in Tanzania and Kenya and graduated from the Harvard School of Public Health last year. A member of the Clinton Foundation, she was visited by former President Clinton himself just a month before her death.
One of this summer’s biggest hits was the song “Blurred Lines” by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams. A catchy tune, upbeat background vocals and dance-able beat combined to help Thicke’s song reach number one on the Billboard charts - and stay there for the next 12 weeks. But the song also brought its fair share of controversy. At first, a risque music video full of topless dancers brought accusations that Thicke was demeaning and objectifying women. More recently, prominent feminists have released a series of articles and parody videos accusing the lyrics to Blurred Lines of endorsing rape and sexual assault, with one going so far as to call it a “rape anthem...about male desire and male dominance over a woman’s personal sexual agency.”
As is all too often the case, the Middle East is currently experiencing a streak of widespread violence and political extremism. In a region where moderate voices are often drowned out by the rhetoric of weapon-toting radicals, one bright spot may be emerging from an unlikely source, Tehran. President Hassan Rouhani, who was elected in June and assumed office in August, appears to be a sensible and open-minded politician. Compared to his predecessor, the ever-controversial Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Rouhani seems to be making headlines for all the right reasons these days. As promised while on the campaign trail, he recently ordered the release of eleven political prisoners, including well-known human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh.. Thatsame day, he conducted an interview with NBC in which he assured the world media that Iran has no intention of developing nuclear weapons. Furthermore, he said that he received a “positive and constructive” letter from American President Barack Obama.
As one of the most popular sporting events in the world, the World Cup plays an integral role in instilling a sense of patriotism and unity in millions across the globe. FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association), the governing body of the World Cup, has recently made a series of unfortunate decisions that will severely degrade the integrity of the sport, and will ultimately tarnish the reputation of the World Cup and how it is organized. Most notably, FIFA’s decision to hold the 2022 World Cup in the Middle Eastern country of Qatar is a blatant mistake. Along with FIFA’s corruption and weather concerns, Qatar’s atrocious record regarding human rights makes it a country absolutely undeserving of such a respected global event.
Over the summer, the Class of 2017 was required to read The Other Wes Moore, which depicts the socioeconomic topography of the Baltimore community. Wes Moore, the author of the book, spoke to Hopkins students earlier this week about the experiences that inspired him to write the book.
This past Saturday, the Hopkins branch of Beta Theta Pi fraternity teamed up with the SGA to sponsor the Big Blue Jay Tailgate — an opportunity for Hopkins students to socialize over free food before attending the football team’s first home game of the season. In addition to welcoming new freshmen and fostering a feeling of community in the student body, a principle aim of the tailgate was to bolster Hopkins’ infamously lackluster school spirit.
This past May, President Obama gave the commencement address at the University of Ohio. His speech, which hailed citizenship and democratic participation, included the following passage:
In American discourse, diplomacy has somehow been cast aside as a choice for political eunuchs. The warmongers who’ve gained a stronghold in our government and media demand brash military action. Their approach targets our reptilian brain, attuned to a Biblical sense of justice or retribution. Having taken the onerous role of moral arbiters on the global stage, our response to breaches of international law or American standards has consistently been violent, climaxing with the Iraq and Afghanistan wars that enveloped the past decade and claimed the lives of well over 100,000 Iraqi and Afghani civilians. The 20th century was marked by extreme overreaction in the face of fear – legitimate or contrived – from Korea to Vietnam.
The United States of America was founded on the principle of individual freedom. Although this principle is noble and high, over the centuries it has often been abused and misinterpreted to fuel dangerous political positions. One of the major victims is the environment.
Whether it’s punishing a professor for pro-war remarks, suspending a student for an allegedly “offensive” party invitation or defunding a conservative newspaper for criticizing a speaker, Hopkins has a long track record of free speech violations. Although the University retains the right to censor speech as a private institution, Hopkins has made an institutional commitment to protect and promote free speech in a broad sense. Yet even as the U.S. News & World Report recently moved Hopkins up to the number 12 spot in its national University rankings, the non-partisan Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) ranks Hopkins as the ninth worst college in the US for free speech. Given what has passed in the last six months at Hopkins, we could see the University rise even higher on this notorious free speech ranking.
Two hours listening to a Russian author making jokes in German about how ugly his nose is. An involuntary nap in a shady Shriver Hall while a dreary old man reads poems that he swears aren’t poems. A meet and greet for a major I would fail at if even attempted. Pretending to be a flute virtuoso at an orchestra informational barbecue. These are just a few of the things I endured during my freshman year in order to obtain one of the greatest of rewards of collegiate life: free food.
