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Energy Wildlife refuge should remain free of oil industry's drilling Some people never learn from mistakes. Members of Congress have been- among those who fail to learn from not only their own blunders, but those of others. The recent catastrophic oil spill in Alaska gives them a chance to learn something from Exxon's mistake, but it remains to be seen if they will. Petroleum comnanies want to search for oil in the Arctic Na tional Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, but it is up to members of Congress to decide if the companies may drill in the area. Their request should be denied, and the disastrous spill simply underscores the fact that drilling in this area could have terrible consequences. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of the places where nature remains untamed, and to allow drilling there would spoil the beauty of the area. That part of the Alaskan coastal plain was set aside to protect the wilderness, and Congress must keep the area free of such development. If the oil industry moves into the refuge, wildlife, water supplies and air quality will suffer. Worse yet, America will lose another piece of precious land forever. Beyond that, drilling in the refuge will only compound the chances of another disaster like the one in Prince William Sound. The oil companies have already shown blatant disregard for the environment; letting them drill in the refuge will only invite further disaster. Congress must prevent another tragedy in Alaska. Lobbyists for the oil industry will undoubtedly assert that reserves will go unfound if the companies do not get a chance to explore the area. Yet much of Alaska is still open to exploration, and other off-shore areas can still be looked into. Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will not lessen America's dependence on foreign oil, and it will not solve this country's energy problems. The only party to benefit from develonment of the area will be the oil comnanies themselves. Congress should reject the oil industry's request and look toward different energy sources. America needs to lessen its dependence on oil, and turning down exploration in this Alaskan refuge is the first step toward that objective. *H01P IT- I'VE BEEN KlNPA OUT OF THE LOOP THE LAST EI6HT YEARS QK SO* j ^LLcsK ! ] I ' I . II ] Best 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 I MAK T rCAR3Ul> KUBtK I 51tVtlN5UI\ Assistant News Editors Adviser KELLY C. THOMAS PAT MCNEELY SUSAN NESB1TT Director of Student Media Features Editor ED BONZA TODD HINES Advertising Manager Assistant Features Editor MARGARET MICHELS TOMMY JOYNER Production Manager Sports Editor LAURA DAY KEVIN ADAMS Assistant Production Manager Assistant Sports Editor RAY BURGOS CHRIS SILVESTRI Assistant Advertising Manager BARBARA BROWN ; Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try In prim all lelters 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 any circumstance. * I COULD VISIT -AVOID FOREIGN HUMILIATIO NATIONS... a V fteil[l?la&s wfcwvofikn^spa/ * SUNO to rue rave oc "IF I ONC/UQOA BRAIS Fight for rig! Well, they went ahead and did it: The Studeni Trustee Liaision Committee of USC's Board of Trustees, that is, voting to phase out overnight, opposite-sex visitation in all dorms on campus. So it's pretty much a given. The committee members are either interfering busybodies too stupid to realize they are going to create more problems than they solve, or they are spineless cowards afraid to stand up to the interfering busybodies. I can't figure it ? the Student-Trustee Liaisoi Committee voting for a proposal that is worse than the Ecology Committee's, voting for a proposal that, by 1992, will be just as bad as Rep. Mike Fair's proposal. It's apparent that the students on the StudentTrustee Liaison Committee served the interests c only a few students ? the ones here now. They showed they don't give a damn about the students who will be here by and after 1992. In other words, they saved their own butts an< then stuck their heads in the sand, forgetting about the future. But Fair started all this, and I am beginning t< think he is a fool. He said he wanted to protect USC from liabili ty in lawsuits if a student is raped and contracts AIDS or some other venereal disease. Yet these proposals, especially his, leave USC wide open for a huge, more important legal battle ? a civil rights lawsuit, one in which the university's position could be challenged as an ir fringement on students' freedom to associate with whomever they please. The issue of sex is a smoke screen; it isn't the real issue. Letters to th Writer denies # the meda own heritage ? Confedei To the editor: Southern Just as Reginald Smith was com- was the c pelled to write to The Gamecock in understai the April 5 issue about the medallion And sine letter, I, too, have a need to express part of h opinions. be offen Honestly, I don't believe Smith to haphaza be a real African-American. If he Americai were, he would never have written, federate nevertheless even thought, we should wearing i go back to Africa and claim it simply a right t because we identify with it. He is emplifies nullifying his grandparents', parents' ancestors and his existence in this country. He freedom, has obviously forgotten all the con- I see n< tributions African-Americans have fended b given to this country from slavery to protect o the present. And if he is a true be put to African-American, he has unfor- the probl tunately bought the Caucasian defini- whole is tion of who his ancestors were, who existence, he is now and who his children will be in the future ? the race with no history. Elec Smith also refers to himself as a :>lack American. This lends itself to he notion that Smith is not a true ItX" \frican-American. There is no such , . :ountry called Black. And we, as \^ltj /oung African-Americans, no longer efer to ourselves as black Americans jecause it deprives us of our rich and To the ec ightful motherland ? Africa. You I am a lo not hear white American citizens feel com] rail themselves Americans. There is regards tc ilways a cultural reference, i.e., to ban ov talian-American, Irish-American, this act, i fewish-American or even Anglo- infringer >axon American. Why doesn't Smith students, uggest they reclaim their ancestrial We are lomeland because they identify with voting ad heir motherland*? a double Finally, the medallion issue. No should b( ...TREAT -I'D BE MORE NS... CRITICS WITH THAU GEORGE' DISDAIN... CADDY3 I j r" its at center of ; r M i\ Overnight, opposite-sex visitation is not for the purpose of sex. Not. ?f I've visited members of the opposite sex in their apartments at night before, and stayed overnight once, but sex had nothing to do with it. I was studying and talking. i Fair is using the issue of sex to gather support among a bunch of ignorant country folk who don't understand the issue of civil rights because 3 they haven't been educated. Fair is using the sex issue, the smoke screen, to gather support among i- a bunch of religious right-wing fundamentalists who would love to see people who don't agree with them banned from visiting their friends overnight, but would probably be just as pleased to see them burning a pyre of books they'd censor if they could, i- Sex is not the issue. The issue is rights, the rights of every student who is more than 18 years old, as an adult member of this society to freely associate for whatever reason they see fit- with whomever they e editor lid wear it if thev are nnt are arhiltc anH vr?u chmili its symbolic value. Just as such. Then he turns a Jlion is a symbol of African treats us as if we are 10 ye for sovereignty and liberty wants to enforce his view colonial shackles, so is the us. ate flag a symbol of white Yes, I will admit th ers of a time when the South number of students on th enter of the United States. I underclassmen as wel id Stephen Driffin's point. perclassmen, who need tc e he feels the medallion is a with some kind of aut is heritage, he has a right to rules, but most do not. Eb ided when others wear it person reaches the age rdly. Just as African- he/she is able to attend i is feel offended by the Con- university, their beliefs ar flag, Driffin should try in regards to sex, sociali t to see the response. He has other aspects of life o wear a symbol that ex- established. There are a the adversity our African who may change their be faced in their struggle for policy is passed, but most person should be taught i a reason for Smith to be of- proper sexual behavior at y those who are trying to the classroom, not enforc ur heritage. His time could living quarters. Parents i better use by trying to solve child's perception of pr< em of where our race as a behavior. I can say this t going and how to save its mother taught me a lot. 1 that the student's paren ones who need to teach tl meone else. Sandy Nunn Also, I have moved out trical engineering freshman mitorv and into an anartrr is much more expens mq|q Knrtiti homosexual can contini I Uvjiin sexual behavior, why can'i . uals? This discrimination i narents 'y for people who are willi * and do something to previ croachment on their righi litor: passed, it should not take 19-year-old freshman, and I the fall of 1990, because rr Delled to write this letter in are tied into their housinj 3 Rep. Mike Fair's proposal and are unable to get out < ernight visitation. I feel that to other lodgings, if passed, would be a grave I have one last point to i nent on the rights of paying for an education, will be paying off loans v no longer children; we are have graduated. If Fair wj ults. It appears that Fair has for my education, then standard on the way we argue with his proposal or treated. On one side, you ing of opposite-sex visitai ...MAKE ...IF I c nmcinuc nm\/ ^ I'WV-I-'II/IW L"?w WITHOUT HAD A DADDy... BRAIN! visitation war wish, whenever they wish. It's time for the students who are against this to come forth now and take some real action. If this policy is put into effect, it should immediately be challenged as unconstitutional in our courts. I have been doing some reading on First Amendment rights, civil liberties and how they can be defined in the courts. From what I've read, I not only think that this proposed policy could be challenged in court, but declared unconstitutional. This policy would tell me I could not talk to my female friends in their rooms at night. Ladies of USC, it would tell your male frientis'ffcat they could not spend a night over having an all-night study session when you really need their help, or they really need yours. Finally, if this proposal said that black students and white students could not visit each other overnight, it would be thrown out in a heartbeat. Enacting a wall of separation through university policy or state law is unconstitutional if based on race. Last I heard, if it's based on sex, it's just as wrong. The Board of Trustees meets Thursday to hear Fair's and more students' proposals at 10 a.m., but there are students on campus who are planning to be in front of Capstone at 9:30 a.m. to demonstrate their opposition to Fair and visitation impedement. They would like to see a lot of support. Concerned students are going to be there to show support for students rights as adults. ? d behave as then, I will stand up for my rights, round and ars old and James C. Brown s of life on Business management freshman "campus! Quick exam II as uphoH.yeaand reveals much / the time a To the editor: at which I am writing to you, but I am direci college or ting my letter to Rep. Mike Fair. 1 id attitudes would like some honest answers from zation and him. Although the following test is are well for him, all the students may few people participate. riieis ii tne you nave taken a stana against will not. A overnight stays by the opposite sex morals and because you feel it promotes sex and home or in is immoral. These seem to be the only ed in one's points you care about. I must hand it influence a to you; you sure know how to avoid iper social topics that go against your stand (like jecause my all good politicians). 'he point is Let's see if you can pass "Fair ts are the 101." Here is your final exam (25 lis, not so- points each): 1) What's the real reason you are of my dor- against overnight stays by the oplent, which posite sex? ive. If a 2) Do you not trust the males at Lie his/her Carolina? : neterosex- 3) What role does your daughter s very cost- really play in this? ing to fight 4) (As a board member, this is a snt this en- "gimme") What does it take to get a ts. Even if member of the Board of Trustees effect until removed from the board? Or how tost people many signatures? I contracts Extra credit ? 20 points. And Df them in- since you seem to be a good politician and smart enough to always try to nake. I am put a good notch in your not Fair. I resume. . .By some chance, is your veil after I re-election coming up soon in Greenants to pay ville? (I thought so.) I will not Well, did you pass the test or not? i the bann- Hal S. Volin tion. Until Media arts freshman