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Rock 'n' roll USC should have established stadium policy long before now The Rolling Stones wanted to come to William-Brice Stadium on Sept. 30, but USC's Athletic Director King Dixon said "no." But Dixon did not ban the band from playing at the stadium. He just said no for the football season. Talks were in the preliminary stages when he said no. His reasoning was that putting on a rock concert in the middle of football season was not in the best interest of the university or the athletic program. He was also worried about possible damage to the football field, although the Gamecocks will be playing away that weekend in Georgia. His reasoning is logical, but the problem here is that the university has been careless in not developing a stadium concert policy earlier. Other major colleges allow concerts in their stadiums, but USC has not. The university stadium is ideally situated to draw top bands to the area. It's located near two major interstates and has a very large seating capacity. The crowds that would come to see rock's top bands such as the Rolling Stones would mean big money for USC, Columbia, and the state. An article in The State said according to state Tax Commission formulas, if the Rolling Stones sold all 72,400 seats at the stadium at $28.50 each, admissions tax could amount to more than $82,000 and the sales tax more than $36,000. Plus USC could charge up to $85,000 for rent of the stadium for one night. Multiply those numbers by a possible six to 10 concerts which the university could allow each year. Then think about all the business concerts could generate for local businesses. Holderman has made a step toward adopting a stadium DAUPV UP rpppnfhr onnninfp/1 o yuuv; . nv i vwviiiij appuiiuvu a CUllUlllllbt IU IUU1S. CLL L11C 1?UC. He gave them 60 days to come up with proposals. The Rolling Stones will not play at William-Brice Stadium on Sept. 30 because the university was careless in not setting a policy long before now. But now that the issue is upon USC, the administration should move quickly in establishing a policy that will allow a certain number of big acts to perform at the stadium each year. This makes economic sense for the university, state, city and public. "JUSfFOR THE HELL OF IT. I'P LIKE TO KNOW IF PWPUWOU^FINP IT OFFENSIVE" ^ ^ I The Gamecock Best Non-daily Collegiate Newspaper, Southeastern Region Society of Professional Journalists, 1987-88 Editor in Chief MARY PEARSON ft || * Copy Desk Chief ll) \i| PAMMEEADES USC"? News Editor ?P||+***77 RON BAKER features Editor Assistant Production Manager r- A D n NI ^AMDDCl I RAY BURGOS Sports Editors Advertising Personnel DEBBIE JORDAN Advertising Manager D R. HAYNES MARGARET MICHELS Photography Editor Campus Representive LES ALVERSON Terence Green Gamecock Advisor Account Executives ERIK COLLINS Campus Representive Director of Student Media TERENCE GREEN ED BONZA Account Executives Production Manager TERRENCE MANIGUAET LAURA DAY LORR1E YONAS Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer should include full name, professional title if an employee with (JSC or Columbia resident, or year and major if a student. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. 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. How do you c The swastika is back, and it's almost as frightening as ever. Most everyone has seen them around, most often as tatoos on young men wearing jeans, work boots, and Union Jack tee-shirts. They're called skinheads. These are not national socialists in the fascist tradition. I suspect they are generally hardly smart enough to spell "political," much less to be political. But even if they were, that would just make it worse. Lurking in Five Points, strutting through our local malls, or marching down Main Street, skinheads are in Columbia paying their homage to the Confederate flag flying proudly over our General Assembly and looking for heads to bash. I'm sure everyone is familiar with exactly what skinheads are, but allow me to explain anyway. They are the new Klan, a group of modern-day Hitler Youth types who are hell bent on throwing away every ounce of self-respect this nation has by violently attacking blacks, Jews and homosexuals whenever and wherever they can't lose the fight. An example: The University of Florida's unofficial student newspaper, The Independent Florida Alligator, reported that late last month skinhead Carl Eckberg was sentenced to community service, totalling 100 hours, for beating a black man with a chain. Eckberg was also ordered to "write a letter of apology to the victim and a four-page autobiography including his views of the rights of others." Hostages' reti The hostage crisis in the Middle East is only the latest in a long line of problems in a bad situation. It is debatable whether or not Israel's action of kidnapping Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid was a necessary or even proper thing to do. And Israel may not get their three soldiers or the other hostages returned. However, the kidnapping has sparked the most diplomatic activity in the Middle East since the Iranians released the U.S. Embassy hostages eight years ago. ? - _ Think about it. Some of the American hostages have been in captivity for over four years. President Ronald Reagan refused to negotiate with the captors. And up to now, President George Bush has maintained that policy. With the execution of U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins (although we don't know when it happened) and the suspended death threat against Joseph Cicippio, the Bush administration has finally mobilized other countries to do our negotiating for us. If these other countries, like Algeria, get our hostages back for us, what will keep any Shiite group from taking more hostages? Face it, they hate the United States. Hostage taking and other acts of terrorism are only the consequences of a more basic problem. The Middle East has been plagued by violence for centuries, but particulary since 1947 when Isreal was created by a United Nations commission. Whether or not Israel should have been created is a moot point at this stage of the game. However, Isreal has been closed minded in the making of their policies. Letters to the ei use in right TJZZ _ since I callec about concert one opposing To the editor: 1 Recently I turned the radio to Fox metaphor foi 102 FM only to hear that the Rolling fSO t.hat ^len. Stones would not be playing at USC ^,,y because of "Tractor Pulls?" concert. The rest of Benji Norton's show I also ment centered around pnones calls con- ly (Jraham w< demning USC and King Dixon for the going rate not allowing the Stones at USC. Not don't kid yo 1 "\W|WW 'r^ombat racists 1 Wow. Sounds familiar. A group of Klansmen in Alabama will have to attend a race-relations course for their involvement in attacking black civil rights marchers. They, too, were given community service work. Wow. John Metzger, 21, is the leader of the Aryan Youth Movement, one of several prominent skinhead groups. He admits to being a racist (shocker), but says this simply means that he believes all races should be kept separate. Okay. That explains why members of his "brotherhood" beat up old men and women in public parks. If I believed this trash, I would beat up the Department of Parks and Recreation. The courts can't seem to deal with people like lrn won't solv Pamme Eades In 1936, only 30 percent (most of which were immigrants) of the population of the Palestine region was Jewish. However, a Zionist movement was already gaining strength. During the holocaust, thousands upon thousands of Jewish refugees immigrated into the area. Now Jews make up 85 percent of the population, meaning that the vast majority of the citizens of Isreal either were born in a Western societv or erew up in a modern Isreal with little contact with Arabic culture. Since President Harry Truman's time, the U.S. has backed Isreal, who has their own terroristic history. Support has never really wavered, even when Isreal committed serious human jights violations. But, our worst mistake has been making foreign policy without trying to understand the Middle Eastern culture. For example, why do we call the Shiite Moslems radicals when Shiite has been the 1"" 1 ;:'"I!! ! ' "" "111 !>!-!-!1 ".;'11 1 ,-... .... 11111111'A!!!!A;.M!I.I , ..I.' ! 1. . g view was aired (reeks Stones leave much of tl it censorship to me), and stadiums they play) and 1 1 in to support the USC been associated with drug know there was at least Benji mentioned he was I view to air. ed" on the air. What does that "tractor pull was a Though I am not a religioi 'Crass Commercialism' recognize a difference betw I cnn fane r?AilM nnHorc ^ ? \ A ",u" wulu vjianam auu a ivncr* jagg* USC didn't want the Exhibitionist drug use b< ioned the Pope and Bil- forefront of differences. ;re free shows ($28.50 is 102 advocate drug use for : for a Stone tickets and of Columbia? I notice f< urself in believing the anti-drug announcements ike skinheads? Metzger's followers, and our representatives never could, as the persistence of white-hooded rednecks has shown. Then maybe, some say, we should treat the disease, not the symptoms. And what is the disease? It has been blamed on the Ronald Reagan and George Bush years (and hasn't everything?) for years of neglect of the black community and not a little disregard for racial equality. But it seems to me that Robert Bork is the closest we've ever come to skinheadism in the past nine years of federal government. Or are they right? Should blacks and whites be kept separate in order to preserve cultural identities? Cool! Let's set up a suburban middle-class haven for the whites; put the blacks in inner-city slums; and lock the homosexuals in out-of-the-way nondescript bars, with no names over the doors, so they can mingle with "their own type." After all, isn't that where we've been going for decades anyway? Really, though, I would like for someone to tell me how to combat this hatred. So far, all I've come up with is more hatred. I detest these people. I snarl at them, make belligerent comments to them, curse at them. I want to beat them up with chains and do my community service work. And a four-page autobiography. Wow. But I've basically been making them hate people like me worse than they did before. I don't mind personally, but it probably isn't helping any. Any advice? e problems religion of choice in Iran for centuries. It didn't just pop up when the Ayatollah Khomeini returned to Iran. You would think that after having CIA agents operaung in iran ror years tnat rne u.a. would have known that Shiite leaders, including the exiled Ayatollah, distrusted the U.S. And yes, Iran is responsible for a lot of the turmoil in the Middle East. The Ayatollah's war against Iraq destroyed their economy and their youth. Khomeini helped perpetrate violence across the Middle East by giving it the blessing of Allah. Unfortunately, Khomeini was an old, bitter man and was guilty of the same crime the U.S., Isreal and the Palestinian Liberation Organization has committed: the reluctance to understand. Beirut always seems to be the battle ground for everyone else's problems. In the early 1970s, it was the PLO who headquartered there, and began the fighting in the once beautiful city. "Now Moslems and Christian forces fight over the rubble that is left. And even the Christians (they practice the same basic religion we do) kill their hostages. I wonder if they even know why they started fighting in the first place. Civil war will not save the Middle East, only sitting down and talking will. Menachem Begin and Anwar Sedat did that with President Jimmy Carter 10 years ago. The treaty has succeeded because Sedat decided before going into negotiations that Egypt needed to learn how to understand Israel, and consequently live in harmony with it. Sedat lost his life for making peace. But I suppose, it is much easier for man to fight than to make peace. .. . , M / ?/?.% cy gggg H 1 - i ' "' ..i iat to the 102. I know of too many young lives tiave never ruined by drugs, use. It is not USC football games, as ; "possess- one Fox caller said, but Fox 102 that i he mean? should have boycotted by Columbia, as person I Benji is a one-sided Clemson fan only 'een a Billy too willing to find problems with the r\. i,? i i to/-1 TViot ;* ?i. vjaiiiduift.3 anu ujv. mat ia unforgivable. :ing in the Benji go north to your orange farm Does Fox friends we don't want you any more, the youth WUSC is now my station of choice. :w if any Jeffrey M. Ham on Fox USC Alumni