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Viewpoint Friday, December 8,1989 the gamecock Aware It's easy to foi that you have It's Christmas time in th< time to become aware of s and projects and papers b< and thought within five m about protecting themselves But this is exactly when ] Evidence ? the brutal a the ever-present increase in During the final week c things like shopping and e remember there are ways t< Don't let the holiday spirit i Here are some tips: Lock your doors w you're in dorms and woiki to do so when you walk < forget, though, it only take typewriter. And at this time it isn't uncommon to see s stereo or typewriter and thii Never walk home < until they kick you out at have someone escort you with you when you're out a Never leave your 1 been shopping and set your a minute. Be aware. Use you ^..4 1 * T? ?_ ? uui ur siiopping. 11 s easy sc daily now. Make yourself what would be smart and w ing to be coming home late. The holidays are a joyoui be filled with cheer, but ei joy. Don't let them obscure yc Have a safe and happy ho "ONE THIN6 ABOUT H ?THERE MONT '60m\ < i A ^^! I The G 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: Tke Gamecock will try to pr to 300 words long. The writer should Include ful bla resident, or year and major ir a student An Guest editorials should not exceed 500 words. W< Ganucock will not withhold names under any clr \ f 'get during exams to protect yourself s city again, and once again as well, it's \I/Vi Aft tVl A PAmAPtAf tlAAIVi ^ UIVI^. TT11V11 U1V/ OVlllvaiV/l ilbaia lid CilU jcome the topic of every conversation ~ dies of campus, people tend to forget | people need to be especially aware, issault last week of a USC student and * crime around the holidays. >f school when your mind is on other I xams, stop every once in a while and I 3 protect yourself and your belongings, sweep your mind away. ) henever you go out. Sometimes when ng on a paper late at night, you forget down the hall for some coffee. Don't is a minute for someone to steal your 5 of year, like every end of a semester, omeone walking down the hall with a lk they are just moving out. done at night. If you're at the library 2 a.m., never forget to make plans to home. Make sure someone is always t night. belongings unattended. When you've bags down, don't walk away for even r common sense always when you're imetimes to let down your guard, espebe aware of your surroundings and hat wouldn't. Plan ahead if you're go> time when friends and family should cams and papers tend to obscure that ?ur judgment. liday. i IAVIN6"THf MFETffte AT SEA sti BEANYCKOWPS 0HAN77H6 wm! tomr Z be CI % pro to / As< the mt{ amecock -S aHBUHnMaHMHaHHUBBi ar8' and Assistant Photography Editor a^' JULIE BOUCHILLON ?* 1 Viewpoint Editor JEFF SHREWSBURY sucl Datebook Editor an^ JAN PHILLIPS juar Comics/Graphics Editor ^ ROBB LANE lool Graduate Assistant but KRISTIN FRANCIS toxi Gamecock Adviser N ERIK COLLINS con Director of Student Media ?be ED BONZA corT1 Production Manager ^y-J LAURA S. DAY tar? Assistant Production Manager RAY BURGOS mar It Advertising Manager tlVG Assistant Advertising Manager JEFFREY B. THOMPSON agS1 It IS hard Int all letters received. Letters should be, at a maximum, 250 -p I name, professional title If an employee with USC or Colum- , address and phone number are required with all letters sent, t reserve the right to edit letters for style or possible libel. The JU3n cumstance. ClaS! COC2 \ \ t" i^ ^1 I Columbia's Christm The lights have miles and miles of lights. irted going up ar- In pmt of the Bronx ind town, and Col- ^ ^eTe used to be a place ca nbia is beginning to hedge-filled park at the ini arkle at night. It's a 1)011311(1 Metrojwhtan avei auliful town around "?( tan* m me middle of The %rlotmat, t. . orlH ' and filled with dozens of t T candles and a little Santa < cept for one other - , But downtown, in Ma 1Ce, Columbia is one "oA, more beautiful. 1 don't kn> the only places did go down, but every C iere I'd want to be B a t* ? . , ~ . gu uuwniuwii uj see i\ucf rund Christmas. J V efeIIer Center is a huge, Around Chnstmas, complex that is home to am Street from Elm- Stephen Radio City Music Hall. >od down is magical, ^ ?? ? , r , , th the trees laden Gllllfoyle . ?of ?* be th white, blinking ere^red aJ^e^ce'Sng hts The blinking trecieu ai ine ice SKaung nts. ine Dimiang main building. For the 5^ es go on for about six blocks, and lead right c% c . to the State House, with its big, but usually ? up ye^[s ? ^ ly tree. But the State House usually looks ,n esll"]at^ 50,00 at. Five Points, too. together on Monday ? a 1 rhe only other place I'd like to be at Christ- 26-degree chill ? is time is New York City. This isn't one of 20,000 lights on the 70>se North-South things. It's just that New burst ^nto a kaleidoscope c rk becomes a very different place at a button from David Rockt ristmas. in a truancy prevemion ] [t always seemed cleaner, mostly because ciated Press reported, re is snow covering the streets. And there are About half of the popi Letters to the editor /for*!IHQriQ not tw0 ^ave ^ecome clouded, but **** 1JU?1ICI IlUi the facts ^ inescapable: cocaine o* mfill rlrun isa kiUer' mariJuana is notiiI till 111 lirU2 In the summation of the editorial, you state, " p e o ro the editor: pie . .. transporting drugs, regardrhe editorial that appeared in ^ess ^ *ts a J0"11 or a P?und ?f coDec. 1 issue supporting the caine? *** guilty and should have 1 posed zero-tolerance legislation 10 penalized." How can you i be considered by the General ecluate what is significantly less : iembly is a perfect example of ^n one g18"1 of marijuana with flawed reasoning that domi- 448 g1*31 of cocaine? By dismiss- I ;s the hysteria behind the mis- mg the difference between posses- I ded "war on drugs." sion of one joint and one pound of 1 "he primary problem with the cocaine and by supporting this 1 ament presented in the editorial proposed zero-tolerance legisla- i indeed the problem with the don? y?u are endorsing equal pun-' < ument touted by the architects ishment for unequal crimes. Your he drug war, is that both fail to argument is neither sound nor 1 inguish between deadly drugs valid? and 1 hoPC y?u wil1 with" 1 ti as crack, cocaine and heroin ^aw the The Gamecock's support I ??? a ? n..Ak : fnr thic Kill r iiv7ii-ujA.lv* uiuga sum as mail- """ ia. Alcohol, which is a powerdrug, is often excluded or over- John Hathaway ced in the fight against drugs, Humanities senior \ it contains ethanol, a highly jlarijuana, on the other hand, Columnists ? tains no nicotine, no deadly 1 1 mical agents. Although the are liberals " ibustion of marijuana produces iroducts collectively known as thereby causing potential prob- To e o5: . v s with lung and heart disorders, ?U * December now, and we are s ijuana is not a dangerous drug. a 'ln g'vmg spirit, so 11 P not a narcotic. It is not addic- only Jitting that ' Slve my na'" ^ . In fact, the primary argument mas 'lsl Camecoc sta . tl nst the use of marijuana is that What I really want is a respectable c a gateway drug that leads to corPs of journalists to run the E paper in my final year at USC. s: his is a'phenomenon wholly s ?,ft- of course, would require to the legal status of man- *e l,c,n0"al ofa11 the whming, 1 a. Because marijuana is legally bleeding-heart liberal Democrats L sified with narcotics such as 'hat have tarnished the pages of C line, the differences between usc s In-weekly for the last three h ... f H VfHAT BE HELL & d 6QIK60H WTOEf | 'I- *p <BpCiwBWm?i v^^H(flifaHF^J*s^^9 ^"- * jWtiSttfoQfcA^^KMHB^^^p jAL^^K nn nn nnnrl nn xrvr^ as as guuu as niv, City doesn't believe Christmas is official until where I used to live, The Tree is lit And I always like to try and tiled The Oval ? a watch for it myself, even though I have been tersection of Union- down here in South Carolina for the past nine nues. The water foun- Christmases. Oval were turned off But there was a bitter taste in my mouth this rees, lights, plastic year as I read the story on the Associated Press -laps house. wjj.e about the tree. Because it is different It n attan, it was even won?t matter if it is the best lit most beautiful ow how many times I ^ ever u>s mQTQnL .nnstmas^ wanted to Different because just recently, Rockefeller er ,^fer' 9? Center was put up on the auction block and beMopi office came yet ^0^,. pjece 0f American real estate C te evision and ^ has j)een by the Japanese. Another slice of our country that has become yet another st Yuletide traditions jost economic war that country is Tree that has been waging against us ? and winning quite rink in front of the handily. rth time, the tree has nt Christmas trees. Now I wonder if this is the last 70-foot tall 0 people, huddled Norway Spruce that will be seen with the statue ittle closer than usual of Prometheus stealing fire for mankind as - and gasped as the Christmas shoppers and sightseers skate away foot Norway Spruce on the Rockefeller rink. Or will we now celef color at the push of brate Emperor Akihito's birthday at Rockefeller jfeller and youngsters Center with a 5-foot tall, giant bonsai tree? program," the Asso- It makes the Christmas time I spend in Columbia before heading up to Spartanburg to be dation of New York with my family all the more special. , - . years I have been lining my bird- column inches, only to leave the cage with it. reader wondering what the hell her It was bad enough to put up point was, besides her impression with Shrewsbury and his griping that women are involved in some about how the Democrats sort of class struggle with the rest lost. . .again. Jeff reminds me of society. It seems Miss Loomis more of the spokesman for Green- and Mr. Washington should join peace or one of those other frivol- forces and put a black woman in -.1.-1 1*1 i i < " - " uus uuus yuu uoerais oeiong 10 in- uie wnite House. stead of a newspaper editor. That is all I am asking for Then came the ever-bumbling Christmas. Sure hope I get it. Stephen Guilfoyle and his persistence in making certain everyone Scott Saunders oiew where the Mason-Dixon line Public relations junior was and how different the two # # ides are. Hey Steve, the war is Writer missed And now we have Mr. Reverse Tin!Tit Q(JQjn Discrimination, Wayne Washing- i&gCM.lli. on, another whining liberal. Your sfov. 13 editorial exemplified the To the editor: larrow-mindedness you and your Once again, Ms. Loomis has eft-wing liberal groupies share, subjected readers to more of her fou describe Bush as "woefully tiresome whining sessions. Now . veak and uninspired who has been she is griping about racial tenden? i " * k,m in uit ntcuuiu uusiness. mt. cies in some currently popular Vashington, freedom is not a busi- bands, namely Guns N' Roses and iessn but rather a way of life, one Public Enemy, hat Americans have enjoyed for Music has the right to shock and none than 200 years. If freedom is to anger. Some of the most acbusiness, we've been reaping the claimed artists are also the most rofits for a long time. And now controversial ? Public Enemy for ye are sharing the wealth. It is the instance. pread of freedom and free enter- i guess the world is a harsh rise so heavily emphasized by the piace for a frustrated idealist Reagan and Bush administrations i am tired of reading about Ms. hat has spawned the highly ac- Loomis' complaints and personal laimed political reform in Eastern objections to the world. There is a Europe. So, what was it you were difference between writing a colaying. umn and ranting incessantly. All this and Amy Loomis, too. What will be her next topic? A r journalists were doctors, Miss case of bad indigestion, perhaps? oomis would be a proctologist. >n more than one occasion, she Leigh Anne Mayton as fumbled her way through 10 English sophomore