The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 13, 1987, Page 9, Image 9
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