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Quote, Unquote ‘Even the history here is not history; it is how it affects how we deal with events.' Dr. Robert Herzstein, USC Professor of History Wat (Samccock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 9 Editorial Board Sara Ladenheim • Editor in Chief Kenley Young • Managing Editor Emily Streyer • Viewpoints Editor Corey Ford • Assistant Viewpoints Editor Brad Walters • Editorial Contributor Kiki McCormick • Editorial Contributor Positive legislation from the SG senate A9 s the impeachment saga continued at yesterday’s senate meeting, an amendment [SBL (99) 053] was passed to the legislative codes outlining the rules and procedures for such trials. Compared with the first reading that wrongfully stated the press and public had no place at the deliberations, this amendment bears no resemblance. Rules governing procedures referring to the banning of The Gamecock and the general public were abolished from the legislation and all instances of Freedom of Information Act violation, were removed. However, much to the dismay of many senators, another amendment was proposed to allow for secret balloting to replace roll-call voting during the procedures. By a laige majority, the ini tiatiave was defeated and the issue put to rest. Senate members have shown with the passing of this legislation 0 that it is indeed serious about present and future cases of impeach ment. Rather than table the issue, they met it full force and debat ed its merits and faults. The final read of the bill reflected much debate from members of Student Government, the public and The Gamecock that was shaped accordingly. The Gamecock commends the senate for its initiative and ap plauds the hard work and dedication of the concerned members of the student body. In no way did the passage of this bill make a mockery of the legislative process. Senators have decided to take the issue seriously, and their hard work will show in the fair and ethical trial they are about to undertake. Debate absentees ♦•have much to hide Presidential debates, a critical aspect of moreso the nomina tion process than the general election, provide the opportuni ty for likely primary voters to gain an understanding of where the candidates stand on the issues. By learning about the candidates’ stances, the people move away from simply judging politicians on charisma or style por trayed in campaign television ads. With the 2000 election season gearing up, New Hampshire, the first primary in the nation, along with Iowa has already started televised debates. Republican White House hopefuls have held two debates so far, yet some aspect was missing from the debates. The Republican front-runner Gov. George W. Bush skipped out of the debates. On the surface, Bush had somewhat valid, personal reasons for not attending. Candidates who turn down debates, however, many times have something to hide from the media and the prospective voters. Whether it is a personal mishap involving affairs or a perceived extreme stance on a critical issue, no reason should keep a candi date from proclaiming his or her platform. Especially with the race for president, candidates should attend the debates. Being the leader of the nation, an expected president must display leadership by taking a firm, principled stand on a con troversial issue. And by dropping out of debates, candidates do the exact opposite. f A B O U T U s The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The University of South Carolina and is published Monday. Wednesday and Friday durir^ the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of The University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is the newspaper’s parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. Adoress The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Student Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803 Editor gcked6sc.edu 777-3914 News gcknews6sc.edu 777-7726 Viewpoints gckviews6sc.edu 777-7181 Etc. gcketc6sc.edu 777-3913 Sports gcksports6sc.edu 777-7182 Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Submssion Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcor #1 from all members of the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Both must include name, phone number, profes sional title or yea and major, if a student. Handwritte submissions must be personally delivered to Russell House room 333. E-mail submissions must include telephone number for confirmation. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub lished. Photos are required fa guest columnist and c< be provided by the submitter. Call 777-7726 fa mae information. i ne Sara Ladenheim Editor in Chief Kenley Young Managing Editor Emily Streyer Viewpoints Editor Kevin Langston Brock Vergakis News Editors Clayton Kale Associate News Editor Rachel Helwig EtCetera Editor Todd Money Jared Kelowitz Sports Editor Kristin Freestate Copy Desk Chief Sean Rayford Photo Editor ie Rob Lindsey Encore Editor m Student Media Ellen Parsons , Director of Student Media Susan King Creative Director Kris Black Julia Burnett Todd Hooks n Betsy Martin Kathy Van NoStrand Will Gillaspy Online Edita Corey Ford Asst. Viewpoints Editor John Huiett Asst. News Edita Ann Marie Miani Asst. EtCetera Edita David Cloninger Asst. Spats Edita Greg Farley Asst. Photo Edita Casey Williams Assf. Online Edita Brad Walters Graphics Edita, Copy Edita, Editaial Contributa MacKenzie Craven Charlie Wallace Philip Burt Senior Writers Creative Services Sherry Holmes Classified Manager Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Jonathan Dunagin Graduate Assistant College Press Exchange Letters GMP found lacking in service, cleanliness To the Editor I am writing to address the issue of campus dining. Recently, I found a bug in my Caesar salad from the Grand Mar ketplace (GMP). I sought a manager who told me there was nothing he could do about it besides give me a free meal. However, I asked myself why I would want to eat here after such an incident? The manager agreed that there is a bug problem and stated the fact that the building is old as an excuse. He in formed me that they often spray to pre vent more insects. Furthermore, I have heard rumors that our food service was ranked the fifth worst college food in the country. Clearly, there is a problem with campus dining. The GMP is the most accessible eatery on campus, serving residents in the Women’s Quad, South Tower, Pat terson, the Towers, and Horseshoe dor mitories as well as all other students and faculty. However, in my opinion, this mess hall has the worst service, food and appearance. There are a few employees at the GMP who are kind and always greet you with a smile. However, many servers and cashiers are often hostile, rude and impatient. There have been times where the employees do not wear hair nets or gloves, or they just serve the food in an unsanitary manner. I he rood, especially the hot line, is inadequate and disgusting. Before com ing to school, I expected poor cuisine but I never thought it would be this bad. Colleges have an ill reputation when it comes to dining halls, but among the others I have visited, ours is much worse. Finally, the appearance of the GMP is awful. As stated before, I had the un fortunate luck of finding a bug in my meal. I have also seen cockroaches run ning around on the floors! I cannot say I will not eat at the GMP again, because it is most conve nient. However, I will avoid it when possible. I plan to eat at the Patio, which I have found to be superior in quality, appearance, taste, and hospitali ty. I hope that Marriott Dining Services will improve its service at the GMP to further satisfy students and faculty, and I uige students to literally watch what they eat. Bonappetit! Tania Simonett Marketing/Intemational Business Junioi Gamecock misses mark on several counts To the Editor A while back, The Gamecock ran a series of articles on a court decision in federal -court allowing schools to censor ■ school newspapers. Your paper came out clearly against the position of the courts [editorial, “Recent ruling tragic for campus freedoms,” Sept. 10]. However, since then, you have given plenty of reasons as to why the court system should restrict the ability of stu dent media to promulgate its views across campus. Let us look at the three main ones, all of which have appeared either in the last week or months. There has been an increase in crime on the various corridors between campus and Five Points, as is to be expected with the influx of students back into the community during the beginning of the fall semester. However, you use this rise to blame SLED, campus police, and a host of other factors for failing campus security [guest column, “Only safe haven at Pavlov’s,” Sept. 10]. You refer to underage drinking several times in your articles, once even going so far as to create a fictional scenario in which students drink underage, are robbed and dare blame law enforcement units. You have yet to come out clearly opposed to underage drinking. Let’s make this per fectly clear. Drinking under the age of 21 in the state of South Carolina is ille gal. That should be your position. And it should be one pointed out vehement ly, and repeatedly. If you claim to be concerned about campus safety, then that must be your position. Crime can be directly linked to alco hol consumption, and if you increase the population of drinkers, mu increase the DODulation of victims ann Dernetrators. Until you decide to take the hard road, the high road in the debate about cam pus safety, you have no right to attack anybody else in their quest to make us safer. The second issue you fail to raise yourself to the level of serious thought to is the use of drugs. Your papers’ posi tion is that “drug users should be warned before their funding is cut off, AFTER they have been convicted.” [editorial, “Whming necessary before loss of loans,” Oct. 29] There is not a single drug user in this country, that had a gun put to his head, and was forced to use narcotics. It is done out of choice. If you make the choice to use illegal drugs, you are making the choice of pos sibly being caught. There is nobody left in this country that does not know that certain drugs are illegal to use. And to use those drugs incurs a certain responsi bility, namely the possibility of arrest, prosecution and prison time, or in cer tain cases, loss of scholarship money. Nobody has a right to any funding if they use illegal substances. They have no right to a “warning” because their warn ing came when they decided to use an il legal narcotic. You simply wish to per petrate continued lack of responsibility amongst our society. And finally, the issue that probably comes closest to this Marine’s heart is the article you printed, in rather bad taste, about abortion [column, “Abor tion on the military’s turf,” Nov. 1]. You enjoy the freedom of this newspa per, the ability to speak freely and the knowledge that you can go to-school here in relative peace because there are men and women of courage out there who wear the uniform and who protect your freedom to do so. You trivialize, demonize and spit on the memory of those who have died for our freedoms by placing the duty of “killing” in their hands. Abortion is a medical procedure. Therefore, it should be carried out by medical professionals. Driving a tank is obviously nothing the author has ever done, or he would have seen the lack of analogy. Nobody in the military relishes the thought of killing. Nobody wants to go to war less than those of us who wear the uniform, because nobody knows bet ter how deadly the battlefield actually is. I suggest that your author walk a mile in the shoes of doctors and soldiers, sailors, airmen or Marines to see what it means to them to be able to stand proud and say that they do what the rest can’t do for themselves. It would appear that your contribut ing authors have flashes of ignorance every time they attempt to write a piece that has the ability to be rather influen tial and important. It is sad that you lose your chance to make a significant im pact for the positive with every little ed itorial you publish that belittles and hu miliates you, since you are doing it yourself. Thomas A. Eybl Criminal Justice Freshman Editor’s Note: A column represents the views of the columnist alone. The opin ion o/The Gamecock is confined to the editorials in the box on the left side of this page. Opinions expressed by columnists are in no way endorsed by The Gamecock. Columnists enjoy the same freedoms of speech as are granted to those submitting letters to the editor. Columnist’s stance on abortion applauded To the Editor This is just a quick note to say that I appreciate Kiki McCormick’s viewpoint piece concerning the abortion “debate” [column, “Abortion rhetoric shrouds truth,” Oct. 29]. I realize that I am the stereotypical pro-lifer (white, male, Christian), but the piece was well done, and I will be using it Wednesday evening at a youth program that I lead. Please know, Ms. McCormick, that there are many who believe the! words that you wrote. Robert Tyson Pennsylvania Do you think your opinion really matters? The Gamecock does. Write The Gamecock ai gckviews.sc.edu. Campus Issues Freedom not always absolute ook around ■ 1 I you and no tice those people who dress like they just got out of bed. Now get an gry with them be cause it is they who may indi- g ( ,»v j rectly prey on your freedoms. I am the last -columnist for The person in the Gamecock. His - world to try to column appears impose my on every other morals or stan- Friday. Ona can dards on others. te reached via In fact I whole- The Gamecock at heartedly believe . . _ , . , . gckviews©sc.edu m the maximum exercise of peo pie’s rights. But I also realize that exercising rights to an • extreme may result in stepping on oth ers’ rights. People who wear flip-flops, scrawny plain white T-shirts and shorts that could be boxers, and look like they are wearing the same clothes they slept in, have the potential to step on our rights. While they may be exercising their freedom of expression, it is those indi viduals who chose to take their freedoms to the edge that instigate the policy-mak ers. And when policy-makers are insti gated, policies and laws happen. And when policies and laws happen, people’s freedoms are abridged. Policies and laws are usually a result of someone’s inability to be self-gov erned. Most laws would probably be un necessary if people used some common sense and the Golden Rule of “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done to you.” It wouldn’t surprise me if a dress code were created tomorrow because people are pushing the boundary of what is appropriate to wear to college. Though we are in college and the flow of expres sion is welcomed, even college has its limits. When those limits are exceeded, it could result in new freedom-biting policy. I am not trying to impose my stan dards on anyone else. This isn’t a con servative tactic to persuade people to dress alike. And frankly I wouldn’t care what people wore to school if I knew there would be no consequences. But since someone’s lack of self-con trol may result in some of our freedoms getting abridged, you bet I am going to try to prevent that from happening. The truth is our rights are never open-ended. They stop where someone else’s begins. I realize that by asking people to dress more appropriately, I am asking them to sacrifice some of their riirhK But the fact remains that they can still choose to listen or not. When policy is passed, however, ignoring and not lis tening may result in some sort of punish ment. Thus, there is really no choice in the matter. I believe school is about expression and exchange of ideas. But in order to let this flow, ironically, it means we have to be judicious in the way we celebrate and express our freedoms. We have to limit our freedoms so that policy makers don’t come in and do it for us. I could also say that people should dress up properly for school because it is an institution where we are training to become professionals. Thus, it would behoove people to start acting like it. But there are too many problems with saying that. What is dressing prop erly? How do we define a professional? How should a professional dress? And so forth. For this reason, the best I can do is ask you to be judicious. Weigh your ac tions by your own standards. And don’t instigate the policy mak ers by riding the edge, calling attention and begging for your rights and mine to be taken away. Leave the decisions to us. Let’s gov ern ourselves.