Stories from the January 30, 2006, Print Edition
Most GW students do not concern themselves with local politics - and with good reason. With the major agencies of the federal government only blocks from campus, there is not much interest in the minutiae of Advisory Neighborhood Commissions or the D.C. City Council.
One thing I love about the Metro is the train operator. Actually, they're just station announcers, as the trains are completely automated. Some of them are lazy and hate their jobs - you can tell from their tone of voice. And then there's the guy who LOVES his job; "The Next Stop is McPHEEEEEEEEEERSON SQUARE!" But there is one Metro operator that I am in love with.
When I sat down to write this column, I knew I wanted to write about the Roosevelt Institution, the student think tank that I helped found last fall at GW. But I didn't want it to look like shameless self-promotion for our upcoming Tuesday launch event that would be easily dismissed.
The morning after Hamas registered a landslide victory in last week's Palestinian Legislative Council election, I began to consider whether it was possible that the peaceful reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians, to which I had dedicated my writing and activism over the past five years, was as naive as my detractors contended.
The Bush administration's effort to sustain support for the occupation of Iraq was dealt one of its biggest blows last week by the residents of Hebron, Ramallah and Gaza City, who gave an overwhelming victory in Palestinian legislative elections to Hamas. To the Western world, the terrorist group's victory drove home the messy truth that democracy has negative externalities, among them the possibility that the rise of terrorists, thugs and fascists is often abetted by free and fair elections.
Vol. 108
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