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Quote, Unquote ‘The flag wasn’t put up [on the Statehouse] by the Confederates. It was put up by a bunch of rednecks ... who think they own this state.’ Laurie Weston, Confederate flag opponent Wat 0amecock Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08 Editorial Board Kenley Young • Editor in Chief Brad Walters • Managing Editor Brock Vergakis • Viewpoints Editor Peter Johnson • Assistant Viewpoints Editor Sara Ladenheim • Editorial Contributor Emily Streyer • Editorial Contributor Bush dodges lottery, flag issues in debate Many South Carolinians looked forward to the Republican presidential candidates' debate held Friday night in Co lumbia as a means of differentiating the candidates before the state's primary Feb. 19. We were disappointed in the low proportion of straight answers relative to the number of questions asked. The slickest of the six candidates was Texas Gov. Geoige W. Bush, who slithered out of answering two questions on subjects close to home: the Confeder ate flag and the state lottery. When asked his opinion on issues, both times Bush said that South Carolinians were capable of figur ing out what to do and that he would not presume to involve him self, as a candidate for national office, in the affairs of one state. Politically, this was a wise move; as Southerners, we do not want to be told by outsiders how to conduct our business! As a matter of character; however, Bush's answer is disappointing. His answer was designed not to edify the voters on his position regard ing race relations but to win the South Carolina primary. Were Bush actually to take a stand on some issue, he might lose a vote. He apparently intends to win his elections on the platform of charisma rather than on opinions. We do not want another presi dent incapable of answering simple questions. Perhaps it’s not important what outsiders think of us (try to convince the hotel and convention center owners of this notion), but it is important to know what a potential president thinks on a rather hot subject for race relations right now. We propose a New Year’s resolution for Bush and any other fence-sitting candidates who place votes over convictions: Have enough respect for the citizens whose support you seek to state your positions clearly and unambiguously. If all candidates are forthright with their ideas, we might be able to make an informed decision come November. Keeping Coliseum is much too costly □SC’s Board of Trustees say they want to keep the Carolina Coliseum standing when the school’s new 19,000-seat arena opens in 2002. Despite the fact that it would cost millions of dollars to bring the coliseum up to city codes and several hundred thousands of dollars a year for utilities, trustees want to save the building, if possible. Trustees point out that the Carolina Coliseum could still be used, even after the new arena is built, for smaller concerts and for office and classroom space. But every academic unit currently inside the coliseum has already made plans to move out, and there are other venues in Columbia such as the Township Auditorium and the Koger Center that can support smaller concerts. The basketball court in the Carolina Coliseum is named for for mer coach Frank McGuire, and many fans and trustees alike view the building as a monument to him. But Athletics Director Mike McGee has already said that the former coach would be suitably honored in the new building if the coliseum was razed. The bottom line is that the cost of keeping the Coliseum after the new arena is built is simply too high. A city Columbians size doesn’t need two arenas, particularly when they’re right next door to each other. We think the space where the Coliseum stands would be much better suited for something more practical, like parking. About Us The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The University of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and Friday during 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. Amwess The Gamecock The Gamecock Ken\ey Young Kevin Langston 1400 Greene Street Editor in chiel Encore Editor Columbia, SC 29208 arad Welters Will Gillaspy ...... ... _ .... Managing Editor Online Editor Offices on third floor of the Russell House. 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Letters Travis Lynn ^mi,y Str*yer , should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an Photo Edl,on Editorial Contributors opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Student Media Both must include name, phone number, profes- ^lRn Parsons Kenton Watt sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten Director of Advertising Manager submissions must be personally delivered to Russell '3 Citified Manager 333 Email submissions must include creat, * ^ Griffin telephone number tor confirmation. Kris Black Business Manager The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, Mk Bumet) Erik Collins style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub- Todd Hoo)(s Faculty Adviser lished. Photos are required for guest columnist and can Betsy Martin Jonathan Ounagin be provided by the submitter. Kathy Van Nostrand Graduate Assistant Call 777-7726 for more information. Creative Services UOLLEGE PRESS EXCHANGE METAL DETECTOR National Issues Bush untested on serious issues the w al ready reached, the climate in presi dential politics will begin to heat up. The nomination process com mences in late Jan uary with the Iowa caucuses and the initial primaries in New Hampshire, Arizona, and South Carolina. For political pun dits and party regulars, this process is the cnt ical debate to which direction the party -Democrat or Republican - wants to take in the general election. Despite the insuigent, underdog cam paigns of Sen. John McCain and former Sen. Bill Bradley, Gov. Geoige W. Bush and Vice-President A1 Gore hold sizable leads in national polls. In each race, the candidates are in a statistical dead heat in New Hampshire - the first primary in the nation. After this primary, Bradley hopes to overtake Gore in New York and California in order to secure the Democ ratic nomination. On the other hand, Mc Cain - who holds a lead in his home state of Arizona - has to win the South Caroli na primary on Feb. 19. Bush, however, designated our state, the first in the South, as his "firewall" because of his huge lead here (53%-21%) and his support from the Republican establishment. Other polls have placed the four can didates in hypothetical match ups for the general election with the Republicans win ning each race except with the Bradley McCain match up. A laige number of jour nalists believe that Bush with his huge advantage in fundraising will be the next president. Two important factors exist in presi dential general elections: personality of the candidates and their control and por trayal of the issues. President Clinton had both the personality and control of the issues -especially economic issues- in his campaign to knock off President Bush in 1992. Now President Bush's son is begin ning to mirror his father's '92 foe with his personable, retail campaigning skills. Bush's abilityto remember names and shake hands resembles the man who now resides in the White House. Yet, despite all his positive personali ty traits with he primary voters and his name recognition, Bush certainly lacks the depth of understanding on the issues that Clinton has had throughout his career. And, even with his lead in all hypo thetical polls for the general election, his stance (or lack of) on the issues could hurt him come this fall. When polled, moderate or indepen dent voters (the large chunk of the vote), believe the most critical issues feeing Amer ica in this new century are not the issues Bush has been yelping about in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. To the average middle class voter, health care reform, the preservation of Medicare and Social Security, maintaining the econ omy and education are the issues that have the largest impact on the nation. Both Gore and Bradley always discuss these issues in debates; Republicans, in contrast, have only harped on their stale traditional is sues: tax cuts and morality. Gov. Bush proclaims he has a re markable record on education in his state of Texas. What the governor does not pro claim is that the Texas governorship is the weakest in the nation; in Texas, the legis lature owns the power, so most of the cred it lies with legislative branch instead of the governor. And while Bush undoubtedly is the front runner to winin November, the Democrats' control of the issues could be the difference in the election. With Bush not having a serious test yet concerning these issues, it could be enough for Gore or hopefully Bradley to upset this governor who seems more preoccupied with salvaging his family name instead of helping the lives of middle class Ameri cans. Corey Ford is a sophomore political science major and can be reached via The Gamecock at: gckviews@sc.edu hhmHhI Social Issues Choosing survivors tests values Mydaugh out a bunch of my old school papers yesterday and pro ceeded to scribble on them (blast that cousin who gave her an art set for Christmas). In the process of assess ing the damage, I came across an old problem I got from a high school psychology teacher. I had written my an swers on it and tal lies of the stu dents’answers. I iinuuiaLinuw uiv agree with my former self a little. Any way, I thought my readers might find it in teresting. Answer the problem yourself, and you might find yourself challenging your own values. Give it to friends, and you might open up little windows into their heads as well. The Fall-out Shelter Problem: You work for a department in Wash ington, D.C. that is in chaige of experi mental stations in the far outposts of civ ilization. Suddenly the Third World War breaks out and bombs begin dropping. Places all across the globe are being destroyed. People are heading for whatever fall-out shelters are available. You receive a des perate call from one of your experimen tal stations, asking for help. It seems there are 20 people but there is only enough space, air, food and water in their fall-out shelter for 10 people for a period of three months — which is how long they estimate they can safely stay down there. They realize that if they have to decide among themselves which 10 peo ple should go to the shelter, they are likely to become irrational and being fight ing. So they have decided to call your de partment, their superiors, and leave the decision to you. They will abide by your decision. But you need to quickly head down to your own fall-out shelter. So, all you have time for is to get a superficial description of the twenty people. You have a half-hour . to make your decision. Then you will have to go to your own shelter. You now have to decide which IU ot the 20 will have to be eliminated from the shelter. Before you begin, I want to im press upon you two important considera tions. It is entirely possible that the 10 peo ple you choose to stay in the shelter might be the only 10 people left to start the hu man race over again. Try to make the best choice possible. On the other hand, if you do not make the choice in a half-hour, then you are in fact choosing to let the 20 peo ple fight it out among themselves, with the possibility that more than ten might per ish. You have exactly one half-hour. De scriptions of the 20 people follow: 1) a college physical education pro fessor, male, 37 years old; 2) a female college student, majoring in nursing, 19; 3) a male farmer, 42; 4) a Hollywood starlette, 33; 5) a male Olympic athlete, unable to father children, 21; 6) a female physician, unable to have children, 36; 7) a famous male historian, 63; 8) a policeman with a gun (they can not be separated), 35; 9) a female chemist, 47; 10) a high school student, male, 15; 11) a female junior high student, 13; 12) a minister, 50; 13) a retired female teacher, 67; 14) a law student, 25; 15) the law student’s pregnant wife, 23 (they refuse to separate); 16) a male millionaire, 64; 17) a female secretary, 26; 18) a female high school teacher, 30; 19) a male carpenter, 29; 20) a female journalist, 23. I suppose I’ll divulge my choices; the people I would allow to enter the shel ter are #2,3,6, 10,11,14,15,17,19,and 20.1 could explain forever, but space is limited, so I’ll just say that I tried to choose based on who was most likely to produce the most offspring. The female doctor is an obvious exception; I figured it would do no good to populate the planet without someone who knows how to keep them alive. It was hard, because I couldn’t choose some of the people who bring valuable things to the table. Without the minister, for instance, we may lose a spiritual ele ment — but he or she would be less able to produce offspring to enjoy their knowl edge. I hated to cut out the historian; 1 just hoped books survive the war. Anyway, en joy the exercise. Kiki McCormick is a graduate student in Educational Psychology. She can be reached by E-mail at kikiwm@yahoo. com Social Issues Sexism on the job must stop This was a let ter I found in the dead hand of a good friend. He was beaten to death by a mob of angry women. I am pub lishing it here so that we may all learn from this tragedy. Outside my house are a crowd of about 46 women... at least it was 46 the last I checked. When I got home there were only 12! They’re aimed - most ly stones and slings made from bras. They’re getting brazen and it’s only a matter of time before they stop pelting the house and come in here to get me. It all started with paying my taxes. This isn’t a fiscal matter, but one of sexism in our society. You see, behind the counter where I gave the check was a very attrac tive woman. She couldn’t have been old er than 22. This was a shock. I had never seen nev er saw such a person working as a civil ser vant. I wanted to ask her why she was working there, but the check - statement - stamp - here’s - your statement - go at mosphere kept me from doing so. After this I went to the supermarket. In the condiments aisle, across from the deli counter, I met Mr. McGrady. As a former paratrooper and veteran of all WWII campaigns in the European theater from D-day onwards, he has a lot of interesting stories to tell. This time, however, he told of something that happened to him that day. He, too, had given his taxes to the woman I had. This story turned into a di alogue, but it only lasted about a minute. Mr. McGrady was hit in the side of the head with a hard salami hurled at him from the burly lady behind the deli counter. Peo ple, all women and old men, gathered to see what it was all about. There was whis pering amongst the women and shaking heads from the elderly men. I did not know what was being said, for I was helping Mr. McGrady back to his feet after taking that blow from the deli lady’s hard sala mi. Then they turned on us. Grabbing any thing they could, they rushed us with a fury that women who are tired of having to prove they are just as good as men can possess. Being 75 and stunned by the hard salami, Mr. McGrady quickly fell to the mob. I, however, was able to climb to the top shelf and jump over the 10 or so women and make it to the exit and to my car. But I wasn’t safe yet. Led by the burly deli lady, they packed themselves into a pick-up truck and fol lowed me home. The deli lady drove and my second grade teacher (now retired) used the truck’s CB to call for reinforcements. I ran into my house and went for the phone. I wanted to call the police.. .maybe even get in touch with the dispatcher. I could’ve told her to send over the boys in blue to save the day. This didn’t happen, though, for the deli lady had already cut my phone line and had about 20 women laying siege to the house. I was going to call out the window to my next door neigh bor, who is the principal of the elementary school, but it was noon, and he was at work. I thought the situation would be han dled when everyone on the street came home from work, but with the rate that they were gaining in numbers, the street would be covered with irate women seek ing my blood by one o’clock. Maybe I could sort this out. I’ve learned my lesson. I understand that the way sexism affects the jobs people get in our country is usually wrong. I also realize and object to using sex appeal to secure a bet ter job. An attractive person, man or woman, doesn’t have more of a right to most jobs than a less attractive but equal ly capable person does. I wish I could go out there and tell them that I’m sorry and that I’ve changed, but they’re too blood thirsty! The only reason why they haven’t gotten a real weapon yet is that they’re afraid that they’ll miss the lynching. I make this plea to my fellow citizens: stop these senseless sexist practices and try to change the way you think. Do it now while it will only cost us an old man and a hapless college bay! Do it before it’s too late! Mike DiPresso is a senior English major. He can be reached via The Gamecock at gckviews®sc.edu