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. Viewpoint Wednesday, February 12, 1986 g Eyesore Option of pavi f administration' Although no plans for paving the 'pit' are in placc, the idea deserves some attention. Why the pit has been overlooked in the midst of a serious parking problem is a question students have a right to ask. Paving the pit could possibly add badly needed ^ parking spaces to campus by ? disposing of stubby growth that once was probably grass, hven if this adds only a couple of snaCOM it will hp twn mr?r*? the university did not have before. The administration has been spending thousands of dollars on beautification projects all over campus. The pit happens to be an obvious eyesore nobody seems to care about. Students who park there often find layers of grime caked all over their cars, especially durCheezit! It's In my history class Monday, a certain girl sitting next to me said, "Hey, I put your face together with the one in the paper the other day! You're Ed <? Chambliss!" Well, it may have " been the thrill of a lifetime for her, but now I have newsprint all over my face. While 1 was cleaning the "BBildmafiO b3" off of my forehead, I noticed yet another "Hey You!" letter in my mailbox in inc newsroom. 1 read it (obviously) and decided to put it in today's column. To Bo, Bud, Tex and Duke, 3 their dog, I was forced to print this Yankee column by a very well-armed northcasterner. Sorry. It's called "Postulations from a damn yankee on life in these here southern states" and it's by Stephen C. Guilfoyle. How is it a guy from the Big Apple ended up in Spartanburg, S.C., and attends (JSC? I don't j know. It happened to me, and I'm still not sure how. But here / am trying to cope with the differences between how I used to do things and how I must now do them. Most prominent among them is how to talk. I am still a damn Yankee to Southern people. I was listening to a movie, and there was a character with a Brooklyn accent. He was talking like this: "Youse guys just don't know from stealjp ing a car. We wuz doing 'dis on Lon 'gisland 'fore you could spit on a train widdout your ole man slapping your rear for it. Youse it fi. < TL. n% c/y ii uj/ i4tnii . . . / ntr cups!'' My mother would not let me speak with a New York accent. So / was shocked when someone said that was how I sounded. And my friends in New York, in the few times I have talked to them since I moved, have said / ^ have a Southern accent. I was as W surprised as when my roommate said / had a Brooklyn accent. I do admit / say 'y'all.' / have picked 'y'all' up because I hear it alt (he time. The first time I said it, my sister looked at me and said, "He said it!" / was the last one in my family to fall into the mindset that allows a person to think in 'you alls.' Hut I am just as likely to say 'youse xuys' because 'youse' is still inside me waiting to get out. In fact, it came out during the Christmas break. * Send us a The Gamecock needs your press your likes and dislikes bj ter to the editor. Letters must be typed, doubl a maximum length of 300 wor include the writer's name, addr number and where the writer c tor verification. I Letters should also includc writer is a student, staff o member. Guest editorials musi ng pit deserves ^ ; j x'_ 5 uunsiueraiion ing windy or dry days. Rainy days turn the pit into a swamp. This is the priee students must pay for not having a spot in Pendleton Street or Blossom Street garages. The pit should not be overlooked simply because it is not located in front of a dorm or classroom. The pit receives greater use this semester than usual because of the increase in commuting students and students with cars. Because it is so frequently used and by such a large population, perhaps the university should stop bypassing the idea of pav ing the pit and give it serious consideration. And, maybe it's time students also did something about the parking problem and let administators know that answers exist and the time has come to take action. > a Yankee! V MB ^ba ggildmBiO 1 went to see "Prizzi's Honor," and this movie was chock full of Jack Nicholson doing his best New York accent. I found myself yapping like a New Yorker for days after the film was a distant memory. So what are some of the different ways we say things in the New York? For one, in New rorK, we say 'youse' and 'youse guys' (translation: 'y'all'). "You 're gonna get da beat in of your life. " (translation: "I'ma going to tan your hide. ") Calling roll in class, when a teacher would say, "Stephen Guilfoyle?" my response was "Yo." (translation: "Right 'chere.'') A New York greeting is a cross examination to put Perry Mason to shame. "Wuzzup? Wuz goin' on? Wuz happen in'? Wuz new? Wuz doin'?" (translation: "Hey! Ho w y 'all doing ?'') / vu rnuy /aiign, nut it is just as proper to say 'wuzzup' in New York as it is to say 'hey' in Columbia. When we moved here, my brother and I did not know why all these people were saying 'hey' to us. "Hey, " they'd say. "Hay? Horses eat hay," we would think to ourselves. We did not know they meant 'hello.' I know I wish people would say hello again and drop this 'hey' thing. 'Hello' is a much stronger greeting, because you can be sure a person meant it as a greeting. 'Hey' could be just 50 much gas escaping. A person who says tl > - nt-y i.v just trying to greet you and be on with whatever he is doing. He can't even make the effort to speak another syllable. You know where you stand with a person who says 'hello.' letter 1 I 1 11 " opinions. Ex- 500 words and rl / writing a let- turc. Photos can The Gamecock e-spaced, with letters a month ds. They must will only be wit ess, telephone and pseudonyms an be reached The Gamecoci letters and guest i ; whether the returned. Send x community Gamecock, Dra\ t be limited to umbia, S.C. 2921 HHnnMnaBaM TH? OUW TttUla eveCTVOVi is ^ M m m n n lAffij ^ A V _\ k < UUUJ VJUVJ Co?oyo P?ess S?ivice J Letters to Intramural rules damage sports To the editor: I have played many co-rec sports in my four years here at USC. I have seen a lot of rules 1 thought were needless, difficult to enforce and worst of all. damaging to the sport. I use as my example a rule in co-rcc basketball. This particular rule says guys cannot enter the lane, period. Did 1 say "enter the lane"? Excuse me, 1 meant "cross the plane" of the lane. I'll tell you what I saw at our most recent basketball game. The guys on both teams would stand around outside the lane and watch the girls shoot, rebound and pass the ball out occasionally. Oh yes, the guys did get to bring the ball upcourt. Probably the most frustrating thing of all though was watching a loose ball roll toward you frcrvi ilie iane, knowing you couldn't reach in and grab it, but had to wait for it to come out of the lane. No, 1 take that back; the most frustrating thing was breaking free on a fast break, pulling up at the free throw line and sinking a perfect jump shot only to have the two points erased and have one point and possession awarded to your opponent because of a lane violation when your hand "broke the plane" as you were shooting. I ask, why were the guys even allowed on the court? They certainly weren't allowed to play basketball, just some wimpy substitute game that just happened to be similar to basketball. Don't get me wrong, I am all for any rules serving to protect girls from being hurt, but if they haun liLo . iaw iu ul II1UI UctlSKClUctll rule, then why bother to have corec in the first place. I was not playing co-rcc basketball; I was watching three-on-three women's basketball. And the irony of it all was it didn't even protect our girls from injury. I stood outside the lane and watched helplessly as the girls on both teams fought for rebounds and shots as tenaciously as any guys I've seen. In the process one of our girls was injured, not seriously, but injured nonetheless. While I applaud the intramural office for attempting to make co rcc sports more enjoyable for both men and women, I ask that they be more realistic in their 7 1 i he writer may submit a picnot be returned. : will print no more than two by the same writer. Names hheld by special exception are not allowed. k reserves the right to edit "dltm\'A K I n;ill ?/VlVVI.I Mill IIUl l/V letters to: Editor, The ver A, Russell House, Col08. mi cm swp this comumsT JTOCK w 1 < c the editor regulation of the games. If they arc not careful, they will regulate guys right out of co-rec sports. Byron Reams Electrical Engineering, senior Reports indicate SDI dangerous To the editor: Please allow me to thank Mr. Darren Mullinax for his letter on Jan. 31, which was in response to my letter of Jan. 24. Mr. Mullinax feebly attempted to reject my arguments that condemn the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) as "no more than educated guesses," and he asked me if I thought the scientist developing SDI did not have ; more experience in this than I do. | Apparently he did not read my letters carefully, because 1 clearly stated my information came from i "facts and statistics that nave t been drawn from their own statements and reports." For example, on Nov. 4, I pointed out that even if the SDI system works as planned, 2,000 Soviet nuclear warheads would penetrate our defense, and every U.S. ritv with a population of 25,000 or more could be struck by several of these. This information is easily found in publications and statements of the Department of Defense and the U.S. Bureau of the Census. Guesses are opinions formed at random from uncertain evidence. Therefore, what 1 have presented are not "educated guesses," but the simple horrible mathematical facts of the fallacy of the proposed SDI system. The climatalogical model I referred to is also an 'official' source. Two studies were funded by the National Science Foundation, and another was conducted jointly by the Department of Defense and the National Center A ~i : . n -i. TI iui /\111k>>()in.-1 n. rxcsetiiLii. i ne.^e ] models were based on the known < facts of current nuclear arsenals i and how their usage would alter i the climate. 1 Mr. M u 11 i n a x adeptly i employed an abuse of logic when I he said "with every other invention of the past came critics, but i the inventors went on and created j items that are very helpful to us < today." Certainly he must realize i there have been many more failures in the progress of technology than successful inventions, and the criticism of a faulty ' ' ?hi* flfltt HiYjatianai mmmmmi M DfH ? SC Prwi Association I Fad 1985 * * Kditor In Chief Marisa J. Porto Managing Kditor Jen Rowe Copy Desk Chief I inda Taylor Assistant Copy l>csk Chief Buddy Moore News Kditor Juliet Nader Assistant News Kditors Carl Dawson Hob Kudelka v~\r~\ n i juulruy isffi-m ouvy t :ah stop this ei&c ommka^tll awssl?k mm concept does not insure its success. I have not condemned the SDI concept with educated guesses, but it must be apparent to you now that the Reagan administration proceeds with its planning based on uneducated guesswork and/or I urge you to explore this issue more carefully and not to base your support for SD1 on mere faith in technological progress. Terry Jackson Geography, graduate assistant Abortion issue sparks confusion To the editor: I would like to express strong agreement with the sentiments expressed by Nelson Cooney in his Ian. 29 letter. Cooney is right about the logic jsed by those who support our :urrent situation of legalized abortion: There seems to be so nuch confusion in their midst, some say the baby is not a human jeing until it's born; some say iven though it is a human being he mother still has a right to lave it aborted, while some say .ve don't know when life begins. vVhich way are they going to have t? They can't have all three. The truth, which is known even ay high school biology students md has been shamefully hidden Dy so many medical doctors, is :hat life begins at conception and is one continuum until death. The most eloquent statement [hat can be made against abortion is the siRht of the arms and legs, hands and feet, fingers and .oes, and eyes, ears, nose and mouth of a baby whose life has been tragically cut short by abortion. It is not necessary for all these babies to be killed by abortion. In Columbia help is available for women who arc pregnant and in a pinch, whether they are married ;>r not, from groups like Birthright and Daybreak, as well as many of the churches in the area. Women can get help taking care af their child, or they can put the baby up for adoption. But these babies do not deserve lo die. Mother Theresa has said it is a terrible thing that a child should have to die just so that the mother can live as she pleases. Dorc Schupack community member lie Gamecc Businets Kditor Maria Fratus Viewpoint Kditor Lynn Cusick Spotlight hditor Mary Jo Miller Assistant Spotlight Kditor Ed Chambliss Sports Kditor John Hoy e He Assistant Sports Kditor Jeff Shrewsbury Photography Kditor Ray (iron her^ .TO \S A teg I Yankees biased against Rebels To the editor: After reading about Mario Cuomo's chances for Southern support in the 1988 presidential race in Friday's Gamecock, I was left with a troublesome insight. I was struck with the ease with which Frofessor Paulu/.zi was uuic iu uuuciuuc, reopie in ilie South arc hostile to foreign culture." The remark reminded me of a recent social gathering in which one of my Northern white friends cheerfully commented 011 the general inability of Southern whites to use the English language in a grammatically fluent manner. Could it be there is need on the part of Northern whites to dispense with regional chauvinist attitudes when courting Southern votes in presidential elections? How sad that these enlightened folk are so blind! It is worthwhile to point out similar remarks about Negroes would bring howls of selfrighteous protest, but that the same remarks made at the expense of Southern whites arc gleefully received with the self satisfied sense that indeed, all is well in the true American heartland. It may be disillusioning to llinl/ O ft nil ^ ' 4 ?? uiuin mat Ullll till, IJUI INDI llicril friends are only human and thai while mouthing the platitudes of equality and the universalis! creed, they stray from these principles long enough to lampoon their ancient rivals in the South. But before we proceed to mix motivators or hurl old epithets and slander, let us pause to reflect. As a Southern white, I will gladly ignore these insults it but one truth should be acknowledged. If we should let it be known that regional chauvinism is roughly equivalent to and possessed of no more basis in rpacnn or r?i/-\rolc tl>i" ... . VM.^X/11 V/ I I IVI UIJ 11I?II |JI f judicc of other sorts. Jews, blacks, Italians, and so on . . . isn't the human soui within us all? Why, bring me Boecaccio and Corelli and Puc cini, () Puccini! I would, however, consider it unlikely that Pauluz/i's approach will win many votes in the South for Mario Cuomo. John L. Godwin History, graduate student ^T7 1 ^yy Assistant Photography Kditor Sean Keefer Adviser Hill Rogers Director Hill Clements Production l ewis Covington Murk A rmstrong Advertising Manager Margaret Michels ' Student Advertising Malinger A'elli I reus