Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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i'Chance Lottery bill up for vote again; this time it should be accepter Once again the state legislators are going to hear about a pro posed lottery for South Carolina. It's a bill and an idea tha i J 1?* 1 -x ~ r ?^ r _ x _ wouxu oring a xoi ox exixa xixuney xux siaic pxugxaxixb xxxai xxco help. The bill died at the end of the last session because o fillibustering that caused it to remain in committee. This time the bill, sponsored by Rep. Ryan Shealy, R Lexington, should get out of committee, and it should b passed. Shealy says the reason the bill has gotten little support i because of the influences of the senators, who are influenced b right-wing fundamentalists. These senators maintain that th very concept of a lottery is immoral. Shealy says the money that could be generated by a lotter would help immeasurably programs that are are in need o money. The money, somewhere between $30 million and $6 million, could be raised for indigent care, education and healt programs in the state. Right now the money for these program is extremely low, and they are getting cut all the time. Shealy says there is nothing in the Bible that says anythin about gambling, and the money, which would be solely for th above programs, is needed badly. The lottery is a good idea. Aside from the right-wing view o gambling and the contention that a lottery would attract th "wrong" element such as organized crime, there is no real basi for opposition. No other state that has a lottery has the problems that the op position to this bill say they do. The money raised is not lost i the administration of a lottery, like the opposition says it is. Th money helps the programs for which it is targeted. The state legislators need to begin thinking more about th good a lottery can do for the state and their constituents tha their own personal biases against gambling. Their views are thei views, but if it helps the people of South Carolina then it shoul be law. Would a senator from Winnsboro, who had a fundamentc opposition to trucking, oppose the new Mack truck plant eve though it would bring new jobs and money to his voters? No, h wouldn't. So why should a senator vote against something that helps 01 the poor and indigent because he doesn't think gambling i moral? The lottery is not a moral issue. It is an economic issue. An the clear facts say that the economic benefit would be tremer dous with the introduction of a lottery. The senators should get this bill out of committee, and shoul make it law for the people of South Carolina. That's who the 1 are representing anyway ? not preachers who watch from th ; special-interest sidelines. The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief Datebook Editor AMnv RFrHTFI ~~~~ JAIN fMlLLirS Managing Editor Graphics Editor JEH SHREWSBURY MICHAEL SHARP Cop; Desk < 'uef Comics Editor KATHY BLACKWELL TD A^V uivcam a . a-, ? . ? TRACY MIXSON Assistant Copy Desk Chief Graduate Assistant CARYN CRABB ROBERT STEVENSON News Editor Advjser MARY PEARSON PAT MCNEELY Assistant News Editors Director of Student Media KELLY C. THOMAS ED BONZA SUSAN NLSBITT Advertising Manager Features Editor MARGARET MICHELS DD H,NES Production Manager Assistant feafurps Editor L<\UR4. DAY TOMMY JO'iNTR Assistant Production Manager ; SpU,,> 4 u,,?' RAY BURGOS Assistant Advertising Manager Assistant Sports Editor BARBARA BROWN CHRIS SILVESTRI Photography Editor TEDDY LEPP Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be. at a maximum, 250 i 300 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters for style i possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. then, \n mm / gl^Blpi WE ORPER ANOIWEF ^=51111 ofr AIR ' Much work h n ir It's up to us now. d The groundwork for racial equality has been laid, and the seeds have been planted. It's up to our J generation, our leaders, our thinkers and us to n water those seeds and make sure they grow and take root. If we don't heed what has already been e done and carry on the fight, we do the great civil rights activists and thinkers of the past an injustice, it We spit on the graves of those who died for the j? cause if we don't work even harder. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the civil , rights fighters of our parents' generation were the a trailblazers. They were the ones who made the 1- ultimate sacrifices, and they were the ones who endured the beatings and killings so that some strides d may be made toward racial equality. They did the hard part ? and now we have to do ^ even more. e The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was the first great leap. It was the first advancement in America's trek toward what it thinks it is. Our country is based on the principle that everyone is equal, and all people have a place here if they want it. Discrimination on any grounds has no place in our society, and until equality is a beiiet ? not just a piece of legislation ? America should be ashamed. If the fight for equality was a marathon, then the Contra aid sli Millions of dollars of overt and covert aid from the United States have left the Nicaraguan Contras no closer to winning their war in that impoverished country. The time has come to end Contra aid once and for all. President-elect George Bush and right-wing members of Congress will undoubtedly bring the issue to a vote again sometime this year. And they will undoubtedly use the same arguments in an attempt to fund the Contras. The pro-aid rationale is steeped in the philosophy of the Cold War: stop communism in our hemisphere. They say the Soviets are establishing a base in Central America to subvert the region. Contra advocates also claim that the Nicaraguan rebels are freedom fighters, the very equivalent of the Americans who fought against the British in the Revolutionary War. A close look at tne tacts reveals that a tew crucial inaccuracies are hiding behind this rhetoric. First, some Soviet influence exists in Nicaragua, but the USSR already has at least two allies ? Cuba and Vietnam ? who represent the worst kind of friend, one that keeps borrowing huge sums of money without giving anything back. The Soviets can hardly afford to prop up Nicaragua as well; ? they have problems enough in their own country. The Sandinista government, while hardly a | Letters to the "| King deserves regardless c 1 _ -- Instead o to be honored ^acheasp[ikpee could all st: I went to one of my classes on proud re Monday because I assumed there supremacist would be a lively discussion about the fatigue whe Rev. Martin Luther King's birthday. teaching th I can honestly say I was not Amy Loon disappointed. memories c One of my majority classmates others gre\ said she was tired of hearing about could be as King. Another majority classmate worked wit then commented that she thought white, as tl King's birthday got so much atten- children all tion because blacks have never had a fade away, leader they could focus on before. After class that day, I knew there was I will ad a problem that someone had to right to bt address. King as lor not alone it African-Americans have always those who had a leader to focus on in one form tired of set or another. King is unique because he fly over th has been our first leader to be tired of gro recognized with a national holiday. blond hair z This day was a very long time com- perfect Am ing, and no one should be ashamed A few yt ift in' fight ^ for H i Shrewsbury .*M tirst leap was a uaoy siep. Legislation cannot do it all. Until Americans begin teaching their children that everyone is the same and that fearing someone because of the color of their skin is wrong, we go backward. The fuel that feeds the fire of racism is fear. When people fear someone, they do so because they're taught to out of ignorance of who that person is. It is our duty to begin to teach our children that there is nothing to fear. It is our duty to teach each other who we are. I am a white man, but I am a human more over. If children can begin to understand that everyone is human and different-skinned people are not so diflould end once Bechtel | 4 " paragon of democracy, remains a faint threat to U.S. interests eight years after the leftist revolution. The Sandinistas may not be running their country the way the United States would like, but Nicaraguans still have rights of private ownership and other freedoms, despite some restrictions. The majority of the people are poor, but much of that poverty can be attributed to the ravages of war. In short, Nicaragua is no Utopia, but it's no evil empire. Either way, the Sandinistas pose little threat to the American way of life. Secondly, the analogy comparing the Contras to America's founding fathers flounders under editor I .... ing it to its fullest ? day cannot equal a lifetimi >f who gets tired of it. like one never quite belon f getting so tired of King, own country. So to i ople should get tired of classmate and others li Forsyth County, Ga. We would say don't be satired and to grow weary of the you are of the injustice, -emergence of white prejudice that he died tryi : groups. Let's all feel :n we hear about families Michel! e kind of racist lies that Political sci< lis ("Movie brings back >f racism," Monday) and T pf f p?* l*pfl v up learning. No one Jjvllvl I vll ; tired as the people who 9 . -m :h King, both black and F9.ClSl OCllC ley watch their apathetic owing all of their work to To the editor: We are writing in re mit that people have the Spiros Paplecos' attack ; tired of hearing about Starks' journalism in Fridc ig as they realize they are of The Gamecock. Paplecc n their feelings. There are and happily has the right orA pn 11Q11V if n r\t mnrfl Vtic Anininn nfitK rono rHc Wi V WV|UMli; , AA AAV/1 uiisiv, Ilia upillivu Willi ugaiuo :ing the Confederate flag column if he wishes and m e State House. Some are he does, suggest that St; wing up hearing that long away from the writing pre tnd big blue eyes make the We happily exert the sai erican woman. suggest Paplecos stay a ;ars of celebrating a holi- writing, especially since n POLITICS | p3 civil rights ferent, then as the generations progress the ideas of racism will fade away. It would only take a few generations, with only half of the people teaching their children to despise racism before racism would virtually disappear. It will probably never disappear entirely, but by about the fifth generation it would be hard to find. Imagine that ? a world where people honestly believe everyone else has the same rights, a world where people treat everyone like their neighbor. It might be a pipe dream the way things are going now. But it's up to us to keep that pipe dream alive. If we teach our children, they'll teach their children. And their children will teach other children as well as their own. It's in the hands of the children after us, but it's in our hands now. Children know no fear or hate inherently. They must be taught to fear, and they must be taught to hate. If we stop teaching fear and instilling hatred, those .things will gradually disappear. King was a stronger man than I could ever be. I don't think I could have seen the thines he did and endured the things he did and not raise a fist in anger. He was a teacher. I will continue the teachings of such a man. Will you? and for all scrutiny. Besides the fact that the Contras are a counter-revolutionary force, they are also an artificial guerrilla movement. They are the product of an agency of the U.S. government ? namely, the CIA. If it weren't for the CIA, the Contras never would have existed. Furthermore, the Contras have never been able to generate support among the Nicaraguan people, many of whom dislike the Sandinistas and the Contras. Obviously, the Contras assume the characteristics of the American revolutionaries only on the most superficial, vague levels. Beyond all of this remains another question: what has Contra hid achieved during this decade? American taxpayers have bankrolled a war in Central America for years and have seen no results. If anything, Contra aid has merely caused more turmoil, oppression and anguish in Nicaragua as the Sandinistas blame all of their problems on the Con * tu? un? t inita/i ll ab. l lie puiiey naa aibu lauucu uic cjimcu jiaita among its European allies and alienated much of Latin America. Contra aid, a questionable policy in the first place, has become a multi-million dollar flop, an insidious boondoggle. Perhaps in 1989 Congress can spend money on a more worthy project and let Nicaragua determine its own fate without U.S. interference. * s of feeling no conspicuous talent himself. Furgs in one's ther, we suggest that he allow somy weary meone with an ounce of human ke her, i decency to proofread his remarks I no cintKpv orp pIpqr1\r onrl hpovilv 1 ar*_ [ vji CIS jiiivv nivj uiv vivui 1 j aiiu uvu? nj i?v hatred and ed with racist overtones. Intentional ing to end. or not, his "style" is, at the least, offensive and, at the most, an embarle Greenlee rassment to anyone sensitive to the ence junior reality of racism. As European decendants having lived all our lives in the South, we find his remarks burdensome. We are _ well aware of the reality of racism 1TC and find it difficult to disassociate ^ ourselves from it with people like him constantly adding to the problem. We find it difficult to believe that isponse to Paplecos is a graduate student, for on Sam anyone with this amount of educaly's edition tion in their experience must certainly js certainly be aware of the empirical conseto express qences of such racist rhetoric, i.e., to Starks' the institution of slavery and the ay even, as holocaust. arks Stay Liz Carroll jfession. French senior me right to way from Caitlin Carroll e exhibited English junior