The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 14, 1987, Page 4, Image 4
Viewpoint
4 THE GAMECOCK Monday, September 14, 1987
AMY DELPO Editor in Chief
! STEPHEN GUILFOYLE Copy I)csk Chief
rrii BRENDA BLYTH News Editor
| HAL MILLARD Viewpoint Editor i
TAMARA WILLIS Features Editor
\JCtlllC vU vlv U/AVMC U/ACUIM/^ rnM o r- 1-.?
"nniL, ??/UIlll1VJI WM opuili liUnor
| KEITH JONES Photography Editor i
ROBB LANE Graphics Eiclitor
PAULA WOJTOWICZ Beat Editor
Good job
Carolinians, students handled
pope's visit to Columbia well
Whpn QII ic cairl onH Hnnn ho r\r\r\nV i/lrl* ^ ^
..VII VA.a to OUIV4 UI1U UVI1V, tuv pv/pv O *1311 IU V,- VJ1U111U1& I I lUdy
was a roaring success.
Despite all the dire warnings about crazy fundamentalists and
sparse attendance, the whole event came off beautifully.
The people who most deserve the credit for this arc not just
high-ranking officials such as (JSC President James Holderman.
The students of this universitv nnrl thp npr?nlf? r?f" thic
deserve much of the credit for Friday's success.
The whole nation, especially the press, had all but written off
the pope's Columbia visit. But they were wrong. The crowds
weren't as big as expected, but the warmth and enthusiasm of
the audience at Williams-Brice Stadium, many of whom were
not Catholic, was extraordinary. Similarly, the crowd of about
13,000 students on The Horseshoe was equally warm and
enthusiastic.
Yet, while the crowd was going wild over the pope in the
stadium, a writer from United Press International was already
writing an obituary of sorts for the Columbia visit. Steeped in
cliches and stereotypes, the basic premise of the so-called news
"analysis" was that the visit to Columbia was a waste and pro
duced nothing of substance. The analysis went on to say that only
in Miami, where the pope talked to Jewish leaders, was
anything accomplished.
If he had turned away from his portable computer in the
stadium press room long enough to witness the electricity coursing
through the crowd, his biased analysis might have been
different.
Also, in Friday's Wall Street Journal a feature profile on
? ? fi-u ...
ricaiuciu nuiucrman went 10 great lcngtns to point out just how
backward we are.
The profile basically said that Holderman came to save USC
from this "cultural and educational wasteland."
.It is not that often South Carolina or Southerners in general
are scrutinized, generalized and patronized in such great
measure as when the pope was here. But despite the fire from the
press and from those outside of the South, there is only one
tUirt a r o ?
iiiuig iu say.
We showed them.
When the pope goes to Los Angeles and San Francisco, he will
encounter dissent and opposition that eclipses anything he might
have encountered here. He will have to face women's rights
groups, gay rights groups, and Catholics who disagree about his
views on divorce, birth control and women.
In that supposedly more enlightened, more modern and
forward-thinking part of the nation, he will not be respected as
much as he was in this little city. This state can be proud of how
it responded. But mostly, this university can and should be proud
of the way it responded to a situation most people thought
could be disastrous.
I/ filAWft.lD. JU5TIOWNO \ ? ,
|( TW JUK* ^ *WI*A# \ r^.s^ ?S \
U fcTH'CM STWtwW) WM5 W- U ^K\ i ))
11 ML GWWMT I^ajT <-Jn~ yX. \ /
I BV>?> - J V / Vv
fJt}- f ff-/
Rflfcl 4Wi. !?f r-td \ V,f ?
^ n o nTfiSl
fiPTfl \tozrsrft Vwei^m H 11 I I I I I I I Lt l*in1
The Staff
Assistant Copy Desk Chief Historian
Andy Bechtel Bobby Jones
Assistant News Fditors Adviser
Todd Hines Bill Rogers
Jeff Shrewsbury Director of Student Media
Assistant Features Kditor Bill Clements
Firdous Bamji Production j
AdCiidtvint mnrirttt b '
Kac I.eigh Son Ha
Assistant Photography Editor Advertising Manager
\ Jonathhn Williams Margaret Michels
Dafehnok Editor Assistant Advertising Manager
Kalherine (iilberi !>;??"? Miller
I>el(erf Policy: I hi (,am*co<k ?lll tr> to prim ktirr* rr<?i?fO lilliri tfcould h?. at ? mnlmum. 250 to 300 wordi long (,?* ?
editorial* thoold noi tir?fd 500 word* V%r rrmvt ih* right to edit l#tl?M for *i>U or pottlbk 111*1 fht (,amt<<xk will no! withhold
mm?i undtr ?nr rtr(HMit?M?.
I
John Paul, football an<
Wow, what a weekend.
The pope, drinks and football. What else could a HMk
red-blooded, wholesome American boy ask for in a
Well . . . maybe, drinks, the pope and football.
muy way you louR ai ii, ii was prooaoiy tne most Ipff
cxciting three-day swing in Columbia since General '
Tecumsah Sherman hit town. ohreWSDliry ^ fj
First, the drink.
It was rumored this past week that a few people ^ _ ;
throughout the campus were having prc-papal par- j j
tics. Many would say these people are destined for j - -- -r~
a condo in hell, but they shouldn't be, and
Catholics should not be offended.
At one party, it was said, people were baptising
people with Latin names such as Partius Maximus she was especially proud that no one |
and giving communion with Wonder Bread while the pope came. She said it looked like
drinking red wine and singing Gregorian chants. happy to see him, and they were.
This wasn't disrespectful; it was fun. It was As much garbage that has been in tl
meant to perpetuate the festivities of this Grade-A on the air waves about the bad thi
weekend, and only nice things were said about the stands for, everyone at The Horscsh<
pope, I promise ... I mean ... I heard. happy that the pontiff chose USC.
aecunu, mc pope. Catholics, Protestants, Baptists an
At The Horseshoe, there were only 13,000 peo- all so elated that John Paul II deci<
pie, but they yelled like they were twice that. I special audience to USC, that any
guess most people were scared they wouldn't get ferences were moot for the 15 mil
back out of Columbia until Christmas, so they there.
didn't show. Also, I guess you have to sec the pc
My grandmother called me from Charlotte Fri- but when the man speaks.it seems lik
day night and said the campus looked great, the get will fall from his mouth at any i
people looked great,and it looked like there were just the sweetest speaking little man I
thousands more on hand than 13,000. She also said And he's cool, too.
Thornwell more stalag
I'm thinking about getting my student ID
number tatooed to my arm.
It's a sort of protest, you see, to let der Fuerher hrSbhrP
and der commandante know I'm a little der
steamed. !
I'd burn my ID card, hut I don't have $10 to get Steoh^n ISBBfcMi
a replacement made. ^
You see, the new visitation policies have made Guilfoyle KKS
living in Thornwell residence hall seem like living in wSSSmimmStm {
a concentration camp. They're not killing us, but bBmBBSSs
it's getting ridiculous what they're doing to us. f Thornwell
was always run on the apartment
plan. Sure, we were listed as Plan I), which let us
have the entire weekend and until 11:30 on ???????????
weekdays open to bring in our friends.
But Thornwell is more like an apartment who works for housing told me to go
building than a dorm because it has no general Blossom Street entrance. He yelled i
meeting area, no front desk and no security- I yelled back, explaining in simple
monitored entrances. So we informally ran it on limited brain capacity that 1 wasn't
me apartment pian; reaa mat "trce-tor-alJ." Towers, but into one of the exterior
Quiet hours, we've been told, will be enforced I then called him various and ?
strictly. Even on weekends. under my breath, starting with Nazi
You know, when I heard that the visitation ting worse. I was steamed.
policies were being changed, I thought "Aw, that's
.\wful." But I didn't prepare for it. People are being accosted as they tr
"it'd never happen here," I thought. friends because they try to visit their
Wrong. pie are being told to keep the mu<
People were saying it's impossible to get into the weekends. Including the week b
Towers. "They make you go all the way around to started.
Blossom Street, even if the dorm you want to go in- USC, and especially my dormitor
to isn't on Blossom Street," 1 heard. used to be a free, easy-going plac
In fact, when 1 was going to visit a friend who places need stricter handling, such
lives in one of the ground level apartments on the dorms.
outside of Douglas, some apprentice "traffic cop" Strange guys on women's flooi
Letters to the editor
TVfto vhrhW They also found compelling evidence tionary.
A ritfZ JllC'liS ailUrr that sanctions have gravely harmed supportivi
. South Africa's blacks. Unemploy- by the V
sanctions wrong ment among black laborers has Pretoria r
soared as industries that were heavily human s
To the editor: dependent upon exports to the toward g
This past summer and fall, liberal United States have lost much of their South Afi
forces across the nation claimed vie- market. time our <
tory when Congress overrode Presi- Sanctions have also increased the
dent Ronald Reagan's courageous political strength of apartheid's sup- Janice M.
veio 01 punitive economic sanctions porters. An anti-reform backlash in President,
against South Africa. But this sum- the recent South African whites-only Students I
mer, black and white anti-South elections ousted the moderate ProAfrica
activists "can't be reached for gressive Federal Parly as minority
comment" about the impact of sane- party. The pro-apartheid Conser- lions.
That's because sanctions have vaiive Party is now the official
not only failed; they've backfired! opposition.
That's the conclusion of an in- Now the Pretoria government will To the i
creasing number of experts ? among be criticized in Parliament not for Ouch! 1
them the nine members of the French moving too slowly to abolish apar- president,
Parliament who visited South Africa theid, but for moving too quickly! efforts to
from June 27 through July II. The The French delegation unanimous- with failui
French delegation reported a ly expressed their opposition to fur- Michael
u?oiiihiuu3 uppij.Muuii 10 sancuons tner sanctions. They concluded that president,
among representatives of black, the process of dismantling apartheid year's zer
Asian, and colored communities. should be evolutionary, not revolu- but I knov
?
IRFWIWHtRE."
(J drinks at USC
I He got out of his pope cruiser and strutted up to
the stage and winged it with the students. His voice
E seemed to cut through the crowd. He's as far from
menacing as you can get, and it amazes me anyone
could want to do him harm. ^
To show you the dedication of people wanting to
see him: there was this girl in the front row who
had been there in the sweltering heat since 11:30 !
a.m. All she wanted to do was see the pope. She
waited five hours and passed out from the heat 10
I minutes before he got there. 1 felt so bad.
It doesn't matter if you agree with anything the
pope says or does because he's probably the
second-most conservative man in the world, but
you have to admit the man can control an audience
?ot ugly when and can speak his little heart out.
everyone was I wonder if he'll come next year.
And third, football.
he papers and The Gamecocks won their second game this past
ngs the pope weekend, but they didn't look so gr'eat.
>e was just so Maybe it's because most of us were sitting in the
rain eating soggy chicken, but we had a lot of
d others were things to RriDC about, on and off thf field
Jed to give a
religious dif- It's great to have football back, and USC looks ' .?&
lutes he was to be pretty good, but Todd had better stop throwing
interceptions, or Nebraska and Georgia and the
ipe in person, rest of them will eat us alive.
e a holy nug- But a couple bumper stickers, soon to be
ninute. He is available, say it all: "Help from Heaven in '87"
've ever seen. and "Our 'Cocks are blessed."
You know, it don't get any better than this.
than dormitory
screams and panic. Strange girls on guys' floors
Hppa cause nothing.
| In Thornwell, when a guy is walking back from
thf? hall chnvuor in incf o ''
.UVVI ill JUJI a luwtl anu SCCb it MTctngC
; : j girl, he says "hi" and goes back to his room. And
bSBHB some guys flash some ? Lord forgive me the only
acceptable word I can find is ? tush.
* jmKEBb Most girls would freak out if a guy saw them
HfiBgJK after they took a shower. The rules are more strict
in women's dorms with reason. And maybe the
IwiWWm rules needed to be made more strict.
But not in Thornwell. Not in Bates. Not in the
1?-??? Towers.
These were the dorms where noise is more comaround
to the rnon than quiet, where the smell of alcohol stains
it me. on the rug can be 20 years old or from the party the
: terms for his night before. These were the dorms where parties
going into the went on. Good ones, bad ones. But even the bad
apartments. ones were pretty good sometimes.
sundry names The "traffic cops" at the Towers are going to
geek, but get- completely discourage people from bringing in the
things that will make life and parties a little more
fun.
y to visit their Partying at Bates, my roommate has already
friends. Peo- been written up seven times ? having too much
iic down. On fun, I guess.
efore classes And the guys at Thornwell seem to have given
up. They don't want to party anymore. They don't
y, Thornwell, want to play their music loud anymore. Some don't
e. Yes, some want to play their music at all.
as women's This is the new USC.
Unfortunately.
rs can cause Anyone know where I can get a tattoo made?
They recommended that was th<? nniu ?> ?
.... WIIV TT1IU J>l WIIIOCU pel*
t measures be undertaken sonally "no tuition increase." Dr.
Vest that will enable the Holderman, you're a man of your
egime to continue, without word. Touche.
uffering, down the path Permit me to be the first to say
reater democracy for all thanks. Darn if a zero-dollar increase
ricans. For their sakes, it's seems to me nowhere near the $660
Congress took heed. The Gamecock claimed we were going
to see. It's a shame programs will
Kraft have to suffer: needlps?nr? unn're
. " */ ? / VM v
, going to be crucified for all the proKor
America grams that will be cut to make up for
* I*, J the shortfalls. There is no winning
\@COCK> 11(2(1 when you're too good for your own
# # good. My dad was right ? life really
it tllltlOIl ain>t fair- is it? 1 ,ook to
reading all the letters The Gamecock
editor: will print from all the ungrateful
fry as I might to make our students who have benefitted from
Dr. Holderman, a liar, my your efforts. Unless you're a lot
iaisc uat s tuition met more corrupt than all the Holdcrman
e. haters claim, I can't help but feel
Hogue, the one we elected you're a sap for taking such abuse,
may take the credit for this
o-dollar tuition increase, Jeffrey Ham
v for a fact Dr. Holderman Business graduate