University of South Carolina Libraries
Viewpoint Spineless Pressures of prudish system weaken candidates backbones < 5 r Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Bill Clinton ad- " miued under intense questioning that years ago he smoked marijuana, but he didn't like it and didn't inhale. It's surprising he didn't also say he hated Cheech and Chong movies. At first he denied ever breaking the laws of the United States; of course, he i smoked pot in England. | Bill Clinton is a sorry excuse for a presidential candidate. A real man or woman would have admitted to experimenting with drugs in college, and that would have been the end of it. Clinton tried to avoid the issue, and when he finally had to say anything, he said, "I didn't inhale." Is this wimp the sort of person we want running the country? The United States' democratic system is truly dying if our only two cho'ices for president are an incumbent do-nothing and "Slick Willy" Clinton. That drug use in college is an issue is bad enough, but the spinelessness of our candidates is a depressing state of affairs. Bush fires the head of the National Endowment for the Arts when Pat Buchanan attacks "homoerotic" art. Clinton sputters excuses for taking a hit off a joint. What world leaders. The fault lies in a prudish system in which candidates have to be absolutely sparkling clean to even get a major party nomination. This means candidates have to be good liars, not good people. Presidential candidates should have to pass a simple morality test. If they do pass, we can all move on to the issues and never talk about sleaze again. Otherwise, their parties shouldn't allow them to run. The test is easy: presidential candidates should never have cheated on their spouses; never had Mafia lies; never worked for a savings and loan association; never raped, killed or maimed any registered voters; never had a heroin addiction; never bounced more than 100 checks in a six month period; never bet on illicit sporting events such as professional boxing; never been in a hate group such as the KKK, Nazis or the 700 Club; and finally, never driven, seen or touched a foreign car. These moral restrictions eliminate most Republicans and Democrats, which is probably for the better. Question: /\re awer|ca|ni Products Peall</ Inferior P ITake a look o ^ PRODUCT*! ^ PRODUCT*! ^^^ buy a VUGO. ^ * ?/ -/ inmpi I " n "i ?I^ H1 I 4 iN IlAmAnhnhl Q 1)6 closc,y related would be that c ligion, but anti-homosexual fee a i j have been shared by non-religiot is not Digotry well as religious groups, past and sent, all which have defined homo: t, ality the same. "to 'hai' o'ne person who does nol . Homosexuality 111 understand the issue. Recently one, * 's defined as sodomy. Sodon only one, person has responded nega- ana C0PU ,on 0 one ma c lively to my llyers that soiled: Homo- anolhcr- also ?>Pulal'?" will phobia is not bigotry, it is a moral an!!?a' ,, , _ Kx, .Krx . -x r This person then says that as a choice made by the mass majority of ! , J , ... . al] cu|lurcs mcr anthropology major he finds ' This person says that this is nothing <l'cr"us lhink lhal the ss maJ more than an appeal to the mistakes of ol a" ?ruUurcs, wcrc an"-homoscx, the past This person needs to under- can ""'J saV 1 ana sorry thal alcr, so,nil thai what he considers mistakes, m8 I,IS anthropology degree he t the mass majority past and present do so tgnorant ol htslortcal fact. nol 1 want it to be clear that along 1 Further, this person goes on to prove lhc anti-homosexual view 1 have his glaring ignorance. He attempted to elated, do nol suppoit vio relate the homosexual issue with rac- -'gainst anyone, ism, sexism, and religious intolerance. Rod Do The only one of these that could even Political science m o-- - - o~ ? ? our society, they a.e not the product of poi nography. They are the product of violence These symptoms are easily visible. Wha we have misidentified is their cause. W have our values confused. Abduction, rape and other brutalities ar not sexual, but violent crimes. A man wh rapes is a man who wants power, a ma who wants to hurt. Sex has nothing to d with hurt. That is an inaccuracy fostered b a society that is more open to permitlin dismemberment on the big screen than sex ual intercourse. In a recent study, men were shown thre different movies. One was purely sexual One was purely violent. One was a mix c the two. Before and after viewing these mc vies, the men answered a survey. Afte r?~ ruriiugrapiiy ej The following is a summary of Katherin Mille's notes on a lecutre by feminist phii osopher and legal scholar Catharin MacKinnon, a professor of law at the Un> versity of Michigan. MacKinnon is per hap the best known advocate of changing lege perspectives of women in cases involvin pornography. McKinnon is pushing for new laws regi lating Uie production of hard-core pornogrc phy, not from a stand against obsccnio which is arbitrary, but from a stand again: human and civil rights violations which, sh argues, should be absolute in our society. Citing evidence from court testimony MacKinnon challenges the assumption th; the women, who are featured in hard-coi pornography, actually want to be there an enjoy what is being done to them. The pictures of sex perversions and vie lencc performed on women in pornograph] she says, are often quite real. The violcnc is actually happening to the individuals i they are being filmed. MacKinnon asser that pornographic producers are in fact vi( lent and dangerous pimps. She says that pornography magicall transforms harm and violence to wome into "sex." She urges us to understand th; Make Your Ii The Gamecock is the student ne .serve you, the students. If you h topics you think the paper isn't c interests known by sending us a want to hear from you. Really. Skit creates 'pre- false image >cxuTo the editor: iona- I am writing in reference t riy is Gamecock article about "Sal with Night Live's" Tri Delta skits, ti an Firstly, our active members' cu live GPR for the fall 1991 set i lor- was 3.027, the third highest of a it lu- ority GPRs and well above the a\ jorily GPR for women in the student jal. 1 Our pledge class GPR was 2.98 earn- highest of all the sorority p s yet classes. 1 have enjoyed watching the sf with far. 1 am not afraid to laugh at just people's misconceptions of greel cnce However, it is a little disturbinj Delta is a very prominent sororii bson tionally. Our philantropies are injur roll's cancer and women's schoki \ Question: What 1 % ^hris Larizza Lucy 3usiness major Undei "The President. To deal "Di vith world issues such as he save Joes and make crucial deci- many iions, he deserves the most noney." ^Cros Violence, not porr Pornography docs not breed violence. It is often this society's contention tht sex is the great evil of our time. It corrupt men. 11 degrades women. 11 losters the myt lhal women want to be raped. It leads to women and children being abducted an forced to perform for pornographic movies. Allhonph all thvjp. thinps do hannp.n i at women's Studies at USC. iterests Known!!! vvspaper, which means we want to ave any suggestions for articles or covering adequately, iftake your letter or c.oming by our office. We Locally, we support Epworth children's home and many other charities. We nave mcmoers involved in campus academic organizations, volunteer programs, student government and various other facets of USC and the Colo the umbia community, urday 1 refute the insinuations that sorority mula- girls arc incapable, air-headed and inncstcr sincere. Tri Delta, as do other greek orII sor- ganizations, encourages our members /eragc to progress and develop using the sorbody. ority and what it has to offer. 9, the ledge Greeks throughout the United States are lighting image problems; "SNL" is cits so not helping. 1 respect our executive other committee's right to petition "SNL" for k life. their irresponsible use of our letters, g. Tri ty na- . Tricia Banks child- Scholarship Chairman irship. Delta Delta Delta do you think the highest paid j Martin Bryan Mack clared major Music Educatic octors, because they "Teachers, lives and without them, teacher helps of us wouldn't be here." our children. S strong nation." s Fir?^ lography, corrupts watching the purely violent movie, a num-* it her of the men answered that forcing a wos man to have sex when she said "no" was h acceptable. Before seeing the movie, the men had answered in the survey that they d would never rape a woman. 1 am a woman. I too am afraid of the n horror of rape, and feel very strongly that the role of women as submissive and passive must be eradicated from our society, it Eliminating nornograDhv. however, is not e ihe solution. Reaffirming women's strength in no way involves eliminating their sexual- , e ity. In fact, acknowledging women's right o to be sexual beings was a large part of their n liberation from the shackles of passivity, o Instead we must overcome the human iny slinct toward violence. This is the real evil g that motivates heinous crimes. And we arc - so scared to acknowledge such a flaw in the make up of humans, we have, proverbially, e hidden it under the bed. I. >f - Shelley Magee i- Shelley Magee is the Viewpoint Editor r for The Gamecock. . tidangers women e women in pornography are most often hurtf ing, frightened victims. Their human and e civil rights should have a greater priority i- than the First Amendment protection of >.v pornography, along with about 20 existing *i iu uio nisi ttiiieiiuincni. g As in cases of group libel, she says, pornography dcnigraics, subordinates and de-~ i- humanizes a class of people ? women ? i- portraying them as subhuman creatures U whose natures arc fulfilled by being sexst ually subordinated, beaten, tortured and e used in every conceivable fashion. Citing crime statistics and clinical test re/, suits, MacKinnon argues that pornography Jl is extremely effective in altering the cone sumers' view of women, and in many d cases, films and pictures arc models for violent demands that are then (breed on hu) miliatcd and terrified spouses, family mcmbcrs or strangers, grown women and :e children. Many of the victims, MacKinnon asserts, ts remain forever silent. Meanwhile, the con> sumers, high on the power of pornography, require ever stronger doses of violence, y -Katherine W. Mille :n Katherine Mille is the Assistant Director of profession should be? mJ m Chi Pham m major Pharmacy major I feel that a "Those putting their lives the future of on the line for others. But trong teachers, there is really no one job that deserves more than another." Better pay means better teachers - Tige Watts Merit. Those who deserve should receive. Too bad it doesn't work that way in America. Our country has a messed up way of figuring out who gets paid what. Capitalism: It can gyp those who should be paid well. And it doesn't care. It will pay annual salaries to a baseball player of S6.4 million and SI5,(XX) to a teacher. That seems wrong, but our society has decided to turn its back on the deserving teacher. South Carolina's fiscal 1992-93 budget included a raise for stale teachers when it passed in the House. That raise was taken out when the Senate worked over the budget, leaving a lot of teachers .out in the cold. 1 President George Bush prescnted a budget with a modest dclcnsc cul. About S271 billion went to dclcnsc. Within that same national budget, only $30 billion was proposed for education. Therefore, Bush says defense should receive nine limes as much funding and is nine times more important than education. How much more wrong can he be? We would not be here, at USC, if it was not for the work of our teachers. We would not be able to develop new technology if it was not for the guidance and encouragement of our teachers. And without technology, how can we produce the bombers and missies the defense budget is paying for? So, what do we do? We pay them a small salary.- We pay them such a small salary that they wonder where their next meal will come from. They live on a. paycheck-to-paycheck basis. And it's going to catch up to us. We're already sagging in international lest scores in math. We're turning out a less educated work force. We're falling behind, yet we're not doing anything to catch up. We're losing the best teachers because they can't afford to live on peanuts. What else could be more important? We need to make it enticing and challenging to*' teach. We need to make it monetarily rewarding..' We need a better leaching force, and higher salaries are the only way we can accomplish this. Wc need to start re-evaluating our priorities. We need to slash the defense budget and increase teachers' pay. Wc need to have the national government start giving credit where credit is due. We need action, and wc need it now. PESERT NORM IGamecock Editor in Chief Brie Ward Managing Editor Tige Watts Copy Desk Chief Kathy Heberger mssi. oupy ut>sr\ v^niei jennuer uaDionsai .Viewpoint Editor Shelley Magee News Editors...Patrick Villegas/Gordon Mantler Asst. News Editor J.T. Wagenheim Carolina! Editor Greg Rickabaugh Asst. Carolina! Editor Lee Clouts Graphics Editor Ryan Sims Cartoonist Paul Jon Photography Editor Virginia Marshall Asst. Photography Editor Eric Glenn Sports Editor Chad Bray Asst. Sports Editor Sean Ryan Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Asst. Advertising Manager Melissa Owenby Asst. Classified Manager Amy Taylor The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be 200-250 words. Full name and professional title, or year and major if a student, must be included along with address and phone number. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit letters for style, possible libel or space limitations. The Gamecock will not withhold names under any circumstances.