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Bng us back: together Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year if you're healthy, well-fed and comfortable. You can afford to be charitable, because "Christmas comes.only once a year." It is sad that our celebration of the birth of Christ has dwindled into a mad rush of giving and getting when there is no need; eating and drinking when we're already over weight; and. making our token contributions to those who have the audacity to remind us that some people will not be able to give and get, to eat and drink, thisChristmas. How should Christmas be celebrated? A group calling itself the Candlelight Christmas Eve Committee is working from the University of New Hampshire to encourage a nationwide observance on Christmas Eve. Folk-singer Tom Flanders, who is one of the originators of the idea, said the group is asking that at 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve Americans join together, out of doors, and light a candle for unity as a "simple expression of faith in mankind." The committee hopes the candlelight ob servance will serve as a point of individual initiative for all to "Work to bring people back together" throughout the year. "To bring people back together." Is it possible? Are we even making an effort? Or does it really matter whether or not we can be suc cessful? The message of Christmas, though the same every year, renews itself every year. The message is hope, and it belongs to everyone. Student makes opei Dear Ms Manning:- classmen at USC started out as This letter is an open plea to all freshmen. The majority of these students. were freshmen at USC and they, Last Sunday evening, Dec. 6, my too, paid the same activity fees as ui was kild in an auto ac-time. cident. in which the car doors were jarred opened and she and her 16- tndrhepsntitibio year-old girl companion were sytmhoer,vrytunti pitched out of the car.asueofteporniyogt If the girls had been wearing ththeeaepolwoar their seat belts, no one would have been hurt. If she had been wearing pesnogodtctshruot her seat belt, my sister--seventeen hscleecre,sml eas years old, pretty, full af life--would thtproisnvraltobte fasen her satbt whn rdig iratmn t meSC stee uch sg in a ar, o mater hw shrtt eshxmesn. Thelfjisnss of Mr.s triptake. I onl taesamint'o,pider sme rachiifes ak and t my potet yu fom eat ofupperclassmn, maeir wime. or seious njur. Andno mater erl thendresandtm deistuins howgod,ho silld,ho cn- stem. howve, ve'tuentKis onlyssures afsecondpofrpanicytoolose cotrl f oucr.Anlseyor tie ineahows forbeelso lifit.U fotnteyet.em may hppen Lik my iste,hyo thefreshare peomplawhoiar 'r~ybe lughig andtalkng o ersont feshma baketba tickehots minte.andcarenig aros th hickeg ca(reer sipD ecbe 4 road t destrctionhetnex.pesn severale tohbe the heaiee.Btiednhpe today "istn tiet. geuhsual lackes I urge anyonekeveryone, t atner seg. atbnti wenriin In r car o thaltter wesh- h trpmen. xlited n Mondsay inute like ito exypre myo frmatht no or is inabiliy tno tters ticetios, or ae evs di, to onee takes rasonn ofepanc thoe curnt mehoucad osiet ou IYmourei neverwhe ocrre o it Mry happe. butk all sistero roat duton the. net I wil nvrudeIVrsadwyi hapnd.Bti ne othpe agi.Plae The existentia 'Voodhi BY HARRY HOPE Col..mist Vienna, Austria, Dec. 16, 1817 Thousands gathered here this weekend for the big Voodblock Symphony Festival held at the small village of Dunderunblitzen near Vienna. Adult visitors to the youthful affair were shocked at the number of teen-aged spectators holding hands and drinking freely from bottles of schnapps. "Why can't we go back to the good old days--the g9od old music: Letters to the editor a plea for me no m2re than about 5 rows below him. DER OAII E. WiliG1iT USC.Junior Belts and beads Dear Miss Manning: I am writing this letter in response to one published in thd l)ecember 7 edition of The G;amecock. The letter appeared under the heading of "Plastic Ireaks" and was written by Chip Kaulmann. In the letter Chip condemned those individuals who are bell-bottomed, tye-dyed and headed but who do not ascribe to the philosophies that Chip would at tribute to that particular mode of diress. ('hip is qiuiity of a fallacious assumption as are many other bell bottomed. tye-dyed, and beaded indiv'iduals who do ascribe -to the philosophies that are often at tributed to that particular mode of dress. ('hip and many others like him are connecting a manner of dress with the inner workings of a huma'n mind and the feelings conveyed by a human's emotions. ('hip may himself he a "true believer" in the movement of peace and love 'whatever he holds peace and love .by Phil Frank l ock' festiv Haydn, Mosart, von Weber,". one Vienna citizen complained. Another said, "It's an outrage to see all these young trouble-makers kissing and drinking. Why, they're even smoking tobacco. And look at their hair--they don't even wear wigs anymore. I tell you, Austria is going to pot," one policeman said as he watched a young coupl; smoke a new smoking mixture from Turkey. The featured performer of the day was Herr Ludwig van Beethoven, who was celebrating his 47th birthday. Young pege ofWa rndlh, lor 6t holidays seat belt to be)or he may in fact be a "Plastic freak." I don't know. But if he is indeed a concerned and interested person and not just another lost nothing who is copping out, then I sincerely hope that he doesn't close his mind to all save the other bell-bottomed, tye-dyed, and beaded individuals, believing that they are the only persons who are concerned with the "true movement of peace and love." I personally know some frats who are as genuinely concerned with this movement as is the hippy population of the world. I think ('hip will agree that whether the hiippy wears a tye-dyed undershirt, a starched French cuffed Gant, or an imported fringy leather thing makes no difference and gives no clue as to what the wearer might believe. So. how about let's not condemn every longhair who makes a fool of himself as being a "Plastic freak", already. BIRtL'('E POHIE Logically speaking Dear Miss Manning: I thought I had seen everything until I saw Michael Ball's denunciation of O)bjectivism in the l)ec. 9 issue of The Gamecock. His denunciation refutes itself. Hie makes the absolute statement that there is no such thing as absolute reality; he at tempts to logically prove that logic does not exist. TIwo seconds' thought will show mny impartial observer that there s no way that such an argument ~an be valid. Libertarian thought Dear Mias Man: In the last issue of The G;amecock iDec. III, Messrs. McAskill. Allen. Gaffey. Bahr. and Spinks wrote to you of their con cern over "what America is coming to." Their concern arose over the ~similarity between see al otations ta ,al feature shouted and clapped their. hands when the German composer led the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in his latest work, his Fifth Sym phony. Applause lasted for ten minutes after the symphony and the crowd called for more. Beethoven then led the orchestra in his Third Piano Concerto, which he performed at the piano. The crowd went wild. Young girls threw themselves at the composer's feet. Schnapps bottles crashed against each other. Beetbevem announced to the C hor{ Ile5 weaning totalitarian statists and the following quotation from the in terview with Radicals For Capitalism, as printed in the Dec. 7 Gamecock: "It is our urgent task to achieve this intellectual awakening in time to avoid this widespread use of physical force. But, if this cannot be prevented, we will couple our intellects with physical force." The Gamecock deliberately misquoted Radicals For Capitalism in that interview. Assuming thai this was done for tervrewere of brevity, your in teriewrs(Miss Swenseid and Mr. Ball have shown themselves to be intellectually unqualified to interpret or report libertarian thought or action. Since their unfortunate misquotation was carried at the top of the front page of your publication, journalistic ethics demands that a correction be printed with equal consideration. Tihe correct quotation is as lollows' "It is our urgent task to achieve this intellectual awakening in time to avoid the widespread use of physical force. It. however, statist oppression reaches the point where in tellectual enlightenment is legally prohibited, then we shall couple our intellectual efforts with physical force: but we shall be carelul never to abandon the in tellectual struggle, in order to avoid the fatal error made by every other revolutionary movement to date." Mr. McAskill and his colleagues may' be assured that "what America is coming to" is not a more advanced stage of totalitarian statism, but rather a new~ age of individual liberty - an age in which the initiation of physical force, whether by in dividuals or by popular majorities. shall be outlawed. Laissez faire! Ye er mwwrvs te righ to eit etem' -5 se Se. sedes ee. ad Wbet Saws. sea hIees Se .M Geueeset. D,awee A. L'3C, ('ed,tqbIs..4 IC. 3ess. LIs sIe~ enae seeel be brelie' typewrtee. and abse asters of teWrr to 1's stedee. AlN Seum esse be egsts, St sme.s may be maana~ re.,s.. s daringc 0o crowd, "We will bear one of my golden oldies, from my bubble gum music period." He then ripoed into his Second Symphony. After the number, an old'man yelled to the composer, "Why don't you play some nice-easy listening music? Mood music." Beethoven obliged with Mozart's C Major Sonata. "Is that easy enough for you? Trouble with you is that you don't really dig hard music, man," Beethoven yelled back after the number. The crowd then sang "Happy Birthday" to Beethoven. Beethoven plans to go to Berlin for a series of piano recitals there, and then to Bonn for a short rest. His public relations men are trying to smooth things over with an irate The grad student Violence a y T. S. SWEENEY Columnist As chairman of the Anthropology and Sociology department, Dr. David L. Hatch makes a real distinction between continuous conflict and violence. Presumably, continuous conflict is that which man evolves from and is part of every epoch's rumor of change, while violence is that part of conflict that lays foundations of change to waste, thereby upsetting the continuity of social structure and the continuity of change. Of course, this may be raising a straw man, and what Dr. Hatch intended by his remarks, taken from the context of a short in terview, may not be so simple. On the other hand, the notion of continuous change may itself be dead: one of the victims of the movement from an industrial assembly line society to the electrified, computerized society observed by MacLuhan in "Un 'derstanding Media." In any case, with this concept of violence, must we conclude that we do indeed live in a violent time? Logic certainly doesn't compel that conclusion, since there may be other elements tearing at the underpinnings of structured change. It may well be that while Letters Grade change Dear Miss Manning: In January, the Faculty Senate will consider for adoption certain changes in the grading system. Tlhese changes involve the elimination of Grades D and F. Students who are unable to com plet course work with a grade of C or better will receive NC (no credit'. The grade NC will appear on the student's transcript, but the course will not he averaged into the GPR. Courses for which a no credit grade is given may be repeated until a student receives a satisfactory grade. In addition. satisfactory or No Credit grades would be substituted for the present pass-fail system. Tlhe proposal is beneficial for several reasons. First, it would encourage students to take new courses which they ordinarily shun because of grade penalty-. And second, it would remove the pressure of grades from the new student who is trying to adjust to academic life. Wide support for these changes is necessary. All students are encouraged to contact members of the F-aculty Senate and. urge their support for these revisions in the grading system. I.oItlit.~Il . s~.rTl - Creatuvuty Dear Miss Manning: I would like to contest a point .The Gas TH'.AMPnNK as published tra-weey durin during th nner semesters with the exc-eptes Cbange,sf dikens forms. subacription requests and .1'C. Chiumhaa. s C 2920K Subscriptson rates are E ~.nd SI for hoth summer sessons auk copies are U6 - tW00 ronmmeiw itL~ acin-It:. ,w entiliing fuli (ae ni THE GsAMECtK are an ~ s 3 ? and campus Phones are 77-a173. 77-42* and 77-as. Althougth THE GAMECOCK,is published by the Ua ..pessed herem do nteessarity represent thoseof g E'dier-in-te . . ... . Assoriese E.dcer - . . Blesae Manager . Masagsag Ediss. resotae Esr. Fdenere Esger . --- omposer archduke whom Beethoven angered some months ago in Leipzig by slapping his wife on the bottom. Some sources say that the composer will be sued in a paternity suit by the husband of Empress Maria-Theresa of Austria. Humor also has it that the composer is to appear on the low Edward von Sullivan Show in January. When asked about the young people's reactions to Beethoven's new style of music, opera director and composer Luigi Cherubini said "It's just-a fad. His music won't last. In two hundred years people will be celebrating the music of Kuhlau, Gluck and von Scheisskopf, not Beethoven's." nd change the sometimes altruistic, always ambitious revolutionary is sear ching for a classic style and jab bing at the winds of complacency, daily corporate infighting is doing the most damage to continuous change. LOAOMKING AT MATHEMATICS In contrast to the sociology department, which has only a masters degre - program, the Department of Mathematics has long had a Masters and Ph. D program. At this time there are approximately 50 students in the graduate grogram. Most of these students will study from two to eight years in order to complete their degree requirements. These requirememts include course work, written and oral examinations and of course Masters and Ph. D. thesis. The mortality rate has been extremely high. as it is in all schools of mathematics. For a quick com parison: in his book "The Doc tors." Gross observes that the mortality rate in Medical Schools in approximately 2 to 5 per cent. while Dr. Poley, former chairman of the department of matehmatics of Hofstra University. indicated to this writer a number of years ago that in math graduate study through the Ph. D, a mortality rate of 90 per cent is the usual. s supported made by Miss Hannon in her letter of December 9th. which stated tha tm ''News articles must consist strictly of news facts: and it is the wrong place to expect creativity'." and "'... want to be creative and put our bits of opinion in a news ar ticle."~ As I am also a journalism major, specializing in News-Editorial, strongly disagree with these comments. First of all, there is no reason why factual news ar ticles cannot be creative. The writer's choice and handling of words and phrases is what makes the article one with impact or one that is clumsy and dull. In addition, there is no reason for \Miss liannon to imply that a news article cannot be creative without inter jecting b)its of his own opinion. A journalist who is skilled in his cralt can make the best of whatever he is assigned to cover. I suggest that .\iss liannon pay more attention in her journalism courses and practice writing news articles creatively-, all it takes is skill and imagination--and~ stop using her journalism background to lustily shoddy reporting. -t I'I litl ANNNil.:W I llMt%ls Drive safely going home necock I the fall and sprin semeters and -~ey' of U'niygraity hlilldays and exam oeriods other mall ltems should be sent to Drawer A 'per year orbt per fall and spring memestersa per 100 Th E ;A MECoC,c thia year received tame students to a subscrilaUan tolhe paper.* 330 of the Russell Houae on the Univ ersity' iecond class postag' paid at Columbia. S. C iversity of South Carolina. the opuinins ex- - he University. - - - - - Cheryl Ms a - - - - - ueh aee a - - - - - Ue athe Jim Farreil - - -- . -eddy Heffar - - - . . . . Gese Namey chet Keeker Che. Fellenheen - - - -- . ebl- igme