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Parking Student parking lot should remain in hands of students Student Government President Marie-Louise Ramsdale has the students'best interest at heart when she said that she supports the status quo in the parking situation at USC. She doesn't want students to lose any parking spaces. That is why Ramsdale complained loudly when President James Holderman approved several proposed parking changes. She was right when she said students have gotten a bum deal this year. Students are facing increases in tuition, housing, parking fines, Marriott food prices, and the much needed increase in activity fees. But students are also getting a bum deal because of the move to a stricter, moralistic campus with the phase out of visitation rights. Students do need something to boost their morale, and parking is very important to both commuting and resident students. The administration should take this into consideration and continue reviewing the proposed changes. Among the approved parking changes is turning the commuting student lots at Pendleton and Pickens into a faculty and staff lot. No one is arguing that faculty does not need parking spaces, but that lot should remain a student lot for several reasons. The most important factor is security. There is a concentration of women's residence halls in that area. Once those spaces are given to the faculty there will only be 427 student parking spaces in that very heavily student-populated area. The second reason, which ties in with the first, is that because of the approved changes there will no longer be any difference between commuting and resident parking. There will just be student parking. Residents in that area would have a closer and safer area to park in without having to worry about parking on the outskirts of campus and walking in the dark back to their dorms. Third, of course, is a matter of convenience. Most students do have very busy schedules and good parking only helps them through their day. Students pay a lot to the university in tuition and housing fees. USC, after all, does have the third highest tuition among public institutions in the Southeast. Students are the backbone of this university, and they should get the quality service they are paying for at every level including parking. "LETS JUST 6NE IT A SPECIAL-EFFECTS AWARP AMP KEEP THE M0NEVw The Gamecock Government si I "That's one small step for man . . . one giant leap for mankind. " Neil Armstrong July 20, 1969 #.. _ ts ^ y-? ? Kjuviuusiy u major muijuncuon . . . [it) nas been confirmed the orbiter has exploded." Voice of Mission Control, January 28, 1986 "Duck Dodgers in the 24 and a half century!" Daffy Duck, Warner Brothers Space. An interesting concept. Since recorded history, humans have always dreamed about going into space. In the Bible, Ezekiel saw the wheel. Icarus tried to fly into the sun. And the writer Jules Verne wrote a book about flying to the moon, which inspired a young Robert H. Goddard to build the foundation of sending man to the moon and beyond. We're still dreaming. Twenty years ago, man landed on the moon. Fourteen years ago, astronaut and cosmonaut (a Soviet astronaut) shook hands in space. But we have a small problem. Last week the stealth bomber, the B-2, flew for the first time. The over-budget and supposedly secret airplane finally got its "wing," 10 years and $22.4 billion later. The first B-2 flight lasted for two hours, about the length Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin walked on the moon. The cost of the entire Apollo program was $25.5 billion. The cost for the entire B-2 program, a fleet Individuals can It is very easy to ignore the environment for the sake of our little conveniences. It's hard to do without air conditioners in the heat of a Columbia summer. It's hard to remember to turn off incandescent light bulbs whenever they are not in use (or, better, to replace them with compact fluorescent bulbs), and it's hard to remember to avoid styrofoam products in favor of paper ones when possible. We know that all of these things, along with countless others, have contributed to the incredible global warming trend since the 1960s resulting from the depletion of the ozone layer of our atmosphere and by the greenhouse effect. It's simple enough. But I read something very interesting in a recent Newsweek article by Gregg Easterbrook. I read that man's damage to his environment is not going to mean the end of life on earth. It will only mean the end of human life on earth. Most of us think about taking those little steps to improve the environment in much the same way we think about voting: "My actions won't have much effect in such a big world." It is true that waste and environmental ignorance in the home causes a relatively small proportion of the damage to our planet, though an important one. But if we choose to ignore that part of the damage, what is left for us to do? Major environmental disasters like the burning of the tropical rain forests in countries like Brazil Letters to the e< Abortion chart SS^SJ # The perc m paper wrong ?0 T u A. legalized ab i v_? me cuuui. state, 34 The front page figure "Abortion abortion, 4' Rights Poll" in the July 5 issue ot abortions The Gamecock is inaccurate and elimination misleading. The same poll appeared percent are much differently in the July 3 issue of There is < The State. Because of the importance about the r of this issue I feel that you should But what a produce an accurate figure on the wanted chil front page of the The Gamecock in the laws ch I I Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society oj Professional Journalists, 19X7-88 Kditor in Chief MARY PEARSON Copy Desk Chief "~A TODD CHRISTENSEN jf\ r'r^ Assistant Copy Desk Chief ft ? PAM VIE EADES |A I News Kditor 11/ jJ RON BAKER Features Kditor y CAREN C'AMPBEEE Sports Editors DEBBII JORDAN Assistant Production Manager D R. HAYNES RAY BURGOS Photography Minor /xuverusing Personnel I.liS Al.VERSON Advertising Manager Gamecock Advisor MARGARET MICHIil.S ERIK COI I.INS Campus Kepresentive Director of Student Media TERENCE GREEN I D IK)N/A Account Executives Production Manager I ERRENCE MANIGUAI. I I AURA DAY YONAS Letters Policy: The ( umeetnk will lr> III prim all letters rmi\nl. tellers should Ik-, al a ina\iniiiin. 2511 in 500 words long. I In writer should include lull naim-. professional lilU- if an employee with I s( or < oliimhia resident. or tear and major il' a student. An address and phone nuinher are required with am tellers senl. fiiiesl editorials should mil e\eeed 5INI words. We reserse the ri|?hl lo edil letters lor sole or possible liliel. The (iiimniiek will uol withhold names under am eireunislanee. [ 'RV IT asain^A ITHINKIH&arp SOMETHING- I twatt/me... r fKA houldn't invest Les Alverson i iiiinnrri i of 132 planes, will cost at an estimate of $66 billion. Astounding. Each bomber will cost more than $500 million. That could fly two shuttle missions. From a NASA spokesperson, each shuttle mission costs between $150 to $200 million. The price includes the behind-the-scene work of tracking the shuttle, the launch crews, even the janitor to sweep up launch control after a successful lift-off. As it stands, both the bomber program and the future of space exploration is in doubt. Congress has decided to make cuts in the space program each year since 1971. This year is no exception. Later this month, Congress will vote on whether to support the bomber or kill it. If the government put the money for the stealth do their part f< Ron could be easily enough solved, in this case by relieving the debts of those third-world nations who are spewing all of this carbon dioxide. This would release those nations from the economic stress that is causing them to allow such measures in the first place, and the survival of the human race is surely worth that. But we all know that such a measure would never become a major issue in a national election, and that therefore we all ultimately have little to say about it. Until we become more aware and begin to press the U.S. government to do what is right, we must rely on environmental groups and the rare sensibilities of our elected officials. So what, I ask again, is left for us to do? We could continue to blow off our social responsibility. That's convenient. 1*i aiior 3lace that the inaccurate at much higher risk of e ared on July 5. poor prenatal care, bir :entage published in The neglect, abuse, pover gives the impression that homes, etc., through ne (only 7 percent) favors childhood. So much haj iortion. According to The childhood of the average percent favor legalized out of choice. Everyone 7 percent favor emergency the act of abortion is dist only, 11 percent favor it does not compare wi of all abortions, and 8 ? ?~~~~ undecided. TH jo much talk by pro-lifers A V-r Am A A J ights of the unborn fetus. xhe Gamecock thank bout the right ot the un- our attention. We hope Idren who will be born if very complicated issue, ange? These children are * in destruction bomber into space missions, we could have 22 space shuttles, or 112 shuttle missions, or the proposed Freedom space station that could serve as a launching platform for further exploration of space, including a manned mission to Mars. What good has come out of the bomber program? Much of today's technology comes from space. Did a bomber bring teflon? Nope. Did a bomber give us better record needles? Nope. Did a bomber give us new life-saving drugs? Nope, a bomber's sole purpose is to kill. The B-2 is also a "slow" airplane. The estimated flying speed is around 600 mph, similar to the speed of a DC-10. If World War III were to begin, the war would be over by the time the plane could get into the air, because we live in the age of the intercontinental ballistic missile. But the money doesn't necessarily need to go into space. People are starving in America, drugs are everywhere, crime keeps growing, people can't get adequate health care, illiteracy is a problem, and ad infinitum. We do not need to concern ourselves with the destruction of earth, instead we must be aware of the preservation of mankind as a whole. We need to expand into space, not pulverize the people of the world. "Space the final frontier...to boldly go where no one has gone before..." Star Trek ?r environment But how much trouble would it really be to have those leaky air conditioners repaired? How about deciding to go through the stress and strain of finding paper cups instead of styrofoam? Maybe even an occasional letter to your congressional representative? Yeah, this sounds like something from a civics textbook with sarcastic embellishment. But what else do you want me to say. No one's asking you to dedicate your life to environmentalism here. I'm actually not even suggesting that you go beyond worrying about the atmosphere. I haven't even addressed erosion, beaches, disappearing animal species, and so on. All we need is a little effort and teamwork. "We're all in this together," Ken Medendorp of University Dining Services told me Monday. For my part, I look forward to being able to choose paper rather than plastic cups at the Grand Marketplace. I'm saving aluminum cans for recycling, as well as tons of newspapers. Glass is my next project. My blasted car doesn't even have an air conditioner (which makes it pretty easy to complain about air conditioners), but the one in my bedroom window needs help. The easiest step, though, and the necessary first one, is to stay informed. I have just begun. I invite anyone else out there to join me, and help if possible. xperiencing alternative thai many unwanted th defects, children have to endure. We need to ty, foster drastically increase allocation of out their resources for prenatal and postnatal >pier is the care and for agencies such as the baby born Department of Social Services, agrees that before restricting rights to abortion, asteful, but Brad Norford ith lifelong Psychology Graduate Student IE RECORD 'c thp rpaHpr fr?r hrinoino thie orrnr in mir ^kort n 1 VMV*V1 IV* UUJ V11V1 111 VUi Vliai I tKJ this letter of correction will shed some light on a