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Drugs South Carolina shouldn't support Bush's drug war President George Bush's drug war program has been hailed by Republican-dominated South Carolina as a plan for the future. The governor has praised it. Strom Thurmond has praised it. The state legislators have praised it. But has any one of these elected officials really sat down and figured out what the program would mean for the state? Have they sat down and discussed what this plan calls for? Not likely. If they had, they would have surely been cooler on their reception of the newest war on drugs. If Bush's plan goes the way it is intended, South Carolina would lose up to $5.9 million in federal funding for programs like immigration, juvenile deliquency and economic development. The plan calls for a grant of $5.4 million to be divided equally between law enforcement and drug abuse and treatment programs to make up for that, but that means South Carolina will lose $500,000 in the process. The plan calls for South Carolina's 46 counties to receive equal amounts of the $5.4 million to wage the war on drugs. But that would mean each county would receive only $117,390 to go to war with. How many more drug enforcement agents and treatment centers can survive for an entire year on that kind of money? That amount of money would barely fund the cost of having stationary and propaganda made up. South Carolina should be happy with the $5.4 million, but the president's plan is severly flawed in this respect: the plan assumes people aren't willing to help pay for the fight against drugs. But Americans think drugs are the No. 1 problem in the nation, according to most polls. If the difference between a winnable war and a useless one is just a few more tax dollars, then the choice should be easy. People win neip siop urugs. Bush promised no new taxes in his campaign speeches, but he has to realize this war is going to call for more money than he can trim off domestic programs. People don't want drugs on their streets anymore, and they would be willing to pay for it. Stop all the political saluting and gerrymandering and get down to winning the war. South Carolina should not support a plan that is this illconceived. *HE FIGURES THE ONLY SAFE THING TO DO IS SLEEPING' | ' I . ^ ^ I ^ ^ ^ ^ | The Gamecock Editor in Chief Assistant Photography Editor I WAYNE WASHINGTON JULIE BOUCHILLON Managing Editor Viewpoint Editor i hal millard ' jeff shrewsbury Copy Desk Chief Datebook Editor KATHY BLACK WELL JAN PHILLIPS Assistant Copy Desk Chief Comics/Graphics Editor robyn thompson rob lane * News Editor Graduate Assistant kelly c: thomas kristin francis Assistant News Editors Gamecock Adviser d. r. haynes erik collins jeff wilson Director of Student Media Carolina Life Editor ed bonza robert thomas Production Manager Assistant Carolina Life Editor laura s. day i ly?sn gibson Assistant Production Manager Sports Editor ray burgos chris silvestri Advertising Manager Assistant Sports Editor margaret michels brant long Assistant Advertising Manager Photography Editor jeffrey b. thompson Tcnnv I HDD 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 USC 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. ' ^^?I| ? Being a fresh] I had forgotten what it meant to be a freshman until I had the op- WT^ I was part of a senior I panel, designed to an- yfc ^ m swer questions and of- ~ Jp It seems like eons ago since I first moved I into college life. I was 'V assigned to a three- Amv person room and had \ three suitemates. I had LoomiS my own room at home and thought it was "neat" to have so many people around all the time. Well, that notion lasted about 48 hours. Mx women (.or men) to one tiny bathroom is ludicrous. And three people to one room is mentally unhealthy. I can't count the number of times my preferred roommate and I were ready to throw our third roommate out the window. She was obnoxious, conniving, deceitful, pigheaded and an intimidating sophomore. (She was also taller and outweighed me by 30 pounds.) Luckily, it never amounted to physical violence, only verbal exchanges. Tammy Faye Shake your heads from I * side to side slowly, and il!l|| 'Tammy, Tammy, ? Tammy, Tammy, a t 00 0SF' % Tammy. Are YOU ON m DRUGS OR WHAT?" M Because if Tammy IL, Faye Bakker is not on & K drugs, then we may have seen the final stages of the Bakker t ^ clan's conversion to schizophrenia. As if Shrewsbury they weren't there ? already. ACUTE SCHIZOPHRENIA can be the only other explanation for notorious secretarybagger-and-general-fund-misuser Jim Bakker's wife's most recent and bizarre babblings. Tuesday night in an interview, Tammy Faye told a reporter, and I quote: "I said I believe the storm hitting Charlotte was a warning to Charlotte. I said it had nothing to do with Jim and Tammy Bakker, but it did have to do with the way people in Charlotte, North Carolina, have treated God's people." "p""* win i 111111111111 i 11 Letters to the e< 11 iw. lii'.. M i"i ! III III III 11 iii I MM Ill I mil iii j II 111111 "11 "| I lii IIIII i:i All can fight bad policies tell them thi To the editor: rather what Question: How do you make a about it. public official sweat? Answer: The visiu Threaten to vote him out of office. invasion of Signing petitions is a great way administrate for a group of people to let the values of z governing body know how you them as the feel, but why don't we quit letting supposedly them know how we feel and start and state in telling them what we are going to guess that d do. The majority of USC students loved USC. are from in state, and almost all of has taken tl those are above the age of 18. So thinking foi why don't we let those people who us and ^an( supported the visitation policy in doctrine. W the State House know that we will 1 would 1 not snnnort them in the uDcomine Gamecock' elections? Not only will we not sta^ a ^st support them, but we will advocate supported tl against them; we will support op- What are position candidates and will do our I best to see them defeated so that Latin Am nf ItBWUEOPLEP) FDLL TOE 6KI? ^EltEOITATOa)!! man is sometl When housing told us that we could get rid of her, we jumped at the chance and even helped her move! I thought the worst of it was over. I was naive. As the year progressed, tensions ran high with my suitemates, my roommate and I grew in different ways, I hated my classes, and I hated college for not living up to my expectations. Everyone had told me it would be different; it would be better. Well, why was I feeling so alone and so miserable? It takes time to find your niche, your bag, your destiny, your place. My roommate adjusted much more quickly than I did. She was making new friends and had acclimated quite O .?* fUniT ?*>a?>a k/\?* f/-?n rln nrvt mina Uai well, dui uiwjr weie nei iiieuua, nui iiiiiie. i ailures at trying to fit into her group made me begin to realize that I couldn't rely on my friend to "piggyback" me through college. I had to do it on my own. So I observed the way other freshmen were adjusting. Some immersed themselves in stale beer, meaningless one night stands and other debauchery. They always insisted that they were having so much fun ? even if they couldn't remember. Others were going through radical changes and immersed themselves in a totally foreign little subculture. They were happy thinking they were being so different. But they has gone off 1 Excuse me for a second while I pick up my jaw from the floor. Okay, I'm better now. TAMMY, TAMMY, TAMMY, TAMMY, TAMMY, TAMMY. This woman has lost her mind. She has always been a bit on the nutty side, but now she has really rowed over the waterfall of rational thinking. xiugo pracucany aecimatea unariotte, it you hadn't heard. Power is still out for nearly half the city's 400,000 people. Trees are down over major intersections, and windows in downtown rained all over the streets causing authorities to close the downtown area for a few days. Charlotte was not ready and is barely coping with Hurricane Hugo. Some would say it is the worst disaster ever in Charlotte. Some would say it was just one of those things. But not Tammy Faye. No. She takes this opportunity to try to scare the God-fearing people of Charlotte into believing God sent a hurricane as a warning to leave her husband alone. I know she said it doesn't have anything to do with Jim or Tammy, but considering their track record of supposed chats with the Big Guy, who else could they be referring to as "God's people." Jim is on trial in the federal courthouse in Charlotte, and his defense is looking thin. He Ife# #? 1?; . i? .. ! tation will be of better PJ Pll ^ll This is just a sugges- * C31 . you can do, but what 5o avai ^*i f about it is that you not 1?3 CA-Vrli/IlI^i it you don't like it, but you are going to do To the editor: Have you noticed he ition policy is a gross ySC can be these ^ay our civil rights. The from the of takm 3n has taken the moral ^teniung ? ?,e prfess< i few and designated ^ut l^e l^ri'ls ?f wa' ; law for all. There is c ass to c^ssa separation of church Just ^ other \ the United States, but I my routine trek from oesn't apply to our be- t0 physical Science. In fact, the university y0U asj^ does the thril le responsibility of our Well it Just happens t r ourselves away from intersection of Greene < led us a fundamentalist streets. I, along with hat a great school? r?fh*?r ctiirlpnts wac stari ike to request from The sidewalk observing th s crack investigative the cars going by. A of representatives who hoth ways, I could see le visitation policy. students' eyes. The lig you going to do? yellow, and we proceed Mario de Armas Then I heard the honk i erican studies Pontiac heading toward ling to forget were all being different in the same way. And still others like me weren't ready for major adjusting. I didn't feel the need to pet trashed ev ery night of the week, or dye my hair purple and wear funny clothes that I didn't feel comfortable in. I didn't feel the need to be involved in organizations that were purely social. I didn't ' know. I just didn't know anything anymore. Christmas break came and went, and I dreaded coming back. I loathed everything about it I wanted to quit, but then I would have felt defeated, as if I had lost. Well I would have lost... I would have lost out on a lot I decided to leave the comfortable, secure companionship of my roommate and high school friends and try to meet new people and get involved. My roommate felt guilty that I hadn't done this with her same success. And with her prompting and a little self-realization, I ventured out into the college that I had perceived to be so cold and uncaring. I wouldn't go so far as to call my college career a "success story," but things have certainly changed since then. In four years, I have come closer to understanding who I am and what I want I shudder to think what I would have become were it not for the experiences I've had in college. I have found my niche and new friends ? and both have made everything worthwhile. the deep end . tried that old "I'm seeing animals, help me, I'm sick" trick weeks ago, and it didn't work. So if Tammy Faye is trying to influence public opinion in Charlotte to help her husband, this is not the way to do it. People in Charlotte will put up with a lot They put up with the Bakkers for nearly a decade. But when you start telling people in Charlotte who have just lost most of their homes and families that they are mistreating God's people and that's why their roof is lying in the neighbor's yard, they're going to start getting ticked. They already cringe when visitors say, "Charlotte. .. isn't that where Jim and Tammy live?" But now Tammy has gone too far. This is just a little much ? the straw that crushed the camel's spleen, if you will. Your husband is going to jail, Make-up Face. Any chance of public support in the area you have now blown to bits. You can say all you want how you are God's chosen and all that, but just think about this: Maybe it's a sign from God that Jim is on trial and your lives are in shambles. Maybe God ' has chosen you as an example of what he's ticked off about. He hasn't sent a hurricane as a message, sweetheart. He's sent a jail term. ? T >i'mini . "jj1^ iTPPt speeds. Behind the wheel was an J L* Cvl old hag with curlers in her hair, cursing and giving us some signs ' with her pudgy fingers. As she ran the red light, we ran back to the sidewalk. What a rush of adrena)w exciting line to keep me awake in the s? Not just morning, g notes and >rs in class, 1 know how dnvcrs Set frus_ Iking from because I am a commuter myself. But why take the anger out on us? I may be missing the point was taking here ? are they out for thrills Humanities also? This is definitely a problem. Where, do We can't install call-boxes in the ; 11 come in? middle of the road, so why don't ; o be at the We get the meter maids to volunind Pickens teer (then they'll be doing somedozens of thing worthwhile.) Or even better j: i . 1. TN i ^ tuiiig uii uic yet, wny not let Kep. mikc ran get e light and his thrills for the day? He's just s I looked the right candidate too: He loves fear in the u$ and wants to protect us so ht flickered dearly. Why not? led to cross. Df a beat-up Johnny Vo I us at high Biology sophomore