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'Temptation' Controversial movie opens in Columbia amid protest That movie opened in Columbia Friday, and a number of USC students were in line ? some to see it, and some to protest it. Roth had a legitimate rieht to be in whatever line their hearts - - ? c O and minds chose for them. Some were in line to see it because they felt Jerry Falwell's kind of intimidation in attempting to censor this film is totally un-American. Some were in line because they believe in Newton's laws ? "every action has an opposite and equal reaction." Person X says "Don't see it," Person Z says, "I think I'll see it." They are people who are just looking for something to react to. o i:? 1 i ?c ouine were 111 line ueectu^e nicy wcuueu in sec <x 111111 uy unc ui their favorite directors, Martin Scorcese, a filmmaker of proven talent ? as well as a proven ability to use that talent to make controversial films. Some were in line, most likely, because they hadn't been to a flick in a while and missed the popcorn as much as anything else. For that reason, this film was as good as any and better than some because it's within walking distance of campus. Some were in line ? the protest line ? because they saw the film as an affront to their conception of God, of Jesus Christ. Some were in the protest line because they had justifiable fears that some people wouldn't know the "real" Jesus Christ. They were there to hand out New Testaments to those who saw it. Some were only complaining because they said the film doesn't represent the Biblical Christ. The film is based on a fictional novel by Nikos Kazantzakas. His book is a fictional account of an almost-totally-human /"~ll . 1 1/ j. 1 1 1 _ " * _ C f.IiL 4-? ^nrist oecause is.azanu.aKas uau a crisis ui lauii ruining iu terms with the problems of the weakness of the flesh, and the strength of the spirit." His own spirit, and his own flesh. And Kazantzakas, a theologian, saw that the best Biblical example dealing with this problem was the dual nature of Christ ? both man and God. The Gamecock is not going to say whether the film is right or wrong, but the editors, in discussions both in the office and away from it, did say that no one has the right to say whether a film can or can't be shown. The actions attempted by certain religious fundamentalists smacked of book-burning, censorship and prior restraint, ideals supposedly alien in the United States. Yet many fundamentalists, especially Falwell, have attempted to wrap themselves so tightly in the flag that one might think they were the Founding Fathers themselves, come back in another form. Those who were there saying that people shouldn't go see it, protesting the film were exercising their rights. They weren't trying to intimidate and threaten to prevent the film from being shown. It is a sad commentary on our times when a person coming out of a movie is criticized by a few as a Satan worshipper and hailed by others for exercising their First Amendment rights. It's just a movie, and yet, it has become a battle ground where the stakes are much higher than they're perceived to be ? the freedom to freely exchange controversial ideas. M DON'T CARE IF HE FORGETS WHEN PEARL HARBOR DAY IS ? IT'S ALL THE OTHER STUFF HE'S FORGOTTEN | | j THAT BOTHERS M6'^ jF Watwsafr rrf| | Ihe Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Photography Editors STEPHEN GUILFOYLE BRIAN SAULS Managing Editor TEDDY LEPP SON HA Datebook Editor Copy Desk Chief JENNY SHARPE WAYNE YANG Graphics Editor Assistant Copy Desk Chief MICHAEL SHARP KATHY BLACKWELL Comics Editor News Editor TRACY MIXSON HAL MILLARD Adviser Assistant News Editor PAT MCNEELY STEVE PRADARELLI Graduate Assistant MARY PEARSON PHILLIP MCKENZIE Features Editor Director of Student Media SUSAN NESBITT ED BONZA Assistant Features Editor Advertising Manager TOM JOYNER MARGARET MICHELS Sports Editor Production KEVIN ADAMS LAURA DAY a - i ri _ a. r r* a \/ nr m/^rvc Assistant sports r>unor dui\uuo CHRIS SILVESTRI Assistant Advertising Manager BARBARA BROWN / Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print letters rcceised. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 WOrds long, (.ues't 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. (VW[|E??" AruuJtfe CdioStwnoN THE LA! A vote for pai Something I heard in the Humanities elevator the other morning really disturbed me. Two students were discussing the previous evening's presidential debate between Gov. Michael Dukakis, D-Mass., and Vice President George Bush, R. The first student told the other he was a democrat, his father was a democrat and, as far as he knew, his family had always been democrats. For that reason, he favored Dukakis, he said. The other fellow bristled at this, vehemently calling the first a fool. It turned out his family was republican. Simply put, he was voting for Bush. I don't doubt the two gentlemen had watched the debate, but it was apparent neither one had actually listened to what was being said. If the two candidates had been replaced by cardboard cut-outs, it would be doubtful either of the elevator riders would have noticed. Each went in with preconceived notions based on party affiliation. For them, the debate served no purpose. Letters to the And then there l 1 iiiA that the libn was Shout! ? also wonder the library i To the editor: study. Some I have only two questions to ask: What is he On what day did God create Shout! Are all of tl magazine, and why couldn't he have rently talkin rested on that day too? to me on m hope so, bu Kim Shiver Fellow st Broadcasting junior come to the tention of si a j of you 'non Activists more tonight ? I on that test i pragmatic now ablv?s,ud To the editor: Stephen Guilfoyle deemed the activism of the 60's different from the TijviAa activism of today, but I feel no sting X 11 lit* in what was meant to be a rebuke. # Mr. Guilfoyle suggests that today's in m activist have become spineless lately. This may be true, but maybe today's activists are just not as pretentious To the edito and a little more skeptical than they Ah, yes, T used to be. The '60s were full of have change good intentions, but they were also they used to full of naivete, self-indulgence, and The Gamt middle-class kids dreaming of a lament in yc flowery Utopia. Today's activist are wasananti-A more pragmatic and realistic. All of did not simj the protests, the sit-ins, and the ar- one letter th< rests of the '60s proved little because things, they the activists had no real direction. blue issue wi They never really formulated their on the cover views very well. As a result they em- vocation, af barrassed themselves and scared the university cl entire country and caused a conser- present publi vative backlash. In the '60s, many people of people took a self-indulgent swing to reminisce, the left, just as in the '80s most peo- A few poi pie took a self-indulgent swing to the One, the v right, as opposed to the more genuine sored jointly conservatism of the '50s. Today, Alliance and most liberals and conservatives are the NAACP concerned only for themselves. There Two, Am are only a few people left today who non-political for well-thought-out moral and human right philosophical reasons choose to be or against a activists not for just the next few system and years, but for the rest of their lives, volve themsi and they do not want to repeat the mention; th mistakes of what Mr. Guilfoyle sees dividuals wh as the glorious past. their fundan Three, Fr( Wes Belton has more tl Internation Studies sophomore Since we do i Dan Jensen act numbers rnysics ana Main junior our group, definite cot Library too African. W MAAfP wf noisy to study ey^jf;r?e; held protests To the editor: for universit It is now 10:22 p.m., Wednesday holding vigil evening. I am presently sitting in the anyone has library (3rd floor, study carrel) at- come to our tempting to do some studying since 7:30 p.m. 01 we all know that the noise levels in of the Horse the dorms make it next to impossible While I w to study there. The noise level in the Gamecock c library is beyond any imaginable journalistica level. I can hear people talking, that times 5T TEMPTATION! OF CHRIST ^ *ty affiliation a ' tc vi . ?__?J se Kids, it's high time to put those notions on hold ti< long enough to listen to what these men have to a say. It's time to stop tossing off labels like "liberal" or "conservative" as if they were four- p? letter words. Find out what the man stands for before you brand him. Ignorance may be bliss for gc some, but in a presidential election, it could prove til editor I just having a good 'ole' your paper and for activist der if these people know Free South Africa Alliai try is for QUIET study. I Alliance for Peace are can why these people are in the tradition of protesting ii if they do not intend to and unjust systems and gov< ;one just sprinted by me. around the world. I would h studying? Carl Lewis? The Gamecock would fo hese people that are cur- predecessors in their traditio g going to shout answers ing for the moral well-beinj iy test tomorrow? I sure country, t I highly doubt it. udents, please do not Katherim library if you have no in- p :udying. It is a shame all Free South Africa -studiers' had to be here could have done so well if I only would have been ?rnf 7 ' JL- ^ ^Freshmen Unfair tO 21 IS Changed ^amt'ph.D. s.uden, in Education Administration QllV WSIVS an<* a returnee t0 academic 1 J J a number of years. One of the "perks" aboui r: ing to school was the opport vlr. Guilfoyle, the times purchase football and be d. Shall I tell you how tickets so my 15-year-old so be? could see the games. I p ?cock, in the times you $107.50 university fee and th< >ur column on Sept. 28, for the datebook, only to fin /ietnam war paper. They dismay that I only purcha ?ly get closed down for "right" to the tickets ? ;y printed. Among other tickets themselves! If 1 don printed a red, white, and the University has the right tc ith the word "Amerika" ticket (or the space where . This was the final pro- have been sitting if I'd pickei ter many for which the ticket) to someone else for < osed them down. Your tional $16, making $26 on tl ication would horrify the whom you so fondly To me, the football belongs to the university nts: first. Anyone who pays the ui igil you mention is spon- fee has a right to a ticket ? f by Free South Africa right to stand in line for oi 1 the campus chapter of those who wish to bring ( spouses or whoever should nesty International is a right to buy a companion I group working for More and more students cor s. They do not work foe the "mature" ranks, and the iny country or political have dates who are ur therefore would not in- students. Therefore, if fives in the events vou students want to go to ey work only for in- games, and they want to 0 have been stripped of friend, then it seems to lental human rights. university is obligated to offe :e South Africa Alliance beginning of the season, tan one black member. tickets to the students. The re not keep count of the ex- tickets would then go to of each race that are in alumni, etc., etc. If it wasn't 1 cannot give you a students, there wouldn't be a int, but at least two the first place. our group are South I have taken my turn in lint e also work with the up tickets. I could not get tic lich should also, in your the Georgia game because m ur black membership. security number came up wh< s South Africa Alliance working (although I stood in every Friday of last year over 20 minutes when they w y divestment and is now ing first-come, first serve a: s with the NAACP. All abruptly changed the rules, to do to see activism is heard a USC employee bera vigils every Thursday at than one student for objectin i Sumter Street in front sudden enforcement of the :shoe. rules. To be fair, most eir ould not argue that The have been extremely courtet >f the Vietnam era was helpful), lly correct, my point is It seems to me distributioi have changed for both be more fair if it were by clas.< 9 3 WE'RE BA-A-ACk! ) \i?v? wasted vote ) be this country's undoing. The majority of USC students have the right to ote. The shame is that many will throw this right way by allowing others to tell them how to cast teir ballots. After looks, the dumbest reason to ate for a man is party affiliation. .Why should aur family influence the way you vote? It's your ecision, not your father's. Before you decide, weigh the pros and cons in aur mind. What is more important to you: Star /ars or a national health plan? Is abortion lurder? What about the death penalty? Should lere be prayer ih school, or do you favor the iparation of church and state? These are the important issues, not partv affilia n. Find out the positions of the men before you ist your vote. Remember, vote for the man and not for the irty. And if you haven't registered to vote, or haven't itten an absentee ballot, what are you wasting ne for? It's not too late. groups. academic standing in that class ? but ice and that is another issue, rying on It's too late, as far as I'm concernlhumane ed, for the university to be "fair" jrnments about this issue and change the rules lope that in mid-stream. The rules were not Now its well thought out to begin with. Arn of car- bitrarily depriving some people of the g of our opportunity to bring friends or spouses to the game is not going to solve the problem. The university ? fiilhprt ?. " * Ilttua IUU11CI II1C uppui LUIlliy LU pui resident, chase football seats to every qualified Alliance student at the beginning of the year ? and then give them the tickets, not some promises to tickets down the road. I may be wrong, but I think the university is laying itself open to a H class-action suit. I don't want that to happen. I just want my tickets. Edward B. Barden Ph.D. candidate Higher higher education administration at USC He after parfc j|Jg flCCtlS t return? fme money m and I aid the To the editor: ; $70 fee Knowing that any letter addressing id to my the perennial parking problem would ised ,the have an audiance, I decided to write not the on one aspect that may or may not 't show, have occurred to some, and has ) sell my bothered me for quite some time. I would Let me begin by saying that I, too, i up my am an avid reader of letters comin addi- plaining about the lack of spaces, te seat. Misery loves company. % T rAPPntlv cnnVp tr\ q 11 ni\/#?rcit\r nf_ stadium ficial who said that it is not uncomstudents mon for students to accumulate hunniversity dreds of dollars in fines and then not the simply write a check for the entire ne. And amount at graduation time to be able lates or to receive their diplomas, have a ticket. I would suggest that the reason ne from why nothing substantial has been :y won't done is that the university has come liversity to rely on the tremendous amount of 25,000 money that fines generate. I am not football optimistic that a solution will be imbring a plemented any time soon. In the eyes me the of the university no real problem exr, at the ists. There would be a crisis, 50,000 however, if we all started obeying the maining law and deprived USC of the revenue faculty, it has come to expect, for the Perhaps we are even being enteam in couraged to break laws established by the university so that certain agen ; to pick da items can be accomplished, kets for I mentioned above that I enjoy y social reading letters about the parking pro;n I was blems, but it also disheartens me. As line for long as we the students continue hurlere tak- ing accusations at one another, much nd then of the heat is taken off USC. Don't I also continue to blame your fellow te more students for the fundamental prog to the blem. It rightly belongs to USC, printed which has enough money, probably iployees from fines alone, to alleviate the projus and blem many times over. 1 would Richard A. Martin i and by Education graduate