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Quote, Unquote . ‘You proved to me that you are never a former anything. We’re Gamecocks.’ Sterling Sharpe, ESPN analyst and member of USC Hall of Fame " Page 7 Wie (Bamecock 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 Emily Streyer • Editorial Contributor Fill out census forms or don't be here at all Imagine going to the supermarket and paying for hundreds of dollars of food, only to leave it sitting at the grocery checkout line and driving home without it. If you don’t fill out your 2000 Census form, you’ll be doing something quite similar with your tax dollars. Indeed, according to statistics released Tuesday from the Cen sus Bureau, many South Carolinians are ignoring the census. Our state is one of only six states that has seen less than a 35 percent response rate so far, while the national average is 42 percent. For those of us who have received the short form of the census, filling it out is like little more than taking a short, five-minute quiz — except this is much more important than any old quiz. The Census Bureau makes it incredibly easy, allowing you to fill out the short form of the census online at www.census.gov. About one in six of us received the longer census, a 53-ques tion form that asks more than a few questions that might seem a little probing. The long form, while it takes a little longer to fill out, helps put public money where it’s most needed. Almost $200 billion will be doled out on highway construction, housing assis tance, hospital services and school funding based on long-census returns. Filling it out is worth releasing a few private details about yourself and your home that will be kept strictly confidential. If you haven’t done so already, take a few minutes and fill out your census, or call your parents and make sure they’ve included you in theirs. After all, you wouldn’t want your tax dollars to go to waste, right? Anonymous gun tips inadequate evidence The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Tliesday that police officers can’t stop and frisk someone based solely on an anonymous tip that the person is carrying a gun. While the National Association of Police Organizations says the ruling hinders law enforcement officers in their attempts to control violent crimes, the court was right to restrict police in this matter. The ruling is a triumph for individual liberties, as the court said police need “more than a bare-boned anonymous tip” to have the right to frisk. This protects citizens from intrusive searches and seizures, and it forces police officers to establish a reasonable suspicion of wrongdoing, which is the standard required by the Constitution. Of course, not all police officers are guilty of jumping the gun, so to speak, after receiving such a tip. In fact, we’d like to think most of them don’t. But the fact is that outside issues, particularly personal biases and prejudices, often carry too much weight in the decision to follow up on an anonymous tip. Moreover, officers all too often must compete with prank calls, questionable informants and flat-out incorrect information, all of which can lead to a potentially embarrassing situation for both the subject and the officer. We applaud the Supreme Court for helping to protect individual rights and for reinforcing a basic Constitutional right. ■' ■■■ " 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. The Gamecock The Gamecock ^ Gfuldin* 1400 Greene Street uJTwJJll 1™“ Columbia, SC 29208 Photo Ed’tors Managing Editor Will Gillaspy Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Brock Vergakis Online Editor Stuoeht Media Area code 803 Viewpoints Editor Peter Johnson Advertising 777-3888 Clayton Kale Asst. Viewpoints Editor Classified 777-1184 News Editor Kelly Haggerty pax 777-6482 Brandon Larrabee Patrick Rathbun Office 777-3888 Associate News Editor Asst. News Editors Rebecca Cronican MacKenzie Craven Gamecock Area code 803 Ann Marie Miam Asst. EtCetera Editor Editor gckeddsc.edu 777-3914 EtCetera Editors Elizabeth Rod News gcknewsdsc.edu 777-7726 David Cloninger Asst. Sports Editor Viewpoints gckviewsdsc.edu 777-7181 Shannon Rooke Rob Fleming Etc. gcketcdsc.edu 777-3913 Sports Editors Asst. Encore Editor Encore! gamecockencoredhotmail.com 777-3913 Kristin Freestate Charles Prashaw Sports gcksportsdsc.edu 777-7182 Copy Desk Chief Shawn Singleton Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Renee CHigny Charlie Wallace SuBM»S*ON POUCY Copy Editor Senior Writers Kevin Langston Emily Streyer Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome Encore EJitor Editorial Contributor ■Bfom all members of the Carolina community. Letters Stuoemt Media Should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an i . cm ?rvi Ellen Parsons Business Manager opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Director Sherry Holmes Both must include name, phone number, profes- Susan King Classified Manager sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten Creative Director Erik Collins submissions must be personalty delivered to Russell Kris Black Faculty Adviser House room 333. E-mail submissions must include Julie Burnett Jonathan Dunagin telephone number for confirmation. Iodd Hoota Graduate Assistant The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, S;le and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub Creative-Services Melissa Millen lished. Photos are required for guest columnist and can Kenton Watt Brantley Roper be provided by the submitter. Advertising Manager Nicole Russell Call 777-7726 for more information. Carolyn Griffin Advertising Staff College Press Exchange I HOPE „ TWATONCEHiS TRjF> IS OnEA..THE HOLY FATHER CAN SET THAT UNSIGHTLY (SROjJTH REfWEb. \ _ £> □ Campus Issues Females love to talk — and talk The spoken word can be a beau tiful thing when used in proper doses. People who talk con stantly often speak for no rea son at all other than to hear their own voice. I am not some one who prefers to spend the ma jority of my day talking, but I am intrigued by those who do. Maybe it’s be cause I’m a naturally shy person that there are times I never speak a word. But be lieve me, just because I’m not talking does n’t mean I’m not watching or listening. Over the years, I have noticed one con tinual trend when it comes to the spoker word — females love to talk. A friend ol mine at the University of North Carolina said one of her psychology professors said that on average, girls say 2,000 more word; a day than guys do. In my estimation this seems like an incredibly low figure but then again I don’t talk a lot to starl with. My only guess as to what is balanc ing this figure out is that there are more female mutes than I thought because any one who has been on this campus for a se mester knows anytime you hear a group of pieople there’s always at least one fe male there. I’m curious as to what makes girls have this innate desire to speak so frequently. You never hear of two guys having a two hour phone conversation. You never hear about late night “guy-talk.” We like to drink beer on our balconies in silence. When guys come home from class or work, we aren’t begging for someone to ask us about our day so we can talk about it. The desire just isn’t there. We can have phone conversations that CQnsist of only five words, and be exhausted from it. When we go out to a bar, we can or der a pitcher of a beer without learning the bartender’s life story, what agreat deal the girl at the end of the bar got on her shoes or the names of all the waitresses. All we need to do is point to the tap and hand him or her our money. This doesn’t mean I or the rest of the male gender doesn’t like to talk; it just means we don’t have the desire for it quite like girls do. I’ve got absolutely no prob lem listening to girls, and I greatly prefer listening to what they have to say than talk ing about my life. Occasionally there are times when I’ll talk every bit as much as the next guy or girl, but I generally try and stay away from that for various reasons. I’ve spent many hours on the phone listening to different traumas all the while saying such popular guy phrases as: “yeah,” “uh-huh,” “oh really,” “wow,” “I didn’t hear about that,” and “you’re right, she is such a bitch.” It’s the gospel of every guy’s phone conversation. We can’t go wrong by sticking to those phrases. Say ing what you actually think or something that you found out or heard from some one is just asking for trouble. Sometimes we might want to actually risk giving a compliment or relaying one that we heard from someone else about a girl, but this is a dangerous move. It’s been known to back fire more than once. For example the age-old compli ment of, “You’ve lost some weigh,t haven’t you?” can easily be turned into, “So, what, you’re saying I was fat before? That I just happen to not look fat today? Why don’t you just go ahead and start mooing and call me Bessie?” Or the always risky, “Hey, that’s a nice haircut.” It seems like such a nice comment, but one that must be said in a timely manner or you’ll hear, “Thanks, but I got it cut two weeks ago. Nice of you to notice. Why don’t you ever pay attention?” Maybe that’s the real reason guys speak •so infrequently. Wfejust don’t want to make complete asses of ourselves and have our statements taken the wrong way. Just be cause we don’t talk all the time doesn’t mean we’re not friendly. I tend to think that those who speak less often speak with the most sincerity, but I’m biased. I’m not likely to approach someone and start up a conversation, but that doesn’t mean I won’t talk or listen to you all day if you talk to me. Just don’t expect me to break into a soliloquy on my five-minute walk from campus to Five Points. I’d rather hear about your day anyways. Brock Vergakls is a journalism Viewpoints editor. He can be reached at game cockviewpoints ©hotmaii.com Letters USC coaches should stay out of flag issue Now comes the latest of notable authorities weighing in on the Confederate flag issue. Like others of their stripe, these two have also chosen to exhibit total ignorance concerning this matter. I speak of none other than USC’s illustrious basketball coach, a product of Brooklyn, N.Y., and its distinguished football coach, a native of East Liverpool, Ohio — neither having an inkling of Southern heritage, yet pimping onto this politically correct band wagon. With the basketball program still in shambles after sev en years, save a tidbit of glory at season’s end, and the football program appearing hopeless, much like Columbia’s condition af ter Sherman’s march, I suggest that these overpaid, underachieving interlopers “bone up” on Southern history before marching to drumbeats of these misinformed and uninformed propagandists. Better still, with an old, tired, and worn- out football coach who thinks so little of his players as to prohibit their names on uniforms, is so dedicated to South Carolina that he purchased cemeteiy plots in South Bend, and who is more interested in trash along the state’s roads than he is in familiarizing himself with Southern history before spouting anti-flag venom, should be re assigned to a highway cleanup crew—and at vastly reduced com pensation. As for the basketball coach and his foul mouth, along with the perpetual young and inexperienced team that obviously will never grow into those oversized uniforms, he should seek a new character, say, selling shoes or peddling used cats. The thought also occurs that his eneigies could be better expended attempt ing the repurchase of Brooklyn’s many-times sold bridge.The ul timate, however, would be for both these vagabonds to fold their respective tents, move on to somewhere outside the South and wreak havoc with someone else’s athletics programs! Frank Abernathy West Columbia College Press Exchange «^7<W' • — /oz> / WE'RE J Nor * INVPRESGfE) blLL i Social Issues Strike a « pose; there's nothing to it Hey buddy, nice Aber crombie shirt! And those Hil figer pants are stylin’! Those Oak leys, that Structure hat, those Doc Martens, they all go so well together. What a killer wardrobe you have. What’s that? Could I spare a buck for lunch? Extra Value Meal time, huh? Here’s a tip, bud, why don’t you stop trying so hard to look good and pay more at tention to spending your money op more important things like food and rent. Fashion these days leaves a lot to be de sired. By today’s standards, a decent pair of sunglasses will cost $100, a pair of wom-out pants that looks 5 years old will cost $60 and a torn-up hat will cost $25. What ever happened to buying new clothes and break ing them in yourself? It is now “fashionable” to look unfashionable. And people only go to the most fash ionable places to find these clothes that will make them look unfashionable' Sure, I can dig some of the new styles. I have a few Aca pulco shirts, I have a Structure hat that I broke in over the course of 2 yean of hard work, thank you very much. But I definitely can’t dig the fact that stores like Abercrombie & Fitch and Struc ture are basically manufacturing substandard clothing and selling them at outrageous prices simply because of a logo. I could go to a thrift store and get the same quality of clothing for about five bucks. I find it scary that our society is so concerned about our clothes being “in style.” Some people cannot leave their house or dorm room in the morning unless their hair has the perfect amount of gel in it and their outfit is propped out, but not too up tight looking. Yes, folks, it is time for the soccer tuck. Next time you walk around campus, count the number of guys you see with the front of their shirt tucked in and the back untucked. There will probably be an overwhelming number. Lets face it, a lot of what you buy this spring will probably be horribly out of style this time next year. I’ll admit that I look like a slacker, but I assure you, I don’t try so hard to look like I’m not trying at all. I do it on my own accord, that being that I would much rather buy my clothes at the Salvation Army or Goodwill rather than go to a corporate su perstore. The entire store is a clearance rack, and everything is an unexpected find. At the Salvation Army, you can get excited when you find something cool. But I could walk into an Abercrombie & Fitch tomorrow and see the exact kind of merchandise that I would have expected to see. You will always find the same choice of overpriced merchandise every time you go. People shop at trendy stores simply be cause they feel cooler wearing a label that proves that they can afford to shop there. Why does outward appearance mean so much to so many people? I’ll tell you why, be cause these people are awkward with who they are. The best way for them to feel good about themselves is to spend tons of money and dress in accordance with the latest styles in order to fit in. This, my friends, is superfi ciality at it’s finest. Superficiality will always reign in the land of the weak-minded. We don’t know how to be individuals. We are all sheep be ing led by a blind man who seems to know what is cool come fashion season. Most of these clothes are made in for eign sweatshops anyway. The company is making a killing and the peasant workers are suffering, but at least you contributed to some of that $.75 a day wages they are earn ing. Congratulate yourself: you helped a few of those poor workers afford some minus cule amount of food for their families to day. Kathy Lee would be proud. 5 ft Pete Johnson is a journalism senior. He can be reached at game cockviewpoints ©hotmail.com .