Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Electi The decision to postj after they started on intelligent move made election process. Qu telligent move. From the beginning were pathetically m conducted. The Student Gover stitution calls for the ( man election's commi be appointed by the S( Leigh Leventis, and a In January Leventih head of the election's original choice, who ha in October. Swelgin was Levent mission. Leventis sa portunity to find 11 otb would like to work, at the names of possible Whatever the case, gives the President r pointing 12 members Leventis clearly did : duty, no matter what I The Constitution gives commissioners and h( With a woefully ur and the others invol made a series of rr seriousness, could be c the mistakes were: --Failing to place oi didate for treasurer. --Not realizing that Columbia campus is ( students, as comput4 eligible voters indical For future election dertaken by SGA for validity of one person to appoint all 12 mem should be studied. A more appropriate Senate should create sibility for naming thi importantly, the comi over the election's con be required to make committee. This woul would not get behind The effect of the de election cannot be me cost each student by c causing inconvenienc4 SGA should make < procedures to assure I little more smoothly 1 THE g Managine Editor STEVE PARKER The Gamecock welcomes letter subject and a maximum of 300 % name. Pseudonyms or other alid withheld it circumstances warra please include your mailing ad< reached. We reser ve the right to01 rn mess )one the student elections shortly ruesday was probably the most during the entire pre-election and Ite possibly, it was the only in until its abrupt halt the elections ismanaged and incompetently nment Association (SGA) Con .lections to be managed by a 12 ;sion. The commissioners are to IA president, who in this case is pproved by the Student Senate. ; appointed Bob Swelgin as the commission, replacing Leventis' d resigned after being appointed is' last appointment to the com ys that he gave Swelgin the op ter commissioners with whom he id that Swelgin never submitted candidates to him. it is clear that the Constitution esponsibility for finding and ap to the election's commission. riot live up to his Constitutional uis agreement with Swelgin was. him the sole power to appoint the . should have taken this power. iderstaffed commission, Swelgin ved in monitoring the elections tistakes which, if not for their alled a comedy of errors. Among ,i the ballots the name of a can any registered student on the Pligible to vote, not just full-time 3r sheets being used to check ;ed, s more planning should be un monitoring the elections. The -the president-having the power bers of an election's commission method may be that the Student a committee with the respon e election commissioners. More nittee should also be a watchdog imission. The commission should r riodic progress reports to the assure that plans for the election as happened this year. lay on the outcome of this year's asured. However, the delay will asting more money, as well as by to the voters. :hanges in the election planning hat next year's elections move a :han they have this year. LME COCK Editor JIM H E R SH Advertising Manager ART FRANK s from readers. Let ter s should be limited to a single vords. They must be signed with the writer's true ses will not be used, but the writer's name will be it. To assist us in verifying the identity of writers, Iress and a telephone number where you can be dit all letters, not for content, but to meet our space pinin, rDrawer A, USC Colenumba 292ww. The Gam Black Week-I In reference to Craig Zion's letter in the Feb. 27 edition con cerning black week; it seems to me that he has made a gross error in his implicit assumption. He im plies that USC is the sponsor of Black Week. If this were the case Zion would have a very legitimate complaint. However, this is not the case. The sponsor of Black Week is the Association of Afro-American Students, which has no special privileges above any other student organization. Quite the contrary of Zion' s opinion, I feel that any effort by anyone to limit or restrict a student organization of expressing a spirit of pride and enthusiasm would be at odds with the basic rights of USC students. As long as the Afro American Association pays for all their activities and advertisements with their own money, then I am very pleased to see the in volvement. I would be equally pleased to see an "Indian Week" or "White Week" if these people would like to exhibit the proper type of organization. Because the blacks do this I hardly view it as a "step in a backward direction," as Zion suggests. RON COPLEY Ni.mber 2 TO THE EDITOR: I was disturbed by Craig Zion's letter (Feb. 27) stating his op position to Black Week. I would like to inform Zion and those who may have been influenced by his argument that far from being activities "which foster segregation," Black Week offers to all in the University community an opportunity to learn more about the significant contributions--past and present--of black Americans to the United States. It was because of segregation and other forms of racial injustice that an awareness of an an ap preciation for these contributions were denied to many Americans. Because of Black Week here and at other institutions of learning, this situation is being rectified. From the tone of Zion's letter, he seems to be of the opinion that "equal rights" means conforming to the dominant culture. Such a position smacks of totalitarianism and does not reflect the principles of a democracy. DIXON K. DUR HAM Number 3 TO THlE EDITOR: This is in reply to the letter than appeared in the Feb. 27 issue concerning the observance of Black Week. I am a black student and I am very active in the Association of Afro-American Students. I am also co-chairman of the Black Week Committee. I feel that the observance of Black Week is not a step backward but a step forward. The goal of this year's Black Week is to get all students inolved in and awa..e of ecock S ma the activities and interests of the a black population on campus. s We are not trying to segregate e ourselves from anyone. We are trying to create awareness of the s achievements of black people. And ' I feel that anyone who can't un derstand that is really in need of professiona I help. t GLORIA L. NELSON 0 E Number 4 ri ti TO TIE EDITOR: rn Craig Zion's letter in your Feb. 27 issue questioning, oh so I carefully, the continuance of USC 5 to observe a Black Week, and referring only lightly to the s possibility of having an "American h Indian" or "White Week." But, I a asked the unavoidable question: a Why not? t C Why not have a "White Week" or M a "Red Appreciation Week"? How r about a "Be Jolly to a Yellow t Week"? Why ot as well as color, 0 emphasize religion or national i, origin. A "God Bless the Jew a Week." Perhaps a "Be Kind to a h Rusky Week." Then Zion suggests that instead we dedicate a week to recognize the work of all the races together. I say he is ridiculous. Whoever c heard of a "Plaid Week"? I hope that Zion and others like r him will soon realize that Carolina is not yet ready to accept a racially unbiased and totally unbigoted roster of student activities or organizations. JOHN R. GRIFFIN P. S. on ERA TO THE EDITOR: e A post script on the ERA public hearing. Nearly all the par- h ticipants in both formal and in formal debate like to equate the Equal Rights Amendment with a movement for women's rights. The ERA has its beginnings in the women's rights movement, true; it t was introduced in Congress in 1923 P by Alice Paul, a leader in the 0 a National Woman's Party. But men might gain substantially better status before the law if the ' amendment is passed and in terpreted to the letter. The amendment reads thus: i1 "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State on account of sex. Congress and the several States shall have power, within their respective jurisdic tions, to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." Note that nowhere in the, amendment do the words "women's rights" appear. The denial of rights to any persop is prohibited, regardless of sex. While women may stand to better their employment op portunities, men could find themselves less obligated to government in certain cir cumstances. Alimony laws could be rewritten in terms of ability to pay rather than sex. Single fathers could be extended the option of waiviiig ulry dusty in ertain caes, pinion il privilege now enjoyed in some Lates by women only. More quitable hours-of-work laws would have to be written in some lates which now protect only omen and minors. Conversely, women would find ie doors to unions opened--or pened wider--as a result of the RA. Ability rather than gender rould have to be the only con ideration made in job equirements. Businesswomen ierefore would seem to get the iost out of the amendment. Jnless the state and federal upreme Courts--male-dominated ristitutions--were to turn anti exist overnight, women would not ave to share their johns with men, s Gov. Edwards' sister likes to rgue. The daughter-draft con ention could only be effectively hallenged if the draft were active, ihich it isn't. And suits against eligions that bar women from ieir clergy would at least nick the ld separation-of-church-and-state ;sue, which is cautiously shied way from by many governmental igher-ups. In my view, there's more to be ained than lost by passage of the CRA--on both sides. To stop ERA s to take a giant step into the 19th entury. I don't think that's what outh Carolina, or the rest of the ation for that matter, would want. TIM HEDGECOTH Deluge of cops 0 THE EDITOR: Face it babe, we got cops. We ot doctors-cops, rescue-cops, artoon-cops, we got bad-ass and ood-ass cops, we even got female ops. Or haven't you noticed? I mean, op shows only take up 32% solid ours of viewing time, or almost alf of your prime time viewing. Take a look at some of the forces ihich have appeared as of late. They are, in the mildest sense, a Atal misrepresentation of the true icture of "law enforcement" in ur country. At least I hope they re. Not ony do the police come off )oking like the saviors of iankind, they get to break all the iws they enforce while they're at .The violence and degradation iflicted upon the common citizens i these shows is sickening. A couple of years ago when we vere all watching "Dragnet" and nickering behind our hands, little lid we know that someone out here was taking it seriously. So now we have it. Of course, 'ou say, TV has always been nown for its mindless duplication, nd cop shows will go the way of he westerns and spy-spoofs that pawned them. Perhaps, but it ook these trends from five to even years to pass and by then the ffects could be devastating. Our ids will grow up admiring these obot maniacs as their idols. Even ~dults have taken plots they have een on TV and converted them nto real cases of murder, extortion md robbery. There is little use to ask what the vorld is coming to, but can the 'ascist state be far behind? CEl A POTTER