Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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We h0ve set aside this page today to clear the backlog of letters and those concerning the Middle East conflict. We think these letters represent the diverse views on the crisis and in light of the cease-fire, these will be the last published on that subject. It is not that we don't think there should be ongoing academic discussion of controversial questions, but rather that, with our limited space because of Pro Israeli TO THE EDITOR: Ih is unfortunate to read the reaction to our letter (22 Oct.) in the October 25th issue. It is unfortunate because of the many misun. derstandings that were incurred. First, I am not an Arab nor am I an Arab sympathizer, on the contrary I am quite in support of Israel's aims. Secondly, the concept of morality was not whether the war is moral, but whether our students are. I was wendering how people against killing in 1971 can be for it in 1973. Maybe the point should be called consistency, not morality. The next point about the destination of funds was only used to reason with this inconsistency, not to question the funds. Finally, the thoughts about massive Russian shipments in not new, they also gave massive arms shipments to the North Viet namese, but neither is right. It appears that I have been called ahypocrite. Fact is, I am destined to be a career military man for the United States. I have no qualms or fears about war. I was spit upon and laughed at by anti -Vietnam war demonstrators who are now willing to pull the United States into a war that they will not have to fight (remember, there is no draft). This' is what I call hypocracy. John R. Azud Drop SGA TO THE EDITOR: The time has come to call for the abolition of the most dangerous disgrace on the USC campus-student government. This body of people is organized to "secure the blessings of power to themselves ayd their posterity" by training good little shdep-you the students of this school. to pay "your" taxes and have faith in "your" government. Let's consider how student government "enlightens" you to the "value" of govern. ment in general. First they train you to pay your taxes "voluntarily" by extorting from Vou your "student activities fees", i.e., taxes, at registration. If student activities fees were truly voluntary, I dare say not more than $100 could be raised. Next they take your stolen tax money and pay for things that are of such little value, you would not care to pay for them voluntarily, e.g., speakers and concerts which nobody goes to heae. They also try to justify acivities fees by- saying they pay for "your'' football and basketball tickets. If you do not 44 mii . F RESIDENT STI - GIFT AT YOUR FtC E-DAY STL AGE IS AVAIL the paper shortage, we could see ourselves soon suolugating coverage of regular campus events to the international goings-on. The latter receive adequate attention in the outsJde press--USC doesn't. We still encourage feed-back in the form of letters, but emphasize. that those under 200 words and typewritten (double-spaced) will receive preference. --The Editors choose to make use of the property they have "sold" you they sell your property (your ticket) to another person in the general populace without your express consent, thereby selling the same property twice. If youdo claim "your" property you are bound by law not to sell it, or give it, to anyone who has not paid the studentgovernment acivities tax. Student government members are merely .practicing for the time when they too can take their place next to such great men as Mao Tse Tung, Lenin, Hitler, the Kennedy's, Nixon, Agnew, and Strom Thurmond. Bob Budnek West's Test TO THE EDITOR: . in fairness to both your readers and Governor West, I would like to respond to your recent editorial entitled "West's Test" which appeared in the October 18th issue of the Gamecock. I believe your editorial cre6ted an erroneous impression implying insincerity concerning the Governor's support of the arts because he was unable to attend the premiere of the South Carolina Open Road Ensemble. - it was simply a mix-up in scheduling. During a recent social event, I personally invited the Governor to the SCORE premiere and he accepted. However, when he checked his schedule later, he found that he was scheduled to attend the USC-Wake Forest football game, a commitment he had made prior to my invitation. The Governor sent us his regrets over the mix-up but stressed that his absdnce in no way implied his lack of in. terest. Governor West has consistently been a strong supporter of the arts, an interest and support which has been reflected in enormous growth and development of both our agency . and the arts in South Carolina, as indicated by substantial increases in both state funds for the arts and attendance at Arts Commission sponsored events. Implying otherwise is a great disservice to him and the arts for without his support it is doubtful that SCORE would have beenin existence today. Wesley 0. Brustad Crum Mums TO THE EDITOR: The members of Phi Delta Theta fraternity would like to apologize to everyone, who in te hay m IS HERE! rom 11 p.m. to 8 a.m. nigi IDENTS, PICK UP YOUR MIG HOUSING SERVICE-AREA MW DENTS, YOUR MIGHTY MINUT ABLE AT THE BOOTH IN TI HOUSE. good faith, bought a mum from us only to either receive it late or not at all. The arrangements we-made with the florist was also made in good faith, yet unfortunately he did not have the mums ready at the time he agreed upon. As a result some of the flowers arrived I late, some'were poorly made, and unfortunately some arrived too late to be distributed. For those of you who were inconvenienced we again would like to apologize and wotild ask you to realize that unfortunate happenings such as this one cannot always be prevented. We would also ask you to take this into con. sideration before making a decision not to buy a mum in future years from whichever organization decides to sell them. Phillip F. Newsome More Editing TO THE EDITOR: Considering the mastery with which you handled the story concerning Clarkson's suit against mandatory activity fees (you spelled his name wrong and said he was 126 years old) THE GAMECOCK lust might be the most wasteful; and undeserving recipient of activity fees. It is bad enough that the GAMECOCK has ignored letters from students protesting the injustice of mandatory activity fees, and avoided publication *of the activities of Clarkson's War on Waste movement. Now you have, deliberately or otherwise, screwed up the anemic account you did run. If your motto is really ''to print the news and raise hell", how about printing some news for a change? You've been raising hell for a good many years. Edward C. Fennell Fee Plea TO THE EDITOR: At long last students are beginning to see the abuses in the mandatory activity fee system. Students are forced to contribute to groups which use their money for purposes with which they may disagree. Many activity fees have been used to support political activity. Students don't have the same opinions on all political questions so why should their money be used for these purposes. I think sudents should have the right to spend their money as they wish without the Administration or the Student Allocations Commission spending it itly SouthemnBeN HTY MINUTE NAGER'S OF E GIFT PACK IE RUSSELL for them. A system of voluntary activities fees would allow each Student to decide what services he would fund. The groups receiving student fees will oppose voluntary fees because it would mean the end of their.- inferior services, but it would mean freedom for-the students. Jimmy Boyd Pro Arab TO THE EDITOR: To begin with, Arab students at USC did not participate in writing a letter to The Gamecock (Mon. Oct. 22) neither do we regard such a letter as coming from pro-Arab sym pathizers. We believe that the writers of such a letter are nothing but American pacifists. A reply to this previous letter was published in The Gamecock (Thurs. Oct. 25). We felt compelled to reply to this last letter because of two reasons: (1) The letter accuses us of something we did not participate in; (2) The letter was full of Inaccurate information regarding the Arab-Israeli Conflict. (1) We are extremely offended by the reference in the letter to "unprovoked aggression". In the name of God what does it take for provocation? Israel seized by force the three Arab territories, held them for the last six. years, exploited its resources, op pressed more than 1.5 million Palestinians under the cloak of Moshe Dayan's "liberal occupation". More than that, Israel, inspired by the ideals of Political Zionism, undertook a world-wide program of colonizing the occupied territories. Colonization is called in Israel the "Ingathering of the Exiles". It translates itself to more Palestinian reft4HN more oppression, more expansion, and more naked aggression. Surely, the most indifferent of countries would be provoked, even neutral Switzerland. (2) Concerning the morality factor. We believe that all wars are Immoral. Oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli Zionists is immoral too. Having a double allegiance to the USA and to the 'second' country of israel is also immoral, especially when Israel is. nothing but an exclusive ethnic state. Hiding the truth or intentionally stating half-truths is also immoral. Being against racism in the USA and backing a racist state in the Middle East is contradictory. We believe that being Jewish does not automatically oblige one to use two different sets of weights and measures. Otherwise one must be frank and state that whatever the circumstances, a given group of people nAmely the group to which one belongs, is alwaysright. This kind of belief In the infallibility of one's own "ethnic" group is a frequent phenomenon in the history of human groups. It is called racism. (3) Concerning the Israeli Emergency Fund, we have this to say. We would like to remind the Americans that the money which was collected in 1967 and after, was used in sup pdrting Israel's war effort and also in settling the new immigrants and guess on whose lands? If such money is "going solely for medical purposes" then why don't you channel it through the Red Cross? Who guarantees that such money would be used for medical purposes only and not to buy more arms for Israel's war arsenal?We also would like tolknow how Israelis run a state and make wars without an adequate supplies of medicine, doctors and nurses? if such money is going for humanitarian purposes, we would like to ask how much money was sent to Arab civilians who were bombed by Israeli Phantom-Jets in Damascus, Cairo, ismaillia, and other civilian TODAY FILM, "The Silence and the Cry," Russell House Theatre, 7 and 9:30 p.m. TUESDAY FILM, ''The Tell Tale Heart,'' ''Fall of the - House of Usher,'' and "Occurrance at Owl Creek Bridge,'' Russell House Theatre, check with theatre for times. RENT IBM PRODUCT LOW RATES FOR-SHORT AND LONG TERM RENTALS * EXECUTIVES * STANDARDS * SELECTRICS DICTATION EQUIPMENT SELECT BUSINESS E QUI PME NT 3143 FOREST DRIVE 782.6888 centers. Or, to ask a more relevant question, how much money was sent to the civilian victims of the Irish Civil War? To be a humanitarian, regarding only one's own ethnic group is nothing but racist humanitarianism. (4) Concerning the prevailing myth, that "Little Israel" is only defending the survival of its three million people, we would like to say the following: The problem in the Middle East rest originally on the national survival of the three million Palestinians, the majority of whom were displaced by the Zionists. There is absolutely no question about the survival of the Israeli People nor about their rights to self determination. We would like to pose this question: Suppose the people displaced in Palestine were Americans, English or French, would you shut your eyes to their misery and still deny them their rights as humans? Or do you regard the Palestinians as nothing but Unter-Menschen or maybe superior monkeys, if you so wish? Finally, who are the real hypocrites? K. Zurayk, Z. Sabbagh, M. Shamsedin, A. Jaafoura, M. Alfouzan, A. Morabet, F. Said, M. Hadid. Clarkson TO THE EDITOR: I and many other students at USC-Sumter support the efforts of my brother, Student Senator Robert B. Clarkson to reduce the waste in the one-half million Student Activity Fund. In the money-wasting contest between Student Government and the Administration, no matter who wins, the student fee-payers lose. Instead of subsidizing McGovern, the ERA, abortion, and concerts, which few students attend, why does not SGA subsidize the fee. payers. We urge all students to join W.O.W.- a USC fee-payers association. Elizabeth Clarkson Money Hounds TO THE EDITOR: I'm very disappointed in the people. who hound me in RussellHousefor money for the Israeli war effort. Let me ask this question: Do these people claim to be Americans or Israelis? They really beat the Uushes for donations and pledges for a country in which they hold no citizenship. Yet where were these leather lungs when some of their own countrymen were POW's and MIA's? That movement could have used some more support, and was interested only in bringing men home, not paying for beans, bullets, bombs, and bandaids for a foreign country. Besides, my taxes are paying for all the F-4 Phantoms, main battle tanks, and everything else that we are giving them. By the way, are we getting anything in return for all this military hardware, except the satisfaction of seeing it work in combat conditions? Instead of taking our money, the Pseudo Americans in Russell House should be giving us money to pay us, the taxpayers, for the aid that Uncle Sam is giving away. It seems like such a good racket that I'll set up my own table the next time the Catholics fight the protestants in Ireland. John McGuire. Sailing Club, Russell House 306, 7 p.m. Carolina Vetererans Club, Russell House 306, 8 p.m. SOCCER, USC vs. Furman University at Greenville, S.C., 3:30 p.m. MUSIC Department Faculty Series, piano concert by Bong Hi Kim, Fraser Hail, 0 p.m. WEDNESDAY STUDENT SENATE, Russell House 310, 5 p.m. FILMS, ''The Fly'' and ''The Haunting," Russell House Theatre, check with theatre for times. Campus Gold, featuring folk-dancing, Student Government Room of Columbia Hall, 7:30 p.m. UNIVERSITY UNION IDEAS and ISSUES SERIES, "University Union is it worth it?'' main speakers include Robert Alexander, dean of student ac tivities. David Ness, director of University Union and Jack Smith, president of the union. After these main speakers, the individual chairmen of the nine Union com mittees and Union officers will be open to questions from the audience. Russell House Golden Spur, 3-5 p.m. ZIP KLEEN 1320 Main Street 1-hour cleaning 4-hour Laundry Servic