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Viewpoint Fridav. December 1,1989 THE GAMECOCK 3_ Drugs No tolerance law tool to inhibit dri The state Sheriffs' Association low law enforcement officials to even a trace of illegal drugs. Rep. Boyd "Dell" Baker, R-Gr bill in the upcoming session of the Under current law, vehicles can least a pound of marijuana or ab mum limits are also set on heroin, The bill would remove the limil and barbituates to the list of < confiscated. Baker said Greenville County asked him to sponsor the measurt were making numerous drug arresi cars because the amount of drugs required limits. "If people want to get tough on police the tools to do it," Baker sai get out of jail, get back in their ca of selling drugs. "Rut vnnr casual users will see be confiscated and sold, which ma out using or buying drugs." If the bill passes, police agencie icles or sell them. Revenues wou enforcement. What better way to fight drug ti minimal, almost non-existent price The Executive Director of the Union says, however, the bill pre problem regarding due process. Steven Bates says the punishmer "In some cases, possession of which is a misdemeanor, will rest car," he said. "In other states, they confiscate1 pect go to court to get it back," he ing lawyers and going to great innocent." These are valid points, but peoj regardless if it's a joint or a pot should have to be penalized. If tl going to think twice about having e This law is a good deterrent am should be welcomed with open anr the v f fjj I nr*?i I The Uai Editor in Chief wayne washington Managing Editor hal millard Copy Desk Chief kathy blackwell Assistant Copy Desk Chief robyn thompson News Editor kelly c. thomas Assistant News Editors JEFF WILSON Carolina Life Editor robert thomas Assistant Carolina Life Editor lynn gibson Sports Editor chris silvestri Assistant Sports Editor brant long Photography Editor teddy lepp Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all li to 300 worda lone. The writer should Include full name, bia resident, or year and major If a student An address Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. We reservi Gamecock will not withhold names under any clrcumstar could be good ig use, traffic is pushing a bill that would alconfiscate vehicles containing eenville, plans to introduce the General Assembly, be confiscated if they contain at out 5 ounces of cocaine. Minimorphine, LSD and hashish. :s and add illegal amphetamines irues for which cars can be Sheriff Johnny Mack Brown j because sheriff's investigators ts but were unable to confiscate they found often fell under the fighting crime, we have to give id. "The way it is now, they can rs and go back to their business the threat that their cars could y cause them to think twice abs could use the confiscated vehld go to the agencies for drug afficking and inhibit use with a tag? S.C. American Civil Liberties >sents a potential constitutional it doesn't fit the crime, a small amount of marijuana, lit in confiscation of a $15,000 vehicles and then make the sus: said. "That usually means hir expense, even when they're pie who are transporting drugs, ind of cocaine, are guilty and le penalty is their car, they're :ven a seed in the car, ever. 1 a great money-saving idea. It is. VALL mecoek Assistant Photography Editor JULIE BOUCHILLON Viewpoint Editor JEFF SHREWSBURY Datebook Editor JAN PHILLIPS Comics/Graphics Editor ROBB LANE Graduate Assistant PniCTTXT T"*T"X A XT/-'TO Gamecock Adviser ERIK COLLINS Director of Student Media ED BONZA Production Manager LAURA S. DAY Assistant Production Manager RAY BURGOS Advertising Manager Assistant Advertising Manager JEFFREY B. THOMPSON stters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 professional title If an employee with USC or Columand phone number are required with all letters sent, s the right to edit letters for style or possible libel. The ice. r_j^ \ No one should Juan Williams, in a Washington Post essay, |j| is appalled by what he fjjmPr calls music's "ugly new trend" ? racism, H qpi m sexism and gaybashing. no denying it exists. Guns N' Roses fans would have to agree when remembering these lyrics: a "Immigrants and /Vmy faggots/They make no Loomis sense to me/ They come to our country/ And think they'll do as they please/Like start some mini-Iran/Or spread some (expletive) disease." Racism is not one-sided. Public Enemy also sings that antisemitic black Muslim minister Louis "Fairakhan's a prophet and I think you ought to listen to what he can say to you, what you ought to do." Williams was writing his article in hopes of changing this. "It's a national disgrace that in Letters to the ed 1711 l li about it li Li lino chnnlH .r, XT? JLL/lVia 311UU1U # honorably. be admired was ,leghcnd count the r away to h To the editor: tour Grace This is a response to Rob Her- donated mi ron's and Jay Cain's Nov. 10 ^g diis tin ^etter- deduction It seems you two knew Elvis cause he f< quite well because only someone away close to him would have such in- jqow ^ side information. You said "it is sense, common knowledge that Elvis had $0) jf y many mistresses at Graceland." ^ ^ Obviously, you guys must have here t0 de hung out with the King and choice. We thpcp trirlc ctTPam in and i?? i__ . "U1*"1VU liKciy uiai out of his home. Next you go on to tacked you attack his wife, Priscilla. press if h You state "Elvis married Pris- were ^ad. cilia when she was a mere child. Really, i Was Elvis familiar with the word \yP rpx\\y statutory rape?" something Elvis met Priscilla when he was understand stationed in Germany in 1960. Yes, she was 14 when they met, r . but she was 21 when they married in 1967. If Priscilla was a "mere child" at 21, does that mean all 21-year-olds are mere children? Then you spoke of the dark IT'ifwi years of his career, and again here JT 11 111 you have insider knowledge. You i state "it is common knowledge that II ?1VC Elvis drank excessively in conjunction with the consumption of To ? numerous recreational Scott Pl nharma^iitipalc n 111X111 g&VC 1 p.ai..wwu?v?M. Where did you come up with "Psycho 1 this stuff? Were you at Graceland would you while this was going on? It was j Gentlemen, your idea of com- least at th< mon knowledge and our idea of "80s" won common knowledge are worlds head too. apart. Things that were common Scott's dis knowledge about Elvis were his alas? Scott love of country, his dedication to down. I wj friends and his donations to char- f!nish ? i ity. At the highest point of his ca- ^ P?int a reer in 1958, when he was a mil- diing yalut lionaire at 23, Elvis was drafted, pen. What' Did he use special influence to tinction be avoid service? Did he complain mms with support racis 1989 no one is standing up to a bunch of singing, young, multimillionaire bigots," he says. He blames the fear of being labeled censors as the reason for the silence of the music industry and other minority groups. He writes, "This is where the national silence or lack of response to these simple-minded polemics becomes an abdication of responsibility in a free society ... No one is talking to Guns N' Roses fans about the horrors racism has inflicted on black Americans and the damage it has done to the entire society; there is no argument being heard with Public Enemy's antisemitism, no explanation of the horrors perpetrated against Jews by antisemites . .. . " What Williams is forgetting here is that the same laws that allow him to express these opinions also allow these groups to express theirs ? whether he agrees with them or not. He is not proposing (I don't think) censorship laws, but he does suggest that outraged groups should vociferously oppose these groups being allowed on the air, or even being allowed to exist. My silence should not be construed as "irresponsible." In my own small way, I AM commenting to these groups: I don't buy their records. litor ke others have in the mindless, plotless he served his country For you, maybe then Also, his generosity tion. Flesh is flesh, ri ary. One can't begin to Wrong. Many tim lumber of cars he gave your argument, but is friends. And if you few stipulations on tl land, you'll find Elvis suous film, llions to charities. Dur- You may say th ne, he never took a tax attached sex is a pa on these donations be- ety, but the entertai jit that doing so would treading a thin line from the spirit of giv- offensive and reprel hat's charity in its truest repeated notion thai with no committme ou want to bash Elvis spect for the other j >out him when he's not man being. Even \ fend himself, it's your most porn films, tl think, however, it's un- mere vehicles for m Elvis would have at- No never means no. i so disgustingly in the to convince women e were alive and you half the challenge ? The behavior in t's common knowledge, reinforced is just ? e we're talking about frequently as violem ; you guys wouldn't film. ? class. These things not < Mike Ardis my children never le linal Justice graduate the human victimiza student ren't some of our h and making videos. Jason Terry Think about the i Geology senior tions ? better to never watch movies Id chnillH boils down to this 1 13 31IUUIU that kind of death Sc t ppn 1 |al/\Honest human < ' * vCll [J1UI pain has its place; ar this isn't found in "I lor- Part y " rudens' Lifestyles col- Un ' . us a choice a while ago. "?, S ,hu n.e , . P. and albeit lust has it! nrpfpr?" Sh?Uld ^ prere ' . t "Debbie Does DaUas an interesting piece at Donr e beginning; and as an . ? 6 .Marine science gra lan, I was nodding my 6 I was agreeing with pQnnr n\ dain for violence. But, x apCl LI , you let your readers as working up for a big seem wr vhere you would make nd finish up with some- To the editor: ible. It just didn't hap- Early this semeste s lacking is the true dis- made in an editoria tween erotic or explicit not seem to have t plots and characters and lo the effect that Pre WjSp / \U I ^ t music groups It would thrill me to find out that these groups have been shunned by their own former fans. I find Guns N' Roses' Axl's frequent use of the word "nigger" offensive. Likewise, I despise Public Enemy's constant call for violence and "kill-the-honkey" attitudes. These lyrics are offensive, repulsive and narrow-minded. But I'm not going to join some protest or rally group to get them off the air, as Williams wishes. Instead, Williams should understand the term tolerance. It would, of course, be wrong to tolerate acts of racism, but it would be equally wrong NOT to tolerate or try to censor expressions (opinions) of racism. Picasso once said that the greatest enemv to art is good taste. Indeed. However, my opinion of good taste is obviously different from Guns N' Roses fans and Pubiic Enemy fans. But I do not believe these groups should be censored, nor do I buy the argument that we should all start marching down the streets of D.C. in protest The best way to leave your marie is through your wallet. If you disagree with them, don't buy their albums. pornography, man is the highest paid state em5 is no distinc- ployee. But I recall a report seven ight? or eight years ago showing over a tes I've begun dozen faculty of the various mediwith at least a cal schools, including the USC tie type of sen- School of Medicine, making more than Holderman does now. at no-strings- Other factual errors appear in a rt of our soci- column by Amy Loomis. She attrinment field is butes the (obviously phony) quotaWhat I find tion "Just Say No ta Rape" to lensible is the George Bush, along with such inl sex is better credible notions as all rape victims nt and no re- "asking for it" and being less lerson as a hu- mora' than non-victims. The whole irnrcA o c uritK column could be mistaken for an aj W 1U1 . . iat women are APnl Fcx)1 s Joke' were 11 not de" ale pleasure v0*d bumor? and published in In fact Crying November, to have sex is Apparently the column was pro right? voked by the recent vetoes by these movies Bush tw0 elaborate package deis morbid and als of legislation' one by Congress t as any horror and lhe other by the District of Columbia, including provisions for Dnly do I hope 11)6 governmental funding of abor:arn but I wish bon *n cases raPe or inee81- To ition films we- keeP vetoes in perspective, it lighest money- sbould be recalled that Bush is against outlawing abortions in social implica- tbese e^es. but draws the line at have children federal funding for them. Yet we ; ^ ^ choice are as^ed to believe that Bush rind of list, or wants to "force" women to have ott refers to their babies in these cases, offering and 11 would he at least as "logical" iH oil oto accuse Congress of wanting to 7riday the 13th "force" pregnant women to lie that they are victims of rape or incest, amotion, love ^ or^er 10 be eligible for federal J place too; we funds. isn't found in II would also be at least as logical to accuse Congress and D.C. of ta Lanzendorf jeopardizing or at least delaying iduate student funding for some much-needed # programs by lumping them 5111T1C together wth a provision Bush was a 113 sure to veto. Peter J. Nyikos " ?5 Professor of Mathematics ;r a claim was Editor's note: George Bush was 1, which does indeed quoted and was requoted in )een corrected, Newsweek as saying, "Just say no isident Holder- to rape."