Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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..EDITORIALS Deja vu,. Strom Sen. Strom Thurmond, standing at the vanguard of an effort to preserve the "old South," is one of eight southern senators co-sponsoring a proposed constitutional amend ment that could nullify the 1954 Supreme Court ruling against segregated schools. The amendment as proposed by Sen. William Brock, R Tenn., and would make it illegal to assign public school students on the basis of race, creed or color. The bill, obviously drawn up to satisfy the opponents of integration and its symbol, the little yellow school bus, is an effort to solve current sociological problems with a very per manent amendment. Brock, who is a freshman senator who has done little to distinquish himself, may not have the experience of an old man like Strom, who has been knocking around the senate chamber longer than many South Carolinians would like to remember. It appears that Thurmond is holding up an old banner of repression while he whispers the promise of the good old days. Integration is here to stay, at least in the South, and only political necessity could bring able the passage of such an amendment. Though opponents of the bill are convinced that the plan will fail, some fear that expanded power for HEW, especially in the northeast would force some politicians to save their political hides by passing a bill that could turn back history nearly 100 years. -Scott Derks Women needed in high positions Women who hold high positions in university ad ministrations are so rare that they constitute an educational phenomenon. This is one area that most universities, including this one, are deficient. Although it is not good to promote a person solely because of their sex, there must be more qualified women available for responsible positions than are currently utilized. There are only two here, and hopes of getting more appear to be slim. One is the dean of the School of Nursing, a position a woman would normally fill; the other is an assistant dean of Business Administration. Even women professors seem -to be scarce. in the English department, for example, of 23 full professors, only one Is a woman. There are 18 assistant professors two are women. And among seven instructors, four are women. Of course there are many female graduate students who teach English, but the practice of using graduate students as teachers is another sad story by itself. This is a problem that can be dealt with without the usual flood of official excuses. And it ls a problem we hope someone in the administration will examine closely. (3am ecockan Ti E G cOCKIs publishedtr-ekydrnthfa ndprg emesersoththeexception of University holidays and exam periods. thaeesofeddress forms, subscription requests and other mail items e seMntto Drawer A, usC, Columbia, S.C'. subscription rates are per semester or s6 for both sem esters. Bulk copies are s6 per 100. The AMECOCKx this year received iso,ooo from the student activity fund. Ontitting full-time students to a subscription to the paper. Offices of the 0AMBcocx are in Roems sta and a16 of the aussell House on the University campus. Phones are 777.6176, 777.4249 and 777-38fl. Second esas pstage paid at columbia, s.c. Although the GAME cOc is a settlicatinof tihe studentsetf the University of South carolina, it is not an Official publication of the university. The opinions expressed ~herein do 59necsaiyrepresen thse ofte university, the student body, or all Today revisited The Ame BY JOHN T. GASH Associate Editor (Editor's note: "Today Revisited" will appear regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays. It is written by John Gash who Is majoring in journalism.) When I was 12 , I really dug. Mickey Mantle. I thought everybody did. After all, he could knock the hell out of the ball, run like lightning, even though he had badly injured knees. And, most of all, he was a winner. I thought he was indeed the American hero. Since those days my admiration has waned. I think the same has happened for the American people: there is now no American hero, a man who all Americans admire. The older generations speak of people like Charles Lindbergh, Will Rogers, Lou Gehrig, H. L. Mencken. Yes, they say, they were true American heroes. Everybody, well, not everybody, but most, loved them. Were they what my grandparents and parents make them out to be? I really don't know. But one thing I think for sure: there isn't one today. Why not? LET'S SEE... How about the astronauts, especially those courageous voyagers who where the first to walk on the moon. Let's see, what were their names.. Glenn? No, I think he was the first to orbit the earth or something like that. Schirra? No, no, he's the one who is trying to sell Americans on the railroads. That's two strikes against him: he's making com mercials, which we all know to be a means to make you spend your money and, secondly, he's for The watermark Not sut BY BOB CRAFT Features Editor (Editor's note: This a preview of a regular Wednesday feature, The Watermark, that will appear on the editorial page. It will be written by Bob Craft, -features editor of The Gamecock, a junior journalism major from Roanoke, Virginia. Craft has attended movies all of his life, principally to escape from a reality of which he was never really a part . "Sometimes a Great Notion" is a imovie that is currently playing downtown somewhere, but if you're smart, you won't bother finding out where It Is. I saw it over the holidays and I thought that It really might be okay. It had a lot of things going for It. It was taken from a Ken Kesey novel, It had BIG stars, (Paul Newman, Henry Fonda), and little stars (Lee Remick, Richard Jaekel, and Michael Sarrazin). Aso, it was rumored to be directed by Paul Newman, who did a really spiffy job his first time out with "Rachel, Rachel." Wrong again. The storyline of the movie is about anloggingaiyinn..e..n rican her( railroads in this age of the Penn Central. Well, what were those guy's names? How about Neil, Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin Aldrin? Yes, that's it. (I must confess: I cheated and looked their names up.) How about some sports figures? Kareem Abdul Jabbar? ' No, my soul and body, he's one of those black militants. Anyway, half the population can't pronounce his name. In football there is Dick Butkus, one of the original blue meanies. And I haven't heard him say too many radical things lately. No, everyone knows that the star is the quarterback, running back or receiver, not some monstrous linebacker. In baseball there is...oh, don't bore us with that has been of a sport, I can hear the action-crammed-into-every second-with-a-little-blood-every now-and-then sports fans crying. So I won't. How about some politician? Oh, we all know they're corrupt. Teddy ]Kennedy? He has the charisma and he's a Kennedy, a magic tragic name in itself. No, no. Remember Chappaquiddick. And of course there is the President. Americans have always loved their president - usually after or before he was in office, that is. Nixon is no American hero. Nobody can be the American hero and consort with Red Chinese at the same time. Myself, I like George McGovern. That commie, you say? Well...I like him. Another George may be your favorite. George Wallace, that is. Maybe we really don't need an :h a great the Stampers, who are breaking a strike on a sawmill or something. This tiny family operation is ap parently so powerful that the very. fact they are working threatens the entire strike. The union men come to see the Stampers and they try to explain the situation to everybody. After they leave, nobody, much less the audience, knows what's going on, why the Stampers are so dead set against the strike. This situation remains the same throughout the entire picture. And that is the main weakness of the story. No one ever bothers to say, really, why the Stampers are upsetting the applecart. Maybe because that Is the way it has always been, maybe just pure cussedness, maybe family pride, maybe a deep - seated resentment against unions, who knows? Anyway, I suppose this unknown quantity is the great notion referred to In the title. Like a lot of other things in this movie, It's never made clear. The Stampers go ahead with their operations and their equip ment Is sabotaged, they are ac cused of trying to ruin the town and ultimately, It results in a lot of deaths. decline American hero. In our divided - divisive country, do we need another hero who has the strength to unite us? Yes. Will we every come across that type of leader? I have my doubts. Letter Thanks EDITOR: I want to take this method to express to you my ap preciation for your printing the entire Camp Gravett Report. The discussions at this retreat were most exciting and stimulating. I sincerely trust that this report will serve as a foun dation for a major advance in academic excellance at the University. There are many fine suggestions made which must be studied, planned and im plemented. The Gamecock can and must take a vital role in supporting and encouraging innovations which will improve our academic image. I know you will accept this challenge. HUGH H. WELLS, M. D. Subscribe to the Gamecock notion It also results in a mishmash that hits a lot of old familiar chords. Henry Fonda, the patriarch of the family, is killed by a falling tree; sounds a lot like "Spencer's Mountain." A family that is battling outside influences, no matter what the cost; sounds a lot like "Shenandoah". A woman trying to make her man give up the fight he's waging; sounds somewhat like "High Noon." And if you want to try, I suppose there are other parallels that can be drawn. I guess what it comes down to basically is the last gasp and roar of the cinematic frontier Amierican family. The big family, close to nature, working with their hands. The big family where all the brothers and sisters marry and move into Pa's house to raise a lot of kids to help in the fields. The big family that sees and deplores the onrush of civilization. It's a great theme, we Americans love to talk with fond ness about our lost frontier and the pioneer ethic of hard work and honesty. You know, the good ole days. But even the familiarity of this theme was not even enough to grind through the murkiness of "Sometimes a Great Notion."