The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, December 04, 1985, Page 5, Image 5
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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
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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
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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
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