The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 04, 1987, Page 8, Image 8
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
?
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