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4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, September 16, 2002 SOUND OFF TT^TTT"P)/“\" VTrrCI ONLINE POLL Create message boards at I |-« * l\ I I * | I ^ I Should the United States try to www.dailygamecock.com or I I i i ■ / m / I ■ ■ ^ I l force out Saddam Hussein? send letters to the editor to IIJvvl \ W ^k IK/ www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com —■ ®®^ ^ ' —“— ' ^—' Results published on Fridays. , IN OUR OPINION USC needs to act on safety With the latest news of a rape occurring on USC’s campus, student safety is yet again a pressing concern. And the criminal activity at the Roost last week alone raises many questions. This year brings special considerations as, more than ever, freshmen are living on the outskirts of campus. In addition to the first-year students in Bates House as well as the Roost, many first-year students are living in hotels far from the center of campus. If this university is going to dish out the funds to house students all around the city, it should be prepared to pay extra money for security as well. And while the rape that is bringing all the attention did not occur near any of the j 1 i 1 1 • J! nuieis ilia.i msi-yeai diuuema axe nuuacu 111, n uiu occur in an area that might as well be off the main campus. USC needs to act quickly to ensure the safety of its students. USC director of law enforcement and safety Ernest Ellis’s comment that the natural lighting at the Roost is sufficient is a joke. More lamps and safety boxes in the south part of campus would be a start. But security should have more of a presence in these areas as well. Lighting only goes so far. The constant sight of a USC patrolman could help crime prevention by leaps and bounds. With more patrolmen, as well as more alert security guards, crime on this campus could well see a significant drop-off. But until actions such as these are apparent, it is up to you to act responsibly. Never walk by yourself at night. If you need to, call the escort service or the USC Police Department for a ride. And even if you have someone to walk with, make sure to take the most well lit paths. Just take the time to ensure your own safety; it is clear that security has become an issue that can’t be overlooked. With so many first-year students living on the outskirts of USC’s campus, it is imperative that proper measures are taken to ensure their safety. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In the article about three teenage arrests, Tyrone Kelley was arrested late Wednesday night. Also, Capt. Steve Conley of the Richland County Police Department was not properly identified. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor In Chief CONTACT INFORMATION Mary Hartney Offices on third floor of the Russell House. News Editor Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmai|-C°m Adam Beam News Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Asst. News Editor The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Emma Ritch Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Viewpoints Editor Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Chris Fov Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor's Office: 777-3914 Asst. Viewpoints Editor Erin O'Neal STUDENT MEDIA The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The Mix Editors Faculty Adviser the University of Justin Bajan, Erik Collins South Carolina and is Charles Tomlinson published Monday, Director of Student Wednesday and Friday Sports Editor Media during the fall and Kyle Almond Ellen Parsons spring semesters and nine times during the Asst. Sports Editor Creative Director summer with the Matt Rothenberg Susan King exception of Photo Editor Business Manager and exam periods. Candi Hauglum Carolyn Griffin Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are Head Designer Advertising Manager those of the editors or Katie Smith Sarah Scarborough author and not those of the University of Page Designers Classified Manager South Carolina. The Samantha Hall, Julia Sherry F. Holmes Board of Student Knetzer. Shawn Rourke, Publications and David Stagg Creative Services Communications is Derek Goode, Earl the publisher of The Copy Desk Chief Jones, Kimberly Gamecock. The Jill Martin Myles, Melanie Department of Roberts Student Media is the Copy Editors newspaper s parent Jennie Duggan, Tricia Advertising Staff organization. The Ridgeway, Holly Adam Bourgoin, Gamecock is Totherow, Karen Vaught Justin Chappell, supported in part by Amanda Ingram, student activities Online Editor Bianca Knowles, fees. One free copy Bessam Khadraoui Denise Levereaux, per reader. Additional Jacqueline Rice, copies may be Community Affairs Stacey Todd purchased for one Kiran Shah dollar each from the Department of TO PLACE AN AD Student Media. The Gamecock Advertising: 777-388$ 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax:777-6482 APT^f2- ^lllL UN<^gUA&L8 CgMMOMlCAT(QNr5j 5Y5T^M5 STIu, pLA^P PPPPPAU A6rgA/C|g5 ' /v\f^.P£65! veUT, 1 LOoeeo (MTo Cov\jA'jv\tflrUok)5 5Y57r*?'v15. -7 -r'L<~ AG^ee ineizz ovwoveo, v»t b-xne PBoem* (5 not a? vac’ a^S a— -rue-u.s. a£aVor« of eu6"JeepsS]]J_[ SA<5 'XbM fl CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Thank God for Interstate 95 CATHERINE BAAB GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM No matter how much it takes me in circles, at least it’s always there. I gave my apartment a thor ough overhaul last night. This is a ritual I perform every week or so, when the idea occurs to me that all the objects I own, i.e. the junk piled on my desk — the books, the unwashed coffee mugs, the overflowing ashtrays, the scrawled illegible notes, the albums, the ancient newspapers, the ticket stubs, the books — will magically begin to calcify and be come a hard entrapping shell un less given a firm dusting. The re ordering soothes me. In some circles, particularly those I don’t care to travel in, this habit might serve as evidence of a certain if minor commitment phobia on my part. And those people might have a certain, if minor, point. Mine’s a divided life. I was born here in Columbia, fled when I was 4. I lived in Richmond, Va., until I graduat ed from high school. Then I came back, to attend USC. Now, six or seven times a year, I troupe up and down 1-95, dodge trucks and indulge in far too much McDonald’s fare. With half affec tion, half irritation, I consider I 95 to be the dividing line of my life — what Yeats called “the old high way of love.” It sends me home. It sends me away from home. It subjects me to South of the Border, with its bizarrely accepted brand of racism. It subjects me to those God-awful billboards, with mes sages presented as from the old deity himself: “Will the Road You’re On Get You to My Place?” Even better: “Keep Using My Name In Vain. I’ll Make Rush Hour Longer.” You know, if His signature is up for grabs, I might not be able to resist using it to serve my own ends. Note to my biology profes sor: “Cat couldn’t make lab to day. Excuse her, or I’ll smite you. Yours, God.” Which is not even to mention the fortune the FCC might make if it decided to regu late the practice, and sell licens es. Who’s in charge of this racket, anyway? I’m pretty sure it isn’t God himself. Heaven hath no such press agents. In a way, I guess I have com mitted to 1-95. It is as permanent an address as I’m likely to have in the next several years. Sometimes, trapped in traffic at the 1-20 Florence exit, or at the I 295 interchange just south of Richmond, I begin to feel as if the jam sheds a kind of light on my own mental map. I’m stuck, lit erally, in a little metal box. I’m stuck, figuratively; I can’t pick a city to stay in. I’m standing still, all while traveling in circles. Last year, my second at USC, a friend said to me: “You have an abnormally slow emotional metabolism. You slug about with all these rosy ideas simmering upstairs, and the big ones never seem to burn up.” I had to agree with her. And that reminds me of how, actually, I’m thankful for all the fixed points of the world: 1-95, McDonald’s, government, South of the Border, exam dates, nearly universal inanity of Southern billboards, etc. These are things on which we might all depend. No matter how our emotions might pendulum between ex tremes, or how difficult it might be to figure out just how and where to live, there exists in cer tain ideas and objects a perma nence. They comprise our cul tural northern star. Thank God for that. Baab is a third-year English and advertising student. IN YOUR OPINION For safety’s sake, don’t ignore rape I have been meaning to write this letter for more than a week now, and while it was certainly tempting to simply forget it, it is precisely this kind of apathy that I intend to bring to your attention. I would direct anyone with a mother, sister, girlfriend or any kind of concern for the safety of students at this uni versity to the police report in the Sept. 5 edition of The Gamecock, in which a violent rape that was committed out side the Roost dormitory was relegated to a single, nonde script paragraph. Your refusal to print any thing other than the most ba sic facts on the incident (which your writer titled “criminal sexual activity, kidnapping” in a clear effort to avoid the word “rape”) represents a journalistic failure that is not only disgusting and appalling, it borders on the criminal. If it is the intention of The Gamecock and others at this university to allow this act to slip into obscurity, then I am here to make sure you do not succeed. Considering that awareness is the foundation of crime pre vention, then ignorance is not only the acceptance of future violence, it is its very encour agement. I beg you to recon sider your paper’s silence. I would be happy to author the article myself if necessary, but for the sake of the victim and for our USC community, don’t let this serious incident pass away quietly. I doubt you want the next rape or violent attack on your conscience any more than I do. The safety of this campus is an issue that affects every one of the more than 25,000 students and faculty members at this university. If you don’t feel that kind of story belongs on your front page, perhaps you shouldn’t be in the newspaper business at all. ADAM HABIB THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH STUDENT Papers create more than ‘a little trash’ “Every day, a section of rainforest is cut down the size of New York City.” At least that’s what we have been taught our whole lives. “Save the rainforest; reuse, reduce and recycle.” Admirable goals, certainly, but how can we be lieve the commitment of our country to that goal when we are shoveling tons of yellow pa per into the trash every day at USC? We have all seen it. The guys on either side of the Russell House handing out those inane, yellow, pseudo newspapers with nothing but ads inside. And that’s if one even bothers to open it. Most just ac cept the useless package and toss it into the nearest trash can. Maybe it shouldn’t be funny, but looking at the trash cans near the Russell House filled with the same sickly yellow-col ored paper still elicits a chuckle from me. It is the same laugh people make when they see their best friend shoot up heroin and know that it will kill them, or when they open up the third cigarette package of the day and know that lung cancer is a giv en. It is a laugh of knowing self destruction. We must stop this stupidity now. Some will say this is just an isolated place, and what we do here won’t affect the world that much. “It’s just a little trash.” Well, one day when the world is dying before our eye,s we will all look around and ask one another, “Why didn’t you stop it?” “I didn’t do anything wrong. Its just a little trash.” DANIEL LEE FIRST-YEAR COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENT Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. E-mail letters to gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. WANT YOUR VOICE HEARD? SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM. ? # $ It s time for the UN. to step up CHRISTOPHER FOY GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Iraq’s defiance is more than enough reason to finally take action. This past weekend, President Bush said the United Nations has no backbone if it doesn’t support us in our war with Iraq. And he couldn’t have been closer to the truth. The U.N. was formed many years ago with the optimistic view that it could serve as an in ternational police force of sorts. That it would be able to regulate and make decisions on matters of international significance. With this said, it seems only logical that it would back us without hesita tion when a nation’s leader (who also happens to be a lunatic) poses a global threat with his weapons of mass destruction. Yet it doesn’t. It never acts, and, by doing so, it allows inci dents such as this to occur. Saddam Hussein has defied the U.N. 16 times since the conclusion of the last Gulf War. Sixteen times he has made his intentions of not cooperating with the U.N. known, and 16 times he has suffered no punishment for his actions. A course of action against Iraq has been long overdue. The ultimate objective isn t even one that pertains only to the United States. The goal in this conflict is to remove a terrorist threat. Right now, the threat is aimed at the United States, but who knows whom it could be aimed at next? If America doesn’t act, then it would be clear that we don’t have a strong standing in our war against terrorism. This . conflict is not to draw attention I away from al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden, but to accomplish the entire purpose of the war on ter ror. The objective is to stop all ter rorists, not just a select few? So the concern is, why aren’t we receiving a lot of support? After all, the removal of terrorism is an international goal. It’s not as if we’re lacking the support of the real playmakers in a situation such as this. We know Britain will back us no matter what. Italy has stepped up as well. Oh, wow, France and Germany don’t approve. There’s a shocker. Perhaps this would mean some thing if France could actually be a reliable ally in the first place. Germany could be a good ally, | but, for the time being, it is choos ing to stay out of the conflict. But if the U.N. wishes to be hes itant, that’s fine. We should go in anyway. Screw it if they want to be reluctant. As it stands, Iraq poses a threat to our national se curity and needs to be stopped. Perhaps if the U.N. did its job in the first place and convinced us that Iraq isn’t a threat, we wouldn’t even be in this situation right now. But when you let a country defy you 16 times, it can be assumed that you really don’t have a lot of influence over it. Hussein is a madman who needs to be removed from power. The time for being cordial is over. Even if the U.N. doesn’t feel obli gated to intervene, the threat on our nation will still remain. When we fought Iraq 10 years ago, we | had no international coalition go ing into the affair. It was only af ter the war had begun that we be gan to receive such support. But with it or not, it won’t change the fact that the threat does exist in Iraq. Bush did the right thing by approaching the U.N. Now it is its turn to respond in the interests of international security. Foy is a fourth-year entrepreneurial management student.