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1 Viewpoint Friday, February 13, 1987 ^ 9 THE GAMECOCK"*"*! Condom sense Indignation against condom ads i will result in more AIDS cases Aside from sexual abstinence, it has been proven that rnnrlrvmc iro on :? 1 * * 1 ' _ m.v ?n tiiccuvc, anu prooaoiy me most eitective, line of defense against sexually-transmitted diseases. To spread this important message, condom manufacturers are trying to get their commercials on television. But because of old sexual taboos, a discrepancy has arisen between proponents of moral deceny and public awareness about the airing of condom ads. Considering the AIDS panic, it seems foolish to block advertisements of a product many feel will curb the spread of the disease. The major networks, ABC, NBC and CBS, W along with several local TV stations, have refused to air the ads for fear of reprisals from morally-outraged viewers. Apparently, thev don't underctunri that th*? qHc r-. r , . ? iiiuv VAftV WMO Ml Vll t pi W moting an increase in casual sex, but rather safe, responsible sex. The ads should undoubtedly be done with the utmost taste. Some advertisements have already been aired in San Francisco and Detroit with mixed viewer responses. In each instance the ads have been done tastefully. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop recently told a House panel there is an urgent need for condom advertisement. He says it would have a positive public health value. It i definitely couldn't hurt, especially considering the increased spread of AIDS in the heterosexual community. But the public's better judgement hasn't caught up with their fears of condom ads. It is obvious, though, that until a vaccine or cure for AIDS is found, condoms are our best bet in a society where abstinence i unrealistic. Quite simply, there is too much evidence in favor of condom usage to let the issue die. Considering the sexual permissiveness and irresponsibility that pervades the TV air waves, 11 seems undeniably hypocritical to squelch a message that advocates responsibility and awareness. So let the ads air. The threat of AIDS is much greater | than the possible moral indignation the ads might cause, and what could be more morally decent than saving lives? Low wage Congress has own pay raise,it's time to raise minimum wage ) The 100th Congress of the United States just can't seem to do anything right. Recently, in a very sneaky move, these congressmen managed to grant themselves not only a 3 percent cost-of-living increase, but also a $12,100 raise in their salary. At the same time they are against increasing the minimum wage rate. Something has to give, fellas. They maintain a minimum wage increase will worsen unemployment among teenagers, especially minorities, and hurt small businesses. According to economic theory, there l is validity to that assumption. Still, there are a lot of people " who depend on minimum wage for their whole existence. A person who works for the going rate of $3.35 an hour makes $6,700 a year. This is well below the poverty lie. some congressmen wouia even like to decrease or abolish the minimum wage rate altogether, like good ol' boy "Fritz" Hollings. But it's too late for that now, and an increase is needed. It need only be a moderate increase, preferably a 15 to 45 cents increase per hour. Surely the congressmen could raise it that much. If they don't, they will look even more foolish than they already do after their own embarassing, questionable pay raise. For them to oppose even a slight increase in the I minimum wage rate is adding insult to injury. It is shameful and disgusting. For the record In the Friday, Feb. 6 edition of The Gamecock, it was incorrectly stated in the last paragraph of David Babson's letter that there are 2,000 residents of Forsyth County. The actual number of residents is 27,000. In the Wednesday, Feb. 11 edition of The Gamecock the last paragraph of Philip Breazeale's letter should have read, "We have some of the best athletes in the nation here at Carolina, and they deseve the best possible treatment, especially since they are paying for it." Also, in the same issue, Tim Davis' name was accidentlv left off the story: "Investment in mutual funds teaches economics, planning." The Gamecock regrets these errors. IN ALL.AI1 m: TRUST ^ ms ntrrt n now. ST N6669? AR?? nMUlR R? //Mf llRPORBTS ^ TUUlAM,,RW^ iPrite us a letter Tell us what's on your mind. Letters must There is a limit of tw hi> tt/npH I'lniihlc-snarcfl anrl nn mr\r/? than th? cam* writ?r 250 words. Include name, address and We reserve the right telephone number for verification. Names on outdated topics to will not be withheld. Guest editorials are topics. limited to 500 words. Indicate whether you Write to: Viewj are a student, USC staff member, or com- Gamecock. Drawer A, munity member in letters and editorials. Columbia, S.C. 29208 i A few discourai "Common Sense is not so common." ? Voltaire. Maybe we should just chuck the whole Student Senate out. Wednesday, 1 was witness to the biggest circus freak show ever. P. T. Barnum would be insanely jealous of the comedic affect these people put out. I laughed the entire time I was at the meeting. It was an insane laugh, because 1 realized the senate, as a whole, had no idea of how big a joke it has become. I went there for the nostalgia, because I used to cover the senate for this paper. But it wasn't the senate I remembered writing about, with a few minor exceptions. The senate I remember researched resolutions and bills before proposing them. This current senate gets it into its collective head to attack someone without provocation or justification, without bothering to check the facts, without even being ready for possible rebuttals. The senate I knew, when faced with negative criticism on an issue in The Gamecock, would respond to the specifics of the article and point out any errors that had been made, or would 'fess up and admit their mistakes. This senate whines and cries like a baby, doesn't bother to respond to the specific allegations then pats itself for having done a good job all year. ("It's easy to praise Athenians to an audience of them," as Aristotle or some other Greek said.) The senate I remember was a bit more prepared procedurely. This senate, except for a few individuals, has absolutely no idea of even their own rules of procedure, let alone Letters to the America tied Japanese-A - | - - military < to dark history p^usm a * the Reagar worked ha To the editor: progress of The author of "Time to Leave undercuttin Racism Behind," a letter in last systematica Wednesday's edition of The set up to Gamecock, has obviously not The nation: heen aftpnrlino fn hie hisfnru r\r rhAtnrir- tha his current events. Despite all of White Hou our pretty rhetoric, a lot of which and impli made its way into Wednesday's revival of letter, the United States has been strains of r one of the most brutally racist The peacefi countries in human history. One County did has simply to recall the systematic and bottles extermination of Native hundreds Americans or the two centuries of return of v negro slavery to realize that the the incqual blot of shame we must bear can't corner of be wiped away by casual invoca- away. tion of "the bells of democracy and freedom." Under the banner Our owr of "Manifest Destiny," our own racist posit lebensraum program, we filled a following v whole continent with WASP's 1. Refusal and then, looking fot new holiday set horizons, plunged without hesita- Luther Kin tion into exploiting the Third 2. Continu World. racist regin Despite some progress, the 3. The piti rr\rr\f Aiir Aum Un?? f? I* .. IVVUIU 1/1 witi unil Vblliui / una I ct C U 1 I y J been marred by segregation, lyn- minorities. Editor In Chief o letters per month by Ronl Bea Kayne Managing Editor to stop printing letters *my make room for new sTphTa^lfoyle AtiUtunt Copy joint Editor, The Detk Chief Russell House, USC, Andy Bechtel Newi Editor Paula Wethington ^ r~ ; ging words to S Robert's Rules of Order. As a result: ? one speaker asked the senators if they had questions, which, according to proper procedure, is out of order. ? senators try to pass "friendly amendments," which didn't exist until a bill was passed Wednesday, and any such motion previous to that bill was thus out of order. ? the president of the senate ignored a motion to adjourn, which was properly seconded, and his actions were also out of order. This senate passed a motion to limit debate to six minutes per speaker, just for rliat . ~~l. .1 -1 *? " uiui uoj, miicii iuuk iiicm amiosi a nan an hour to pass. The senate also passed two very redundant resolutions on behalf of the Finance Committee. ? the first attacked the administration because it "raised" the university fee, but there was no actual decision to raise the fee, just a printing mistake in the catalog. ? the second issue, a million times worse, was obsolete, moot, totally unnecessary. The resolution said the president of the university f editor rceci internment ot It is all very fine tc mericans and ruthless leave racism in the pi ind economic im- fortunately its reality broad. In the 1980s, sent is painfully real. 1 administration has Bn rd to undermine the Knj the past 30 years by g social programs and Oaff*:ern I0f4 lly ignoring the laws HldOlOlll ICll facilitate integration. l" ilistic and xenophobic 1BCIC0O Vclll' it has poured from the se has set the tone for citly encouraged a To the editor: the most virulent We, as residents o acism in our society. floor of Moore, feel c< *1 marchers in Forsyth write this article in re; not ask to have rocks fictional letter that wa ; thrown at them by the editor by LaVaugl of Klansmen. The It was an interesting 'iolent racism is real; read and at tim ity that exists in every humorous, but as to society has not gone simply, there was nor fact that the univers recognize Dr. Marl 1 university makes its King Jr.'s birthday as ion quite clear in the We students are not t< vays: this. To fully under to acknowledge the ings' situation, the tri aside to honor Martin known, g. * This student has ed investment in the record of disciplinary le of South Africa. including an assault fully small number of and two residents. Oi positions held by sion no one retaliated assault. At 2 a.m., J iamecock Assistant News Fxlllora Sports Editor Sherri Berry Jeff Shrewsbury Brenda Blyth Assistant Sporti tailor Viewpoint Editor Wayne Washington HaI Millard Photography Editor Money Editor Jennifer Steib Candy Barr Assistant Photography Edll Features Editor Thomas Humphrey Tamara Willis Assistant Features Editor Patrick Jean PILL VOTING ON if.payhaisk, mI in itudent Senate chmilH r/?lnac?> h i c f 1 < ^ * I .M.vu.u IVIV.UJV Ilia ui.11.1 vlllHIdl y IUIIU 1U II1C committees in the General Assembly that wanted this information. The fact that the funds were definitely going to be released, probably the Friday following the meeting did not bother the senators in the least, and didn't enlighten them in any way as to the total ignorance revealed by their actions. The senate cither doesn't know, or doesn't care, that it's being used, both by candidates for offices to solicit votes and campaign, and by their opponents to attack them. The senate is the legislative arm of Student Government, not a stop on the campaign trail, but it was blatantly, wrongly used as such, with neither tact nor intelligence on the part of the campaigners. 1 sat at that mscting, as I said before, and laughed until 1 was blue. 1 wish 1 could tell you to make sure these senators do not return to the senate. But there are a few in there who listened when the senate held a procedural workshop earlier this year. They took the time to listen and prepare their facts, and 1 can't find it in my heart to write a blanket condemnation that would include these senators. You should get interested and get involved and vote in Student Government elections. But ask questions, long-pointed questions, of those running for your college's senate scats to find out if they are one of the idiots making a mockery of the legislative arm of student government. If they are, chuck them out and run yourself a write-in candidacy. Lord knows, the senate could stand fr> a littlo Hnco /-?f common sense, administered with a syringe the size of the Empire State Building. i 1 ii i i ) urge us to assaulted a resident who "kicked ast, but un- his ass" (note: a single resident in the pre- and not a group, not a gang). Dillings gathered some of his jnt Lanford larger friends, "just as anyone jlish, senior else in this situation would have done," who took revenge on levery available white resident on [Gl the floor for Dillings' selfinflicted misfortune. He apHlTlf ~ .1.. .-l-l r_: i yg i^tiiuilliy IUIU 111-*? II1CI1US, tiS DC told The Gamecock, that he "was ganged up on." We don't understand the relation that Dillings is f the sixth making to racism at the universijmpelled to ty. In regard to Dillings' com>ponse to a ment of the two USC officials s written to who told him he is a risk to the in Dillings. other residents, one of the two ; article to housing officials is black, i e s quite its validity, As we have shown, this incite, save the dent was caused by Dillings' ity fails to vengeance and his lack of maturi:in Luther ty. We hope it is understood by i a holiday. ' all that there was no racial ten3 blame for sion among the sixth floor stand Dill- residents until it was instigated by ith must be Mr. Dillings. James Mazyck, Mike Verne a previous Tom Mack, Dave Bowers " problems, Jim Durkee, Dave O'Brien on an RA Steve Percy, Don Beaumont 1 this occa- Schick, Steve Miller against his Nick Leoncavallo Ian. 24, he Residents, sixth floor Moore (Graphics Kdltor Director of StudeiU Media Robb Lane Rill Clements Datebook Mllur (Graduate Assistant Kalherine Gilbert Mary Anne Ranich v.uiinca r.uuor rronucilon Tracy Mixson Chuck Norris lor Wire Kdltor Son Ha Gillian Smith Advertising Manager Adviser Margaret Michels Hill Rogers Assistant Advertising Manager Jan Hodges