University of South Carolina Libraries
Almost was Students denied opportunity to meet foreign policy VIPs . .the saddest of these is 'It might have been,"' someor once said, are the saddest words of all. As part of our on-going educational process at USC we wi learn exactly what that phrase means ? government and intei national studies and journalism students especially. But we won't be able to watch and learn directly from th likes of William F. Buckley Jr. and Henry Kissinger and forme Sens. Gary Hart and George McGovern and former United Ns tions Ambassador Jeane Kirkpatrick. They're all big names i the world of foreign policy, one of them, Kissinger's, probabl the biggest. All of them wilbbe here at USC taping an episode of Buckley' show, Firing Line. They will be debating foreign policy. We'i get to observe it, but not firsthand, not with the magic that ac companies being in the presence of such people. We won't b able to see them as real human beings, just as figures on the T^ tube. And that's OK. They just came in here and rented ou Longstreet theatre. The university isn't really sponsoring it. It' just making money off of it. But wouldn't it have been nice to have the show in the Lav School Auditorium as it was in the early 1980s? Or wouldn't i have been even nicer to have it in Carolina Coliseum when thousands of faculty and students could have witnessed th< debate? There's no real criticism of the university here. It is just ren ting out space to a group that thinks our beautiful Longstree Thppfrp pan aHH a forto in Hromoti^ affa/>+ * ~ r?... vi?. ??? w. vviuuu uicuiiauv v.lltvi LU IIS M1UW. Dll wouldn't it be nice if the university would add a clause tc whatever contracts it has for situations such as these saying thai if the program has any kind of educational value students anc faculty be allowed to send a few representatives. It would be incredible for GINT students to meet the likes ol Buckley and his show's guests. The chance for journalism students ? some of whom hope to report about people such aj these ? to meet people of this stature would be incredible. But it's not going to happen, and that's a shame. 'Here, Hold These Signs While I Put Up This Other One' f| ||?' - ,jij />! ' , < r p fjr ?> i f I i \* ,s,! ^ ^ %r ">?>?* 'so<w~' Jlk il ' ' ^gte&HAver ?H7Yft-.ipvit Ttofr-piITATM*rp| | I he Gamecock k: Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Datebook Editor STEPHEN GUILFOYLE JENNY SHARPE Managing Editor Graphics Editor SON HA MICHAEL SHARP Copy Desk Chief Comics Editor WAYNE YANG TRACY MIXSON News Editor Adviser HAL MILLARD PAT MCNEELY Assistant News Editor Graduate Assistant STEVE PRADARELLI PHILLIP MCKENZIE MARY PEARSON Director of Student Media ED BONZA Features Editor Advertising Manager SUSAN NESBITT MARGARET MICHELS Assistant Features Editor Production CHUCK DEAN LAURA DAY Photography Editors RAY BURGOS BRIAN SAULS Assistant Advertising Manager TEDDY LEPP BARBARA BROWN Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for style or possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. ||?%TnW *v :r I dyLIZSI ^^-X *1 F ' Where were y No one ever said it would be easy. At least, nobody told us that up here at The Gamecock.. Picture this ? Reporters in the midst of writing stories onto the computer, Editor's in the throes of revising good stories into great stories, Me sitting in my office trying to decide if I should take a nap now or wait a few minutes and then take a nap. WHEN SUDDENLY. . . The lights go out, the reporters scream. Their stories are now gone and will have to be done over, The editors scream also (They have to start from scratch with almost all their stories.), And I decide to take my nap since someone was kind enough to turn off the light for me while I was blinking. I was real tired. Kidding aside (but real close by so I can pick it up quick if I have to), this is one of those things. They'll ask us, years and years from now, "Where were you during the blackout of '88?" or "Did you get caught in one of the dorm elevators, Pop?" or "Did the birth rate rise dramatically nine months later, and did you take part in that, you rascal Wkl.9?> ;vu This was a famous happening, kids. People remember blackouts. I remember when I missed the biggest blackout of the '70s. The Indian River Film boycott Sometimes, I really do love this country. You can pretty much say what you want, do what you want and think what you want, as long as you do so within the relatively liberal boundaries of the law. At least, that's the way it's supposed to work. But in the case of Martin Scorcese's film The Last Temptation of Christ, these freedoms are being denied. By now, nearly everyone has heard of the uproar the film has caused. Jesus is portrayed not as a God with human features, but as a human with God-like tendencies. As such, He is subject to such failings as lust, anger and self-doubt. During a hallucination that he has while he is dying on the cross, Jesus dreams of marrying and having sex with Mary Magdalene, his first wife in the dream. This onscreen sex hallucination has proved particularly irksome to many fundamentalists. Neither I, nor many of those protesting the film, have seen the work. Actually, protest barely touches on it. Jerry Falwell has organized a boycott against MCA, the parent company of Universal Pictures, which is distributing the film. Falwell seems to feel that the First Amendment doesn't apply to religious figures. Perhaps if Falwell had viewed the film, rather than simply complain about it, it wouldn't bother me so much. Universal held screenings for religious figures in July. The conservative clergy refused to Letters to the Letter unfair an intelligen <_ sonally offei to Northerners made,n fu ourselves an To the editor: ferent light. We are writing in response to the Mr. Ardis letter from Michael Ardis and in coffee. The 1 defense of all Northerners in general, won is inc< First, we'd like to say that, as Nor- later. Lightei therners, we enjoy the South and the attempt to hospitality it has shown us. Secondly, meone's hon we would like to point out that USC ments from c and The Gamecock in particular thern people gives everyone the opportunity to "ocassionaly participate in a forum of progressive Gamecock) f ideas. can you, a ? In order to improve ourselves, we claim to be, ^^3^1 "'HML/rv.11 r\y ^sg| tfpbb to the ou when the lij Stephen . "Tfjf-^T Guilfoyle I ; . ./ -"-*' ?V"l' -?.?W i? W w>lfcji>V*?W? Nuclear Power Plant, which keeps the bright lights of Broadway and the rest of New York City lit, went bye-bye for a time. I was up at summer camp. That was a long time ago. Dad said it wasn't much fun. But I might have had some fun suddenly acquiring new TVs and other electronic equipment before being hosed down by the National Guard. But Thursday I survived my first real blackout. It isn't one of those moments when a boy becomes a man, but it ain't bad, either. We have theories. We're the media, we always have theories, hunches and ideas. You see, while most of the campus was blacked out by whatever it was, when the lights came back on, they didn't come back on here in the Student censorship, ui Bill t||j|l ^ Sengstacken f attend, finding it more to their liking iu Mage a protest in the Universal Studio lot. Hear no evil, see no evil. . . . Bill Bright of the Campus Crusade for Christ sent a letter to MCA Chairman Lew Wasserman offering to raise money to buy all copies of the film, which would "promptly be destroyed." The company was quite correct in responding with several full-page newspaper ads, quoting Thomas Jefferson, "Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press and that cannot be limited without being lost." Wasserman has additional reason to be annoyed at the protests. Wasserman, who is Jewish, was the target of an ugly incident staged by extremist Reverend R. L. Hymers Jr. The event, staged across the street from Wasserman's home, includeditor e to take criticism from newspaper's contents as t angle and not be per- liberal slant when you onl ided by comments often "sports and comics." in to allow us to see Take the chip off youi d each other in a dif- and come down from ; horse, Mr. Ardis. If eve: , wake up and smell the can live happily together as war is over and whoever and Southern neighbors (e> jnsequential 123 years maybe you should lot i up! There is no need to yourself to see where the re personally insult so- immature and bigoted" ic le state or classify com- from. >ne person as "how Nor- Roger : act." You wrote you Trei look through (The (the state of medic rom time to time." How Jan ;raduate student as you Philade objectively criticize the (next to the state of medic ^attwt BBS? ?hts went out? Media section. The perfectly normal paranoia of the media then seized our brain (it was always there, but it suddenly got active) and we began to speak in tongues, not realizing what we were saying. "It's Holderman," someone said. "No it's Rodney Williams," someone else said. "No it's probably a coalition of all the millions that nnilfm/lp hoc D D M ...? v.u..iujiv uuj i .v/. u oiin.c iic Maiicu wining that trash he calls a column." "No, it's the greeks, they hate us too." "Naw, they don't hate us, but it might be a . pledge pranks Yeah, that's the ticket." L*i.??ah, the censpifaey theories were just flying around in our heads, floating out of our mouths faster than the speed of light. We didn't believe any of them, but it just goes to show you how that God-awful press, such as we, gets all these crazy ideas. But'once in print, as all these are, we have to check them out, as Miami Herald columnist Dave Barry once said. So, first I'll check if there's a new USC student organization that goes by the acronym GATHKAG, God-fearing Americans ? The Honest Kind ? Against Guilfoyle. If not, and the president or the actor own any wire clippers, they better be prepared. I'm an ex-Boy Scout. I'm almost always prepared, except when. . . The lights go out. i-American ed an airplane trailing a sign reading, "Wasserman fans Jew hatred with temptation," and a crowd chanting, "Bankrolled by Jewish money." Thankfully, not all Christians are fundamentalists and even fewer are extremists. The Rev. William Fore of the National Council of Churches says the film is "an honest attempt to tell the story of Jesus from a different perspective." The Episcopal Bishop of New York, The Rt. Keverena raui Moore Jr. went so far as to say that Temptation was "Theologically sound." Still, it would be nice to judge the film personally. But, because of the protests staged elsewhere, local theater owners are frightened that a boycott could ruin them. Is this freedom to think and act as you want? No. It's censorship. And censorship in any form is most distressing in a country such as ours. A Christian should have no reason to fear this film. If he is strong in his belief, then no film, no matter how offensive, can shake his faith in his God. If viewing the film does make him question his feelings, then perhaps those feelings were not so strong to begin with. Either way, Christian or not, no one should have the power to tell another individual what they can or cannot view. Nothing should shake that basic tenet. As Voltaire said, "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." y7ZV< Keader enjoys r shoulder 'whole shebang' /our high ~ ryone else > Northern To editor: cept you), (Stephen Guilfoyle) Just to say )k inside you're doing a great job. :al "petty, 1 enjoy your layout, your views, ieas come y?ur writing, and the obvious stamp of your personality on the whole Schroppe shebang. Congrats to you and your iton, N.J. staff. It's really outstanding, al wastes) nes Simon Iphia, Pa. Tim Crenshaw al wastes) USC School of Music