Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

JIM FARRELL EDITOR LUCRETIA JONES DAVE LUNDGREN MANAGING ED AD. MNGR. EDITORIALS Abortion referral The Student Government at USC is continuing something that this school needs as many other schools have needed to keep up with the changing times. Last spring a new program of abortion referral was started in order that those persons interested in in formation concerning legal abortion could be guided to states that had legalized this service. Instead of trying to find out about this type of service through illegal means, as was done a fow years ago and getting information about illegal butchers who could never Insure the safety of the patient, the persons involved can receive this information through a very well-informed, reliable source. The service offers maps to those states offering legal abortions and also offers information concerning the types of operations and the different methods. This service is not for the counseling of the interested party, but has strictly an informational function. There is still much to be done on this campus to prevent the need for such a service. Although this service is valuable, we would all like to see the day when the need for it is no longer here. Since the 'University Infirmary personnel has ex perienced some changes in the past few months, maybe there will be some change in the dissenting opinions about the dispersal of birth control information and devices on this campus which we feel is needed to keep up with rapidly changing times. Again we feel that this information center for abortion referral is a step in the name of progress and hope that this is not the last step in the direction of helping people with the perplexing problem of unwanted birth. We feel that if someone does not feel that a birth would carry with it all the love needed for the proper upbringing of a child then they should have the right to terminate that birth before it is too late to turn back. Insighit A new feature is forthcoming in the Gamecock editorial pages. It Is a regular column that deals with contemporary issues, and it will be written by the people closest to the issues. Called "Insight Solicited," the column will be concerned with everything, not only political issues. For example, there will be a Column on the popularity of the bicycle by a bicycle shop owner, columns on the state speaker's race by the men in volved, and much more. All of these columns were written exclusively for the Gamecock. Don't forget: be watching for "insight Solicited." Gamecock T HE GAME COcK is published fri-weekly during the fall and spring semesters and weekly during the summer semesters with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Change of address forms, subscription requests and other mail items should be sent to Drawer A, USC, Columbia, s.C. 29206. Sub scription rates are $7 per year or $3 per fall and spring semesters. Bulk copies are $6 per 100. TH E GAMECOCK this year received' $39,000 from the student activity fund, entitling full-time students to a subscription to the paper. Offices of THE GAMECOCK are in Rooms 308 and 310 of the Russell House on the university campus. Phones are 777-4176, 777-4249 and 777-4220. Second class postage paid at Columbia, S.C. Although T HE GAMECOCK is pub!!:hed by the student of the university of South Carolina, the opinions expressed herein do no necessarily represent those of the university, the sfudent body or all staff members. Associate Editor..-.-.-..-.-.-..--..------......John T. Gash Assistant Managing Editor... ---.. .. .. .. .. .. ...Charles Felienbaum Business Manager.-.--.--.--...-.... .. .. .. ....ute Huckabee Sports Editors.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. .. .. .. ...Teddy Heffner and Doug Willams Asst. ESts kiter.-.-.-..-.-.-..-.-.-. .. .. .....Charie Collins News -ditors.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-... ...Rusty Robinson and Harry Hope Featp Rdtor.. , . . . . . . . .k. .P.o.e Letteri Fight against smut MR. FARRELL: Did you know that in Greenville, Charleston, Columbia and other South Carolina cities there are theaters that show movies of men and women having sexual in tercourse? Throughout South Carolina there are bookstores that sell books showing people engaged in sexual intercourse or women having sexual intercourse with animals and other sexual activities too unbelievable to mention in this letter. And the number of smut ped dlers has increased by over 800 per cent in two years. How long can your town and America survive if hard core pornography continues to increase at the rate of 800 per cent every two years? Now I wanted to briefly mention some of these facts, but I do not want to give you the impression that the situation is hopeless. If all of us do our part and keep this project (the fight against pornography) alive, in a short period of time we can make sure that children in you neighborhood and.throughout South Carolina are protected from places open to the public that sell this filth. I am an active attorney and businessman, but I decided some years ago that I owed it to my family and my country to spend some time to try to preserve the moral decency of America. I spend some 600 hours a year on anti-pornography activities, giving speeches, writing magazine ar ticles, and trying to interest others in this fight. I am Making a ^nnoarted effort for the next couple of weeks to try to raise contributions. As soon as we are able to raise enough money we will begin the most massive attack against pornography ever undertaken. These theaters and bookstores which show men and women engaging in sexual intercourse are operating outside the law--they are illegal, It's been proven again and again that when children or adults are exposed to a steady diet of por nography, they are seriously In fluenced by it. Police officials have told me over and over that there is a direct relationship between pornography and crimes of violence and the lack of morals in our youth. As you probably know, former President Johnson in 1968 ap pointed a commission to study pornography. But ini 19G9 One: of the members resigned and President Nixon appointed me to the com mission. I strongly opposed the report issued by the majority. They saw nothing wrong with pornography. Citizens for Decent LUterature, which I founded, has a legal staff made up of dedicated men who have proved over and over that they are more than a match for the pornographers' lawyers. In the ppst few years we have accomplished some exciting results against the smut mer chants. And we have done all of this on a budget of less than $100,000 a year. Motall of this monePY haa come, sto-the e( the phone and asked or begged for help. Now I have decided that even though we've had some good results with our small efforts the time has come for a major national assault against the pornographers. It appears that we are at the crossroads, and this fight could go either way. Here are just a few of the things that CDL does: 1) We conduct seminars for law enforcement personnel. These seminars will give prosecutors in thousands of cities the information and encouragement to go back and prosecute the pornographers in their jurisdiction. 2) Assist directly in the prosecution of pornographers. 3) File "friend of the court" briefs to support the work of the local prosecutor who is not as familiar with pornography law as we are. 4) And-perhaps our most Important service--develop innovative and ingenious techniques for law enforcement officials to use in court cages. We are trying to raise $23,000 in the next few weeks to fight the problem in South Carolina. . Our plan Is to concentrate on the public officials in Columbia to demand that they enforce the law. CHARLES KEATING Death of the concert MR. FARRELL: I would like to comment on the attitudes and actions of people wh6 attend concerts--and about the future of music in general. At the Lee Michaels concert Friday night, the usual asinine events occurred. It seems that several events have to happen for the concert to come off. First of all, some zonked jerk insists on jumping on the stage. Second, people insist on playing certain roles at the concert. It is cool to be your shoes around. Why? It is so senseless. You are there to listen to music, not to show off. There are now a vast majority of people who overlook talented artists In order to get decibel rating and radical thoughts. It seems that if the artist doesn't hit 115 decibels or mention the fact that he is against the war then the crowd can't enjoy him. Is it necessary (or only cool) to have a clenched fist at ''heavy'' statements. Who are they im pressing~? Everyone at the concert agrees with you ("mt everyone realizes the senselessness of the war, etc. It is a lot harder to tell your conviction to the world and change some heads and laws. Also the -reverence that the rock star is getting for saying only what people like to hear is phenomenal. The "star" comes out and talks of peace and love and war and how we should dig each other for 45 minutes, gets his fat check, gets in his El Dorado and drives off. The music scene is dying, people, and you are the ones that are killing it. Because you put up with rip-off ticket prices and stuck up artists who play as short as 1itor up to all kinds of music. Soul fans hate rock, rock fans hate soul, folk fans hate hard rock. Open up your heads to the music people. Get into all of it or soon -there won't be any at all whether it be Mountain, Dionne Warwick or Gordon Ughtfoot. Why? Because of lack of support. Because of selfish one-sided musical tastes. No one likes to have anything to do with a losing proposition and concerts are starting to be a disaster. Both financially and with childish acts like jumping on stage. When the concert dies, it will die because of us, and it will die in our hands. TOM DIFIGI,O DiFiglio is the concert com mittee chairman. He promoted all the USC concerts last year and will do likewise this year. "Make them suffer' MR. FARRELL: I am taking this means to congratulate those in charge of registration so that the entire Carolina Com ity will be able to share my jtin the wonderful job done. The office of the Registrar -has, this year, more than fulfilled its motto, "Make them suffer so that the students can really appreciate education." However, in spite of the excellent job they did (in my case registration time was up two hours from the half hour it took last spring, an improvement of 400 per cent) there were a few places they slipped up. I hope that my few suggestions will help them reach their goal of taking one day to register one 9tudent. The idea of checking the ap pointment and photo ID cards before letting the registrant into the room where his appointment and photo ID cards were checked was a good one, but it wasn't carried far enough. It should be possible, for example, to require a photo ID card before one is per mitted stand in line to get a photo ID card, and how about requiring parking stickers on cars parked while their owners go in to get parking stickers? 'The splitting up of the alphabet into groups may, at first, seem counter productive as far as slowing up registration, but the excellent job of concealing the signs with the letters covered by each group more than made up for it. On the other hand, when the groups were announced, it was done loud enough for the first two, or sometimes three students In line to hear. 'This sort of thing should more properly be done in a whisper, so that the student doesn't find out that he is in the wrong line until he has waited long enough to get to the head of the line. By the way, my compliments to the man who laid out the lines so that those who, through some flaw, got their materials couldn't get out without pressing through those still waiting. However, to keep the suffering level up high enough, I think you should arrange to keep the sexes apart. The registration packet shows evidence of real planning, par ticularly the card nakng for