The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 17, 1989, Page 2, Image 2
Justice
National security important,
but North's trial must go on
After months of legal wrangling, it looks as if the trial of
; Oliver North will finally begin. For the sake of the former
Marine, the government and the country, this matter must be
i resolved once and for all.
Although some of the allegations against him have been dropped,
North still faces 12 criminal charges. Prosecuters will attempt
to show that North concealed from Congress activities
with the Contras in Nicaragua. He is also accused of covering up
the National Security Council's role in the diversion of funds
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; years old; details of the Iran-Contra affair were made public in
| November 1986. After the Tower Commission investigation,
i hearings before Congress jury selection and more than two years
later, Justice Department officials continue to delay action
because of worries over national security.
This latest concern about security matters is certainly
legitimate. No one wants crucial secrets about the CIA to be
made public. North, the chief figure in the deal to sell arms to
Iran mid. divert the profits to the Nicaraguan Contras, had access
to some of the nation's top secrets. His testimony could
reveal many of those secrets that could potentially damage national
security interests.
At the same time, the trial cannot be suspended forever. The
prosecution and defense should be eager to set the wheels of
justice in motion.It would seem that all parties involved ? including
North himself ? would be interested in getting on with
the trial, which is expected to last for months. The sooner the
trial starts, the sooner it will end ? and the sooner this entire
matter will be settled.
Justice cannot be sacrificed for secrecy. North's trial must go
on to ensure accountability in our government. The opposing
sides in this issue should reach a compromise as soon as possible
so that North's trial can begin. If they do not work together, this
travesty will continue, and North's case will linger forever.
"YOU REALIZE THIS IS IN THE INTEREST
OF NATIONAL SECURITY"
?(9S$"7^J|eTa5^5*=K
The Gamecock
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Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88
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ANDY BECHTEL JAN PHILLIPS
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TEDDY LEPP 1
Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all 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 an> circumstance. I
r
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Election proct
I should have written this column three weeks
ago. Maybe it would have made a difference. Then
again, knowing the history of the Student Government
elections, it probably wouldn't of helped
anyway.
Every year at this time, I get ticked off at the ineptitude
in the election process. It never ceases to
amaze me that the election commission and the
people in charge of this process can't come up with
a better plan than they have now. Because as it
stands now, the system is out of date, cumbersome
and completely inefficient.
As the process stands now, voters must cast their
ballots in their respective districts for both executive
and senatorial positions. The voters must
fill out different colored cards for each office, and i
they must go to where they are majoring to do so.
That means that a journalism student, who may <
or may not have a class in the coliseum on Thurs- i
day must go to the coliseum if he wants to vote. Or
a business student must vote in the business i
building.
This is intended to eliminate voters voting in ]
more than one district. !
There has been discussion about having all the
voting places in the Russell House, but it was determined
that that would cause a pile up at the polls. 1
And as it stands now it takes hours and hours to
vote and hours and hours to count all the votes j
manually. 1
There is a better way. <
The best and most intelligent plan is to have a i
computerized system where students can vote at i
any of the polls on campus by bubbling in their I
Despite progr*
Thirty years after the Fidel Castro revolution, I
joined 25 social work students and educators in
Havana last month for a joint Cuba-United States
conference arranged by the Cuban National Social
Workers' Association and Boston College.
Visitors receive an unusual and perhaps distorted
view of the island nation, the communist country
most closely located to the United States. NonCubans
are greeted, transported, housed and fed
by Intur, the national government tourist agency
that appears to operate like the Soviet Union's
Intourist.
Although visitors are free to go wherever they
want and take all the pictures they please, Intur
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gift shops and even operates nightclubs. Therefore,
the visitor's life is different from that of the Cuban
citizen.
According to Cuban figures, the country's
population is about 10 million, two million in
Havana. Almost everyone (97 percent) is literate,
and 92 percent of school-age children are in school.
Life expectancy compares favorably with that of
the United States. There are no homeless. Citizens
pay small amounts of rent and eventually own their
houses or apartments, which they can pass on to
children. Older people can retire on a modest pension
through a social security program.
Alcohol and drug use exist, but at a scale that
might be envied in America. One Cuban told our
group that there were people who drank too much
alcohol, but not so much they couldn't work the
next day. Others in the group saw a trial of a young
man who faced a severe penalty for possessing
three marijuana cigarettes.
Letters to the
Editing alters misquote me,a
0 # subsequently ?
letter's intent
ro the editor:
I guess you could title this
"Gamecock misuses letter writer."
Dr maybe "Gamecock gives gallows Vr rilvl
humor the ax."
In my original letter ("Bible ||V HQ
doesn't forbid abortion, Feb. 6), I r
wrote as a commentary to the Hosea
eference, not "a clear case of the To the editor:
performance of abortion," but "a In response
dear-cut case where the performance editor from J
pf abortion is murder." What began peared Wedne
is a pun on the dark demagoguery of remind Hanso
he pro-life movement was perverted Hanson, we
py an editor so that it appeared that I that you are a
was saying that the hacking up of own opinion c
pregnant women sanctioned by the president o
hlosea was an historical example of We are also n
dinical abortion. I believe we can all that USC stud
igree that both fetal destruction and enough to rea
nurder can be accomplished in the ment of a ca
naneuver proposed by Hosea. It's organization's
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;ss outdated, i
Jeff 7 *
Shrewsbury ^ r f\,
district and I.D.number on scan sheets and feeding
them into a computer. This would tally the votes
quickly and efficiently, but USC doesn't have this
system now.
So, if we have to go without the aid of computers
there is still a better way to do it manually.
Let every student vote at any of the voting
places, and when they present their I.D., put a
small sticker on it to signify they have voted. This
would eliminate repeat voting.
This would also facilitate voter turnout which
has been a major problem in the past. i
If the commission wants better voter turnout, <
?iving,^uden?ts only one place to vote is not the i
way. A lot of people don't vote, not because they
don't want to, but because it is completely inconve- ;
tiient. If all the polls are open to all the people then
it would give them a better chance of finding the i
time to vote. <
ess, Cuba har<
Guest Column
? wfM \
i
Several Cubans said they knew nothing of 1
spouse or child abuse. The Havana Psychiatric
Hospital, the site of the conference, has attractive j
facilities and a program that seems to meet or ex- <
ceed standards for modern treatment of mental I
illness. c
Those in our group who were enamored of (
socialism were deeply moved by what they saw and s
heard. Others of us were skeptical and perhaps s
disappointed that the results of the efforts to create (
a Utopia were less than Utopian. The signs of incon- t
sistencies between official statements and reality (
surrounded us. t
For example, despite the high literacy rate,'
reading was not a conspicuous activity. Neither the s
airport nor the hotels had newsstands. The few v
newspapers contained little news as Americans p
Know 11. I
Although food and drink were bountiful for
visitors, there were stories from Cubans about /,
editor
ltle editors, when you necessarily mean that the <
nd those misquotes are tion's members blindly fo
ittacked. leaders and vote for a c
accordingly.
Jeff Ford From your letter, it app
School of Medicine you spent the last two weel
ramnaien in I JSC's urinals.
m nlomipH disposed, did you happen
I |Jl41'?^Uvvl that officers from other (
tions went so far as to put
rudox tures anc^statements ?n ^
of another candidate? If yoi
to see one of these posters (
it sounds like you were too ii
to the letter to the with Marie-Louise Rai
ohn Hanson that ap- posters that you failed to
sday, we would like to others), will you immediatel
n of a few things. that every member of these <
would like to believe tions agreed with their leadei
n individual with your on, this is America. You are
>f who should become student; surely you don't be
f USC's student body. the South Carolina College
taking the assumption ment means that you m
ents are broad-minded accordingly,
lize that the endorse- So you "wouldn't want
ndidate by a campus in office who got elected be
officers does not whom they know"? You
inefficient
But there is still a problem with this manual
system that provides another argument for
computerizing.
Imagine if all the eligible voters decided to vote
the way it is now. There are about 24,OCX) students
eligible to vote, but only about 3,000 ever do. What
would happen if all the voters showed up?
There would be chaos.
First, I don't believe there is enough time in the
day to let everyone vote. Second, there are probably
not enough ballots, and third, the poll
workers would probably lose consciousness from
the over work.
Computerizing is the only way.
Somewhere on this campus there are enough
bubble sheet reading machines to supply four polling
areas: the Business Administration building,
Gambrell, Russell House and the coliseum. These
machines could be easily set up and run by
workers. The students would bubble in their information,
district, I.D. number and votes, and the
computer would automatically tally them. Any
repeat votes or incorrect I.D. numbers would be
kicked out of the program, and students could vote
anywhere.
President James Franklin said Thursday that
there is already a plan in the works now to go to a
completely computerized system next year. If it
comes off, great, but, the next president should
make it his or her biggest responsiblity to design
and implement this system.
Voters won't vote if you make it difficult for
them. Make it simple, and the apathy will
disappear.
dly Utopian
shortages. Housing is crowded and in short supply.
We heard that Cubans could rarely buy basics such
as fruit, paint and toilet paper. Imported goods are
even more difficult to obtain.
In many ways, Havana does not look like a Latin
American city of two million. On Sundays, the
streets are nearly empty. On weekdays, when
school and work were in session, there was more
activity, but not at the level one expects of a
metropolis.
We saw and heard about police stopping people
who were just strolling on the streets. We also
tieard about "mass organizations" to which most
idults belong to prevent sabotage and ensure interlal
security. In the process, personal privacy is
iable to suffer.
It is difficult to generalize about a whole nation
tfter visiting it for only a few days. It is even more
lifficult to predict what the future holds for
J.S.-Cuban relations. Reports about the continued
commitment of Castro to a strong, centralized
communist country were not contradicted by perional
observations. There were also other troubling
;igns: billboards that warned "imperialists" that
Cubans fear them not at all. Of equal concern was
he devil image already attributed to President
jeorge Bush, partly because of his former direcorship
of the CIA.
Although many in the group believed they had
een the ideal society, others of us were elated when
ve landed in Miami. Despite its advances, Cuba
>osed a frightening view that could be troublesome
or all the world in years to come.
Leon Ginsberg is a research professor in the Colege
of Social Work.
arganiza- tradicting yourself. Just a sentence
llow the prior to this statement, you mention:andidate
ed how you "personally know one of
the candidates" and would like to enears
that dorse him/her. Well, if you vote for
ks of the this candidate (although it appears
While in- you are hesitant because of your
to notice belief that you must follow the voting
Drganiza- behavior of others), your vote could
their pic- be the deciding vote. Your vote may
a nnrtarr 1, ^ ~ Al A ~ + ~
c mais.c a umciciicc iu iiic canuiuaic
u happen you personally know. Now this apalthough
pears to be going against your prinmpressed
ciples, doesn't it, Hanson?
nsdale's It must also be said that The
see any Gamecock was very irresponsible in
y assume printing a biased letter about any one
Drganiza- candidate one day before the elec s?
Come tion. We expect more profesa
college sionalism from such a highly
lieve that decorated paper,
endorseust
vote Vickie Emerick
SCC biology /chemistry junior
someone
:cause of Kris Porter
are con- SCC history junior