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Viewpoint Wednesday, December 4, 1985 5 *? ? gamecock Ethics Union Carbic r to help the i Yesterday marked the one-yea of the chemical disaster in Bhopa 1,750 died and 300,000 were sicke of a poison leak from a Ui chemical plant. People are still dying as a direc leak, and officials say the death tc as many as ten people per month At the time, the Union Carbid was publicly apologetic that an ; dent had caused the worst chcmi k the industry's history. Their attitude sure has change The American-based corpor; desperately seeking to shift the accident. It seems everyone but L according to the corporation, s responsible for the disaster. Bud Holman, an attorney for Union Carbide India Ltd., a sul American-based corporation, w for the plant at the time of th< Thanksgiv "It'll be simple," Tracy said on the Monday before she went home for Thanksgiving. "All you have to do is feed him once a day. That's all. What could go wrong?" 1 ticked off in my head, one by one, the things that could go wrong with a Siamese fighting fish. I pictured my Xeroxed face ^ on the post office wall, under written with the solemn legend: "Wanted for first-degree aquacide." "You're daydreaming again," - [WII?? ro Trouble spots * need guards , To tnc editor: I am writing in reference to Karen Finkenbinder's letter to The Gamecock, published Nov. 6. Her request that the community not refer to the USC Police Deoartment as "campus securi ty" is well taken. In addition to the numerous qualifications listed by Ms. Finkenbinder, our police are consistently helpful and friendly in performing their duties. USC students should feel lucky to have a police department of such caliber. Ms. Finkenbinder makes one point that 1 must disagree with, however. She contends that students have no right to expect the campus police to patrol potentially dangerous spots on campus, explaining that expectaA tions on campus police should be ^ similar to those placed on a major city department. A prompt, courteous and professional response is all that students should hope for, she writes. They should take precautions to ward off trouble, ever mindful that the police cannot be in all trouble spots. In an earlier letter to The Gamecock, I had suggested that campus police should guard trouble spots on campus, such as the ? back of the Russell House anc the parking garages, and I stil believe the suggestion to be valid Some points must be mad< clear. The USC campus is not i major city; the entire city of Col umbia barely qualifies for such j description. Given that the US( campus is fairly small, it woult be unreasonable not to have dif ferent expectations of our polio department than we would hav< of one in a major city. If there ar particularly dangerous location in a small, controllable communi Send as What do you think about? V> If you have an opinion you'< the Carolina community, sen Gamecock. Letters must be typed, double the writer's name and telephon ^ writer can be reached for verifi w should include whether the writ member or a member of the co le has moral re chemical victim ir anniversary sabotage is a po: I, India, when Although Cha ned as a result ficer Warren An nion Carbide titude about the the corporation :t result of the transferred to I >11 increases by available and th i. less generous, e Corporation apparent acci- "We have a \ cal disaster in bide is not resp Bhopal except n d. tached," Holma ation is now "Except more blame for the The attitude < Jnion Carbide, seem to think mi hould be held no responsibilit; Moral obligat Carbide, says legal ones, but t! bsidiary of the binding. We h as responsible enough ethics t< s accident and Apparently n ing brough Tropu coir! u/ont An tn toll A I Uv Jf .TU IU. kJIIV '' vlll V/II IV IV11 IIIV all the things 1 was not to do with the fish. 1 was not to change his water. I was not to feed him more than a pinch of fish grnel a day. 1 was not to give him severe shocks or subject him to loud noises. The slightest agitation could mean his death. "What's his name?" 1 asked. "Rambo." The first problem was how to get the fish from Point A, the third floor of Bates House in Columbia, to Point B, the top of the the editor ty, its citizens can reasonably expect that these places be guarded. I want to emphasize that I by no means want to imply that orr police department has a simple job because of the relatively small size of the campus. I simply am arguing that criteria of law enforcement for a large city and a college campus differ significantly. To station officers at dangerous locations on campus would simply be a preventive measure, in the same vein of Ms. Fin^nhinder's suggestions to students. t^or siuacnis 10 iaKe precautionary measures when walking on campus at night is sensible but, unfortunately, not always possible. The young lady who cannot find anyone to walk out to the student parking garages after her evening classes is keenly aware of this reality. Prompt, courteous and professional response from our police department would provide cold comfort if an unfortunate incident should take place. Sadly, the nature of the most heinous crimes, such as rapes or assaults, renders rAcnnncp ni?vt tr? ujnrthlf>c? Rv the time the police are able to respond, in most of these cases, harm has already been done. Another reason to guard parking garages, although less important in comparison with those already mentioned, is the sheer : number of valuables they house. 1 The poorest student's 1972 1 Dodge is usually equipped with ? stereo system. Local thieves seen : to be keenly aware of this fact \ judging from the endless report! of theft from cars parked or i campus. Automobiles parked in j " garage or parking lot are present i ly a rich and unprotected concen tration of wealth for local thieve e and vandals. Short of alarn e systems, precautionary measure e in this case have been limited t< s the not-so-effective practice o i- locking car doors. Perhaps if stu a letter 'e'd like to know. All letters ? i like to share with for space and d a letter to The unless by sp returned. spaced, and include e number where the Neither t ication. Letters also necessarily e er is a student, staff Send you immunity. Drawer A, I isponsibility is in Bhopal ssible causc. irmon inrl f 11 111U11 ?I1U V^lllVl LvAVVUllVV W1 iderson said the company's at: disaster "has not changed," wants the law suits to be ndia where better evidence is e courts are usually slower and 'ery good defense. Union Caronsible for what happened in lorally, because its name is atin said. illy"? nf Parhido is disturbing. Thev orr' responsibility is the same as y, and that just isn't so. ions are not always the same as hat does not make them any less ad hoped Union Carbide had 3 realize that. ot. t the new: piano in the living room of the Duncan manor in Batesburg. I carried a Tupperware bowl full of water, gravel and fish down three flights of stairs to the Bates parking lot because a helpful resident assured me that the fish would be dead of old age before the elevator arrived. The passers-by I yassi;u uy uiusi navt iMuugiu uic container held nitroglycerin, judging from the way I was creeping downstairs, gritting my teeth, with the bowl held a good two feet away from my body. dent parking facilities were patrolled at night as thoroughly as they are during the day, some of the current problems would be eliminated. Ms. Finkenbinder argues that other essential duties of the campus police would have to be negieueu 11 luiauuii!) un campus were to be guarded. I had suggested earlier that additional officers be hired, possibly with student funds, to perform the new duties. If any student senators are pondering how to spend the $60,000 that has been allocated to build offices in the Golden Spur, they may wish to consider this idea. It is also probable that reallocation or hiring of personnel is not new to the police department. They may want to hire new officers of their own accord. I write this letter as an admitted layman in the field of law enforcement. However, com munication between the studenl community and their police is nol only valuable, but essential After all is said, we are the vie tims of campus crime. We knou when and where we feel threaten ed, and we will have to suffer th< losses should a threat materialize If we do not communicate ou: concerns to the law enforcemen authorities, we cannot expec them to be addressed. Therefore if other students have opinion about this situation, I encourag 1 them to express them whereve i they might have influence. 1 Charles Terrer ' International relation , graduat ' Men also liable ; for their action: s To the editor: 3 I am sick and damn tired o f hearing all this abortio nonsense. ire printed, and are subject to editir i ciaruy. ixames win nui oc wumicn ecial exception. Letters will not I he letters nor the guest editori xpress the views of The Gamecock. ir letter to: Editor, The Gameco Russell House, Columbia, S.C. 2922 coi ? 1NTR< PCSIGNER JACK SO ?wspi if miftLoo7 room yet < "Hi," one girl said. She didn't look at me, just at the bowl, as she flattened herself against the wall and held her breath. "Fish," I told her, a response that probably only confused the situation further. On the way home, 1 was painfully aware of every lurch and jounce of my '74 Volkswagen, noting the way the water slopped against the translucent lid of the makeshift fish bowl each time. But Rambo was doing just fine when I got him home; that is, he Abortion does not come under the constitutional heading of infringing on the rights of others, but under the individual's ? i.e., the mother's ? right to privacy. I do not wish to take issue on the relevancy of murder vs. choice; however, Barry Johnson's letter of Nov. 15 does make a couple of points that he needs to be enlightened on. First nf all. he feels that a woman has two choices. She can choose whether or not to engage in sexual intercourse, and she can choose whether or not to use birth control. He feels that if a woman chooses either no sex or to take birth control, then there will be absolutely no excuse for an abortion to take place. I won't deal with the choice of no sex, because we all know that married couples, and most people in general, are not sexless. Hnwcvpr I dn feel he needs to know that none of the birth cont trols available are foolproof, t Pregnancies do occur even when a woman is using preventive measures. Is an unwanted t pregnancy supposed to be punishment for a sexually active ; woman? Secondly, he apparently feels r that the outcome of sex is the t woman's responsibility. It would t be to his benefit to take another , look at his biology textbook, s Mommy and Daddy make Baby: e The responsibility is not solel> r the woman's. When men are sex ually active, they have th< j responsibility of finding out if th< woman is using birth control Men are also liable for their owr e irresponsible sexual behavior, hope he remembers this point th< next time his belt buckle hits tlx floor. j Finally, it's a good thing that * am not editor of this paper Everyone is entitled to his opi >f nion, but to subject innocen ii readers to suen uniniormei editorials as the one mentionei r , a*' _ ^ _ _ ^ Gamecock rUCCI NtMUNISTM " dducing a new lime of personal items from JESSE H's LATE. FALL COLLECTION lRKDBY MIKHAIL GORBACHEV JJLx d MlUkX The Hungarian T3 [ 1 Fnefidbm Filter L ITT \I Molotov Cocktail piwil ~~in desi<y^r r iB decantrx. ^ 0RT5WEAR fGulag. & another fis was swimming slowly to and fro in the water, looking sleepy and vaguely disgusted. 1 never saw him look otherwise, and now it's too late. I tottered from bed the Monday after Thanksgiving to find Duncan v y above is uncalled for. Supposedly, we are all students at an institution of higher learning. Alan Ernest Computer science senior Political group gave false data To the editor: I am writing this letter to object strongly to the white South African propaganda that was presented at the most recent USC College Republicans meeting. The College Republicans invited as a guest speaker on South Africa the Rev. Robert Slirnp, a radical conservative who has been a guest of the South African government five times in their country. He presented the view of the white minority regime of South Africa, one that was filled with historical distortions and barely disguised racism. Among his outrageous assertions were: No. 1: The white arrived in South Africa before the Bantu, a black race. This is utterly false. No. 2: "Tremendous strides" are being made in eliminating petty apartheid. In fact, only superficial and meanineless reforms have been carried out. No. 3: The liberal media and Marxists are ' the source of the instability. i Nowhere did he acknowledge that apartheid is the real source : of the instability. No. 4: Just as ; the South African government began to reform apartheid, the i liberal press and liberal agitators 1 in the United States undermined s it by calling for sanctions, e Wrong. What little reform that has been carried out has occurred I precisely because of international nrpc?iirp But wait; it get worse. Next, t the Rev. Slimp applauded the d press ban in South Africa. From d his point of view, this is indeed 1 Kditor-in-chief Ann Farmer Managing F.ditor Tracy Mixson Copy Desk Chief Andy Duncan Assistant Copy Desk Chief Linda Taylor News/Business Kdilor Marisa Porto Assistant ."Sews ho I tors Juliet Nader Carl Dawson Spotlight hditor Roni Bea Kayne Assistant Spotlight Kditor Ed Cham bliss I ' ' r Tank Trv from Czftcboelavakia. jlous Fraarancc m exotic AFGHANISTAN. h story that Rambo had chosen to wait until his last night between Duncan walls to flagrantly and spectacularly die. He had apparently leaped from the bowl in the middle of the night; his body lay atop the piano a foot and a half away. !c r\lonninn t r\ Un\; q I 1 Cl\~y in |;iuiiiiui5 iv/ l/vij v* replacement fish, and she wants to know whether I'll keep him during spring break. I suggested that she just take the fish out of the aquarium and lay him in the middle of Blossom Street. It would be more merciful that way. logical, because he argues that the liberal press caused ? in order ? the fall of China, Cuba, Vietnam, Iran and Nicaragua. It makes you wonder why we need the CIA; we could just employ our media. By the way, The Gamecock was identified as part wi IIIL iiutiai uiLuia. Then he said, and I quote, that "Bishop Tutu sees Jesus Christ as a first-century Fidel Castro." This is an intolerable slander on a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. The Rev. Slimp knew his theology, though; he correctly pointed out that nowhere in the Bible dots it say "one man, one vote," a sickening distortion of our Judeo-Christian tradition to suit the needs of racial oppression. Throughout the lecture, Slimp romanticized the Afrikaaners as fiercely independent and Bibletoting Christians, "more like Americans than anv other people in the world." His argument that black majority rule would inevitably lead to a one-party Marxist state "like Zimbabwe" is racially reductionist. It is a subtle but undeniable form of racism to assume that the whites can be trusted to remedy the situation, but that the bladks, were they to gain power, could not. The worst aspect of Slimp's lecture is that none of the College Republicans in attendance challenged him in the questionand-answer session that followed. The atmosphere of consensus was frightening. The Rev. Slimp is little more than a crony ot the white bouth African regime, and he does the university no service by distorting the harsh realities of apartheid. For their part, the College Republicans have again demonstated how utterly out of touch they are with mainstream conservative thinking. , Ken Menkhaus I GINT graduate Viewpoint hditor j Amy DelPo Sports Kdilor Gregg l.asky Assistant Sports Kdilor Jeff Owens j Photography Kdilor Josenh Cinrnn/i Assistant Photography Mi tor Ray Gronberg 1 Advis*r Bill Rogers Director Bill Clements Production Lewis Covington Mark A rmstrong