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I Viewpoint * 8 t t f V Wednesday, February 4, 1987 wswsaw * mmmmmrmm ! Rally Student Government steps up efforts for full-formula funding In an effort to persuade the state General Assembly t approve full-formula funding for USC, Student Goveri inent is sponsoring a letter writing eampaign targeted at th state's lawmakers. Now, they're taking this good idea an expanding it further. Student Government is asking students to take advai taee of the onnortnnitv to visit with legislators on Feb. 1 and 26, March 18, and April 7 and 21. It is hoped the: personal meetings will further enable students to elaborai their fears of a possible tuition increase caused by a signif cant cut in funding. The letter campaign and the meetings, however, are ju two parts of a bigger campaign to make legislators wake u and address the needs of students. A rally is planned f< Feb. 11 on Greene Street, which will culminate in a marc to the State House to meet with the legislators. This is a grand idea. It should send a very loud, clei message to the legislators telling them the students of US will not sit idly by and watch their tuition shoot upwarc If a respectable show of unity, strength and convictic can be relayed to legislators, full-formula funding f< USC may once again be a reality. If not, we will certain be faced with the possibility of another burdening tuitic increase. All students who would be hurt by a tuition increa should certainly try to stand behind Student Governme on this important issue and give some much-needed su port. This is a terrific chance to show the legislators v really care about what happens to our money. If enouj strong support is raised, it would De very ditticuit tor tne to ignore us. If Student Government is unable to enlist the lar numbers of people needed to pull this off, the whole car paign is destined to go down as a lost cause. It is t! students' responsibility to make sure this doesn't happe Student Government has taken the first step. The studer must take the next step. This is no token effort. Student Government h carefully constructed a plan of action, which, if executi properly, should pay off in positive dividends for us all bet tough State needs tough drunk-driving laws instead of blood, urine tes Last year, 1,058 people were killed in state traffic a cidents and more than 34,000 were injured. It is estimate that at least 40 percent of the deaths were alcohol-relate This is a tragic figure. In this decade, there has been renewed vigor in attem ting to decrease the number of drunk-driving fatalitie South Carolina, however, has gone about the problem tl wmn (7 ws?v First of all, legislators raised the drinking age to 2 Raising the legal age will not solve the problem and pr bably won't decrease the number of fatalities. Now, state legislators are threatening to pass a bill th would legalize the administration of blood and urine te; to motorists suspected of using drugs or alcohol. T1 legislation, sponsored by Sen. Isadore Lourie, 1 Columbia, would allow a police officer to order a blood urine test if the driver is incapable of a response or h already taken a Breathalyzer test. There is room for mistakes in this proposed law. Det( mining who will and will not be tested may result in peop getting their civil liberiies violated. The proposal further lustrates how our representatives are taking the wrong ro; in their quest to reduce alcohol-related traffic accidents South Carolina's lawmakers, in their attempt to decrea fatalities, have been doing everything but the logical thin We do not need a raised drinking age; we do not ne legalized blood and urine tests. What we do need is sor serious, straight-forward legislation that tackles the pr blem head-on. The state's lawmakers should pass laws crippling t drunk driver. These laws involve making DUI a felony c fense. Laws should be passed to suspend the drunk drivei license for six months on the first offense, take it away f good on the second offense and make the driver serve minimum one-year jail term for the third offense. If thai not enough, make him also pay a $10,000 fine. Laws like these would deter drivers from driving und the influence of alcoholic beverages. Raising the legal a and administering blood and urine tests would end up hi ting or restricting too many innocent people. Instead, la' need to hit the drunk driver or the drugged driver hard ai ensure that only the guilty pay. ????umnmmm? Write us a letter Tell us what's on your mind. Letters must There is a limit be typed, double-spaced and no more than the same writer. 250 words. Include name, address and We reserve the telephone number for verification. Names on outdated topi will not be withheld. Guest editorials are topics. limited to 500 words. Indicate whether you Write to: > are a student, USC staff member, or com- Gamecock, Drau, munity member in letters and editorials. Columbia, S.C. ! si I He uses many : I wac wnlkino to rlncc Tn^cHnv thf* cnn wnc ar shining like Donny Osmond's teeth after a q brush and a double rloss. j Like a lobotomized chimpanzee, my only thought was to get to class on time, instead of )n watching USC's magnificent floor show of beautiful women. ly But destiny stepped in and gave me a hand; >n in fact, it caused me to cut and bruise my hand. Destiny stepped in and tripped me. Like a mighty oak falling from internal rot, se my books crumbled right out of my hands and scattered, seemingly across the universe, p- Some figure, obscure like a shadow on the ve top row of Carolina Coliseum, swept out of the ether like an nvenffine Rov Smut ?11 0---0 --J desperate for a good deed, and helped me scoop up my books. Let me correct that, for she could never ge have been like a Boy Scout, for she was a she. n- As she handed my books to me, I saw her face he for the first time, and the electricty flew like n Times Square on New Year's Eve. My heart ' started thumping like the steel drum section in a Calypso band. I stared into her eyes, which I might say as were like limpid pools, but I don't know what ed limpid means and it sounds insulting. Never a Seniors know i "Senioritis" is a plague that hits about two weeks into the semester and leaves its victims gasping for breath and foaming at the mouth. "Let my pi ople go," they exclaim, rioting the campus to break loose from the chains of bondage tying them to their college degrees. 4-q Seniors, now mature intellectuals, look back and laugh at the pranks they pulled. They look ahead and cringe. But for the present, they just want to get out of the semic" prison that has kept them captive in the guarded gate. d. And how many times have seniors thought they had made it to that golden gate when __ their adviser tells them they need one more >c The bad dreams circle through the student's he unconscious, "What if I get to graduation and my name is not on the role because I left 1. something off the application?" q. The checks and balances of college life sometimes become too much to handle, driving these seniors to the edge. They question at the administrative system and school pride Letters to th< or " "Dixie" is for SS on. >!e blacks, whites partial tc il- don't ala(j To the editor: things tY So as not to structure this letter face, but like a Paul Harvey commentary, find out se let me submit now that I am slap or i g. black. Now, hold on to your ed press card: I am totally in favor The ne of the Confederate flag flying original 0_ over the State House and the Walk A playing of the song "Dixie" at handed i state functions. One must not tion that he think me passive for feeling this Southern >f- way. Like 1 said, I am black. In mett.ap r's fact,I come from a long line of "borrow or black people. song as The bulk of my ancestors settl- show, t f ed less than an hour from where Orleans t s their ancestors were probably South C shipped in as slaves. I've always stage sh< viewed that bit of historical infor- know thi ler mation in three ways. can emb ge 1. They were too lazy to flee from for the ( what was in store for them in the no conv ir~ post Civil War South. It is wha ws 2. They didn't know what was in it shoul nd store for them. House 1 3. They knew what was in store, remindei 1 p-? m A Editor in Chief of two letters per month by Roni Bea Kayrte Managing Editor right to stop printing letters ^my DelPo ics to make room for new o?pyi.l>e,!^C:^lref / Stephen Guilfoyle / . rA -. ru AmIiUbI Copy Ziewpoint Editor, ihe Dealt Chief 'er A, Russell House, USC, Mona Peloquin 29208. New# Editor Paula Wethington silly similes, like more beautiful creature was created, and her c brown eyes glittered like a cool lake in the o summer, reflecting the Osmond-glow of the e sun. n Her hand, as soft as a SAGA hard-shell t taco, touched mine and my fate was sealed. It t was as if fate had dragged me into the cage of t< love and thrown away the key for good. I wanted only to touch her one more time, to l prolong the moment, drag it out as far as it b could possibly stretch and then some, like y Johnny Carson's monologue. Desperate, like a an on-campus student looking for an unused n laundry machine on a Saturday afternoon, I dropped another book. f it's time to gradu I IU j a ! ? c and then scream for an escape. y How to know when it's time to graduate: 1 You eet a call from the desk accictnnf in ? your dorm who says you are disturbing quiet ? hours by typing too loud. (Excuse me for try- * ing to be a student). c You have gone through five roommates 4 and four rooms and have finally found one of 1 each you can stand. Then you are forced out < of your dorm for remodeling, losing both. It I t editor challenge and made the well and holding court < Street. We need only o s sake,I've always been ourselves accordingly. ?the third choice. Now, I ways make the best of ^ S,a lat slap my race in the Graduate : I do make an effort to O*!??!??'+ whether it is indeed a dlOFy QIQBl I a sh? :n h all the facts song Dixie, who s title was "Ethiopian To the editor: uround," was a song Amanda Colson's ar down by the oral tradi- the front page of The G> existed among blacks on Feb. 2 was rather int plantations. D. D. Em- It would appear the imminent ti/hit a u/innino i Aiirnolict 1 V/1II1I1VIU "1IHV llllllJll Vl| ?? llllllllg, JV/JU JIUII.1l, ed" and popularized the Terry, just dropped ou "Dixie" in his minstrel sky into "the Law \n actress from New auditorium to speak tc introduced the song to dience that included arolina as a part of her War Veterans." )w. Now, isn't it nice to As a matter of fact, at both blacks and whites evening address climax* race OUR state song? As day of presentations sj Confederate flag, there is by the College of Journa enient historical excuse. its Minorities and Worn t it is. Still, I believe that mittee. This committ d fly above the State pointed by Dean Jose to serve as a constant quist, has the responsi r that racism is alive and improving the overall re] rk. /> nrlr yjgiiiccuciv Assistant News tailors Sports Editor Sherri Berry Jeff Shrewsbury Brenda Blyth Assistant Sports Editor Viewpoint Editor Wayne Washington Hal Millard Photography Kditor Money Editor Jennifer Sleib Candy Barr Assistant Photography Kditor Features Editor Thomas Humphrey Tamara Willis Assistant Features Kditor i Patrick Jean I tho fnnl ho ic 1BIU IUUI HU IC Her eyes left mine, following the trajectory f the book like a radar dish tracking Soviet lissilcs, and, for the first time, she spoke. "Yah dropt annudder of ya books, ya eek," she said, her voice like a female tallone doing his best Philadelphian idiot accnt. And, like a George Lucas film, the spell /as broken with a huge explosion the size of a Janet. I silently took the last book from her hand; ^ here was no shock, no electricity this time. ust a hand, like any other hand. I watched her go, like an infant puppy wathing its mother abandon it to the fickle hand if fate. But the moment was passed. Depressd, like a heroin addict after 10 months of netnoaone treatments, i watKea away, rcaay o end it all, ready to just let life pass by like he Shuttle-Cock when you have one minute o get to class. So depressed, even in the Osmond glow of he sun, I was not careful and dropped my looks once again. Some figure, unseen like our best buddy when he's in the East Upper nd you're in the West, dropped in to help rte. Our hands touched and the electricity lew. . . . ate when... lways happens after you've trained your oommate to speak to you and play music ony after you've had your first cup of coffee in he morning. And after you've found a room hat doesn't force you to wear an eskimo suit I vhile you're studying in the winter (if you can all 50-degree weather winter). ? Your parents stop sending money and are packages of cookies and vitamins t I. t_ _ i nrougn mc man. > Your friends have gone through the -year plan and you're still here. > People run up and down the halls of your lorm spraying water guns at each other and rou say, "Freshmen. . . Did we ever do stuff ike that?" > Your office is bigger than your bedroom, I md cleaner. ? There arc no more crip courses seniors :an take without being the oldest in the class. ? You meet a guy in a bar who tells you le's a freshman. * You can cook a comnlofp mpal w/ithnnt 3urning the food. an Main tion of minorities in the college. govern Terry's visit began at 12:30 p.m. at a luncheon with about 20 ^ minority journalism students. In n Brown an informal settine. he talked ? student about the seriousness of prepar || ing for careers in journalism dur1011 ing undergraduate training and gave the students some important background tips. Terry also visited classes and toured the facilities in the College tide on of Journalism prior to his presenamecock tation at 7:30 p.m. in the Law eresting. School auditorium. The audience award- included journalism faculty and Wallace students, members of the com- I t of the munity and veterans from World School Wars 1 and II as well as > an au- Vietnam. Vietnam While Terry's presentation in fact coincided with that of lerry s ^narioue s iviayor Harvey Gantt :d a full ? who spoke at the opening jonsored ceremonies of Black History ilism and Month in the Russell House en Com- Ballroom ? it is, nevertheless, ee, ap- important to get the facts when ph Sho- you get the story. bility of Sallie A. Butler presenta- Journalism senior I _~ f Datebook Editor Director of Student Media Kutherine Gilbert Bill Clements (Graphics Editor Production Robb Lane C. L. Nurris Comics Editor S. Ha Tracy Mixson Advertising Manager Adviser Margaret Michels Bill Rogers Assistant Advertising Manager Jan Hodges ? I \