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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, September 25,2002 " - 5 SOUNDOFF T T T"P| f\ " Vimci ONLINE POLL Create message boards at 'ZgA I I /» / I-I I ^ I Should the United States try to www.dailygamecock.com or * I ill I / 1/ I II %| I i force out Saddam Hussein? send letters to the editor to IIJWW I \ W 1 Ik/ www.daUygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com —■ 1 ^ * * —■— L ®^—' Results published on Fridays. IN OUR OPINION SG, Sorensen join efforts President Sorensen’s recent pledge to pay attention to the affairs of Student Government brings new hope to the effectiveness of SG legislation. Maybe it will be taken seriously if the president actually backs bills. Perhaps backing from a higher power will help SG more productively serve students. The possibilities for improvement are endless. Paying attention to student concerns and passing legislation dealing with student issues might actually catch the attention of students, who now do not seem to care. People might vote in elections if SG tried to address issues such as parking instead of ioeiinc onr»V» oo oomr\oirm finance reform, which doesn’t interest most students not involved in SG. So far this year, SG has spent more time ironing out proper legislative procedures than actually passing legislation. It is hoped that Sorensen’s support will strengthen SG, and that this will lead to more student participation. Sorensen, however, must not make hollow promises. During President John Palms’ presidency, the administration and SG had a less-than-successful working relationship. SG passed legislation, such as the extended drop-add date, that was completely ignored by the university. Perhaps, with Sorensen at the helm, things will change. Maybe with his support, SG’s impact on campus will increase. It would be nice if students followed his lead and got more involved; but that might just be wishful thinking. Perhaps backing from a higher power will help SG more productively serve students. Winners and Sinners FOOTBALL TEAM Hold onto the ball + scoring = win. Let’s remember this equation. JIM HODGES Comes toUSC and talks about new scholarships. All right, Jim, now you’re talking our language. ED MADDEN Associate professor of English defends sexual preference and banned books against paranoid parents. It’s a good thing this isn’t Bob Jones University. ANKIT PATEL Vetoes bill because it “violates his First Amendment rights.” So, he has finally accepted that they exist. DEREK WATSON With his fifth violation, Derek will be playing next for Lexington High School. Way to go, Squeaky. TAYLOR CORPORATION Uses Sigma Chi’s letters without permission. Gets the shirt sued off it. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS 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 Mary Hartney News Editor Adam Beam Asst. News Editor Emma Ritch Viewpoints Editor Chris Foy "»»»• iicnpvuiia i-uikui Erin O’Neal The Mix Editors Justin Bajan, Charles Tomlinson Sports Editor Kyle Almond Asst. Sports Editor Matt Rothenberg Photo Editor Candi Hauglum Head Designer Katie Smith Page Designers Samantha Hall, Julia Knetzer, Shawn Rourk, David Stagg Copy Desk Chief Jill Martin Copy Editors Jennie Dugan, Tricia Ridgway, Holly Tothero' Karen Vaught Online Editor Bessam Khadraoui Community Affairs Kiran Shah CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Public. Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Director of Student Media Ellen Parsons Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Creative Services Derek Goode, Earl Jones, Kimberly Myles, Melanie Roberts Advertising Staff t Adam Bourgoin, ' Justin Chappell, Amanda Ingram, Bianca Knowles, Denise Levereaux, Jacqueline Rice, Stacey Todd 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. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for one dollar each from the Department of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock V# 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184r Fax: 777-6482 r-"\ Yoo-HOO, SADDAM - TiMe FOR 'iNSPecT-oN AReWJ OP&NvP? CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Who could forget Eddie Hill? .*./• y JAY COOPER GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Letters to the editor missing an instigator. “Mosquito-bite titties.” The phrase is shocking and yet somehow morbidly poignant. That is also a good way to de scribe the person who first wrote it — Eddie Hill. If you did not attend USC Feb. 12 through Feb. 19,2001, or if you were too stoned and drunk to remember that peri od, I’ll give you a brief back ground. Hill wrote a letter to The Gamecock that appeared Feb. 12. In it, he wasted no time in shar ing his creative description of sorority-girl breasts, called the guys “frat bastards” and ex pressed the desire to kick Greek people in their heads. Needless to say, this letter generated a cloud of controversy that hung over the school for a week and, incidentally, proba bly increased The Gamecock’s readership threefold, but I’ll get to that in a moment. Hill’s letter was only a frac tion as entertaining as some of the-responses that appeared in the days that followed. One girl proceeded to write what seemed like a page-long let ter, the intelligently contrived thesis of which was “No, you suck.” Another guy wrote in with tales of C and D cups he had encountered in Greek life. Some wrote in to say that Hill was probably gay, and if he wasn’t, he probably should be. Environmental groups wrote a letter claiming that if Williams-Brice Stadium were green space, none of this would have happened. A religious group wrote a let ter but censored all of its own content before mailing it. Some theater students even wrote a letter — though it ar rived two months later and said, “We don’t know who Eddie Hill is, but can he score any gbod weed?” As you can imagine, interest in The Gamecock was at a record high. The paper hadn’t been that interesting since Todd Ellis was quarterback and Holderman was making friends with student interns. Everybody had an opinion about Eddie Hill, but nobody seemed to know who he was. In the end, everyone guessed that he was an overweight homosex ual in a wheelchair. Imagine Larry Flynt with a lisp; wouldn’t you notice him around campus? So Hill fell conveniently into the pet groups of most PC-types and, strangely enough, taught ev erybody a lesson. He deserves recognition as the best fictional personality to capture the minds of a USC student body. Case closed. Or is it? Perhaps one day you’re in the basement of Gambrell, all alone. The place is silent as a tomb. Then you no tice it — the unmistakable creak, creak, creak of wheels badly in need of WD-40. The noise stops. You frantically look around and see no one, but somehow, you just feel him. Suddenly you hear something you’ll never forget. It’s coming from nowhere and everywhere at the same time, as if it were bouncing from wall to wall — a low, blood-freezing, haughty laugh. The ghost of Eddie Hill. Cooper is a fourth-year English student. IN YOUR OPINION U.S. foreign policy remains imperfect I have been told that I made two errors in my previ ous letter, “U.S. abusing glob al government powers” (Sept. 18). Rather than remain silent, the United States did strenu ously and publicly object to Iraq, using poison gas in September 1988. And the blinding of the pris oners housed in wire cages in Guantanimo might have been done only while they were in transit. My other criticisms remain valid. I have also been criticized for being so critical of the United States when the coun try is trying to establish democ racy in Afghanistan and speak ing out for human rights around the world. I do believe the United States often tries to promote democracy, but I think these efforts are soft-pedaled when U.S. interests are in volved. I sincerely hope the current Iraq-United States situation is settled peacefully. I can under stand the United States’ fearing Iraqi weapons of mass destruc tion. It might be hard to deliv er them effectively to U.S. soil, but locally, Israel and the vari ous Gulf states and U.S. bases are at risk. But I do think it is a bad precedent for the United States and Britain to attack a state be cause they don’t like the dicta tor — and want to free up some lovely oil. This is something that must be decided by the United Nations. Otherwise, we will be follow ing the same course that led to World War II by making the United Nations irrelevant in mat ters of war and peace. Ironically, attacking Iraq might be the only stimulus that would cause release of such weapons. When Saddam is facing defeat, imprisonment and maybe execution will be when he lets it all loose. TOM TROTTIER OTTAWA, CANADA 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. Rid cars of trite bumper stickers PHIL WATSON GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Slogan toters should be banished from country. A bumper sticker I saw the other day: “Why are the animals you love called pets, and the ones you eat called dinner?” If there’s one thing I’d like to see thrown out of the country faster than illegitimate “aviation stu dents” from Pakistan and Rosie O’Donnell, it’s bumper stickers. As you might have guessed, that bumper sticker at the top of the column came from the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. I saw it on the back of a 1987 Ford Escort in front of the mental hospital on Bull Street. But if you think this car own er was only satisfied with one preachy, condescending bumper sticker, you’re as wrong as a Kandahar Community College freshman on a women’s studies _: Jj_ UliUlCX 111. There were dozens of other stickers decorating the car. “Wage Peace,” “It will be a great day when the Air Force has to have a bake sale to buy a bomber,” “49% woman ... 51% bitch,” and of course the old stan dard “Stop the March of Dimes’ cruel animal tests — PETA.” Boy, am I glad somebody finally stuck it to those heartless barbar ians at the March of Dimes and all their whiny newborns with birth defects. Way to go, PETA. As I raced by the Escort, I an swered the figurative question her bumper sticker posed about pets and dinner. “Because my pets squirm around too much when I try to eat them,” I yelled out the window. I don’t think she heard me, though. Although the causes this wom an supported were fairly varied, one condensed bumper sticker could easily have summed up her philosophy, and saved a lot of space on her car. “I hate men, and I love ani mals.” Now, there’s a slogan for the masses. Sign me up. Here’s $500 for the car, and $25 for the complete collection of bumper stickers. PETA, if you remember, is the organization that had a caged and naked woman covered in paint in front of the Coliseum when the circus came through town last year. I think the naked lady ended up running off with one of the acro bats, but that’s unconfirmed. Either way, it was a pitiful dis play. I did like it, but only at face —or should I say, body — value. If you haven’t caught my drift yet, PETA is one of the most tact less, obnoxious organizations out there, and its supporters love to prove it by sporting haughty bumper stickers on their cars. If I could make just one law, I would ban bumper stickers. Don’t get me wrong; I’d make it a rule for both ends of the spectrum. Whether it were a “Fur is mur der” or a “My SUV gets 25 mpg— 28 in the rainforest!” bumper sticker, it would not be allowed. Those who disobeyed would be sentenced to a life on Bumper Sticker Island, where they would be subjected day in and day out to worn-out, corny slogans that lost their luster two days alter being created. Imagine the horror. Bumper stickers would be placed on all cars, buildings, furniture and even sidewalks. Bumper-sticker slogans would even be played over and over on loudspeakers. I can’t imagine a worse punishment. “Honk if you’re homy! Honk if you’re homy! Honk if...” Watson is a fourth-year print journalism student. DON’T JUST FOLLOW THE HERD. HAVE YOUR OPINION HEARD.