Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Kraft 'State' story validates actiom of USC's conservative gadfly Well, The State newspaper had to go and do it ? it ran a stor] in Friday's Metro section about Janice Kraft, a USC marketing senior who also is USC's conservative gadfly. Kraft was at USC's Florida State game, which was a national ly broadcast game right before Election Day, and she was carry ing a sign, or "placard," supporting Ron Paul's candidacy foi president. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, USC has a poliq against such political signs in USC facilities. And it seems j good policy if it's not taken too far. In Kraft's case, it wasn't taken too far. She was making j nuisance of herself. After she was told she couldn't hold up he: sign, she made another, with the same words on it, so it was, ii effect, the same sign. Originally, the reserve police officers, better known as, un fairly known as ? the blue blazered Gestapo, told Kraft sh< could hold her sign in the stands. But when they asked thei: superior about it, he told them the policy was no signs any when in the stadium. So they went back and had to get the sign from Kraft. So sh< made another one. They came back and got that sign as well. S( she made another one. And they had to come back and get tha sign as well. And Kraft is crying persecution ? USC is trying to limit he> free speech. Baloney. She wasn't the only one who lost signs that day. Bush sup porters lost their signs. Dukakis supporters lost their signs. Bu she was the only one who, as she said in her letter to 77z< ^ ?- -- i 1 A - i !xl- 11 : J i.1 j. uamecoc/c, continued to maice signs witn caruooaru uiai wa: amazingly convenient. The other people were a nuisance, the] had signs that had to be taken up, but Kraft continued to make ; nuisance of herself. So at the Navy game, she brought another "free speed placard" and walked around the stadium for a long while befor< she was again removed from the stadium, as The State stor said. One of her signs said "Pardon Oliver North, Indict Con gress," but it listed neither what crimes of which North is guilt] and therefore deserving of a pardon, nor did it say what charge: should be listed in the congressional indictment. The other side of the sign said something to the effect of USC and its foundations should divest any investments held in com panies doing business with the Soviet Union. Support for Ron Paul. Support for Oliver North. Support fo divestment from the USSR. Support for indictments issuec against Congress. Kraft is entitled to believe and speak freely about any and al of these issues. But does she have the right to carry a sign to ; USC event and make it look like the rest of USC's student: believe the same thincs? No she doesn't. The rieht to free SDeecl carries no right to misrepresentation with it. At a gathering of students, alumni and fans, she has ever right to talk to people about the causes she supports. But shi doesn't have the right to turn what is for the rest of us a simple pleasurable sporting event into a statement of support for som< political cause. No one put a gag over Kraft's mouth, no one said she can' talk about what she feels is right and wrong. The policy is in ef feet to prevent her from using her signs to wrongly show tha USC students support something they do not. Williams-Brice Stadium and the rest of the university's sport facilities are places where people go to watch sports. It's wronj to seek to use athletic events as stump rallies and political stump ing grounds. No one has the right to make a statement, carry a banner o do some kind of action that suggests this university or it students support a political candidate or platform when thos< students do not. It was wrong last year when USC President James Holdermai gave a jersey to then-presidential candidate George Bush because it may have wrongly been construed as university sup port for Bush. And it was wrong when former S.G. Presiden Michael Hogue presented then presidential candidate Bob Dol< with a jersey at another football game, because it may hav< wrongly suggested that the students supported Dole. The reserve police officers who threw Kraft out of the game and took her "free speech placard" from her were only doin their jobs enforcing a university policy. If Kraft has problem with the policy, she should seek to change it or get it remove before she goes around breaking it and begins complainin about her "violated" rights. The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Datebook Editor STEPHEN GUILFOYLE JENNY SHARPE Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor WAYNE YANG MICHAEL SHARP Assistant Copy Desk Chief Comics Editor KATHY BLACKWELL TRACY MIXSON News Editor Adviser HAL MILLARD PAT MCNEELY Assistant News Editor MARY PEARSON KELLY C. THOMAS Director of Student Media Features Editor ED BONZA SUSAN NESBITT Advertising Manager Assistant Features Editor MARGARET MICHELS TOM JOYNER Production Manager Sports Editor LAURA DAY KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Production Manager Assistant Sports Editor RAY BURGOS CHRIS SILVESTRI Assistant Advertising Manager Photography Editors BARBARA BROWN BRIAN SAULS TEDDY LEPP Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 nords 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. trer*" | | Letters to * ! Sengstacken is a whiner y To the editor: S I was disgusted by the selfish, whining attitude displayed by Pvt. i Bill Sengstacken in his column about the National Guard ("Be all you can be? Not in this leaky tent," Friday, Nov. 11). Tell me, private, what were r you expecting when you joined the } Guard? Featherbeds? The Guard prepares you to defend your country . ?that means war, private. I doubt the enemy forces will be so 1 kind as to hold battles only on nice, S sunny days. And I doubt that your 1 every whim will be catered to. A leaky tent bothers you? You may not have even that much on a battlefield ^ or on your next drill. My father is in 2 the Guard, and he hasn't always had , a tent, leaky or not, to sleep under in s the rain. He still has to put up with such minor inconveniences, even though he is now a colonel. * The National Guard doesn't treat ? Iff matviKarp ntiir ffarontlir thon t Via lid luuiiuus any uiii^i^iiii,y man inw t regular armed forces treat its. The Guard is an important part of our nas tion's defense. In case of an emergency, the Guard would form 50 percent ? of our total Army mobilized fighting forces. The Guard has a long and proud history. It has fought in every r major war since the American s Revolution. Not only have Guardsmen faced the ravages of war, they e have faced the ravages of natural disaster as well, and they have saved 1 many lives. Today's Guard trains just as hard ' as the regular forces do. Guard units are prepared for deployment to hot * spots all over the world, including the ? Middle East. Guardsmen must make e many sacrifices to belong to the Guard; they take time off from their regular jobs; they miss holidays, an;s niversaries, birthdays, and other g special events in their families' and IS friends' lives; they endure less-thand comfortable training conditions. The g vast majority of the men and women in the National Guard are every bit as dedicated and as patriotic as their regular military counterparts. The S.C. Army National Guard has been ranked No. 1 for five of the past eight years, including last year. Pvt. Sengstacken, you obviously did not closely read the National 1 Guard creed, if you read it at all, especially the last lines: "Wherever a strong arm and a I valiant spirit must defend the nation, in peace or war, wherever a child cries, or a woman weeps in time of disaster, there I stand ... I am the Guard. For three centuries, a soldier in war, a civilian in peace ? of security and honor, I am the custodian, now and forever. . . I am the Guard. " Since your only interest in the National Guard seems to be money, private, I suggest you get out at the earliest possible opportunity. Whiners disgrace the uniform. Elizabeth Cassidy journalism senior USC cops just meter maids To the editor: For three and a half years, 1 have J diligently defended Carolina's ad ;NTLELME.tsf,.. fAfZT.. tz?cs/s How Mike the editor t, ministrative policies and programs. However, the students have been getting a raw deal that no longer can be ignored. Our university spends hundreds of thousands of dollars each year on an ineffective campus police system. One would believe that a police force should serve the public ? one that protects and provides for the individuals' safety. This is not the case at Carolina. It seems as if the motto at the station has become, "Ticket as many vehicles as we can at all possible times." Students live in fear that if they park in an "undesignated" space close to their dorms, they will receive a ticket (the equivalent of 10-15 servings of steak fries) either during the night or early the next morning. However, many students, female especially, find themselves doing the former or resorting to parking a good distance away from their dorms, jeopardizing their own safety. Why should a student be placed in such a dilemma? Because this is an urban setting, there have been countless, heinous acts of a criminal nature on campus. But what we have is not a useful police force, but a team of meter maids who do not ensure the safety of the students: The solution does not lie in more campus lighting or shuttle rides from Five Points. What is needed is a valid police force that will protect the students instead of inflicting unneeded financial hardship on them through endless meter monitoring. No student should ever be trapped in the nighttime parking/walking dilemma. But as long as the campus rent-a-cops keep ticketing like mad, the problem will persist. I am dismayed to see that USC no longer stands for "Use Sense and Caution," but, "yoU're Screwed Constantly." Robert D. Garfield political science senior Israel not free bastion To the editor: I applaud your editorial in the Viewpoint section (Wednesday, Nov. 17) recognizing Israeli terrorism and intransigence and supporting the Palestinians' right to selfgovernment. Be prepared for a barrage of "shocked and amazed" people who believe the fairy tale that Israel is a tiny, beleaguered nation facing gratuitous terrorist attacks from an inhuman population. As Professor Edward Said points out, the Israelis control two fronts: territory and international myth. More than a hundred nations recognize the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), the victims of terrorism are inordinately Palestinians, and Israel gets away with brutality, massacres, illegalities, and immoralities which anywhere else would sicken the world. But you will be censured for your anti-semitism, because when a people resist genocide and religious persecution, and children with pebbles face fully armed soldiers receiving more than $9,000 each from the United States, they are really just anti-semites. 60 Minutes gave a report last month on the tremendously powerful American Israel Political Action Committee. It is well-known that the Israeli government hears numerous criticisms from its own newspapers, dm Lost. but woe to anybody in the United States even hinting at criticism of Israel. But the good news is that the American Jewish lobby, previously monolithic and arrogant with power, has received one small blow: they failed to elect their candidate (Dukakis) to office. Seems Bush and Quayle had thought it possible at various points in their careers to run foreign policy (and sell arms) in the Middle East by considering the interests of the United States and Israel, but not the interests of the American Jewish lobby. Don't they know that the United States is not allowed to develop its own foreign policies? Eric Winkel, Ph.D. Editorial erred on Israel To the editor: As someone who enjoys dual citizenship of both the United States and Israel, it occurs to me that if I was going to write an article criticizing the U.S. government, it might do me well to find out who the president is and what political party he belongs to. If the writer of the article, "Israel," does not know that Yitzak Shamir is the prime minister of Israel and heads the Likud (conservative) party, as opposed to Shimon Perez, who heads the Labor party, how can we possibly take the article seriously? If one does not know who the policymakers are, it is doubtful that one has a real grasp on the policies that have been proposed. If I wrote an article claiming that Michael Dukakis, who heads the Republican party, defeated the Democrats, no one would take my article or myself seriously. The author of "Israel" might take time to note that the man he believes ! to be the leader of the conservative Likud party has actually proposed giving the West Bank to the Palestinians as a Palestinian homeland. Mr. i Perez has a plan for Israeli I withdrawal from from the majority ] of the West Bank. i Beyond the government and election nonsense is a more serious mat- < ter. To suggest that the Israelis have I placed the Palestinians in concentra- ] tion camp-type interment is a crime i against the six million Jewish people s murdered under Nazi oppression. < This is by far the most regrettable < statement The Gamecock has made \ this year. An overwhelming majority of 1 Israeli society is opposed to apartheid \ in bouth Atrica, and a large number ( of the population participates in i Peace Now, a group that seeks peace < with the Arabs. All Israelis want c peace. It is difficult to find even a handful of Israeli families who have [ not experienced war or lost at least t one family member. Israel's declara- ? tion of independence guarantees \ equal rights to Arabs in all phases of ' life. But in the occupied territories, < there is a Palestinian population that i shares no support for Israel's educa- t tional system and institutions, its i flag, government or legacy; they have i furthermore dedicated their lives to 1 destroying the state of Israel and r Israeli civilians. The voice of the c Palestinians, the PLO (Palestine j Liberation Organization), bombed t the West Bank 5,000 times in three years. The PLO even put dynamite in an ice cream truck and drove it into . . J an Israeli kindergarten, killing children. The situation is difficult, and solutions are hard to come by. When the United States won Texas, they didn't call it the occupied territory of Texas; they called it the state of Texas. So it is with with the West Bank and Gaza. The only exception is that many Palestinians attempted to leave Israel in 1948 in hopes that when the Arab nations destroyed the infant Jewish state, they could then return to the land. After the war these people tried to enter Arab nations but were denied entry by their Arab brothers. These Arabs became homeless and ended up in refugee camps. My only hope is that a lasting and peaceful solution can be reached. I can tell you this, however: Israelis love their children, and they will stop at nothing to obtain peace for them. Robert Schwartz theology/philosophy senior USC lottery not bad idea To the editor: Why don't we have a lottery for scholarships, financial aid and Senate seats, too? Lorri Shealy Pendleton parker View rattled, hum bugged A U LI1V ^.UllUl . I'm writing in response to Bill Sengstacken's review of Rattle and Hum, U2's latest album ("Picking Your Notes," Nov. 18). Rattle and Hum is an album depicting American music at its rarest and best. Old-style blues and country music have been long forgotten by our generation and aur music. The song "Angel of Harlem, " which "really gets under my skin," happens to be written for blues great Billie Holliday (ever hear of her?). I igree it is different to hear a horn section in a U2 song, but U2 has ;arned the right to experiment with different types of music, which is what they are doing with this album. "When Love Comes to Town," a 3lues song on the album, includes /ocals and powerful guitar work lone by B. B. King. Another \merican music Dioneer. Bob Dvlan. :ollaborated with Bono in the writing >f "Love Rescue Me." Rattle and Hum is an album of exjerimentation and a celebration of he Joshua Tree tour, one of the greatest tours in years. It includes live versions of "Silver and Gold," 'Pride" and "Bullet the Blue Sky," ill songs written about American ssues that we as U.S. citizens refuse o face. Bill Sengstacken's review of Rattle and Hum lacks the depth and nsight needed in order to listen to a J2 album. Bill Sengstacken is a narowminded critic who refuses to ac:ept U2's new and diverse ex>eriments with various styles of Vmerican music. Monica Costeilo journalism freshman