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Flags USC should have more worries than American flags in dorms USC reversed its policy of a week ago by letting American flags fly outside the Towers. The question needs to be asked, why bother in the first place? The Towers had a general ban against anything being hung outside the balconies of the residence hall rooms. Many students decided to show their support of the American war effort by flving American flags outside their rooms, but were not allowed to. It is a sign of bureaucratic stubbornness that the university officials ordered these students to take their flags down. The logic of the rule is that the students' banners or flags might be flammable, might fall and hurt someone below or endanger students who hang them. This was still a silly decision. These students were not hanging anvils outside their windows; they were demonstrating patriotism. Interim President Art Smith should be praised for rescinding this policy. A new policy allowing students "to hang signs that do not endanger themselves or others" is to be developed by the Office of Student Affairs. With so many real problems on campus, it is good to see that Smith is changing a ridiculous rule that needlessly hinders USC students. The original decision to make students take down Old Glory is the same kind of bureaucratic meddling that forces students to sign in in order to enter residence halls. Smith has set a precedent by not harassing students over minor matters. Hopefully, his decision will carry over to the Palms administration. I ISO must resist thp nrtrp tr> nvprlpaielafp thp ctnrlpntc ?- ? *e>w *** w ?- ??v?v*w.?n?. A university is supposed to be a center of higher learning, not Sing Sing. We shall see if the new regulations will also protect the display of anti-war protest signs. It would be quite hypocritical to force students to take down peace slogans, for example, but allow U.S. flags. Students should be able to hang any banners, flags or signs that aren't outright obscene. If a Soviet flag can be flown outside the Towers with no controversy, that's progress. Let's put things in perspective. Students should be punished for killing each other, not flying a flag. "HOLV THE COMMERCIAL" e?99i cwk. The Gamecock News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249 Kathy Blackwell robyn Thompson Editor in Chief Managing Editor Jennifer Jablonski David Bowden Copy Desk Chief Viewpoint Editor Lucy Soto Kathy Heberger News Editor Carolina Life Editor Steve Johnson Renee Meyer Sports Editor Photography Editor Aaron Sheinin Tige Watts Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor Octavia Wright Patrick Villegas Assistant Carolina Life Editor Assistant Sports Editor Chris Silvestri Julie bouchillon Assistant Copy Desk Chief Assistant Photography Editor eric glenn Darkroom Lab Technician Ed Bonza Erik Collins Director of Student Media Faculty Adviser Laura S. Day Ray Burgos Production Manager Assistant Production Manager r>... Pinn/v.. mumst. oilers kyle berry Advertising Manager Assistant Advertising Manager Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be, at maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, professional title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if a student. An address and phone number are required with all letters sent. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or in case of space limitations. The newspaper will not withhold names under any circumstance. Most import There is a stupid Time magazine promotii where you can get a free video of the Top T Most Important People of the Twentieth Ce tury. I will save you the price of a subscripts to that rag by giving my own list of those persons. It might not be as good as Time's 1 (I haven't actually seen it), but it is free. This top ten list will not mention any athlet or musicians. My list is of the people who ha impacted most on the economic, political or s cial values of the world during the Twentie Century. As much as I admire some athlet and musicians, none fit the above criteria (< though Joe Montana comes close). And now, in no particular order, the ten mc influential people of the century: Winston Churchill: His leadership durii World War II cannot be overestimated. If Chu chill had not been Prime Minister in 1940 rally Britain against the imminent German inv sion, the history of the world would have tak< a nasty turn. With Britain out of the way, Ge many could have concentrated on the Russu front, perhaps dominating all of Europe befo America could intervene. Europe today mig be in Axis hands. Mahatma Gandhi: His passive resistance British control of India was a model for all f lure peace acuvisis, most importantly in in country, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. J also created the largest democracy in the worl Nice job. Mikhail Gorbachev: The reforms begun ai lately reversed by Gorbachev are the most ir portant set of events in the '80s. Even if tl USSR embarks on a new wave of repressio LETTERS TO 1 Blacks suffer K1 i i j blacks v under whites ^ts, d anothei To the editor: te I would like to thank Octavia .. Wright for her column from the W1 9r?r Jan. 21 Gamecock. I found it very intellieei interesting and positive. I would a^|e ^ like to focus my attention on whjte Co Spiros Papleacos' letter to the edi- T 1Q, tor on Jan. 23. , " ^ Despite the faults listed, which ^ have been stated over and over, was ^ ^ blacks continue to admire the Rev. ,. Martin Luther King. If you want to 1 C.n] wo- ot fn.tWo i~~t; i The stud iwv/a. at lauild, 1UUK IlllU )UU ^ admire, especially past presidents. nated a It is true that the idealism, such ... ? f 11 i- a u Wlth a ? as we will live as one, side by Black Sc side" is a "folly," because white From society will never let blacks po.hpr h achieve "what should have been ours at birth." The civil rights ^ a"e tQn movement did not accomplish all it Drou(j t0 wanted because again white soci- ^ V ety and the FBI made sure blacks what ^ did not achieve their goals. f , Leaders like King, Malcolm X, wa^ John Kennedy and Fred Hampton . were killed because they were seen wyj as too powerful and influential in . . the black community. While King, ^ CaCOfH Malcolm X and Kennedy were as- cause sassinated, Hampton was shot to death by the police while sleeping Sock next to his pregnant girlfriend. I suggest you watch "Eye on the y Prize" to educate yourself on how 1 ;Pt l blacks were and still are being oppressed. irrp Not all blacks blame their condition "totally" on white society. However, who controls the money To the ed in society? Research the effects of Spiros Reaganomics on the black com- 23, 1?91 mnnitv. Who hnlHc thp hptfpr inhc Octavia \ despite the educational level? 21, comp Blacks used to be the economic on l^e sta backbone to America. Now blacks ^ U.I are treated like the Indians of yes- hons and teryear by being confined to the ^ne' r^et ghetto just as Indians were con- p, fined to reservations. Blacks face jointed TQ the possibility of genocide if they tempting resort to rebellion against whites thinking (Blacks in White America, 1983). thwart he Unemployment for blacks, espe- Martin Li cially young black men, is up, cuiarjy th therefore a lot turn to selling drugs on Afrjca to survive or to enjoy pleasures rections I they feel they deserve. Is it really and dange hard 'for blacks to "Just Say No?" His dai ant nien of cen * DAVID BOWDEN ve Eastern Europe has been permanently freed and o- Germany is now reunited thanks to his liberalith zation. Gorbachev might not last, but he has es certainly shaken things up. d- Adolf Hitler: Easily one of the most hated men in history, his actions bringing about ,st World War II and the Holocaust have had more effect on the modern world than almost any other leader's. Hitler's infamy should never be ir_ forgotten, as should this fact ? he was freely to elected to office. a_ John Maynard Keynes: This British eco "? nomist went against an conventional wisdom Dy r* saying that government spending in times of rein cession helps the economy. His economic theorre ies, for better or worse, are the root of today's ht massive government intervention in all sectors of the economy, to Vladimir Lenin: Simply put, without this u- man, there would be no Soviet Union. If a more is democratic government had succeeded in Rusfe sia after the Czar's fall, the whole world would d. be radically changed. Unfortunately, however, Lenin was a brilliant leader that led his Bolsheid viks to control. n- Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Any man in le power as long as he was had to have an impact, n, President Roosevelt started off a series of "HE EDITOR more, who brings drugs as a "womanizer," a country? I don't know any and a plagiarizer are n vith their own airplanes or relevant to a present-c o you? I look at drugs as sion of racism but a r way to keep blacks stance of freshman I ;d. hominem reasoning, does my I.Q. have to do Following this, Mr. social and economic prog- devotes several short pa iel no matter how high my quick discussions of h ice level, I will never be sights on this comple; get an equal job as my King's views on non-vi unterpart. social consciousness are SO, the U.S. Census reve- reduced to the status of t the unemployment rate alisms." Wright's use of \r mdlp reroHllOtan "nnn..!nn /./...nlU.. " >v ixuiv vuuvgv giauuaiLU g^/UUllK/ JJ1k. percent while the rate for der for Mr. Papleacos' ales was only 1.6 percent archical chart of the ( y also showed blacks with cultures, education were discrimi- Yet Mr. Papleacos' pr ainst more than a person swers to the question c ligh school diploma (The nomic plight of man) holar, Vol. 15, 1984). Americans are perhaps Spiros Papleacos' letter, I simplistic and the most e had more on his mind features of his letter. W g. Regardless, I will con- port and without much e celebrate MLK Day. I am he theorizes that "im be black, and I have been from cultures "with c love all people no matter written histories . . . fu color of their skin. A lot fectively in a high ^ need to be educated as I democracy." Is Mr. Papleacos assi i one black American who Africa does not have t let people like Spiros Pa- history of its cultures ar ceep from my goals. Be- is somehow the reasor omie Don't Play That!" economic status? Can Stanlev Wardlaw "high caPitalist democrai Stanley wardlaw j am led lQ wonder t il work graduate student gives ?0 furlher insigh statements, which are I l"pr writ pi* ously gross seneralizati ICI WI HCl selves not only as app if immigrants from Europ SpOnSlDte tries but also as they are applied to those fr tor. European countries. Padeacos' letter of Jan. 'asl P^ase ?f , written in response to ^r* Papleacos offers Vright's column from Jan. dangerous answer to the lains that Wright's views African-Americans, h itus of African-Americans explicitly state this as h S. suffer from generaliza- ^ut severa^ paragraphs or [ from the use of "party wor^ Charles Murra 0Ijc chard Herstein, lacking ment on Mr. Papleacos' ipleacos' somewhat dis- why he has included t >sponse appears to be at- must serve as an illustrai to correct Ms. Wright's own position on the matti by offering evidence to Being only slightly far ;r convictions concerning the two scientists, I can uther King Jr., and parti- criticize their work, thrc e effect* of discrimination this pat description i n-Americansv Yet his cor- highly questionable enter themselves seem general their work is not at issue ;rously simple. Papleacos' short descr lining references to King Lack of intelligence as I turyr^ealed social-welfare reforms, particularly Social Security, that have helped and/or plagued America ever since. He also got us into World War II, which got us out of the Great Depression, and he presided over the Allied give-away of Eastern Europe to Stalin at the Yalta Conference. Joseph Stalin: One of the few leaders in history with as much blood on his hands as Hitler. His horrific administration of the USSR, including the forced collectivization of Soviet agriculture and the purging of any that opposed his rule resulted in the deaths of 20 to 40 million Soviet people. Stalin is largely responsible for the sad shape of the Soviet Union today. Mao Tse-tung: The leader of the Chinese Communist Party that founded the People's Republic. His cultural revolution set China back decades in technological growth. The fates of the 1.3 billion Chinese people might be a whole lot better if Mao had failed. Woodrow Wilson: His attempt and subsequent failure to achieve a new world order is one of the great might-have-beens in history. Had President Wilson had the political support in Washington to back the newly formed League of Nations and give it some teeth, World War II and all of its horrors might have been avoided. As the preceding list demonstrates, I think World War II was the international event of the century that shaped the course of human history. That is why four national leaders of that era make my top ten. I also hope this intellectual flatulation wasn't too unbearable. Good day. ' cult leader for the economic inequality of millot only ir- lions of people is not a theory to lay discus- be offered or taken lightly, classic in- Slipping this in as a somehow snglish ad rational response t5 Octavia Wright's supposed oversimplificaPapleacos tions is irresponsible, offensive and ragraphs to outrageous, is own in- . Daniel Dowe t problem. English graduate student olence and summarily . . static ide Peace protests the phrase # K # # vides m quite patriotic quick hier- m. r equality of To the editor: oposed an- There has been a growing senti)f the eco- ment l^at being opposed to the j African- current war is somehow unpatriotic : the most an(^ un-American. The anti-war dangerous position is not necessarily an antiithout sup- troop sentiment. When so-called elaboration "peace" demonstrators burn cars, migrants" destroy private property and rmtinnrmc scuffle with police, thev are beinc v/u klllUVU J 4 ' ' w notion ef- untrue and unfaithful, to the entire capitalist anti-war movement. War equals violence; anti-war jming that equais non-violence. Non-violence 1 r(?COr , is something that many preach, but f h 'S ^ew ^"ow* What d^s world needs 1 lJ?cir is not a few non-violent men and' he^deiine womeri) 5ut an army, navy and marine corps of non-violent resis>ecause he ters. Non-violence should become it into his . f . . hen obvi norm society rather than a . pleasant idealism. The philosophy ?ns ,, of Gandhi and King needs to be ?ica e o demyStified and brought into the ean coun- . J - ? 6 ... hearts of all. indirectly om non- Concerning this conflict, I am opposed to the reasoning, morality this letter, an(j justification of asking one his roos1 million men and women (both prob ems sides) to fight in an unjust war. e does not Kuwait and Saudi Arabia do not is answer, stand for American ideas of demoi scienti lc cracy, neither are they the embodiy an 1_ ment of Islamic faith and laws. anv mm part as to The most patriotic action Amerihis work, cans can take is to oppose any notion of his tion by a government to send er. troops to fight in an unjust war to niliar with perpetuate undemocratic regimes, inot really We must not follow governments )ugh even in blind faith. No government is eveals a beyond reproach; no government is prise. But beyond the collective conscience here. Mr. of humanity, iption is. Srinadh Rao he reason Biology senior