The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 10, 1989, Page 3, Image 3
Proposal
Bill concerning blood supply
discriminatory, not needed
Every so often a bill comts along that is so ridiculous and offensive
that it is difficult to believe it is actually being considered
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and put them behind bars for giving blood is just such a
proposal.
Sponsored by Rep. Mike Fair and Republican minority leader
Terry Haskins, the bill would severely punish any homosexual
found giving blood. The offender could be fined up to $10,000
and receive up to a year in prison. The intent of the proposal is
to ensure that no one receives a transfusion of blood containing
the deadly AIDS virus, but this bill seems more of an attempt to
ostracize homosexuals. Fair himself admits that the bill is
"clearly discriminatory," but he justifies this prejudice by saying
that homosexuality is against the law.
Advocates of homosexual rights are understandably upset
about the proposal, which is being discussed by a committee and
has not yet reached the floor. As one activist pointed out, lesbians
are at the lowest risk for AIDS, but the bill would prevent
them from donating at a time when demand for blood outweighs
the supply.
The American Red Cross is also disturbed by the proposal,
and one official called it a "negative statement." The Red Cross
already goes through extensive testing of all blood donors and
blood it receives to make sure that it is not contaminated with
the virus that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome. The
Red Cross has done an admirable job coping with the AIDS
dilemma, but this bill implies that the government must step in
to rectifv the situation. If anvthinp lawmakers shnnlH he wnrk.
ing to encourage qualified people to give blood, not penalize
them.
It is difficult enough to get blood donors in this age of fear.
This proposal, if made law, would only compound that fear and
would do little to protect the blood supply. Furthermore, it
would contribute to discrimination against homosexuals, a
group already facing enough prejudice.
"WHATEVER HAPPENS NOW, THEY CANT IMPEACH W ,
TL f** 1
1 he Gamecock
Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region
Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88
Editor in Chief Photography Editor
ANDY BECHTEL TEDDY LEPP
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News Editor Graduate Assistant .
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Assistant News Editors Adviser ,
KELLY C. THOMAS PAT MCNEELY j
SUSAN NESBITT Director of Student Media ,
Features Editor PD BONZA ,
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TOMMY JOYNER Production Manager ,
Sports Editor LAURA DAY r
KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Production Manager ?
Assistant Sports Editor BURGOS t
CHRIS SILVESTRI Assistant Advertising Manager
BARBARA BROWN t
(
Letters Policy: The Gamecock will to 1,1 Prinl a" ,e,,ers received, l etters should be, at a maximum, 250 to j
300 words Ions, (.uest editorials should not exceed StMl words. We reserve the riKht to edit letters for style or
possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. I
Turning dow
In a recent letter to the editor, a USC law student
wrote that it was so ironic that a "pointed
column on Rep. Mike Fair's incessant moral
bigotry peacefully co-existed with a fundamentalist's
call for repentance." The ad in question
pushed a cure for "AIDS, etc." through Christianity;
the letter concluded that "The Gamecock
has told its readers that totalitarian flimflam is
OK as long as its purveyors pay for their
soapbox."
But what this student is suggesting amounts to
censorship.
For The Gamecock to agree with all of its
advertisers, it would have to hand-select them.
Wouldn't that be nice? There is probably
nothing they would like better than to pick and
choose advertisements that reflect their tendencies
? whether liberal or conservative.
If the editors at The Gamecock were Catholic,
they would reject an advertisement for a Baptist
church. If the editors weren't part of the greek
system, they would reject advertisements from
sororities and fraternities. If the editors at The
Gamecock didn't drink alcohol and thought it
was evil, they would deny advertising to beer
Letters to the
Column draws
that he enlis
explanation repad"
To the editor: stead of pou
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a
guest column for The Gamecock
about rebel flag-waving Sen. Glenn TT _ 1 J
McConnell and his reasons for not 'XlOlvl
serving his country during the Vietnam
War: high blood pressure, color TOl* V
blindness and extreme sensitivity to
bee stings. To the editor
The day after the column ap- In respons
peared, I got a phone call from Sen. ment in his
John Courson, R-Richland. Sen. Wednesday
Courson said he was an ex-Marine Holderman h
reservist and assured me that no one visitation, I
would want a colorblind man who is clarification,
extremely sensitive to bee stings on 1 can assuri
the battlefield. Sen. Courson further Holderman h
explained that after a conversation ing everythin
with McConnell he learned that bee sure that stud
stings can be fatal. privileges on
I talked with several Vietnam past year, he
veterans afterward who all got a with students
?ood laugh from Sen. Courson's ex- mittee and h;
planations, especially the part about make certain
bee stings. One veteran told me he tion on this c
was sensitive to poisonous snake to school nex
litPQ hilt h c hie pnnntrv c r^/Hit chn
inyway. deserve it. O
I believe if Sen. McConnell had Holderman h
vanted to fight for his country and dent advocate
x>ur forth hot lead on the com- students to s
nunist aggressors ? the political forts. The :
tncestors of the Nicaraguan San- privileges is c
linistas McConnell claims to despise and students i
? he could have done so. There were as adversaries
\merican boys in World War II who ]
nemorized eye charts and prayed for
i chance to send Nazi stormtroopers #
o the great beyond. 1^ 111* |
But because of his medical pro)lems,
the authenticity to which Sen.
"ourson so adamantly testifies, so- SCrtf
neone else went in McConnell's
)lace. My question is this: Does Sen. To the editor
vlcConnell still need someone to In all the
?^
I IT MUST BE
wm VERY HK3I
IS . , IN FIBER
0B V
n ads could b
?fr
e
c
companies. c
The idea is simply ludicrous. No matter how a
the staff members feel about the advertisements,
they must remain fair and open to everybody. I
The many pages of advertising serve a purpose. e
There would not be a newspaper without adver- j
tisers, and likewise advertisers would not be able c
to inform consumers without a newspaper. \
No one would suggest no advertising, but there a
are those who still believe that advertisements a
should reflect the views and opinions of its
editors. t
editor
:les for him even today? visitation policy, one cruci
i quivering invertebrate has been missed. Rep. Mik
ts Sen. Courson to take not worried about his di
i? Let's start sending behavior, for she has been
e General Assembly in- up in a proper moral tradit
ltry. the lifestyle of her future rc
Paul Perkins that concerns Rep. Fair.
USC School of Law ... , .?
It is this stranger who will
pyyil n f| ing choices that will directl
d 111 All Fair's daughter. These choic<
? # ? made by someone who h
lSll^llOn brought up with different va
To save his daughter fr
nnfpntiallv pmharraccino r>r
e to Ken Benoit's com- situations, Rep. Fair would
guest column this past legislate away those difl
that President James Rather than allow his daugl
as not taken a stance on the rgst of us students to lean
would like to make a live with those who are d
Rep. Fair would like to culti
; students that President sulate her.
las been personally do- it js just this type of ethnoi
g he possibly can to en- that puts us all in danger, f
lents maintain visitation fair's daughter get along in t
this campus. Over the world" after school, where hi
has met numerous times wjn not be able to pro!
and the Ecology Com- anymore? How are we, the re
is made every effort to students, to learn how to d
that there will be visita- those who would choose a <
:ampus when we return lifestyle7
t fall.
uld go to those who Would Rep. Fair have the i
n this particular issue, ty do away with foreign
as been a staunch stu- next? Some of them arer
e, and I encourage all Christian ? gasp!
upport him in his ef- Who we let into our ho
itruggle for visitation whatever reason, is a part of i
)ne that administrators lifestyles. Learning about otl
nust wage together, not part of our education. Leai
i. accept others who may be dif
Vfarie-Louise Ramsdale a part of maturing.
Student body president This attempt at repression
_ # something to be concerned
fl 1 IH Vm What if this attitude were pn
1"^^ a global political level ins
J some little school in the Sou
attitude scary, iSn t &?
Amy-Dare
controversy over the GINT/economit
e censorship
At no time have editors at The Gamecock sa|d
>ublicly or privately that they agree with the opirions
expressed in the aforementioned ad. Yhey
lon't need to. Besides, some staff members
night agree with an ad that others might find i
)ffensive.
Advertising should be ? and usually is ? ;
>pen to all who seek it and can pay for it.
Why shouldn't this advertiser have the same .
>pportunity as others?
It should not be up to the editors to decide if
very ad is insulting or offensive. This is the job
>f the reader. For the editors to make these kinds
>f decisions would be insulting to its readers who
ire perfectly capable of making them themselves.
Yes, it is ironic that the pointed column on
:air and the fundamentalist ad "peacefully co-;'
xisted." And no, The Gamecock is not telling*
ts readers that totalitarian flimflam is OK. The
minions of the editors are exDressed solelv in the
/iewpoint page's columns and editorials ? not;
ill over the newspaper and certainly not in the
ids.
This irony is what freedom of the press, and In
his case, advertising, is all about.
:
>
I
-K
' .'jr .:
V
I
ial point a i i J
e Fair is Article sparks
tughter's - *
otifu anger, disgust
)ommate
t
To the editor:
be mak- This past Wednesday's artily
affect cle,"USC officials do not expect stu;s
will be dent exodus," made me quite angry
as been with the university's officials,
dues. Dennis Pruitt and an unnamed
om any university official seem to state that;it
difficult doesn't matter what type of housing
I like to visitation policy they enact; tlie
erences. siuaenis are iorcea lnio accepting ji
liter and because they can't afford to live off
a how to campus. In the past, many thought
ifferent, Pruitt was priding himself on finding
irally in- an acceptable solution to the visitation
policy that both the students arid
centrism the Board of Trustees would agree to
low will accept. However, I believe most of Os
he "real now understand how he feels toward
er father the students he governs.
:ect her
st of the My real concern is if Pruitt and
eal with lh*s unnamed official are speaking
iifferent f?r themselves, or are they speaking
for all the university's so-called officials?
Do all the university's of
jniversi- ticials teel that they have the students
students trapped into abiding by a policy that
1't even the students did not ask to havie
enacted?
me, for These are valid questions that need
our own to be answered, especially when you
tiers is a see how these officials decided to
-ning to alter university policy to make sure
ferent is Rep. Mike Fair's "little girl" doesn'.t
have sexual intercourse while oji
is really campus at USC. If the officials at
about. USC keep making policies to please a
ssent on single state representative's every
tead of wish, the students at USC are going
th? to be forced into abiding by mo(e
than just visitation policies.
A*
Holland Chip Conkliti
:s senior Retailing sophomore