The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 09, 1989, Page 2, Image 2
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
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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"
^ ^
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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
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.
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
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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.
.. . ,
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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