The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 21, 1990, Page 3, Image 3
Curfew
Youth off-the-streets legislation
poses problems for teens, parents
Legislation has been proposed in Richland County that would
require all persons under the age of 18 to be off the streets and in
their homes by midnight. The proposal has been modified to target
only those under 17 and make the curfew 2 a.m., but the meaning
and the implications are the same: the government now wants to
have more control over people's lives.
The proposal was made in an effort to find a way to curb teen
crime because a large percentage of crimes in the county are com
mitted by persons under 18.
The problem is that the law, should it become one, will serve
little purpose. ,
First of all, it assumes that parents will not mind having teen
discipline partially taken out of their hands and placed in the
hands of the law.
Secondly, it forces teens that do want to be out late (for any
reason, good or bad) to use out-of-the-way paths and meeting
. areas ? places that, because of their location, make them naturally
dangerous to anyone. The police could, then, be driving teens
into dangerous situations ? giving real criminals perfect targets.
Thirdly, if a teen is going to break the law ? by raping, robbing
or killing ? is another law saying they cannot be out at night
going to stop them? Not likely. People who break laws are going
to break laws, and it really doesn't matter what laws they are. All
that matters is if the law is in the way of what the person wants to
do.
Now, if the proposal does become a law, what's next? Will the
legislators propose a curfew for those between 18 and 35 years of
age, since most fatalities caused by drunk drivers involve people
in that age category? Or maybe legislation could be passed requiring
all people to be in before midnight or 2 a.m. That way, the \
police can arrest anyone they see out after that hour. As Richland '
County Sheriff Alan Sloan said, "No one in their right mind
should be out at 2 a.m. anyway."
I
SUMMITS
;r ^ ,
a"170 Si CMS r*ir-Ditrxxt4*The
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Western wor
The Berlin Wall cracked. Then it fell dowr
\nd the Wall apparently took Communism witl
it.
There was much rejoicing in the Westeri
world. Why? No, not because the Cold War il
self was over, but because the world was no\
fie Western world's oyster.
Just look if you will at the nearest wall ma;
md see just how big the Soviet Union is am
just how undeveloped it is.
Oooooh.
Then look at the rest of the world that re
nains undeveloped.
Ooooooooooooh.
Impressive, isn't it?
Take this, throw in a little crisis in th
Middle East that gets all of the developed na
tions of the world pulling together for the goo
jf the entire world and what do you have?
Those of you who answered Imperialism ar
absolutely correct.
Not long ago it was easy for a powerful na
Lion to go into an undeveloped place and tak
aver for whatever reason, as long as no one im
portant's toes were stepped on, and all unde
the guise of it being for the good of whoever
was you happened to be taking over at the time
It would be nice to think the days of doin
this by military force are over, but those are a
awful lot of troops down in Saudi Arabia now.
Actually, what I'm really talking about i
LETTERS TO TH
Poor housing ^
not far away Ja" !
cal term:
To the editor: rains, bri
If one wants to investigate truly sonry ai
depressed living conditions, one play on
need not journey to some Third covered
World land or even to some area lighting
of Columbia like "Little Soweto." grounds
One need only travel to Carolina (particul
uaraens Apartments, wholly Carolina
owned and operated by the Univer- a transit
sity of South Carolina. The univer- and pen
sity has pursued a thoughtful cam- to have
paign of neglect and discrimination your ap;
against the inhabitants of Carolina ing in a
Gardens based, I think, on the fact are so sj
that many of the residents of these als can
apartments are foreign students. aplomb.
If you have never been to Car- frequeni
olina Gardens, they are easy to particula
spot. They are the two-story, brick, when it
low-rent housing beside the new all but c
athletic practice building. When One 1
this building started belching toxic ? or th
fumes into the air last Saturday only arc
and Bates House and Cliff Apart- out tho
ments were evacuated, we were scatterec
told to stay indoors and keep our Ins id
windows closed. We live across conditio
the street from this thing ? not have ha
blocks away. Why wasn't the same the sum
concern for our safety and that of mainten
our children shown as the concern make a
for other people? weeks (
Let me describe to you the joys suits. O
of Carolina Gardens Apartments. her bat!
Outside, we have no living grass. for mo
There is no attempt made to keep months
the grounds looking livable. Once we have
a month, whether the grass needs it vices. T
or not, they come and they cut it had it
so low that the lawn is either new ao
scalped or die grass burned so it to walk
won't grow again for at least pare the
another month. And heaven forbid The
that you have the wash out on the dens ar
lines on those rare occasions when nored a
they do come to cut the grass, or it this uni
gets covered with dust. The leaves way a
are virtually never raked up. Yet dents. I
after all of this, the university paid due in
somebody to edge the sidewalks many o
for a week ? as if there was any are fore
The Gre&i Escape ?Pari i
Id after market:
i. -i cause
h 1 bu?sin(
f ^ \ who v
Dennis Shealy t*
mone;
v neces!
ken ii
p to ma
d Wil
economic take overs. Without the threat of the munis
evil Empire, big companies can go just about the W
s- anywhere and on whatever conditions they be, w
want. body
American companies have already made the thing
move into the Soviet Union, especially into the Sur
e areas of high technology and natural resources, things
i- Siberia has too much untapped potential to just They
d let any old body make use of it. body
mis is 01 course trie nature 01 capitalism, meuia
e What American and other countries' companies No
are after are monopolies on both markets and once
i- resources with a country so eager to catch up are ar
e with its Western neighbors that it will probably Be
i- agree to almost any terms. and b
;r Not very fair, but that's business folks. There
it America is not the only one who is into ex- world
ploiting their neighbor. Japan has reaped huge threeg
profits from China using them for the low labor ploite
n side of production with the promise of help in watch
increasing their technology and potential for to na
s growth. This of course has not come about be- plane
E EDITOR
egetation encroaching on versity believes that they will
valks. make a fuss over their living
ina Gardens was appa- ditions. The sub-standard natui
lilt on a landfill. In practi- the grounds, lighting and ma
s, this means that when it nance must be made clear to
oken bits of glass and ma- university population at la
re exposed. Our children Your fellow students are livin
the sides of hills literally conditions that many of you w
with broken glass. The not put up with,
is so inadequate that the
are black as pitch at night Richard Schellham
larly between buildings). history graduate stui
Gardens at night becomes
point for drunks, derelicts y jj ,
/erts. It is not uncommon JL/Cri0r WTllC]
r\/*AnlA urinotincT nntQtHft
irtment windows or look- ITIlSiri I 01*1X100
t night. The police patrols
)oradic that these individu- To the editor:
violate our privacy with in a recent editorial (letter
In addition, our cars are Heather Buggy, it was stated
tly vandalized or stolen, scientific and medical groups
irly at Christmas vacation consistently pro-choice. I w
seems that police patrols like to present to you what the
ease. entific community has said
final point about security cerning the beginning of hu
ie lack thereof. We are the life. Landrum Shettles, the
:a on this university with- scientist to consistently achie\
se emergency call boxes vitro fertilization of human <
I throughout the campus. says in his book Rites of Life,
e Carolina Gardens the Scientific Evidence for Life B<
ns are not much better. We Birth that "the zygote is hi)
d our rents increased over life." World famous genet
imer to pay for "increased Theodosius Dobzhansky has s
ance costs." Yet when we that "a human being begins hi
maintenance call it takes istence when a spermatozoan
)r even months to get re- tilizes an egg cell." It's ever
ne woman had to live with serted in the International Cot
tiroom window partly ajar Medical Ethics that "a doctor
nths last winter. It takes always bear in mind the in
tn Pet naintintr done. Yet ?on,~?? r?f nreeervina humeri
~ r O IU11VV VI ptvuv. . 1IMI1IUU
j to pay extra for these ser- from the time of conception
he athletes in the old Roost death." Further still, The Da
bad before they got their tion of Geneva holds physicia
comodations, but it's hard the following: "I will maintaii
by their dorms and com- utmost respect for human life
;m to how we live. the time of conception; even t
residents ol Carolina Gar- threat, I will not use my ki
e being systematically ig- ledge contrary to the laws ol
nd discriminated against by manity." Even more recentl
iversity in much the same 1981, hearings on senate bill
slum lord treats his resi- 159, of the 97th Congress (c
t seems likely that this is the Human Life Bill), were
lafge part to the fact that ducted by senator John East,
f the students living there senate report concluded "PI
;ign students, and the uni- cians, biologists and other s
monopolies
Japan has kept all of the high technology
iss within their sphere of influence and
vants to give up cheap labor,
i real point to be made here is that big
y makes the world go round, which isn't
sarily bad as long as some fairness is taito
account on the part of those planning
ke the big money.
th the fall of the Berlin Wall and Com;m
and then the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait,
'estem World sees the way things used to
hen they called all of the shots and noreally
had much of a chance to say anyabout
it.
e the big countries have still been running
> but they couldn't do it with authority,
had to do it through polite politics. Nowanted
to look like a bad guy in the
i-influenced world of today,
w, though, there's the chance to prove
and for all who the big boys on the block
id who is up for exploitation,
cynical folks, and keep an eye on political
usiness figures in our country and abroad.
;'s nothing like making money, but the
[ is not going to become a better place if
fourths of its population are being exd
and companies are not operating under a
iful eyd that keeps them from laying waste
itural resourse and polluting the whole
- 1
1
I not tists agree that conception marks
con- the beginning of a human being ?
re of a being who is alive and a member
inte- of the human species. There is
i the overwhelming agreement on this
rge. point in countless medical, biologiig
in cal and scientific writings."
ould Some say the fetus is part of the
mother's body. This seems ridiculous
knowing that the fetus often
imer has a different blood type and half
dent ^me *s a different sex than the
mother. Professor A. W. Riley, research
professor in fetal physiology
in Auckland, New Zealand,
[has stated that, "It is the fetus who
stops the mother's periods and
makes her womb habitats by developing
a placenta and a protective
) by capsule of fluid for himself ... and
that finally it is the fetus, not the
were mother who decides when labor
ould should be initiated."
; sci- So how may this HUMAN orcon
ganism, which while in the womb
iman has it's own blood, sexual identity
first and it's own NERVOUS SYSTEM
re in be allowed to be aborted. Some of
jggs, those in the pro-choice camp bei:
?4. .L. : 4 DC A T T V
I he iicvc uiai LI1C I ClUS IS IIUI rvE.n-i-.Aj *
efore human yet; that is, that it is not huiman
man in a meaningful way. I pose
icist these questions to those individutated
als. At what point did your life bes
ex- come really human? When was
fer- your existence justified? If not (at)
1 as- conception, when?
le of Others site viability as a marker,
must but the time at which a fetus is potpor
tentially able to live outside the
life mother's womb has dropped from
until 32 weeks in 1960 to 19 weeks in
:lara- 1989, due to scientific achievens
to ment. Certainly, the humanness of
n the the fetus does not depend on otir
from ability to successfully care for it.
inder FACT: Biologically speaking, at
now- conception there is life. That life's
f hu- cells are distinctly human. Therey,
in fore, the embryo is human life reNo.
gardless of what subjective values
ailed arc placed on it by beings other
con- than itself. Abortion is the process
The ?f terminating that life,
hysi- Tim Mallace
cien- jazz/media music junior