Archbishop Desmond Tutu's Address

On November 13, 2007 I joyfully attended Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s address on reconciliation at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. It was a heartfelt address in which the Archbishop emanated charm, wit, compassion, and humor. Through a couple of humorous self-deprecating jokes, Tutu quickly became one with the audience.

He proceeded in a very biblically based way to discuss human potential to forgive. He stressed that the human capacity to love and forgive even the most reprehensible deeds in a way reaches towards the divine. Although not going into great detail about the reconciliation process in South Africa, he did draw on heartfelt examples in which South Africans had shown an immense ability to embrace their oppressors in an embrace of reconciliation.

Although relatively small in stature, his sheer presence was powerful and yet gentle at the same time. Impressed by his intellect and captivated by his oratory abilities, the address was truly a memorable one for me. The full video of the address can be seen on the National Cathedral’s website

http://www.cathedral.org/cathedral/ - (Scroll down and look for the same picture of Tutu as presented here)

I highly recommend all to view it.

Gender Liberation Week!

This week (Mon., Nov. 26- Fri., Nov. 30) on campus is Gender Liberation Week, sposored by GU Pride and cosponsored by Diversity Action Council (DAC), The Office of LGBTQ Community Resources, The of Institutional Diversity, Equity, and Action (IDEA), Take Back the Night, MEChA de Georgetown, the GU AIDS Coalition, FOCII, the Lecture Fund, and the College Democrats. The purpose of Gender Liberation Week is to address issues facing transgender and intersex communities, and gender norms and feminist issues. I reccomend checking out the invite on Facebook for more info on what events will be going on.
I think the issues being addressed affect a lot of people outside the gay community, and there will be some interesting events. I think GU Pride events have been very well done (and numerous!) this year, so I am looking forward to walking through Red Square this week!

Let's exchange your gun with 100 dollars!

On 18th, the civic police of Cleveland, Ohio, collected no less than 421 guns in 5 hours from their citizens- the police held the one-day event where citizens could exchange their guns with 100 dollars' worth of a ticket with which they can purchase gasoline.

They turned the jump in oil prices into advantages of preventing gun-related crimes.

When I heard of this news, I simply thought that those who did not know what to do with their unnecessary guns decided to trade them with the tickets. The deeper I think about this news, however, I started wondering those people might be too poor to buy expensive petrol and the police was seeking a way to prevent crimes comes from poverty.

Though it was not mentioned where the resources had come from and I guess it was tax, if 100 dollars could save one person's life, it is incredibly cheap and I'm so curious how many guns would be collected if this kind of event was take place throughout the US.