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Elections Campaigns unexpectedly clean, lacked vitriol of other races Thursday, the university embarks on its annual flirtation with democracy. USC students will make their choices for the Student Government leadership for the 1991-92 term. Compared with the federal, state and local elections of the past few years, USC's 1991 campaign has been mercifully free of personal attacks and recriminations. Instead, candidates at all levels either concentrated on the issues or, more commonly, concentrated on getting their names seen on campus as much as possible. Some candidates made a point of keeping their promotional cnpnHincr at a minimum anH tlipx; oErvnlA Ka onnlon/la/l u^/vxiUiii^ Ul U lllliiiinuixx W"V* UlVj- OllWUlU IA/ appiaUUV/U 1U1 UlV^ll decision not to pollute the campus with too many banners and signs. Surprisingly, some issues were actually raised amid the tidal wave of fliers, but it will be up to the student body to decide the merits of unusual proposals such as grade-forgiveness and congressional "hit lists." The student body will hopefully be able to separate the truly helpful innovations from the frivolous ones, like the creation of a Carolina Clothing Day. Students should also ask themselves whether or not certain candidates will have the authority and determination to make good on all of their elaborate proposals. Hopefully, all candidates will quickly and voluntarily take down their posters immediately following the end of the elections and run-offs. A polluted campus should not be a by-product of democracy. To be somewhat self-serving, it should be said that Student Media did a very good job of being impartial in these elections. Election campaigning was intentionally avoided on WUSC and in The Gamecock. sLet us hope we get competent leaders that honor the university. V That shouldn't be too much to hope for. ~ he; ski rea The Gamecock to she SOI News: 777-7726 Advertising: 777-4249 oul ? ? ????? tip Kathy Blackwell robyn Thompson las Editor in Chief Managing Editor kei ? _____ |jg] Chris Silvestri David Bowden di. Copy Desk Chief Viewpoint Editor Lucy Soto Kathy heberger ] News Editor Carolina Life Editor ne( Steve Johnson Renee Meyer pui Sports Editor Photography Editor idi oul Aaron Sheinin Tige Watts naj Assistant News Editor Assistant News Editor hoi Octavia Wright Patrick Villegas av< Assistant Carolina Life Editor Assistant Sports Editor W< JENNIFER JABLONSKI JULIE BOUCHILLON de: Assistant Copy Desk Chief Assistant Photography Editor enl ericulenn Wayne Williams Darkroom Lab Technician Comics Editor jor joi Ed Bonza Erik Collins lai1 Director of Student Media Faculty Adviser Laura S. Day Ray Burgos lur Production Manager Assistant Production Manager ev< Renee Gibson Kyle Berry *_ot Advertising Manager Assistant Advertising Manager vai Carolyn Griffin Business Manager tec me foi Letters Policy: The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should fre be, at maximum, 250 to 300 words long. The writer must include full name, pro- me fessional title if a USC employee or South Carolina resident, or year and major if frc 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 fQI circumstance. pri ^J y? Civilian #?mbShel-ter. Tehran Shut-tie. >inger sho Pardon me while I engage in a little jassination. I hate Sinead O'Connor, are precise, I hate the press for cov mpous declarations on everything 1 n, from Aerosmith to the America j Grammys. And I hate myself for ? y more attention, but I have had it. Everyone in the world has the rig sss their opinions, and has the righ ise opinions transmitted globally b> i. However, it seems many in the ' ving their share of the spotlight stol< andstanding, bald witch from Irelanc thing better to do than spout off. I don't care that she thinks that Aei acist" (although I never though ungy Boston band as Aryan). I don'i e didn't want the American Nationa ayed before her concert in New Jen ally don't care what Frank Sinatra t out that). I don't care that she is boycotting rammys. And I don't care that sh< hat I do care about is that she has isity to announce her opinions on 1 I f* m o nr / EH I I I > "olumnist has , 0 intelligence ! the editor: [ suppose every columnist has 1 s rudimentary concern that his or j r column exhibit grammatical II, cogent logic and some sort of ( latile argument to dislodge the 5 tding public from their nests of 1 mfort. 1 When one applies this standard Dennis Shealy's editorial, "War i >uld not be fought by any per- j l," it becomes apparent that one < t of three ain't bad ? it's pathe- 1 . Mr. Shealy did succeed on the ( t point, though. He has awa- s led this present writer, a mem of the Silent Majority, to repu- j ite his nonsensical, liberal i isoning. t Mr. Shealy and people of his ilk '' Jd to understand that the reading ' blic is not a bunch of blooming 1 ots that have to be educated ab- ( t the realities of war. The car;e that war brings is indeed a rrible fact, a fact that those with jrage intelligence can discern. 1 do not need Mr. Shealy's con >cending, pedantic ramblings to ighten us. As a member of the Silent Maity (by the way, an enlightened irnalist should be aware of the , idslide support of the war), I am j jolutely nonplussed at your fai- , e to realize that the reason you ^ ;n have the right to speak your . is that good men and women j I not fail to take up arms to ad- j nee the cause of democracy. i The shedding of blood was anedent to the Constitution, which ambers of your liberal sect are so ^ id of waving. Freedom, your < ;edom, sir, was purchased by j ;n and women who did not run ( im duty, as you recommend we i do. Indeed, you should be more < thcoming with gratitude for the < ce countless combatants paid for ( u to express your opinion. t j Baby Mi Family Station Waqpn. uld stick f ering ner Wm mw UA\ under the ^ f n flag to ; * # ;iving her t to have wori(j she might as wel / (hp me. ? r ,' and hand out position pai 7b to Admittedly, Sinead ai r J u1 common (besides a taste 1 who has . . , hair on our legs). I don TKmifh is Noughts or her personal t of that tunately'1 3111 wel1 actlua t care that on a variety of extraneou il Anthem Don't tell me that the ] jey (and I find these things out. O iad to say out of her way to make finds out that SHE is bo tonight's because the Grammys ar< 5 is bald, what a statement), the pom- She shows a lot of cla ife to the low musicians with such 3 THE EDITOf And finally, sir, consistency is ihe substance of any sound polemic. Yet your argument has he consistency of an Iraqi SCUD. In the first half of your column, ^ou summarily condemn war as iseless, barbaric wickedness. Six paragraphs later, you label yourself 'willing to fight... for the ideal if democracy." Now with nonsensical reasoning like that, is it any wonder why most Americans are lot on your side? Let me close with some encourigement for you. I do urge you to lursue your refuge from war to some place far away, so we don't lave to spend hard-earned taxpayers' dollars to round you up for service. Freedom-freeloaders make even loorer soldiers than they do colimnists. Indeed, anyone unwilling 0 bear the burden of democracy is 1 liability to liberty and would do letter to remain in the one sphere where they won't be taken serilusly ? the news media. Andrew Thornley History sophomore War will have nasty results lo the editor: This is the first time in my 19 ,rears of life here on Planet Earth n which I have been confronted vith war. Too young to remember Vietnam, war was always statistics md strategies in a history text, ^ow for the first time, I am feeing the devastating impact of war. \nd I am scared. The dangers which could and nost likely will elevate when the ground war breaks out are very scary. Terrorism and militarism on ;he rise, anti-Western sentiment, chemical and possibly nuclear warfare, troop casualities and civilian ;asualities, not to mention the strain which will be placed upon Dur already unsteady economy are ill realistic outcomes of what's to IT mIt Tnl ilk Plant. ? Elite Republican. 1 \ liik:o singing, " 1 atorementi 'ID BOWDEN 2S ten by Prii she can s< Compare Minneapol Sinead i 1 call press conferences thinks so pers on world events. the adorin; id I have very little in or not she for Public Enemy and one by soi *t know her innermost should put background, but unfor- Howeve inted with her opinions over the si s crap. my colleaj Dress reads her mind to reporters t bviously, Sinead goes hanS from sure the world media (Carolina iycotting the Grammys * m gla< 5 "materialistic" (wow, recession \ us back d ss when criticizing fel- Americans tenacity, including the nead O'Cc 3 . , % come. Another possible outcome (although George has told us it won't happen) is the draft being reinstated. A popular opinion about the reinstatement of the draft is that it "won't happen because the war won't last that long." I'd personally like to believe that However, if the ground war goes on for over 8 months, there will have to be a "rotation of troops." When the military calls for more rotation of troops, Congress won't have a choice except to reinstate the draft There must be a "halt to the fighting before the disaster of a full-scale ground war." The dangers looming over our heads are almost suicidal, and once the ground war fully starts, we'll be up to our necks in them. As Andrew B. Law once said, "There is no sucn tning as lnevitaote war. it war comes, it will be from failure of human wisdom." Marc Minsker English freshman Letter writer explains war To the editor: Until Scott R. Saunder's letter in the Feb. 8 Gamecock, I didn't know why in the world our young people were over in Arabia killing Arabs. I didn't know the Arabs were our enemies or that we were defending the United States in a Third World War against, of all people, the Arabs. Now that Mr. Saunders has explained it to us, it is all so clear. The Arab parents (those who are still alive) can bury their dead children, and we will wait for our body bags and do the same. The deaths of the Arab and U.S. young people will be justified by Mr. Saunders. We, American college students, thank you. Connie Marie Smith Anthropology graduate student I Baby Milk Mask.. Elite. Republican not insults ioned Aerosmith, MC Hammer and le Prince-bashing is particularly unnce her most popular song was writice. If she hates materialism so much snd all those royalties for "Nothing s 2 U" to the Purple One in is. s a media-mongering egomaniac. She much of herself that she thinks we, g public, give a damn about whether > attends the Grammys. If she wins me miracle, I can suggest where she it r, the blame for her reign of terror low-business community is shared by gues in the press. The entertainment hat spread her inane ravings should the same gallows for their complicity Life writers excluded). 1 that with a Middle East war and a going on that Sinead O'Connor brings own to earth and reminds us selfish ; what is truly important in life: Si>nnor. War opinions need voicing To the editor: I'm writing in response to the pro-war and anti-war letters that have been printed over the past week. I don't understand-the lack of tolerance for other people's viewpoints that has been shown, especially by pro-war advocates. I don't know of any pro-war advocates who would not say that the U.S. is fighting for freedom in the Middle East We want the Kuwaiti people to be free. Pro-war advocates may not use these exact words, but this is what they mean. The U.S. and the Allies are fighting so that Hussein won't do what he did to Kuwait to other Middle Eastern countries. What many pro-war advocates have forgotten in their zealous attacks on those who protest for peace is that the U.S. is fighting for freedom. Freedom is not only important in the Middle East, but also in the United States. Because the British and American patriots fought in the Revolutionary War, American citizens can freely say what they believe without fear of being persecuted. It is not a question of being patriotic ? peace advocates think they are patriotic, too. I think that both sides are oversimplifying the issue. People who protest against the war are not all Communists or misplaced llower children. They are concerned Americans. And pro-war advocates do not go around chanting "Kill! Kill! Kill!" and "Nuke Insane Hussein." They are also concerned Americans. I believe the U.S. is in the Persian Gulf for a reason, and I support our government and the troops over there. That does not mean, however, that I can't understand other people's viewpoints. ^That's what Freedom of Expression is for. Susan D. Landrum History/geography junior