Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Ollie North should have received stricter sentence for crimes Oliver North was probably a very happy man when he left the courtroom of Federal District Judge Gerhard Gesell. He should be; he made off like a bandit. North's "long ordeal" ended last Wednesday. The Associated Press quoted North telling the judge, "I have devoted nearly two decades to the service of our country, and I would never knowingly do anything to hurt it or any of its institutions .... I grieve over what has happened, and I truly pray about it every day." "I also recognize that I made many mistakes, and as a result of those mistakes, I have been convicted of serious crimes." North didn't just make mistakes. He broke the law, but he has to pay very little for his very serious crimes. North was convicted of falsifying and destroying documents, aiding and abetting in the obstruction of Congress and accepting an illegal gratuity. He was acquitted on nine other counts of lying to or obstructing Congress, lying to then-Attorney General Edwin Meese, of illegally converting traveler's checks to his own use and of conspiring to defraud the Internal Revenue Service. North got off easy. He could have been sentenced to a maximum of 10 years and $750,000 in fines for the three felonies. But instead he only received two year's probation, 1,200 hours of community service and a fine of $150,000. The fine is really negligible because he will continue traveling the lecture circuit, earning about $25,000 a speech. It will take him six lectures to repay his debt to society if he hasn't already got the money in the bank. His sentence was too lenient. The main reason for the leniency was politics. Columnists such as Sandy Grady of the Philadelphia Daily News have said that the light sentencing of North by Gesell was a good move because it freed Bush from pressure to pardon him, thus taking Bush off the political hotseat. Politics should not have been involved in the sentencing of North. He not only broke the law, but he disobeyed the highest law of the land ? the Constitution, which is something he swore to protect when he entered the service. It is this oath that should have been honored regardless of who gave the orders. Orders from superiors should not go above the law. The act of giving or obeying orders that defy the law carries very heavy penalties, and those who are convicted of either act should pay those penalties in full. North should have received a stiffer sentence for his crimes. Because he didn't, a precedent has been set which endangers the basic premises of the democratic process in a lawful nation. "FIRST THIN6 IS TO IMPRESS OH RIPS THAT FOR 1 VI01ATIM6 THE LAW THEY CAN 60TO JAIL* y@? I fjfS fpf, I 11.3 ^ The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief MARY PEARSON Copy Desk Chief Tonn rmjKTFMSFN f m r- .~^ Assistant Copy Desk Chief h ~ ^ PAMME EADES |l\ Z.^\ I News Editor \W """ -M RON BAKER Features Editor CAREN CAMPBELL N^?'* Sports Editors DEBBIE JORDAN Assistant Production Manager D R. HAYNES RAY BURGOS Photography Editor Advertising Personnel LES ALVERSON Advertising Manager Gamecock Advisor MARGARET MICHELS ERIK CULLIINb campus ivepreseniive Director of Student Media TERENCE GREEN ED BONZA Account Executives Production Manager !SCvomT'GI,ALT LAURA DAY LORRIE YONAS Letters Policy: The Gamecock will In to print all Idlers received. Letters shtiuld be, at a maximum, 250 l? 300 words long. The writer should include full name, professional title if an employee with L'SC or Columbia resident, or year and major if a student. An address and phone number are required with any letters sent. Cues! editorials shtiuld not exceed SCO words. We reserve the right to edit letters for style or possible libel. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstance. USC should s 1 read a letter in The State a couple of days ago from a gentleman who refused to donate money to USC's business school untir James Holderman is fired. The letter pointlessly attacked those working students who spend their time calling alumni to solicit money for USC's various programs, and it somewhat irrationally argued that since Holderman is bent on upgrading the quality of education at USC, then earlier degrees (such as his own) granted by the university are basically useless. Given all of this, 1 immediately got all fired up in defense of my school and its president. After all, 1 have to pay higher tuition because this man and others like him refuse to donate to USC, right? But wait ? there's less. Less money in my bank account, to be sure. The more I think about it, the more 1 see the gent's point. Holderman has smiled self-consciously at passing tuition increases since his reign began, and the stream of higher costs to students seems endless. The administration has argued that the students must pay higher tuition because of the legislature's failure to adequately fund the university. 1 am inclined to think that anyone is capable of simply transferring costs to students. My understanding of the situation is that we are paying people like Holderman to make the university work, and incessant tuition increases hardly seem like making the system work. A 11 Oiijinn i noroorar OAII u/ltll Q /All UI 111C5C lUillUii mtuaoco, vwupiwvt ?Mill C* planned decrease in enrollment growth, are simply Commissione In the fall, the State Budget and Control Board will consider raises for the heads of major agencies within the state government. Most of these raises will probably be mundane increases of 1 or 2 percent. One, however, will not. The Commission on Higher Education has requested that Commissioner Fred Sheneen's salary be made comparable to those of the presidents of the major state universities: USC, Clemson University and the Medical "University of South Carolina. The average salary made by James Holderman of USC, Max Lennon of Clemson and James Edwards of MUSC is $105,670. The commission suggests that Sheneen's salary, $89,293, should be increased $19,377, or 22 percent. Why? 1 hear you cry. The State reported that "Sheheen said commission members had expressed concern that 'the commissioner's position should be equivalent ? from an organizational and structural standpoint ? to university presidents' jobs in terms of influence and in terms of importance in the state.' Commission Chairman William J. Whitener said Thursday that the higher education commissioner deserved a salary commensurate with the respon sibility the job engenders. J Whitener also said "Higher education is big business ? especially the kind of budget he is responsible for. We feel it's very important the person who holds that position is paid at least" as much as other top education administrators. I Letters to the e Flag burning mTLZ a a j i a The Flag i. protected right ' ^ * * cj Whoever v Must take (quoted in To the editor: Culture (I President George Bush wants the American people to support, or to pass over, a Constitutional Amend- Unquest ment which prohibits the desecration not permii of the American flag. 1 do not sup- "a8 ? ' port this appendage to our Bill of sol t-to Rights. However, I was content to Keagan/tn allow others to explain my lack of black-and support until, when rummaging Lesson le through the discount bin of the South governmer Carolina Bookstore, 1 came across towards tl this schoolboys' prayer: What ne desecratioi W e boys carry the flag for the assault Con 1 edera of youth. It shall stand and rise and glow like fire in the skies a H e are sworn to the flag. :erve all South Ron making it harder and harder for students from lowincome families to attend USC. Of course, the argument has been that Holderman's program to improve the image of USC and the quality of its students is an honorable one, and that it takes money. 1 think that something very important is being ignored here. As the admission requirements of the university become tougher and tougher, the school becomes more and more exclusive. Exclusionary policies rarely serve the purposes of the general populace. More often they perpetuate class differences and inequities, and this is not the domain of a university we all pay taxes to operate. The problem here is that a public school has a responsibility to the public. USC, as an institution bought and continually r's pay raise is LJGCAI For some time, I have wondered what exactly it is the CHE does for South Carolina. Everyone concerned will remember the controversial "Cutting Edge" document proposed by the CHE last year. But aside from that, what have they done? Has any more money been allocated to higher education? Have S.C. schools been ranked higher through CHE efforts? What we have seen are continued attempts by the CHE to make itself another level of trusteeship for state universities. "The Cutting Edge" proposed to make the CHE the final authority on decisions that should be left to the universities, such as admissions requirements ? requirements that would have prevented me and many others from attending use. ditor irches the flag. Nation foi y our faith a ?* d Volk and Land. FGSpGCt IOF u/iM tc tr\ rr\h i j c it our life and hand .... George L. Mosse, Nazi To the editor: Mew York: Grosset and And it came to pass Dunlap, 1968, p. 131) and reading from the woi Testament were ban ionably, these boys will schools, to pacify 5 per t the desecration of their population not ackno\ however, they are not in supreme being, that bene\ cused, light-hued whose providence ins jsh America, but in stark directed our founding fa -white Nazi Germany. establishing our nation, arned? Consecration of the Bible has inspired ; ital symbols is a goose step young and old. Lincoln le elimination of dissent. educated great preside xt? Laws banning the from the Bible throughoi i of the State Flag? the Behold, after God was te Flag? schools, many childi disobeying their parents, lives and properties of Paul Dhillon forgotten. Drugs, alcohc Knglish Graduate Student beries. violence, mug 8 I ti&jkWmvsPAy ? Carolinians paid for by the citizens of South Carolina, should not seek out "better" students who can afford ever-increasing tuition, but rather should try to accommodate all students who are minimally qualified to seek the type of education which can be provided at USC. This is not to argue that the university should become a technical school. The problem is that USC must not become an institution which serves only the elite economic classes in South Carolina. We all pay taxes to support the university. And, true, we should be interested in turning out the best-educated students possible. But 1 do not believe that this includes restricting the availability of education to students any more than absolutely necessary. USC should strive to give a better education to the same type of students it has always taken in. After all, this is an educational institution which is supported by us all and which is supposed to serve us all. That letter writer was right in some important ways. He apparently has problems with the way Holderman is running the university and the implication that we should spend more in trying to bring "ivy walls and lecture halls" (John Cafferty, I thifik) io USC. - Q I, too, disagree with much of this goal. 1 also regret having to spend more each year to go to a school which is gradually trying to do away with many of its more eager and ambitious students. ;n't justified USC is raising tuition again this fall, in response to low funding from the state legislature. Meanwhile, the CHE has yet to send major funding to state universities and colleges. The "importance and influence" of the commissioner should be based on his effectiveness and appreciable impact on higher education, not on salary. Paying Sheheen more will not make him do his job any better, but doing his job better may justify a pay increase. Increasing his salary just to bring his position to one of "equivalance" is wrong. Commissioner Sheheen said that he is comfortable with his $86,293 salary (I should think so). Therefore, commissioner, you might consider that your proposed increase, almost $20,000, could put four students through a major university each year. The money must be available, or would be made available, for your salary increase, commissioner. Consider making it available for education, instead. Maybe for the first time. Writer's notes: My last column incorrectly implied that my mother was a 'narrow-minded, suffocating, selfrighteous zealot.' She is open-minded enough not to press charges. But I am not open-minded enough to support the editorial opinion concerning Oliver North. I strongly disagree. i a murders now engulf the land. "Q01 Citizens fear to walk city streets, even ? in daytime, having to imprison ClfOfl themselves in their homes, lest their lives become endangered. Such was not the case before God was removed from schools. Now people see the urgent need to ' h nnu restore prayer and Old Testament ndertul Old reacjjng jn schools and are writing ned from and petitioning members of Congress cent ot the to amend the constitution to permit it vledging a and auow invoking God in public en1 bemg meetings. People are praying for it to pired and ^ done Tennyson wrote: "More Ithers while . . ___ Ut u.. than . tnings arc wiuugm uv uiajv. ...... 7 ST;. this world dreams of." an guided Putting God back in schools would i, our se - conquer the crime crisis .and help nth'Tfte fulfill that beautiful Biblical proJt 1S 1 e' phesy (Habakkuk 2:14): "For the cast out o earth shall be filled with the en gan knowledge of the glory of the Lord, espe t or a& ^ waters cover the sea." other, was 1, sev, rob- Harold Lindemann ginos and Resident, Eatontown, N.J.