The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 22, 1989, Page 3, Image 3
Murder
Government must take action
to stop violence in Washington
The irony of it all is almost painful: Washington, D.C., our
nation's capital, has become one of the most violent cities in
America. The city's government and the federal government
need to join forces as soon as possible to stop the bloodshed.
TL. -1 - c A ' ' 1
i iic capuai 01 /\mencan government is supposed to be the
model for the rest of the United States, but it has become a battlefield
for drug-related crime and violence. The District of Columbia
has experienced a 151 percent increase in homicides during
the past three years, giving it the highest murder rate in the
United States. Washington's jails are overflowing, and the city's
police find themselves outgunned.
Mayor Marion Berry has said the city's crime problems have
grown so fast that it's out of his control. He has also said the city
cannot stop the drug problem on its own. Meanwhile, President
George Bush has been an outspoken advocate for the war
on drugs, but he is losing in his own backyard.
Bush has suggested that sending federal troops into
Washington could alleviate the problem, but nothing could be
further from the truth. Instead .of restoring order, the presence
of troops will create a siege mentality, and the capital's image
will continue to erode. At best, sending troops will be a shortterm
solution to a long-term problem. At worst, the situation
will get worse, and more people will lose their lives.
Rather than looking at quick fixes, Bush and other government
officials should be looking at a long-range plan to halt
drug-related violence. They should look at the causes of this
type of crime instead of treating the symptoms. The issue goes
far beyond dealing drugs ? it also involves economics and
education.
Either way, the situation requires cooperation between the city
government and federal government. The roots of drugrelated
crime have been ignored for too long, and action is long
overdue.
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ZtesY Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region
Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 ^
Editor in Chief Photography Editor
ANDY BECHTEL TEDDY LEPP
Managing Editor Datebook Editor
JEFF SHREWSBURY JAN PHILLIPS
Copy Desk Chief Graphics Editor
KATHY BLACKWELL MICHAEL SHARP
Assistant Copy Desk Chief Comics Editor
CARYN CRABB TRACY MIXSON
News Editor Graduate Assistant
MARY PEARSON ROBERT STEVENSON ^
Assistant News Editors Adviser
KELLY C. THOMAS PAT MCNEELY
SUSAN NESBITT Director of Student Media
Features Editor ED BONZA
TODD HINES Advertising Manager
Assistant Features Editor MARGARET M1CHELS
TOMMY JOYNER Production Manager
Sports Editor LAURA DAY
KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Production Manager
Assistant Sports Editor RAY BURGOS CHRIS
S1LVESTRI Assistant Advertising Manager
BARBARA BROWN f
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Letters Policy: The Gamecock will Iry to print all letters received, l etters should be. at a maximum. 250 to
300 words long. Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reserve the right to edit letters tor style or
possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. p
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" I'LL HAVE WHAT
Paradox plag
A few months back, in connection with the
Dan Quayle controversy, The State newspaper
published a list of dozens of lawmakers who had
been eligible for the draft during the Vietnam
War. Next to each man's name was his military
status at that time. It was astonishing to discover
that in such a conservative state as South
Carolina, with its well-known affection for all
things military, one could count the Vietnam
veterans in the General Assembly on the fingers
of one hand.
For example, Sen. Glenn McConnell, South
Carolina's loudest Confederate flag enthusiast,
was excused from hostilities because of "high
blood pressure, color blindness and extreme sensitivity
to bee stings." Who can forget the battle
of Gettysburg when we rebels wore rags on our
feet, almost starved to death on a handful of raw
peanuts and had barely enough ammunition to
take potshots at the Yankees? But listen here: If
a boy showed up itching to fight and it turned
out he had extreme sensitivity to bee stings, we
sent his fool tail back home quick. We sure
didn't need any heroes.
With all humor aside, it should be
demonstrated that the Civil War image of South
Carolina peddled by McConnell and others has
been pilfered from Gone With the Wind. Support
for secession was not unanimous anywhere in the
South; many fine citizens in the state expressed
Unionist sentiment and opposed secession in
1860.
The state's admired trial lawyer of the period,
r~T77~~. 7~ 77
lyerrers to cne
n
Parker shows students, bu
_ # 1 # And even
heroic quality t xthis
way, 01
To the editor: name is brin
Carolina, I saw one of our heroes I welcom
March 15. Martha Parker made the pride, loyalt
final turnover in her final college campus,
basketball game ? a loss at home. Robby, it
She cried from the dressing room to and your fa
:he media interview room. She cried and even mc
luring the interviews in the media
oom. Then she cried while talking to
family and friends in the stands after
he loss.
In the middle of this pain, she hopsed
a rail and ran up the stairs to give "^7"? cZ4(
t goodbye hug to this short, retarded T loll*
cid wearing a Carolina shirt. The kid #
ried, but couldn't say anything in as it
;olace to ease Parker s pain. Just
?ive me one back," she said, and he
lid, then left. To the edito
Parker is one of our heroes, I have jusl
Carolina. We should all learn from tide on visii
ler. issue of Th
several poinl
Jim Corbett tioned befon
Journalism '83 sidered. Knc
Law '88 justice is th<
hope my poi
tion when th
USC should de "!
discussion c(
value Kensnn Board couw
sion before
this had tak
ro the editor: wished to liv<
Children, children! Why egg Rob- been informc
)y Benson via The Gamecock, thus getting into,
naking it a tabloid USC cannot even with visitatio
>e proud of? been greatly
Unfortunately, this has gone on all students mu
'ear and has increased this semester this week anc
vith ads for Chuck Dean's "Random (after the Bo:
'atterns." If it is "good, clean fun" their visitatio
ntended to "rib," keep it clever, not They are inf
inkind. after it is too
Benson is providing invaluable ex- sion, planting
>erience to students he is working blems in the
vith here, and if such a program con- tions. If a dec
'f
THAT GENTLEMAN'S M/
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James Petigru, was asked of his opinion of seces- n
sion. He replied: "South Carolina is too small to fl
be a nation and too large to be an insane n
asylum." A USC doctoral student has found that a
a sizable group of young men in the Upstate built S
an armed fortress near Greenville and dared Con- w
federate draft registrars to capture them. This is, o
of course, unremarkable since the Upstate was tl
fiercely independent and had few slaves.
McConnell, however, told an audience on d
Donahue that slavery had absolutely nothing to Si
do with the Civil War. Not only does this con- hi
tradict the work of virtually all major Civil War
scholars across the United States, but also the Si
speeches of President Jefferson Davis himself. bi
Since he was never a demonstrative or vocal st
man, Robert E. Lee would probably have looked
with skepticism upon our state's Confederate flag A
wavers. The flag has flown above the Statehouse m
LM.
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11 not only benefit more giving students the option o
t the university itself. ing a dorm with visitation
if not, whatever happen- that suit their lifestyle, the)
dF Southern hospitality? "have debated this long ago.
omers to our city treated The proposal has a potei
r is it that the familiar discrimination: "... .the i
ging out the worst? tee is considering the Tow<
e anyone who brings possible location for the no o
y and enthusiasm to this sex overnight visitation r
halls." Towers residents pay I
is a pleasure to have you semester. If they would want
imily here in Columbia to a place where the visitatic
>re so as a part of USC. same as it is now, such as G
Hall, Bates House or any
Traci Ruediger various apartments, they
Psychology senior almost definitely have to pa
Of course, they would have
tion to move to a place like V
Preston, but they would also
dlltJIl V-J.IV do without air conditions
other facilities found in the n
sisrids to kn?w h?w a resi
representative of our gov*
could make such a bold att*
r: change an important polic)
finished reading the ar- reason that is absurd and
tation in the March 17 hearsay. Mike Fair said, "I
e Gamecock and have with students who have m;
:s that need to be men- very valid point that overnigh
e the proposals are con- tion is not always a sexual th
wing that fairness and I feel that most of the time
* p/XIA I IT J L - 1 ? T*
. n usitts auic unvc, i nuw uucb nc Know mis.' tic
nts are given considera- den cameras or other devices 1
e topic is addressed. stalled in the rooms? Has he
?ce to point out that this out random rooms with tele
3 months late. Had this Has he passed out a survey
)me up in January, the out how many people mad
have rendered its deci- home plate in their overnight
housing registration. If anyone should know, it
en place, students who students, not a man who vi
: on campus would have campus only to attend a
:d about what they were meeting.
and future problems Even though I am a tuition
n violations would have student and a Towers resii
reduced. As it stands, don't appear to be in the con
st register for housing the Board's decision. So I
1 then be told in a month signatures of other residents v
ird meets April 13) what the same way in hopes that th<
n rights are going to be. will consider the opinions
ormed of these policies many instead of those of the f
late to change the deci- have a simple solution to this
?the seeds for more pro- ma: Don't change anything!
fall with student viola- present policy is enforced,
:ision is in the interest of won't be more problems no
having;"
of rebel flag
inly since 1962. Amherst history professor Henry
Tommager says there were more Confederate
[raft resisters and deserters hiding out in the hills
>f the Carolinas than there were troops in Lee's
ntire army in northern Virginia.
Historian Burke Davis, author of half a dozen
ooks on the Civil War, writes that William
herman was baffled by the lack of armed
esistance to his presence in South Carolina. In
herman's March, Davis writes that Sherman exected
far more casualties than the handful his
rmy sustained. In fact, no fewer than 50 Columia
families departed north with Sherman's army.
There's no intention to deliver a history lesson,
ut only point out that the Confederate flag
ever flew above a unanimous people. That it
lies above our Statehouse today is unfair to the
lemory of thousands who held different views
bout secession and remained loyal to the United
tates. South Carolinians are a diverse people
ho live and thrive best under one flag ? the
nly flag under which diversity is truly safe ?
le flag of the United States.
Like the Civil War, the Vietnam War was a
ivisive time for our nation. The last people in
outh Carolina who need to tell the rest of us
ow to commemorate the Civil War are those
chickenhawks" and "war wimps" in the
tatehouse whose high blood pressure and bad
acks kept them out of Vietnam. They ought to
ay out of the Civil War as wellr~
Paul Perkins is m-rhnirtnnn nf Citiwnc fnr
ccuracy in Southern History, which takes its
ime from historian W. J. Cash.
f choos- there would be if the visitation policy
policies were to change. Please keep an open
' should mind to this when the~Board decides
on April 13. There are many who like
itial for things just the way they are.
commit:rs
as a J. J. McMoon
pposite- Undeclared freshman
esidence
5585 per
m!s?he Rockafellas'
olumbia _ #
would alters policy
y more.
the op- To the editor:
laxcy or I hope no one has gone to
have to Rockafellas' lately. Talk about a bar
ng and going from "the place in town" to
rowers. just another Columbia bar.
pectable After a long day of the St.
irnment Patrick's Day carousing, I went to
;mpt to Rockafellas' to see a few friends
f for a play, and to my surprise, I wasn't
strictly allowed in. Why? Because I'm only
've met 20. Is it my fault they got busted by
ade the ABC earlier in the day? I was plannit
visita- ing on paying and not drinking, just
ing, but listening to some friends play music,
it is."
ive hid- Well, I thought, OK, I'll undersbeen
in- tand. But when I went to acoustic
: staked night on Sunday, guess what. No
scopes? under 21 again! To top it off, there
to find were only five people in there, 10 if
e it to you count the people I went down
stay? If there with. If Rockafellas' can't con's
the trol 10 people, they have a serious
sits the problem.
Doaru i usea to realty enjoy going to
Rockafellas' to listen to good musi-paying
cians, but now I can't even do that. I
dent, I even got used to them charging peocern
of pie under 21 on acoustic night, but
got the now they are getting ridiculous,
/ho feel I hope the management reviews
: Board the policies and understands that a
of the large part of their now excluded
ew. We clientele is under 21. I wonder who is
dilem- playing at Greenstreet's tonight.
If the
there David Oventhal
w than Advertising junior