Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Violence S. C. Legislature should pass bill to extend law against rape South Carolina's Legislature should join 37 other states and adopt a law to make marital rape a crime. Under present law in this state, rape is not a crime unless a couple is legally separated. The new bill would acknowledge that sexual assault is illegal for couples who have not received a court order saying they are separated. The bill also recognizes the crime of sexual battery if the couple still lives together. Rape is not an act of passion, desire or lust. It is violent sexual behavior, and it is a heinous, despicable crime. A marriage certificate does not eliminate the possibility of rape. If anything, the lack of a law allows marriage to be used as an excuse for violent sexual behavior, something that cannot be excused under any circumstances. Many women who enter shelters for battered women report that they had been sexually assaulted by their husbands, but no one knows exactly how many rapes occur within marriages. Opponents of the bill claim that women will falsely accuse their husbands of marital rape. But under the proposal, the charge would require the same evidence as any rape case. False claims would be found out, and valid claims would lead to convictions. USC students, faculty and staff should get involved by letting their representatives know that violent sexual behavior will not be tolerated in any form in South Carolina. Petitions and letters can be extremely effective in getting a bill passed. On the other hand, silence about the issue of marital rape will not get results, and this tragedy will continue. The status of women in the state of South Carolina is already low enough without the problem of marital rape. The Legislature must send a message that it cares about the women of South Carolina and pass this bill. "WHO'S PROTECTING WHO?" The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 iLuitur in cniei n . , , r ... vrr_, Datebook Editor ANDY BECHTEL JAN PHILLIPS Managing Edilor Graphics Editor JEFF SHREWSBURY MICHAEL SHARP Copy Desk Chief Con)ics Edjtor KATHYBLACKWELL TRACY M1XSON Assistant Copy Desk Chief Graduate Assistant CARYN CRABB ROBERT STEVENSON News Editor Adviser MARY PEARSON PAT MCNEELY Assistant News Editors Director of Studen| Medja KELLY C. THOMAS ED BONZA SUSAN NESBITT Advertising Manager Features Editor MARGARET MICHELS TODD HINES Production Manager Assistant Features Editor L AUR\ DAY TOMMY JOYNER Assistant Production Manager Sports Editor RAY BURGOS KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Advertising Manager Assistant Sports Editor BARBARA BROWN CHRIS SILVESTRI Photography Editor TEDDY LEPP Letters Policy: The Gamecock will tr> lo print all letters received. tetters should he. at a maximum. 250 to 300 words long. (iuest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right lo edit letters for style or possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. "MY PARENTS SAY IFT BUT 1 DON'T KNOW Latest carnagi The recent massacre of five innocent elementary school students in Stockton, Calif., is just the latest episode in a string of schoolyard slayings. Not only was the incident yet another senseless tragedy, but it also underscored the need for some sort of legislation to deal with semi-automatic weapons. In 1968, Congress passed legislation that made fully automatic weapons illegal. The assassinations of John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. prompted the law. Nowadays it's not the murders of political figures; it's the killing of students and everyday citizens. Clearly, the time has come to overhaul America's laws on semi-automatic weapons. Handguns, the usual target for advocates of gun laws, are not at the root of the latest wave of violence, simply because they are not the most effective weapons for psychopaths and gang members. Instead, these people are using semiautomatic weapons that are easily converted to fully automatic, giving these killers high-powered guns that fire at extremely rapid rates. Altering a semi-automatic weapon to become fully automatic is a simple procedure that only takes a few minutes. So a pyschopath or gang member goes into a gun store, buys a legal, semiautomatic AK-47 and later has it converted to a n 1^ I - a _ misn neeas 10 Hide the kids and wake the neighbors, George Bush is coming to town. This morning our new president will be standing before our state legislators with cameras rolling and flashbulbs popping. He'll shake 100 hands. He'll return 100 smiles. He'll laugh a million times ? not because he wants to, but because he's the president of the United States. He'll do it because South Carolina is one of his greatest political allies. Some might say Bush owes his political life to South Carolina. It was this stateihat won him solid support on Super Tuesday. It was this state that supplied him with the Southern political clout to move on to more tenuous positions in Texas, California and the Northeast. If it weren't for the solid support in the South, led by South Carolina, Bush might have had to spend a lot more time down here campaigning, thus taking away his time from more pressing areas. But Bush did not do it alone. If it weren't for the political stumpers in this state shaking the right hands and maWincr the riffht nhnnc rails thr might have been a closer race. Bush has his Southern political base because of the work of Gov. Carroll Campbell, his Southern campaign manager, and Sen. Strom Thurmond, who knows everybody and everything. These two men were almost exclusively responsible for Bush's success. I say almost, because South Carolinian Lee Atwater had just as much to do with it. He was the strategist who made Bush aware of Campbell and Thurmond's power. He was the strategist who made all the right decisions and all the right moves. Letters Special interests E" 0h?e m . "bathroom p hurt campaign To the editor: I received a peculiar piece of mail the other day. It was unusual not in XnotV what was said, but in who said what A about whom. That is, it was an en- . dorsement by officers of the Associa- SOI 1*11 tion of Honors Students (the student * government of the Honors College) To the editor of presidential hopeful Marie-Louise College fc Ramsdale. business. In f Now I hesitate to comment on the finance most ethics of such a mailing as I've were the mos become accustomed to such tactics in Coach Bobb; U.S. government campaigning, and State visited i also I'd expect much the same from national tele\ greek organizations to which a can- emptied Will didate belongs. But for the AHS more than ha president and V.P. to dig up my halftime. As i name from official mailing lists and to 25 percent endorse a candidate over others, they and suffering send a certain message that reeks of I was ash special interest. stayed. 1 happen to personally know one USC shoi of the candidates, and wouldn't it be Bowden's pr nice if I could endorse them with the coach. If yoi backing, of my official titles. But them! then I wouldn't want someone in of- Saturday fice who got elected (albeit partially) game,Coach ] because of whom they know. talk to a Co I'd like to think Ramsdale had for the local nothing to do with this, but that it Athletes. He was the product of overzealous sup-. going to win porters like the ones that have USC need 1 IP THAT'S THSM OR THE AU e exposes loo] ft* fully automatic weapon. Now that person can go to the nearest elementary school, fast-foqd restaurant or street corner to swiftly take someone's life. The City Council of Los Angeles has already taken action to try to curb the carnage caused by killers wielding semi-automatic weapons that have been converted. A Congressional sub-committee has been hearing testimony from police and experts involved in cases involving converted semiautomatic weapons. Congress should act by eliminating these powerful guns, but the National Rifle Association and > address issut Campbell and Thurmond hold a lot of cards, and the rest of the South knows it. They are the leaders that the rest of the South looks to, and it was to Bush's benefit that they fell under his umbrella. For all of South Carolina's faults, it is a state that carries a lot of political weight that can be used to catapult or destroy a candidate in any national office. Bush realizes this. That's why he is coming here today ? to thank his supporters. That's all well and good for South Carolina, but how does this visit affect USC and the rest of the higher education institutions in the state? Bush says he wants to be the education president. He wants to fight to enrich the educational process in every area. Terrific, if he can do it, but what better place to start his educational campaign than in South Carolina, the state that got him where he is? What editor r face over half the coach that money can bi campus (so-called receipts would more thai iolitics"). vestment. Baseball coa Richardson and Johni John R. Hanson former football coach P SCC economics junior ladies basketball . co; Wilson, Nessie Harris I T1A Arid Christians have been p fluences for USC. Now 1 -m finest Christian coach [1^1 C03-CI1 found to lead one of football teams in Ameri< lotball is big (money) Joe act, USC football helps Colun other sports. USC fans t loyal in America until wvi y Bowden of Florida I1J us on Nov. 5, 1988. On 1^^. /ision, he and his team light TSIC1! iams-Brice Stadium ot O If of our "loyal" fans at the game ended, only 10 To the editor: of us were still sitting Black History Month ( ? FSU 59, USC 0. casion for Americans of lamed to leave, so I reflect on the experiem Americans. This can be a aid offer to double a genuine appreciation c esent salary to be our cultural heritage of the U j can't beat them, hire More importantly, B1 Month offers a compel morning before that tunity for everyone to s Bowden gave a fantastic amine his or her own tl lumbia hotel breakfast actions toward people of Fellowship of Christian The Baha'i Club of stated that "God is not each member of the c ball games for you." munity (students, facult; Is the best Christian to take advantage of thai s MS^ I >RUGS THEY'LL KILL ME-* 10H0LTAIKIMG " phole in law other special-interest groups will undoubtedly fight any law that would do so, although such legislation would save lives without abridging the right to bear arms. Law-abiding citizens have little need for semiautomatic weapons for protection or sports. Semiautomatic weapons are of no value in hunting; shooting a deer with an assault rifle would not even appeal to the most bloodthirsty sportsman. And handguns would continue to be available, so selfdefense by homeowners would not be sacrificed. Opponents of gun legislation assert that those wuu use guns snuuiu i cLcivc sillier prison sentences as a deterrent. They are correct to say that harsher penalties are needed, but psychopaths who gun down children don't care about deterrents. They don't care about anything. A law eliminating semi-automatic weapons from the marketplace only makes common sense. A black market will inevitably attempt to supply people with these guns, but any law that makes it more difficult for killers to obtain their murder weapons makes sense. Let's hope it doesn't take another playground massacre for Americans to realize this country needs a sane policy on semi-automatic weapons. ; of education better place to start than a state with an education level that has fallen far below the national average? When Bush speaks today, all of South Carolina will be listening ? all of the country will be listening. Instead of just patting the state on the back for helping him win the office, he should address real issues that would help the state. And if he helps the state, he pays it back for its deep support. Bush's people have declined to release what he will talk about. The speculation is that he will promote his new budget. But there is something more pressing to this state that needs to be discussed. If he is the education Dresident. let him talk about education. If he is the education president, let him put it to the Legislature to do something about the state of education in South Carolina. If he is the education president, let him put it to the Legislature to fund higher education and elementary and secondary education. Let him put it to the senators and representatives of this state to lead the fight to make this a more literate and educated state and country. The South looks to South Carolina for political leadership, but the South laughs at it when it talks about education. It's wonderful that Bush is coming here. He came here when he was running, and he came here when he was thinking about running. He knows the input this state has. Thanks are great, but let him use his power and influence to help the state that helped him. Higher education needs help financially. Let's hope Bush can encourage this state to help itself. It should be an interesting speech. ly. Increased ty ? and then to resolve to become a n pay the in- model for racial unity, ches Bobby There is no time to lose. We must ly Hunton, address lingering, destructive racist Lichard Bell, attitudes that poison hearts and ach Nancy undermine society and reject them, and other however blatant or subtle, in jowerful in- thought, association, word or action, we need the "Let neither (black or white) think that can be that the solution of so vast a problem the greatest is a matter that exclusively concerns :a! the other. "Let neither think that such a proC. Dannelly blem can either easily or immediately ibia resident be resolved. "Let neither think that they can wait confidently for the solution of IIJ.I3I the problem until the initiative has been taken. sm "Let neither think that anything short of genuine love, extreme patience, true humility, consummate tact, sound initiative, mature wisdom jffers an oc- and deliberate, persistent and prayerall colors to ful effort can succeed in blotting out :e of black the stain which this patent evil has steo toward left on the fair name of their rom if the multi- mon country." ? Baha'i writings nited States. Please join us in this effort to end ack History racism. Let this generation usher in a ling oppor- new era of interracial unity, ieriously exloughts and Shahin Vafai other races. President Baha'i Club USC urges SCC freshman ollege com- Nancy Songer y and staff) Vice president, Baha'i Club t opportuni- Journalism graduate student