Earbuddies: A quest for travel time entertainment

One of the first things we were told by our community life directors when we arrived in DC was to never, under any circumstances, plug our iPods into our ears when traveling around the city - mainly when walking. Public transportation is the heart and soul of Washington, D.C. and I for one was not going to violate some golden rule and put myself in danger.

So I took this advice to heart, and although it leaves me a bit bored when I'm walking back from Union Station by myself, I am finding that personal headphones aren't even necessary when traveling by Metro or bus. Why?

People here have no concept of volume control on their personal music-playing devices. It’s the highest volume or nothing.

I am genuinely concerned about the eardrums of many of my fellow travelers, but their bad decisions are benefiting me. I was sitting on the bus coming home the other night, and sitting about two rows behind me was a teen girl with earbuds plugged into her head. The sound was a little distorted, but the entire way home, I enjoyed listening to Rihanna belting about "Umbrella"s and how she just got out of "Rehab." Unfortunately, the girl got off the bus before me - I wanted to scream: "Please, don't stop the music!"

But really, that girl will have more hearing loss than she realizes. Who knows, she could have "tough ears" or something, but is that really worth the risk? On the other hand, her future loss provides me with in the moment entertainment - you can't beat that.

It was Bon Jovi on the Metro. This guy was sitting directly next to me, and I could hear those rockin’ melodies as clearly as if the earbuds were in my own ears. Really spices up those Metro rides. Add in the flipbook-styled ads on the walls of the Metro tunnels, and the average traveler, like myself, has more entertainment between Gallery Place-Chinatown and Judiciary Square than they had ever imagined.

It’s his life. It’s now or never. He’s not going to live forever, so why preserve his hearing, right?

This problem has even followed me back to the apartments. I was in the library transcripting an interview for a profile I was writing and a fellow student was sitting down the table from me, audibly bopping to some Coldplay. He can viva su vida this way or however he so chooses, as long as he always plays music that awesome.

So consider this my thank you note/apology to all you headphone-wearing, iPod-playing, music-obsessive, volume-blasting, “I-can’t-sit-for-10-minutes-without-music” fiends out there:

I appreciate you. You provide me with entertainment on my short rides at no detriment to my own personal safety or to my future hearing abilities. Please continue to allow your sweet tunes to spill out from your earbuds and into the world around you. It gives me great pleasure while ensuring that I never have to carry my iPod around.

But I’m sorry that I’m so selfish and I take pleasure in your failings and future health risks.

And if you so happen to be traveling with me anytime in the near future, feel free to ignore me and turn up the volume. Give me some Beatles or Journey and you’ll have a happy girl.

Imagine all the people living with steadily decreasing hearing abilities. I wonder if I could work out some sort of system where I put in requests and donate a couple nickels toward their future medical bills? That's a very governmental, wise, unbiased agreement, I think?

Don’t stop believin’.

Polarization in D.C.

Sometimes everything in Washington feels polarized. One day it's 15 degress, the next it's 75.
One night we're in a glitzy hotel Dr. Barry Corey and the author of "Unchristian," the next we're serving soup at Food and Friends. And, of course, it would seem that the greatest polarization is that of how people view the Obama administration versus how they feel about Bush's.

A reporter down the hall in my newsroom was having a rather loud phone conversation on Tuesday night.

"It's all Bush's fault and that's the case" he said, in his usual high-pitched Irish accent. "What? there are still people in your newsroom that are positive? No one, and I mean no one, here likes him anymore."

It was his accent that made me start out laughing, but I began to think a little more seriously as the conversation continued, and I realized that he was illustrating for me what I have been learning in class about the market dictating journalism.

"Hits seem to go up when I'm bashing Bush, but of course he's not there to bash anymore," he said.

As I thought about how much commonality most people seem to find in Bush-bashing, I thought about a conversation I listened to on Saturday as I walked with a group to the archives.

Someone mentioned how hard it would be to find a t-shirt for Bush in this town.

He kept going, "could you even find a bush fan in this town?"

Two people piped up: "we are."

"I really liked him," someone else said.

"You're idiots," my roommate sneered.

The same people with such polarized views about our presidents were soon ooh-ing and aaah-ing over the same Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence and Constitution that have brought us all to where we are, and give us the freedom to polarize ourselves if we should wish to do so.

I caught polarization in myself this week. With Obama out of town, I walked around with a bit of a rain cloud over my head. I hated feeling like there was no chance of spotting him anywhere during my day.

I don't remember even thinking about Bush when I visited D.C. five years ago.

Even our weekly dinners at school, where we gather and eat in the same room, feel polarized at times. This week, we were on pins and needles waiting to hear about the stimulus package.

"Hello Great Depression number two" said one friend, when we talked about what would happen if it did not pass.

"I don't want it to" said his roommate, sitting beside him.

They left together to watch a movie, and I thought about Saturday again.

That's the beauty of living in America. Here, in the Capitol city, we can be as separate as we wish to, and yet, somehow, we all end up coming together.

Christ in the face of How Washington Loves Obama

In a city that trumpets change at every turn, billboard and subway advertisement, a call has rung out for honest coverage of the now idolized Obama administration.

Things felt so one sided that Time Magazine felt the need to featured this article.

The March for Life was here in DC a few weeks ago. I missed it because I was working at a soup kitchen outside of central DC.

On my way home from the kitchen, a little boy walking past me in Union Station yelled "Vote for life not Obama!" I watched a few heads turn. Feeling ashamed of the image he was portraying, I couldn't help but want to quiet him. I wanted everyone around him to know that not all Christians polarize political issues like that. I wanted to say that Jesus wasn't just a moralistic code, that he didn't have a political party. I wanted to tell the little boy not to make a sensitive situation more sensitive.

Along the 7 block walk home, my friends and I discussed the need for caution as those representing Christ in a place where people have fallen in love with a man that has given them hope, promised them newness of life and provided them what they believe to be concrete evidence he can pull it off.

A fellow WJCer mentioned that what that little boy yelled was morality, rather than Jesus. Jesus was concious of his culture while preaching truth that, in itself, appeared as foolishness "to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18 NASB).

If one is to ever have a voice in a city fallen head over heels with a president that has taken a strong stance on issues such as abortion, there is a need for speech "with grace, as though seasoned with salt, so that you will know how you should respond to each person" (Colossians 4:6 NASB).

*Picture taken by Sarah Breen

The Sacrificial Daschle

Really how hard is it to turn in your taxes?

For two of Obama's cabinet nominees to withdraw over tax reasons - this is not a good way to start off the presidency. It makes me question what kind of people Obama is choosing to put into official positions. These people were going to be helping run our country, but they weren't honest in their own dealings with the government - something as basic as paying taxes. I understand wanting to save money, but these two probably make more than I will ever make in my whole entire life. I don't think they exactly need money.

However, the whole scandal did restore my faith in the American government a bit. Despite the fact that these two officials were dishonest with their money, at least they owned up to the fact that they had been dishonest. If they can't be honest about their finances, at least they were willing to be honest about their dishonesty in front of the entire country. And world.

This gives me hope. Perhaps people think that the new administration needs to start off with a clean slate. No drama, no scandal.

Of course Obama is frustrated.

“And so I’m frustrated with myself, with our team,” he told NBC, “but ultimately my job is to get this thing back on track because what we need to focus on is a deteriorating economy and getting people back to work.”

But maybe he should be considering the fact that these people wanted him to succeed so much that they embarrassed themselves and took a major hit in their political career so he would make a real difference.

Now, that could be considered a sacrifice.

Just Another Day in the Capital City - NOT

"Why are you actin' like you know where you're goin'?" was a wife's sassy remark to her husband this morning as thousands of completely lost but thoroughly determined travelers, like myself, tried to find their way to The National Mall to watch the inauguration.

And NONE of us knew where we were going. No matter how much we thought we did.

Volunteers in red beanies were our only beacons of hope, holding signs that said "Mall this way" - and they were surprisingly upbeat. But that was a recurring theme at the disgusting hour of 6:30 a.m. At the time I would regularly be grumpy and non-verbal, everyone was upbeat and excited - and it spilled over. There was so much energy in the air that I couldn't help but let the anticipation slowly melt away the fact that I had woken up far too early and not gotten any caffeine.

It was all worth it. Once the initial "grumps" were over, I realized I was experiencing a once in a lifetime opportunity. So were hundreds of thousands of other people. But it became fun instead of dreaded.

I really blame the hot chocolate kid for making my grumpiness disappear. As my group and I were walking down Maryland Ave., we passed a young teen boy selling hot chocolate in front of his house. I was so highly impressed by this level of entrepreneurship and enterprise that this young guy had, I couldn't help but see hope for the future of the country. Apparently, that's all I needed.

Although, actually purchasing a cup of the hot chocolate might have helped even more.

But it turns out I didn't need too much help. Between trampling all the foliage in the greater DC area and trying to find a "Hello my fellow American, my name is..." nametag with Obama's face on it, I didn't have time to be grumpy or irritable. There was patriotism and a turning of the tide in the air!

I'm going to make the assumption that you watched the inauguration, or at least have seen a little bit about it. If you haven't, I would recommend getting on that ASAP. It was pretty cool.

There was even cooler stuff that went on in the crowds. Around 8 a.m., they played the video footage for the poor freezing people (like myself) from the concert in front of the Lincoln Memorial that happened on Sunday. This resulted in full crowd sing-a-longs to "Shout" by the Temptations and "American Pie." You haven't sung "American Pie" until you're belting it with hundreds of thousands of your fellow Americans.

It was also extremely exciting to find myself smashed between people that were literally touching me in every direction possible. You can't get that experience while watching the inauguration in your living room. The lady behind me kept pulling my hair. I have no idea how this was happening - it just meant that she was way closer than she should have been in a normal circumstance. And if anyone in the middle ever needed to go to the bathroom, they fought their way out, parting people like they were parting the Red Sea. Not an easy task on either side, believe me. And it occurred only too often. I became very friendly with the people around me.

And these people were electrified! I heard a number thrown around that nearly 92 percent of Washington, D.C. voted for Barack Obama. That makes this one very happy city, and that doesn't even include the numbers of people who traveled from outside of Washington, D.C. to be there for this historic day. Everyone there genuinely wanted to be there and they were happy with what was happening. A little too happy, considering the amount of "boo"s that Bush got every time his face was on the Jumbotron.

But my favorite moment had to have been at the end of Rick Warren's absolutely beautiful and fitting prayer, when he began to say the Lord's Prayer. To my absolute shock and wonder, people all around me began to join in with his prayer, saying the words perfectly. I joined in myself. And we, representing the nation, lifted the Obama family up to the Lord in the way that we are supposed to pray - the way we were taught to pray. It was breathtaking. I hadn't expected so much religion and spirituality to be present among the people of this celebration.

So apparently, religion is still very relevant, wouldn't you say?