University of South Carolina Libraries
V iewpoint I | Monday. August 31, 1987 THE GAMECOCK 9A g > v AMY DELPO Editor in Chief j STEPHEN GUILFOYLE Copy Desk Chief ! (x?i BRENDA BLYTH News Editor 1 lie HAL MILLARD Viewpoint Editor t a n * n * u/ii i ic r ? r:.1:* ^ ivyillio rcaiuics cuuui 9 Ciamecock WAYNE WASHINGTON sports Editor j KEITH JONES Photography Editor unon i a \ic i-vi I\W 1J LI L/rillL. VJI a^lllVO ivUHVi . PAULA WOJTOWICZ Beat liditor , f > t No sway \ State insurance board, USC \ may cancel students' tickets ^ USC's swaying days are over. The university and the insurance company, foreseeing dire consequences, have now banned the relatively new tradition of making the upper deck sway and rock. The problem is not that the request is unreasonable. Non; students attending games, unaware that Williams-Brice Stadium : can shake violently when prompted by rowdy Carolina students, could be alarmed. Their alarm could lead to panic and panic to - tragedy. What is unsettling is the fact that the university has to I bow to pressure from insurance companies and influential mucky-mucks in the university. The stadium has been deemed totally safe by engineers, but no amount of safety will appease a touchy insurance industry. The result is a belligerent promise from the university that students who start swaying the upper deck will force the university to : cease issuing tickets for students in that section. 3,000 tickets ^ would be lost for at least the rest of the season, and the re; mainder of those students would be stuck in the end zone. The university's solution is to put more "mature" groups, such as law, medical and graduate students, at the crucial sway points in sections 502 and 503 of the deck. This, they propose, will prevent the swaying. I hat s not likely. Swaying has becomc an indelible part of football games. ' Students are not likely to give it up easily. But it's sad the university has to resort to threats and to patronize students bv not civ : ing them enough credit for having common sense. Swaying may not stop immediately, but students will realize their actions ; cause distress and stop it soon enough. ri,? L a :?~ ~ i lie uoi riiiswti 15 cuiiiiiiuiiicrtiiun anu uiiuiuiauuii, nui 111; timidation. As for the insurance companies, there is only one thing to say about that seedy, dishonest business. Their prime motivation is money, not safety, and they therefore deserve the 9 most bitter indictment. It is the insurance business at the root of the whole matter, making the university believe it must shake : clown the students and threaten to punish them. | j Dead end | \ Reagan diverges from path ; I he blazed for 'Star Wars' Like most things recently, President Ronald Reagan has not \ been true to his word on his highly controversial brainchild, the i Ip Strategic Defense Initiative. Four years ago he said the process toward building a protec; tivc shield would be long and carefully considered. For all in dications, he has gone back on his word. He also said it would ; be consistent with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. But he's not going that path anymore. He's bent on a crash program aimed at producing results before his beleagured presidency I ends next year. Now he wants more money. For fiscal year 1988 he is asking ; for $5.8 billion, a 55 percent increase over this past year. What's going on here? Does our leader not know of the impending economic damage that is capable of occuring when presidents crvnn/l 1i l/o t h at 9 UI\V UIUI . Apparently not. If Reagan had any sense he would heed the suggestions of Wisconsin Sen. William Proxmire: follow the ABM Treaty strictly, gradually increase spending over time, and don't i # sacrifice promising long-term deployment for the quick, crude deployment. OI"\l le urliK in- fni- Qtifhilo Bo'joan chnnlH rp.pvaminp hie onnls Jiyi ID vvini iwi UVTIIIIV* iwugjuu .mv/v?*v4 ? v !/ for the project so for once he could get something right. If that's possible. Proxmire points out that SDI, envisioned by Reagan as a leakproof or nearly leak-proof defense, is not feasible against a serious Soviet attack. Proxmire is right. That's exactly why the process should be more balanced and thoughtful. A feasible defense like the one Reagan wants takes time. The "bait and switch" approach used by Reagan is both deceitful, dangerous and counterproductive. ? *1 ~~ Tho Staff Assistant Copy Desk Chief Adviser Andy Bechtcl Bill Rogers Assistant News Kditors hlrortnr nf SlnHi>nl Mprliu Todd Hincs Bm elements Jeff Shrewsbury Production Assistant Features Editor Chuck Norrjs Firdous Bamji Son Ha Assistant Photography Editor Advertising Manager j Jonalhon Williams Margaret Michels Datebook Editor Assistant Advertising Manager . Katherine Gilbert Dawn Miller ^ Comics Editor Tracy Mixson I ?-? ? +- l'f NOTED 1 Insurance cor My best friend, Nick Normalguy, was a little upset. "I read a memo from the university saying that the students would not be allowed to sway the stadium anymore," he said, "and the tone was something I might call condescending, if I didn't think it was patronizing." "What's the problem, Nick?" I asked. "Well, some people arc afraid the upper deck will crash down and kill those underneath," he said, "and probably those on it, or maybe cause a panic, so the insurance company wants the students off the upper deck." "That should save a few lives don't you think?" I said. "Not reallv. because the architects and engineers of today build structures with sways built into them. Did you ever hear of Galloping Gertie?" "Didn't she win the Kentucky Derby this past year?" I asked. "No, it was a nickname people had for the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, Washington. Thev built it without a sway designed into it, and the bridge actually used to roll in the wind. And one day when the winds were extremely high, the bridge collapsed. Then they rebuilt it with an intentional sway, and it stayed up in stronger winds," said Nick, always the engineering aficionado. "The university knows that," I said. "The company that built the stadium had engineers check out the stadium, and it's safe. The problem is the state division insuring the stadium, the Division of General Services was skeptical and hired another Ollie North 11 I was watching Ollie North spill his guts this summer, and it got me to thinking about trust and trusting people. For example, would you let a guy wearing a polyester shirt and gold chains around his neck sell you a car? No. Or would you trust an ex-actor who looks like a giant turtle to run the country? I would hope not. So who can you trust these days? Well, there is always your grandparents because they can never lie. They may have been A1 Caponc or Ma Barker when they were young, but as soon as they get grandkids they lose the ability to lie. Nature, 1 guess. But anyway . . . Who else shouldn't you trust? Never trust: ? someone who says they're doing something for your own good, ? anyone wearing polyester, ? /-ii>nriLrs?i(>ht in mini <;l(irtt :nwl high heels, ? any guy who precedes a request of a woman with "what do you mean, of course I love you," ? politicians, ? anyone who says they know Madonna, ? Madonna, ? Sean I'enn, ? television evangelists, ? anyone who says they have spoken to God, but has no videotape, ? people who say they've seen flying saucers and have no videotape, Letters to th< USC staffer helps '-26, ,cas' r could eve grateful Tar heel the boost o u r r e To the editor: "Ciamccc In July, I was returning to Charlotte after a week's vacation in In 90Florida with a friend, her two quickly { 1 children and my daughter. Late in tire. Me the afternoon, we had a flat tire on sevice sta PIT BULL OWNER (AT LE rtpanies the ro Stenhen HflSKV i company to inspect the deck this past summer," I said. "Oh, I didn't hear about that," Nick said. > "They must have fjund out it was unsafe." "No,"I said. "They said it was safe, too. The university has had the deck inspected four times in the past year, and every report has said the deck is safe to sway, designed that way, but the administration is still being told if the stadium sways, the students will have to be evicted. And everything the university has said so far leads me to believe they will give us the boot." "So what are they doing?" Nick asked. "They've moved the students out of section 501 into 503, and put students whom they believe are more mature and less likely to sway into the lower seats that arc more likely to sway, to keep it from swaying." lakes me thin! ? I ? people who wear black socks with sandals, ? old English teachers who still refer to the '20s as this past year, ? women who think every man is sexist, ? sexists, ? Libyans, who don't have videotape, ? girls who say "bitchin", ? guys who date girls who say "bitchin", ? the Celtics, ? anyone who resembles Omar Sharif, like Malamar Gadhafi, ? people who say they arc always right, ? people who are always right, ? anyone dressed in a white sheet, carrying a burning cross, ? anyone who says they are an Llvis love child and have 110 videotape, ; ? people who light their cigarettes with another cigarette, e editor of Columbia. Before we USC. With all the sign n unload the trunk to find doubt we were in Ciam( er tire, a gentlemen came to scue. 1 noticed the While our tire was I >ck" sticker on his car. we introduced ourselvc of mercy. We learned plus degree weather, he Lewis, athletic trainer - - Ln /<Ai?rcn hp iimnl/l f a Vp tlHl LI ICC I I III I y L I im ij^vw III*. wui.n, Iiv .iuu.u .M?v then led us to a friendly help. My friend told I tion across the street from cheer for USC in the ot of all evil I "But even if the students don't sway the upper pg|| deck, the new people in section 501 might. What p|| happens then?" gill mnrK r\ a i/r\n t r\ thA ctnrl^nf c o#?f tossed out anyway?" I asked. "As far as Ipg Gamecock football goes, we're the dirt under the ||?g) totem pole. We don't donate hundreds of ijll thousands of dollars as the alumni and Gamecock B| Club members do. Who cares if a bunch of noisy pp unruly brats get the boot? Ill "It doesn't seem fair, you know," I continued. [?# "You know, 1 hate to make it seem like the univer- |J? sity is being held hostage by this 'insurance com- |lj pany.' Every year in the Student Senate, the com- Kl mittee in charge of ticket distribution has to fight the Athletic Department to keep student seating the j|pg same." |pj "Yeah, I bet the Athletic Department would fe rather have those seats to sell general admissions, B instead of handing them over to the students," |?| Nick said. pg| "You know, the more I hear about them, the |ffl more it seems that the insurance companies are Hp holding this country hostage," I said. "1 mean, I jc;' even heard that malpractice insurance went up so fe| high for doctors in Florida that travelers were ad- B vised not to go there." "Something needs to be done, that's for sure," pg "Let's gel a congressional subcommittee together and get to the bottom of all this mess," g| Nick said. f|J "Ah, those things never work." |? k about trust I ? people who say drinking isn't fun, gg ? girls who wear very, very tight clothes and ffl then say they are not that type of girl, ? guys who say they'll call Monday, but never p ? sports figures who make more money than U. several Third World countries and then go on strike, saying they are underpaid, fe ? Brent Musberger, fj. ? anyone named Biff, p ? people in Volvos, p ? anyone who says what happened to Lenny p Bias couldn't happen to them, ? anyone named Vito, g ? people who say sports are boring, B ? sports fans who say golf is exciting, j"' ? yuppies, p ? people who make up names to describe some I people's economic situation like "yuppies," % ? anyone in New Jersey, | ? a pilot who says that 10,000-foot drop in g. altitude was turbulence, ? people with capped teeth, ? people who don't like answering machines, ? people who see less than six movies a year, ? people who don't like television, ? anyone who watches only Public Broadpoet inn Qori/irA k^VI ?IW| ? people who think Paul McCartney's first band was Wings, ? politicians, ? politicians, ? politicians. s, there was no when they play the University of ;cock country. North Carolina (my alma mater), 1 later added. >eing patched, is to this angel So thank you, Terry, from a he was Terry grateful Tar Heel to a kind, for 11SiT' Of thoughtful Gamecock. no pay for his lim she would Shuron Thompson future. Except Charlotte resident