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VIEWPOINTS AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD Editor MICHAEL LaFORGIA News Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Asst. News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE * Sports Editor JONATHAN HILLYARD Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR Copy Desk Chief STEVEN VAN HAREN Design Director chas McCarthy IN OUR OPINION USC must continue hurricane relief effort USC should be proud of all its-done so far to aid the victims of Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf Coast. ^ Business school professor Stacy Wood sent her marketing class out onto the streets of Columbia clad in Mardi Gras beads and raised $1,600 while practicing sales-pitch techniques. Student Government, led by President Justin Williams, is partnering with the Carolina Chapter of the American Red Cross for a telethon on WIS tonight to raise money. On Wednesday students donated blood on Greene Street in front of the Russell House. SG has called a meeting at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Russell House Ballroom for students and organizations interested in aiding relief efforts. Students are organizing a bottled water drive next Wednesday. During the national college season-opener game against Central Florida on Conditions in Thursday night, messages on the Npw flrlpanc lien uiicano scoreboard encouraged donations are worsening totheRed Cross. And President by the hour. . , _ , . , Andrew Sorensen has issued a statement inviting all college stu dents displaced by the Category-4 monster to come attend classes at Carolina. Don’t let up. Conditions in New Orleans are worsening by the hour. CNN reported that sniper fire halted a hospital evacuation in the devas tated city. Looters are capitalizing on the chaos, loosing bedlam on the streets of the Big Easy. City and state officials say it will take months before the city is clean enough to live in again. Smaller towns such as Biloxi, Miss., were all but destroyed. The need is tremendous, and it spans a staggering distance. Everyone should turn out for the meeting Tuesday in the Russell House Ballroom. If you have an idea for a way to help, take initia tive and speak out. Skip Five Points this weekend and donate that money to the Red Cross. Before relief efforts abate, Katrina might prove the worst natural disaster in U.S. history. It demands an outpouring of equal magni tude. IT’S YOUR RIGHT Exercise your right to voice your opinion. Create message boards at www. dailygamecock. com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc. edu CORRECTIONS If you see an error in todays paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor MICHAEL LaFORGIA Design Director chas McCarthy Copy Desk Chief STEVEN VAN HAREN News Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Asst. News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Sports Editor JONATHAN HILLYARD Asst. Sports editor ALEX RILEY Photo Editor NICK ESARES Sports Photo Editor KATIE KIRKLAND Pare Designers JILLIAN GARIS, JESSICA ANN NIELSEN, MEGAN SINCLAIR Graphic Design er LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH Copy Editors CHELSEA HAOAWAY, KATIE THOMPSON Online Editor RYAN SIMMONS Creatine Services LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH, JOSEPH OANNELLY, MEGHAN WHITMAN, MARGARET LAW TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor ofthe Russell House. The Editor's office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. Editor: gamecockeditor9gwm. sc. edu News: gamecocknews9gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinions9gwm.sc. edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures9gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports9gwm.sc. edu Public Affairs: gamecockPR9yahoo.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726: Sports: 777-7182 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 GAREN CANSLER Advertising Staff BREANNAEVANS, RYAN GORMAN, KATIE CUPPIA. APRYL ALEXANDER, MARY RACHEL FREEMAN, MCKENZIE WELSH, DEIDRE MERRICK 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 eat tors or aumor ana not those of the University of South Carolina. The Board ^ of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher o/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 purchasedfor Si each from the Department of Student Media. W HomicAve ^ Jt<ATfcltJA \wi u. UK6t-V eecoMg 7?<e worst , (JATuftAU PlSASTgR l To gv£R Hit THE / ^UNireP STATES/ It’s not that hard to be prepared for class Reading syllabi, asking questions shows desire for knowledge, learning Why are we here? This isn’t the deep, thought-provoking conundrum designed for Philosophy 102 but a question of purpose for students. Every day we shift ourselves wearily out of our beds or floor or whatever it is one collapsed on the previous night or morning and stagger to class. Fun is definitely part of the subject matter required to graduate, and though I am struggling with Fun 330 (fun with attractive female neighbors), I often feel the true meaning of university is lost on We are at USC to learn. Post reconstruction, the state of South Carolina was pondering between university and overgrown bar, but university happened to win out. After these “classes” we are meant to attend, students voice their comments to the professor with some of the best questions they can muster — questions of sheer gusto and bravado, stunning in clarity and vicious in perception, such as when the next test is (check the syllabus) or whether we really have to read the readings (you know, we actually do). It’s good to speak to a professor as a person rather than as a walking speaker box with your course information loaded into it. Picking at the professor’s mind demonstrates that you care and that you are trying to learn and that perhaps when it comes to this whole learning and education nnQ7IPn malarkey, you’re DtlHtlbn not trapped jn Fourth-year some beer philosophy c a t r a t A week involving the color orange and raising cows for the next 50 years. The point is none of us are incapable of learning, so we should all learn as much as we can for future lectures and beyond, i.e. just about long enough to get a question right at a trivia night and win a $50 bar tab. Some of my fellow students doze through these lessons, sporadically taking notes and, if one listens carefully, you can hear heartbeats beginning to pump harder with five minutes left on the clock. During all the activity (or lack of), the better students are trying to understand the reasoning of the professor, and attempt an educated guess at where they’re going on any given subject. I’ve switched off repeatedly in classes that bore me, but after a certain point or at a certain level, people should thirst for every drop of knowledge that can be absorbed or critiqued from a professor. Classes at the 300 level and above should be packed with eager young minds ready to be molded and shaped like putty — you know, the kind of stuff that smells funny and comes in various shapes and colors, not exactly a big request from a body of students as varied as the one here at USC. From there, we have the combined duty to develop encouraging classrooms where learning is fostered. Of course, even the most vibrant and exciting subjects can be made dull very quickly by a professor who doesn’t appeal to you, but trying is a vast step above the dark, bottomless pit of apathy. Nobody expects the engineering student to jump for joy at a Cartesian paper, but shouldnt one imagine that the physics in regards to coil tension for a suspension bridge across a large, natural landscape can be fascinating? You know, I’m surprising myself at how interesting I’ve made engineering sound. So, fellow students, are you going to try and read for your next class, establish questions in your mind, guess what your professors re thinking and, the most dangerous suggestion of all, treat them like humans who have something to teach you? Naturally, the doubts are there, but I’ll be happy if one shy kid in class tomorrow decides to pluck up the courage and ask a question that turns out to be a well-thought-out comment. Let’s all hope that kid is in our class. IN YOUR OPINION The Gamecock blind to Sheehan’s anguish I am writing in response to Tuesdays editorial “Sheehan sullies memory of son, U.S. war dead” and particularly to the suggestion that Cindy Sheehan’s activities in Crawford, Texas, are merely an attempt to capture the spotlight of the national media for her personal aggrandizement. I was especially dismayed by the underlying argument that the deaths of thousands of Americans — not to mention thousands more Iraqis who never seem to make the evening news — can somehow be separated from the motivations for entering into the Iraqi conflict. You write that “the nearly 2,000 Casey Sheehans who will never make it home from the Middle East didn’t die for oil ... they didn’t die for George W. Bush. They died for their country. Remember that.” This seems to indicate that patriotism should somehow prevent Americans from questioning why countless young men and women are now in Iraq and simply find comfort in the fact that they are their in our name. That reasoning automatically precludes any substantive discussion about not only the war, but U.S. policy in general. Even more disturbing, however, is that this sort of logic has received official sanction from a White House that isolates itself from dissent, manufactures news reports, rewards blind loyalty and pre-selects favorable crowds for its rallies. On a more personal level, though, I also would like to take issue with the suggestion that Cindy Sheehan is somehow not “genuinely crippled by grief.” Whether you agree with her actions, this statement struck me as extremely crass and, quite frankly, ignorant. Casting doubt upon the pain felt by someone who has lost a son or daughter is an area where you should tread with extreme care. If you disagree with Sheehan’s political stance, which clearly you do despite obscuring your position behind the mask of patriotic feeling, fine. Do not, however, suggest to know how much hurt she — and every other family who has lost someone in Iraq — is feeling. EHREN K. FOLEY Graduate student in history 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 gamecockopinionsegwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. finners & Sinners USC and the SEC unite to aid victims of Katrina. 1987 Montreal Protocol effectively haults global ozone depletion. More than 900 Shiites trampled to death in bomb scare stampede in Iraq. Muhammad Yusef Al Mlaifi declares Hurricane Katrina a “soldier of Allah.” wtvw. dailygamecock. com I just saved a ton of money by riding the busy trolley Alternative options for transportation help us avoid high gas prices Nine years ago, Dad decided we would drive to California and visit my grandmother. On r . L j UU1 iuuiui \j.ay, we entered the Mojave Desert. Deserts are really, really hot — in feet, no cunnin one wants to nn. m linn l‘ve in the desert CflLLIHUn excepj for the Graduate 914 people who student in inhabit Baker, geography Calif Baker’s unique geographic location makes it the source of extremely high-priced gas and the world’s largest thermometer (134 feet tall, mostly to remind everyone that it is really, really, really hot). The little gas station we went to charged $2.59 a gallon, more than twice what gas cost anywhere else at the time. Never in my pubertal life had I imagined that gas could be so expensive. All this came back to me in a rush Wednesday as I filled up my car for $3.09 a gallon. I can only imagine how much gas costs nowadays in Baker, Calif. In this age of painfully high pump prices, what does a penniless college student do? Well, I have an answer, but you might not like it. for a moment, try to target about the four or five levels of parking garage being constructed on Blossom Street by our university. Instead, picture in your mind a bike rack on campus. The first thing you’ll notice is that your mental image consists of an empty or nearly empty bike rack. Now imagine you’re walking up the hill on Sumter Street toward the library. You’ll notice that little shelter on your right with the benches and the newspapers. Maybe there’s even a red bus pulling up to the stop in your mind’s eye. Watch the imaginary cars zooming along. Wait a moment. A little longer. Now — here it comes! Along chugs one of those delightful little blue trolleys that abound in Columbia. Alright, everybody wake up. What we can glean from all this? First, we can ride bikes. We get to park close to our classes, we get to exercise and we spend no money on gas. Second, the university has a free shuttle system that runs all over campus from 7:30 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. This especially benefits students living on campus and, once again, we spend exactly nothing on gas. Finally, Columbia also has a bus system (which includes the trolleys). Although this option is not free like the others, a 31 day pass with unlimited rides costs only $32 a month. I paid $37 for gas Wednesday. So, with this option you can also save money, and you can get some homework done as someone else drives you around town (go to www.gocmrta.com for route maps and fee information). What are you waiting for? Try one or all of these alternative transportation methods. I did, using only buses and my bike for four months and literally saved hundreds of dollars on gas (sorry if I sound like a Geico car insurance ad, but it’s true, darn it!)