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"?m! Serving US( J.T. Wagenheim, Editor in Chief EDITOR!# Jay King, Gordon M Lee Clontz, Ca Hatred Group uses Christian while threatening US In Gatlinburg, Tenn., a store call paraphernalia, particularly patriotic eagles, American flags and crosses u; letters, the shirt asks, "What is happ by a list of about 10 evils plaguing 01 The list of problems includes hom< outlook on America's future by the ! off the shirt's message as a figment Despite one's religious beliefs, howi life come into question. People are often afraid of relig because it seems judgmental or irrai ment to the one made by the anti-ga; ago. Likening homosexuals to child mo surging through moral veins. The < founded on religion, but hatred. Witl fusion comes in pinpointing exactly \ Homosexuals argue the discrimini the historic plight of the black race aforementioned shirt presents the m< distinctly calling it a sin. The shirt poses an honest question doesn't take into account that hom OOillU OUlidlU lUiU/i Uiai NtjH uwtiu These forces are not, as groups such have us believe, of true Christian prii Some use religious principles to 1 use codes not founded in any religio wrong, black and white are truly in 1 there is no room for cries of "exei group of people simply because they on the USC campus. Even more foreboding than the c? guise donned by the criers. The S.C. Christianity to mask its apparent goa crimes. These threats should be taken as community. In a sense, we are un< hearts of the perpetrators of such th Christian images or terms such as " beneath the mask. There is no excuse for inciting vi campus must continue to uphold its tolerance, evidences of our progress our appreciation for all types of peop Tii/a mi f nf i-lii 1 TT U UUl Ui UI1 Clinton in '96 Eight months into his presidency, Bill Clinton has already had an interesting, if not totally exciting, term in office. Marked by triumphs such as his budget bill squeaking by both houses and tragedies such as the suicide of a top aide, the Clinton administration has been through its ups and downs. The youth and energy that attracted many voters to candidate Clinton turned off these voters after a number of public relations blunders. Clinton's attempt to lift the ban on gays in the military sparked an outcry from much of the country, especially the military brass. And the "don't ask, don't tf?ll" c.ctarr. m.v*A ajr^iuii) yy 11 iv 11 waa eventually adopted by Clinton and the military, satisfied no one. Neither the gay community nor the military were pleased with the result, and Clinton knows it. Because of these incidents and others, it is not surprising that Clinton's national approval rating has been in the 40 percent to 50 percent range for months. And in South Carolina, it is surely much lower. Clinton hasn't seen anything yet. This fall, Congress is expected to tackle three key pieces of legislation: a government reform bill streamlining the federal bureaucracy, the North American Free Trade Agreement and health care reform. The passage of at least one or two of these bills is essential to Clinton's chance of being president through the year 2000. The news of a Middle East peace agreement is an excellent way to start the Clinton administration's first autumn. However, the agreement on Palestinian self-rule between the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Israel is more the individual states' doing than Clinton's or Secretary of State Warren Christopher's. Ktcock C Since 1908 Shay la Stutts, Viewpoints Editor IL BOARD antler, Rob Rodusky, rson Henderson iity to mask hatred C's cultural progress ed God's Country displays religious T-shirts adorned with drawings of plifted to a blazing sky. In bold black ening to America?" This is followed ur country. osexuality as well as racism. The dim shirt's designer makes it easy to pass of some religious nut's imagination, sver, the principles behind American ious commentary such as the shirt tional. But compare the shirt's statey fliers posted on campus a few days lesters is a common ploy to send fear y :all for violence is explicit and not c i so many tainted messages, the con- J vho opposes homosexuals and why. p ition and hatred they battle parallels or any other minority. However, the ?ral condemnation of homosexuality, r about our country, though its content e losexuals collectively encounter the s and women from freedom for years. c as the S.C. Christian Alliance would s iciple. distinguish right from wrong; others e us group. Sin and morality, right and ( the eye of the beholder. And behold, r cution-castration-imprisonment" of a _ are different from someone else. Not * c ill for termination of gays is the dis- ? Christian Alliance blatantly misuses 1 of possibly committing violent hate no less than dangerous to the USC 1 certain of the motivation within the ? icais. dui unc uimg is cciuuu. incii holy war" tell nothing of what lurks F olence. To counteract this, the USC f ; principles of cultural diversity and r in an advanced society and proof of * le. t t *ee could help election Bi Whatever the case, the agree- j ment is a positive development ( in Clinton's foreign policy and \ one that might boost his sagging approval rating. And Clinton ( will need all the help he can muster for the congressional fights ahead. If passed, the initiatives could have a comparable influence to President Roosevelt's * New Deal programs of the '30s. Most officials expect A1 Gore's government streamlining plan, which could radically alter the way government does business, to be the first issue tackled by Congress. And there's a 1 decent chance that it will pass. This will set up the wars over 1 NAFTA and health care, which the interest groups and lobbyists r are anxiously waiting to do bat- C tie over. Wannabe despot Ross Perot f is getting back into the act by f spreading his anti-NAFTA propaganda to the ignorant masses, g including S.C.'s textiles indus- li try, in hopes of defeating the landmark agreement. k This fall's initiatives are the I key to the success of not only i: Bill Clinton and the Democratic E party but for the entire United a States. Republicans might tell you tl otherwise. But a successful Bill a Clinton will mean a healthier, v fairer and efficient America, and h that's a fact. a r Gordon Mantler is university h editor of The Gamecock. His d column appears every other Wednesday. ii d Viewpoint What do yoi m .jll umi i? "It's not up to us to "I thin tell gay people what wrong, they should do. We are for ; not God, and we should doesn' not judge them." right f Shawnee Peeples son Political science freshman Sai E Master Minds Punishment disgu "The worst thing seems to be for schools to vork with methods of fear, force and artificial mthority. Such treatment destroys the healthy eelings, the integrity and the self-confidence of mpils." Albert Einstein Social workers have a fundamental commitnent to vulnerable populations. Among the dis- j :nfranchised, the powerless and the underrepreented people in our society, the welfare of ^ :hildren subjected to corporal punishment in the ajj chools is crucial. ^ The United States invests millions of dollars w? :ach year to prevent child abuse, yet we allow he injury of children by school personnel in the m( lame of discipline. In case of injury inflicted by >arents in the home, a report to protective serdee initiates a process designed to protect the SC] :hild from further assault. No such procedure in; :xists to protect children who are injured by tei eachers or other school officials. ch So what is corporal punishment as it is prac- 30 iced? Despite some districts' polices governing pu :orporal punishment - 23 states and the District >f Columbia have already banned it - abuses are tic lot uncommon. Punishments take the form of efl >addling, hitting children with rulers, yardsticks, ral >ointers, belts, ropes, rattan sticks, broomsticks, frc ubber hoses, baseball bats, metal pipes and ac irass knuckles. tie Children are slapped, shoved, kicked and hrown against walls, desks and concrete pillars, is! )ocumented cases also describe children being co tuck with pins, shocked with cattle prods and tin Anti-crime legisla Congress is about to pass a major piece of mti-crime legislation. I am referring to Senate Bill 636, which will impose tougher sanctions )n those convicted of blockading abortion clincs. Under the proposed law, first-time protesters vill receive a year in jail and fines totaling up o $150,000. Several people, including lawyers at the \merican Civil Liberties Union, have quesioned whether the penalties might be a bit iteep. After all, the freedom to assemble peace ully is protected by the First Amendment. A /ear in prison is too much to impose on political uri irotests, especially considering that the average convicted criminal usually gets sprung from jail 311 >efore he has time to order a pizza. In her testimony supporting the bill, Attorney Pr 3eneral Janet Reno noted the increase in vioence among pro-life protesters and explained 51 hat imprisonment "appears necessary to deter ind punish unlawful conduct, as well as simply su o incapacitate some of the more willful and pr )ersistent violators." $1 I would certainly like to offer my support for he bill. But I also agree with Indiana Senator pr Message of fliers one step closei ?is* t-i i iu uic cuuui; iiicy nave u I am writing concerning the sto- gays, y in Monday's issue of The Who will be jamecock about the anti-gay fliers, da of hate? Ar I am more than concerned. I am religion, anyon rightened for the well-being of my side of marriagi riends and loved ones. Are you next The fundamentalist far right has ;one too far. They have crossed the Wom< ine to fascism. For those of you who do not now what fascism is, it is what litler and the Nazis were. And this s exactly how the Nazi purges in .e Gamec Europe started calls for violence Pnnt all 1 gainst minorities. Letters shoi I assure you, I have not gone off words and i he deep end. Sadly, this hatred is name' Pro^ 11 too real. If you are not familiar year an" m' vith Hitler and the Nazis, grab a Letters nius listory book, or better yet, go over delivered 03 nd view the Movietone News p"16]!0!* eels on campus and see what r-.11886,^,,!?1!.5 latred and fear of those who are ai 7.. lifferent can and did do. 10 These fundamentalist fascists are iw/fn c ? n Christian dress, and they are 1. a 1?" ' angerous. . e; They have killed pro-choice doctors. circumstance rs a think about the anti-g tow : k they're totally "I don't think that a What's not right kind of discriminate iomeone else should be tolerati t mean it's not because of the negati or another per- impact that it has h on our campus ai nantha Burton country. education freshman Antonio Ellic Accounting sen ised as discipline __i! v c t ! jctrostatic generators and burned. One S.C. boy nearly died when he was pad- t| id by an administrator who correctly followed j* precautionary guidelines. Nevertheless, the y suffered a life-threatening asthma attack and is hospitalized for seven days. Another stunt was paddled on 56 occasions during a twoDnth period. 1! Across the board, more than I million inci- c nts of corporal punishment occur in U.S. F hools each year with 10,000 incidents requir- 1 e> medical attention. S.C.'s public school sys- r ns rank ninth in the nation for percentage of c ildren hit. This translates into more than a 1,000 school children who will be physically c inished this year. s Corporal punishment is not a sound educa- f >nal practice. It has limited and temporary fectiveness. The child most likely to be corpo- / lly punished is the child least likely to learn F >m corporal punishment: the child with hyper- a tivity, organic brain damage, learning disabili- s ? authofrs newsroom in J mHHfl >e room 321. The I fjun eserves the right | -*% j? letters for style, SPy^JLJj )\^ bel or space ~?BjF=E=L Barnes will not be f ? under any ?ys^ s or the angry stoic children. p The child most likely to receive corporal pun- v lment in the school often receives excessive rporal punishment at home or in other setgs. There are well-documented consequences tion might put p CK; ' an Coats, who believes that all violent protest * ovements should be equally punished. After I, it would be unfair to specifically target one j ipopular group while sparing others. I have worked up a formula to help legislators d law enforcement officials: One person has been killed in anti-abortion ^ otests over the past two years. Therefore, antiunion protesters receive one year in jail and a { 50,000 fine per offense. At least one person has been killed by white i premacists in the past two years. Pro-Klan t otesters should also get one year in jail and a ? 50,000 fine per offense. A man was killed earlier this year during a otest of U.S. immigration policies regarding ^M'm not voting / WE NEED TO SAVE ! At* to fascism illed for the death of next on their agen- * lyone of a different e who has sex outzt ? Melinda Hewlett jn's studies graduate ock will try to || letters received. Lild be 200-250 nust include full issional title or tl^r jjor if a student. CofT* ;ay fliers? ny "I read in the paper that rrv^^^:? n .uai i ^ un [ivciiiiia i iuhij uau iu ed decide if the fliers were ve opinion or a threat, ad When someone incites nd violence, that's not an opinion." >tt Norman Hayes ior Political science sophomore breeds violence >f corporal punishment, including permanent njury such as welts, bruises, broken bones, lemorrhaging, hearing loss, nerve damage. ruD ured bladders and even death. The use of physical force to control behavior eaches children lessons that we do not want hem to learn. Force is not the way to resolve onflict. It erodes the child's self esteem, urthermore, corporal punishment is associated vith lower grades, higher rates of truancy and nd higher drop-out rates. The to states with the lighest rates of corporal punishment, including louth Carolina, have academic test scores below he national average. A frequent justification for the legal sanctionng of corporal punishment is-that teachers and >ther educational personnel require it for self>rotection. Undeniably, violence in school is ncreasing. Teaching children to empathize, nake good decisions, understand the consciences of their behavior and assert themselves tppropriately reduces all forms of violence in >ur schools. Techniques such as time-out, inchool suspension and creative incentives for >ro-social behavior have been used effectively. South Carolinians should join the National Association of Social Workers and the National aretit-Teacher Association in advocating the ibolishment of corporal punishment in our chools. In its place should be effective discidine that teaches that conflict can be resolved vith reason and intellect, not violence. Deborah Valentine is an associate professor in the College of Social Work. rotesters in jail India. Actually, he killed himself, but violence IS violence. Immigration protesters should also get one year in jail and a $150,000 per offense. Two people were killed earlier this year during an Indian reservation protest for the legalization of casino gambling. Pro-gambling proesters should get TWO years in jail plus 5300,000 in fines for the increased risk of their iemonstrations. This might put a damper on the ifforts to get a lottery in South Carolina. Finally, more than 50 people were killed in .os Angeles by protesters who were upset about he violation of Rodney King's civil rights, rherefore, because of the inherent violence of :ivil rights protesters, a first offense will get 50 fears in jail and $7.5 million in fines. I realize this will make it more difficult for >eople to exercise their First Amendment rights, nit as our Attorney General has explained, it's ill for a good cause. And if you ever DO want o see a political protest in America, you can ilways visit a jail. Patrick McNeill is a columnist for The Gamecock. kNY MORE TAXES FOR EDUCATION? SOCIETY BY BUILDING MORE PRISONS' jji (if ' ' rtrr-PtrntotiH