University of South Carolina Libraries
4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ September 8, 2003 j SOUNDOFF TTT^TTTl/^VTATm O ONLINEPOLL Create message boards at I I—« M / % / I-J I III I Should the Gamecocks be ranked www.dailygamecock.com or I I 1 j ml ml I I III I l higher in the AP football poll? send letters to the editor to I I J W W I www.dailygamecock.com. Results gamecockopinions@hotmail.com —■ ■ ^ ®^—S u “ 1 —H— ' V—' published on Fridays. ■ ■■ ■ ■ ■ - -- ■- .-.. . .. . _ ■. ■ , ■■ : : IN OUR OPINION Duty to Iraq needs limits President Bush plans to ask Congress for $87 billion to continue efforts to rebuild Iraq and quell terrorism. This comes after more than four months of occupation following the end of major combat. During this time, an average of 10 soldiers has been wounded in action a day in the occupation, which costs $3.9 billion a month, according to the Washington Post. The United States also has also yet to find weapons ol mass destruction or Saddam Hussein. After overthrowing Iraq’s government, .the United States carries the responsibility of rebuilding it. “This will take time and require sacrifice,” Bush said. “Yet we will do what is necessary, we will spend what is necessary, to achieve this essential victory in the war on terror, to promote freedom and to make our own nation more secure.” It seems there are no limits for the cost of rebuilding Iraq, but this needs to be Bush’s last request. The price of nation-building and peacekeeping in this case are becoming a burden on American taxpayers. Bush said his objectives include “destroying the terrorists, enlisting the support of other nations for a free Iraq and helping Iraqis assume responsibility for their own defense and their own future.” But the United States cannot do everything. Our responsibility lies in establishing a democratic regime in Iraq and getting out. It seems there are no limits for the cost of rebuilding Iraq, but this needs to be Bush’s last request. College Quote Board THE REVEILLE ERIC GREMILLION, LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY “There lies little incentive for other countries to send their troops to a place they didn’t want invaded anyway. They would want a share of the power, and our leaders cannot bear to let any of it go. This just means the Security Council initiative by Bush and Powell will fail, and they’ll find them selves at the drawing board again.” DAILY HERALD CHRIS ROBBINS. BROWN UNIVERSITY “There are many arguments against a living wage ordinance, many of them from small business owners and corporations alike. The logical facts speak for themselves, though. Employees who make more money spend more money. Employers who pay employees a reasonable living wage experience less turnover and employee absenteeism, cutting training costs.” GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In Friday’s paper, “Quigmans” artist Buddy Hickerson’s name was misspelled. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us atgamecockopinions@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor in Chief Charles Tomlinson Managing Editor Adam Beam News Editor Michael LaForgia Asst. News Editor Alexis Stratton Viewpoints Editor Gabrielle Sinclair The Mix Editor Meg Moore Sports Editor Brad Senkiw Asst. Sports Editor Wes Wolfe Photo Editor Morgan Ford Asst. Photo Editor Trisha Shadwell Head Page Designers Shawn Rourk, David Stagg Page Designers Justin Bajan, Samantha Hall, Staci Jordan Slot Copy Editors Amy Genoble, Alyson Goff, Tricia Ridgway Copy Editors Mary Waters, Steven Va Haren Online Editor James Tolbert Public Affairs Kimberly Dressier CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Director Scott Lindenberg Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Production Manager Amber Justice Creative Services Whitney Bridges, Robbie Burnett, Sean O'Meara Advertising Staff John Blackshire, Adam Bourgoin, Ben i Sinclair, Jesica Johnson, Ryan Gorman, Laytoya Hines The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. It 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-activity fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AO The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 '» Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 j | | PQ5| 7 > | f iv uKe r»\ ' P^T TH(5 \jtm ] l /*Y J \ yALl/A0Ue$. / ///VSSsN^_ CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Rivalry runs in the blood mi—iiw ■ iiii 111 iw m ' JOSk WATSON GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM Clemson hatred is an unquestioned mystery. As a child in the early ’80s, more than anything regarding USC, I remember falling wit ness to Joe Morrison and his Black Magic. Morrison navi gated the Gamecocks through most of the 1980s, wearing all black and utilizing a fire-ant de fense that most teams couldn’t sneak by. My parents, their friends and almost everyone talked about it, as though a kind of messiah, for a short time, was among us. That inescapable legend, per haps, now explains why I would consider it better to live as a lep er than a Tiger fan. No admitted Gamecock or Tiger I ever met can give reasons surrounding their distaste for the opposing team. The reasons, it seems, are usually undetermined. Still, it seems this Carolina-Clemson ha tred is predetermined by the family unit in which fate places an individual. And unless some extreme form of teenage rebellion occurs, where kids end up the unfortunate vic tims of foreign brainwashing, they are likely to remain a disci ple of one team for life. There is, however, the danger of growing up in a house of divi sion, one parent Carolina, one parent Clemson. Those situations are much too bleak to discuss. A new documentary written and directed by Jeff Sumerel and titled “Bragging Rites,” dissects the myths, and wonderfully maintains an objectivism, with an equal number of interviews of the fans, former and present coaches, and past players of the rival teams. Nostalgic photographs mixed with interviews give the centu ry-old rivalry an indescribable full quality, which a single source or a small group of them might lack. Stories from former players, such as Heisman trophy winner George Rogers and Clemson player Jerry Butler, bring a camaraderie to both teams, which lets the film’s au dience realize how much plea sure these guys took from the rivalry. Rogers, arguably the greatest Gamecock running back of all time, tells how every time he has seen a Clemson player from his era they invite him to a pic nic. When Rogers’ inquires about the location of picnicking spot, his old rivals respond with: "Somewhere you’ve never been. The Clemson end zone.” Despite the film, I still don’t comprehend the mental work ings of a Clemson fan, and I as sume a Clemson fan would think the same of me. This documen tary is quite superb, even fea turing Dr. Sorensen’s views on the rivalry. He mentions that sometimes he will meet a couple, where the husband graduated from Carolina and the wife graduated from that other school, and the wife apologizes to Dr. Sorensen for her alma mater. Dr. Sorensen, a very polite man, whom I’ve met several times, replies, "You shouldn’t apologize for that, ma’am. You should be proud." I wonder what his response might be, if she asked him to name the best college football team in South Carolina. I hope his answer wouldn’t be “Furman.” Watson is a second-year English student. Gay marriage hurts no one JOHN RABON GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM It’s time to reassess this “victimless crime.” I remember sitting in a Sunday school room back at my home church after the Supreme Court struck down the anti sodomy laws and the widespread panic started over gay marriage. I was probably the only liberal in the place, and if you ever want to feel like you’re fighting an up hill battle, try to convince a bunch of conservatives that gay marriages aren’t going to bring society crashing down around them. Not too long afterwards, our President was quoted as saying he would seek whatever means possible to create laws banning this kind of union. If you could have watched me read the paper that day, you probably would have seen steam coming out of my ears like a Daffy Duck cartoon. This came as quite a shock to my system, and it insulted me to no end that our government would try to regulate and control the morality of individuals based on personal beliefs. Isn’t there supposed to be a separation of church and state in this country? Aren't we sup posed to be entitled to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?” I'm afraid I don’t see where it says, “except for those we whose lifestyles or definitions of happi ness we don’t agree with.” Before we go any further, I wish to point out that I am quite familiar with what the Bible says about homosexuality, and as a Christian myself, I won't disagree with what it says. Now, I am not saying that we should allow for stealing, rape, murders, etc.; after all, these are crimes in which someone is un questionably injured by the ac tions of another. These crimes tend to be uni versal evils, things that any per son regardless of religion would say are wrong. When two consenting adults choose to enter into a same sex relationship, there is no victim. There may be studies that say it has a damaging effect on soci ety, but who’s taking these stud ies, and how do we know there aren't similar studies that say the exact opposite? Certainly if homosexuality is illegal, it is a “victimless crime," and it is therefore ludicrous to have secular laws against this practice. We choose the kind of lifestyle we wish to live. When we choose to become Christians, we also choose to accept all of God’s laws. We also believe that God grants us a right to choose whether to follow His words. In my 20 years of churchgoing experience, I have yet to find a biblical passage making it moral ly acceptable to force a particu lar lifestyle upon others. I don’t think there’s a legal jus tification to ban gay marriages. Laws should be made according to what’s best for the most peo ple, not according to a specific group’s beliefs. A truly representative society lends a voice to the entirety of its people, respects their opinions and never denounces any one person or group just because someone else does. Think about it. Rabon is a second-year English student. Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone humber, professional title or year and major, if a student. E-mail letters to gamecocKopinions@hotmail.com. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more S information. LET YOUR OPINION BE HEARD. SEND A LETTER TO THE EDITOR AT gamecockopinions , @hotmail.com i v College: When is enough enough?< JULIE COOK GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM Overachievement costs us more than our sleep. We all heard the adages from our parents and high school teachers warning us that college is the last stop before the train of , life derails in Realityville. We are l almost duty-bound to pull all nighters, spend every night at the preordained cool college hangouts and bars, and maniacally devote our souls to the improbable suc cess of our football team. But recently my, dedication to all things collegiate has brought me to this question: Can you real ly experience all you want to from the college experience? And more importantly, can you survive it? I know people who consider it a laid-back day when there’s a half inch space free in their planners - people who are literally at every pvpnt frnm studpnt nrunnizatinn fairs to soccer games. I admit that I’m becoming one of those people. It’s what I wanted, but I can’t remember exactly why. As an an- i noying kind of overachiever, I ’ took most opportunities that came along, starting with that el ementary school music club and continuing on to this very column. I can whine about being busy all I want, but I ultimately chose to take on most every club, staff, team and job that came my way. I have always justified taking on too much by arguing (with my own over-taxed self usually) that all my accomplishments and obli gations were making me "well rounded" and, if nothing else, would at least impress the hell out of those college application readers. But now we’re in college, con- | tinuing to run from sunrise — ” okay, 9 a.m. — to well after sun set and occasionally onto the next sunrise. And for what? Maybe grad school, but that’s hardly a ra tionalization. Because we’re irre vocably trapped in a rat race per petuated by American culture? Possibly. Are we running from something? Afraid to be “out of the loop?” Afraid to be uncool, alone or bored? As Def Leppard wisely said, “It’s better to burn out than fade away.” But do we have to do one or the other? Is there a sane medi um in there somewhere? Can you look back as a boring suburbanite with 2.4 kids and re- g member the “good old days” when " you just went to one party a month? And didn’t have a job, in ternship or work study, never chaired any committee, and never even heard the morning birds chirping from outside your dorm room window as you paced around your computer screen hopped up on espresso shots try ing to finish a philosophy paper? Is there a point when the qual ity of life you’re chasing greatly diminishes the quality of life you’re stumbling through? I think so. We want it all, but to what ex pense? Sleep for sure. Balanced meals without a doubt. Is all this just so that we can look back and reminisce? Or is it all so we can feel like we have truly accom plished what we’ve paid so much to do — go to “college?” d Is this really the train’s last ™ party stop or have we already crashed in Realityville, overex erted ourselves with responsibil ities and distracted ourselves with fantasy? College is just one of many stops, with its own pressures and expectations, best survived and celebrated with a degree of bal ance, somewhere between burn ing out and fading away. Cook is a third-year art history and political science student.