The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, February 13, 1991, Page 3, Image 3
State
South Carolina has to improve
its neolithic reputation
South Carolina was one of the original 13 states of the allegedl
democratic Union, but some in the state are being anything bi
democratic. Over the past several years, this state has been movin
backward, not forward, in many aspects.
The South Carolina Commission on Higher Education con
tinued its war on education by recommending only 80.5 percent c
funding for public universities in the state. This will mean eve
higher tuitions, reduction of needed maintenance and a general re
duction in the efficiency of our higher educational facilities.
With budgetary strains on state elementary and secondary edu
cation as well, a student in South Carolina will receive a decer
education more by accident than design. The powers-that-be seer
to care more about keeping their precious AAA credit rating thai
about the state's youth.
# The second point is less important than education, but de
monstrative of the state's misplaced priorities. Our state is one o
the few states to still criminalize sodomy and oral sex. Whether ii
hetero- or homosexual relations, South Carolina has seen fit to tel
us citizenry wuai 11 can or cannot do in tne oearoom.
Although few have been prosecuted for this offense, it onl;
takes one overzealous police officer to arrest someone for thi;
"crime." Witness the Georgia native who was arrested severa
years ago.
# The blue laws have long been criticized in this state, bu
still survive. The purchase of alcohol on Sundays is a ludicroui
thing to ban, as is certain styles of sexual activity, yet South Car
olina still does it. Except for a few progressive communities sue!
as North Myrtle Beach, most of the state's drinkers must still con
tend with this archaic legislation.
In a related area, South Carolina became the only state in th(
United States to require mini-bottles on mixed drinks when Utal
lifted its own requirement. The mini-bottle law is yet another example
of pointless legislation that seems to only exist to annoj
South Carolinians.
Tf Anhancar 1 J ill -
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greasing the wheels of government, the blue laws would have
been repealed long ago.
In sum, South Carolina is nationally infamous for low educational
standards and conservative, Bible-Belt morality. We should
stop trying to live up to this reputation and start crafting a new
image as a progressive humanistic society in the New South.
"HONEY, JUST TEU. SOME OF THEM THAT
The Gamecock
News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249
Kathy Blackwell robyn Thompson
Editor in Chief Managing Editor
Chris Silvestri 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
Oct a via Wright Patrick Villegas
Assistant Carolina Life Editor Assistant Sports Editor
jennifer jablonski julie bouchillon
Assistant Copy Desk Chief Assistant Photography Editor
Eric Glenn Wayne Williams
Darkroom Lab Technician Comics Editor
tsv duinaa Erik Collins
Director of Student Media Faculty Adviser
Laura S. Day ray Burgos
Production Manager Assistant Production Manager
Renee Gibson 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.
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: Card compan
j One of the best pieces of advice my parents
gave me was to make the most of a bad situation.
The word most did not have any financial
overtones.
Topps Co., the largest sports card marketeer,
1 knows how to make the most of a bad situation,
too. In their case, however, they're making the
r most profits.
Newspapers across the nation reported Mon;
day that Topps has issued an Operation Desert
? Storm card set.
For only 50 cents, a Desert Storm card collector
can get eight Persian Gulf War cards and
a sticker. The company also said there are two
kinds of cards ? personalities and weapons.
Bob Ibach of Topps said, "Over the course of
time, this may become one of the hot
collectibles."
Excuse me, Mr. Ibach, are you saying that
you have a direct plan to make money off this
war? Oh, what a bitter taste has come over my
tastebuds.
I cannot even begin to fathom the insensitivity
of Topps. While friends and family members
are put in jeopardy to fight that "evil Persian
tyrant," indolent, overweight, doughnut-pushing
executives will make money.
When morals and ethics were handed out,
these executives weren't around. Instead, they
were putting in overtime for their insensitivity
class.
Hey, I have an idea for the Topps executives.
Why don't you guys do update sets on
LETTERS TO Tf
Press distorts Sf a
n Thus, th
issues of war sectors of
of illiterac
?-p .. ... of this is tl
To the editor: ahilitv rn
Mr. Papleacos' claim that his th. f
] letters are free of ideology is a fa- ^
miliar story. For instance, the .
American media system claims its T ,1
news coverage is unbiased and ob- ait
jective while at the same time p ,
most newspapers, magazines, pu- .a? ea '
blishers and radio and television ? c_
... , . media s so
broadcasting companies are largely .
under the control of wealthy pentag0n
American families, directors of , ?. '
, . , ' / and a host
multi-national corporations (not to . ,
mention their financial sponsor- y e ^
ship), pressures from integration in
a market economy and flak from p '
government officials. ropagai
xt _u i u on what is
Nevertheless, no one would ever effective oi
have the audacity to question why , , ...
the media continually pictures e, ?,ef
Palestinians as terrorists and Israel au en 1C1 y
as the liberal, democratic state or
Nicaraguan contras as freedom
fighters and the Sandinista govern- \ f*fji
ment as a communist, totalitarian zYI LH
regime bent on destablizing the
moderately authoritarian govern- Cldi 1
ments in Latin America which de- j0 tf,e
serve U.S. support. The cost
Snmp. IWtrtlp lilrv* ?Via Into Hr
r?ottice certa
Martin Luther King Jr., are honest \ fm(j it d
enough to admit the power of a stan
ideas to change and transform soc- to clarify J
iety. Others, like Mr. Papleacos recent edito
and The New York Times, seem Your sta
content to obscure, and as Mr. Pa- $400,000 b
pleacos himself admits, rewrite nets multihistory
in order to erase the true implies that
origins of current problems played a lar
threatening the world today. more than
One moment, they assert their research gra
traditionally liberal (though at pre- in fact,
sent fashionably conservative) faith are> for th
in the "dynamic," "pluralistic" and through a
"meritOQratic" nature of "late capi- process that
talist" society, and yet the next of the Wa
moment, fear the threat "special guess is tht
, interest groups" place on the sec- tage of the
r saodam, th*
our,tactics a
thcst new b
settle thai
happy faces
represent <
A
iy takes advan
?- wk.
4&b- ^TV<'
Tige Watts
A '?
America's past wars. I'm sure any collector
would pay $5 for a card of a soldier having his
legs blown off, courtesy of our Vietnam
conflict.
Why stop there? Why don't you guys issue a
Civil War card set. After all, who wouldn't pay
dearly for the card picturing a doctor amputating
a Union soldier's arm.
I'm sure anybody would trade for a nuked Japanese
child's card. Just think of how clear his
deformed face would be on a piece of cardboard.
Hold me back from running out-to get
that one.
Topps has been in business for 40 years.
Over the years, they have made tons of money
with their baseball cards. They are financial experts
in satisfying the public's demand. If the
public wants a Desert Storm card collection,
Topps will provide it.
Obviously, the public wanted to see this collection
come out into the market. Since the start
of this war, America has made this into a football
game.
We want to simplify war into sets of winners
and losers. However, what we forgot was there
are no winners in war, just losers.
HE EDITOR
n orderly democratic the Washington office i
manner. This should
ough they admit certain mind as numbers are tc
society exist in a cycle during debate on this is
y and stagnation, none Franklii
le result of a hegemonic Biological Science
engineer the consent of . 1 _
natter, but is rather pos- Jt) 1 ?1C K S Clt
-mined by the genetic
i of these unfortunate opportun
lerican media, like Mr.
, . _ nn_ _ i'.
claims to be impartial 10 ine editor:
mtation of ideas, yet the Spiros Papleacos' re
urces are almost always invite us, despite thei
the White House, the ^ink about the conditi
the State Department Americans today and
of "experts" sponsored own prejudices. Black
erican government, cor- viously has nothing to
rerica and their client dividual ability.
If one is reasonabl
ida is often dependent ar?d looks at how ma
not asserted and is most and talented Afro-Am
11 those who have-been poor, unemployed 01
ve that convictions lack ployed, while white A;
mediocre abilities hold
Jim Varn power and privilege, 01
USC graduate ity lay to rest any th
_ quote IQ scores.
clc needs Black p?vertystems
causes and must be add
fjloll ously. Allow me to fo
one cause as an exan
}r: white ethnic groups, su
of USC's Washington Italians and Irish peop
inly merits debate, and tained some measure
ifficult at this point to mobility, after a long s
d. However, I do want with serious casualties,
in implication of your as the fruit of individua
rial of Friday, Feb. 1. talents,
tement that "even the These groups have b
udget is justifiable if it form capital, which the;
million dollar returns" to acquire stability, po^
: the Washington office fluence in society. This
ge role in procuring the ble in part because a fe
$37 million in federal als within each er
ints this past year. wealthy to begin with ;
federal grants at USC the country with son
e most part, obtained They would then lend
rigorous peer review their relatives to start
is entirely independent ses or to finance educt
shington bureau. My they were in the far
it only a small percen- loans were usually ii
$37 million involved and were tied to arrange
* *
: amcakams claim ^
chiloish, 8ut
attle plans will
r. Now these
t??
4 * < .
I0PC no!
unkers
Round
_"?? j.
'
O
la dM^ lAdl a
iv jwr*~ mi
itage of war
We want to "root, root, root for the home
team and if they don't win it's a shame. For it's
one, two, three strikes you're out in the old ball
game."
I'm sorry to inform you sorry folks, but there
are distinct differences between ball games and
' war. In baseball games, Nolan Ryan's fastball
screams by a hitter's face nicely at 101 mph. In
war, a stealth fighter screams and levels a city
at 690 mph.
Folks, our ambition to market the war did not
start with baseball cards. Video and board
games have popped up all over the place with
the player(s) killing evil Iraqis led by the tyrant
Hussein and winning the war for the good ol'
United States.
In order to win a war with Iraq, we will have
to fight a long time. We have to wipe them off
the face of the earth. It's not like a football
game where you play hard and knock each
other around for 60 minutes.
We can't walk off the field and say we're going
to Disney World if we win. No Vince Lombardi
trophy is awarded. We can't skate around
holding the Stanley Cup over our head after our
big win.
Topps symbolizes America's ambition to
make this war simpler than it is. President Bush
has spouted off a myriad of reasons for this
war. He has also accomplished the difficult task
of making Hussein into another Hitler. The
public, however, has made this war into a sporting
event.
' 1 111" " 'V1
$PV> Av '% v| Vs jj
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in any direct as marriages and wills,
be kept in Afro-Americans entered North
>ssed around America as slaves, obviously withsue.
out capital. When they became
a G. Berger free, they were thus at the mercy
is professor of public (white} financial institu
! tions 10 lencl at interest where
others might have family members
/ VU lending for free,
jfipo Banks did and do discriminate,
lllCd frequently making capitalformation
deliberately impossible.
Even now that we have anti?,cent
letters discrimination laws, they are almselves,
to most impossible to enforce. Young
on of Afro- Afro-Americans may be expected
about our to show little enthusiasm for the
poverty ob- "American Way," seeing that it is
do with in- not really available to them.
Changes must be made in instiy
objective tutions and laws, but also in the
ny brilliant heart itself. And first of all, one
ericans are must speak with some knowledge
underem- and sensitivity to the reality one
mericans of claims to be explaining,
positions of
le may eas- Amitai F. Avi-ram
leories that English professor
from many ? p
Iressed vari- CoIUmil IUIlIiy
cus on just
-,?1o U ^ " I ^
Tuui useless
ch as Jews,
le, have at- To ^
0 uPwar Mr. Shealy's column has always
trugg e an WQrtj1 a ^ past, but
on y in par ^ la^t WOrk on pe5 g} jt
a rs an has become a total joke, becoming
,. even more amusing than the humor
*tnablet? column.
1 ave used From Mr. Shealy's quote-the>ver
and in- dictionary-like-we-did-in-juniorwas
possi- 0pening iine to his overly
w individu- simplistic solutions, i.e. "we
oup were should all pull together and solve
and entered ^-s oeacefullv" jMSt shows rhat
ne capital. ^jr Shealy is a master at writing a
money to u^i^s column, and not someone
up busines- t0 ^ ^ seriousiy.
ition. Since
1 teres t-free Stephen Edwards
iments such History sophomore