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TSatrak Serving (JSC Since 1908 Lee Gontz, Editor in Qiief Chris Muldrow, Viewpoints Editor Editorial Board Erin Galloway, Wendy Hudson, Susan Goodwin, Allison Williams, Jimmv TVRnttc Dvnn Wllenn r1 ?r?/xn D-Jkii? nr.i J TT U0VU, v^cuouu n&uu&ldVll, IVOUlUKd I di Will 11 Spectator crosses line A nagging thorn has found its way into The Gamecock's side yet again, and this time its sting was much sharper than usual. The Carolina Spectator, a newsletter published by The Palmetto Spectator Society and edited by Vernon Davenport, has again been distributed on campus. The Spectator is published and distributed infrequently on campus and contains columns and features with a heavily conservative bent. In past issues, the newsletter has published a series of jabs called "The Shamecock" designed to ridicule and criticize writers and issues covered in The Gamecock. Normally, The Gamecock staff gets a few copies of the newsletter, reads them over, fumes for a bit and then laughs. If a person ? or a newspaper ? can't laugh at criticism, then it is doomed to take itself too seriously. In the latest issue of The Spectator, however, several features and stories went over the edge of good-natured fun and into the realm of irresponsible immaturity. Normally, The Gamecock wouldn't even mention The Spectator for fear of legitimizing what its editors are doing, but some of the comments in this issue demand response. First, the editor, in his column regarding the dispute over the USC elections, states that he does not know either Teresa Wilson or Amy Bigham, but he is sure that both care only for his vote. Earlier in the column, he calls them both "stuck-up sorority queens." Later in the column, he jokes that Wilson has "presumably left school to join a guerrilla insurgency in some Third World nation." These comments reflect an apparent trend in The Spectator to call names and make fun of Deode rather than offer substantive criticisms of them. This trend continues in "The Shamecock," where Neil Baumgardner is called "homeboy," Nigel Ravenhill is labeled "idiot" and Chad Stone becomes "moron." The newsletter's ridicule continues with a picture commandeered from The Gamecock's Viewpoints page (Mr. Davenport, are you aware that copyright law doesn't encourage reprinting photographs owned by other publications and then using them on photo illustrations?) of Byron James' head pasted to Forrest Gump's body. Far more effective would have been a systematic analysis of the issues The Spectator disagreed with. The "letter to the editor" The Spectator ran also reflected a lack of responsibility in editorial decisions. If "Bob Kennedy Cropp" had falsified his name and sent in the same highly offensive letter to The Gamecock, it would have found the steel grave of a wastebasket more quickly than you can say "editorial judgment" The Spectator is likely to criticize the suggestion that it throw away a letter as ignoring freedom of speech, but the letter the newsletter ran had absolutely no merit in any serious publication. Further, Davenport's response to the letter was an exercise in vulgarity and racism that rivaled the preceding letter. These complaints don't even begin to detail the lack of concern for factual support, the lack of serious analysis of issues and the lack of maturity in writing in The Spectator. Competition in newspapers is a valuable thing because it forces writers and editors to be vigilant in gathering and presenting information. The Spectator doesn't make an effort to be vigilant, however, and resorts to playground taunts and amateur cut-and-paste photo manipulations. The Spectator has massacred the concept of objectivity and fair debate of issues. Competition from a serious publication striving for the best in journalism would be healthy for The Gamecock, but The Spectator only does its best to offend, to mock, to disregard standards. The Spectator is, perhaps, aptly named, for like a belligerent spectator at a sporting event, it sits on the sidelines of campus life, shouting obscenities, throwing sharp bottles and doing nothing to help the progress of the game. Rnmh strikes home ? nation is still reeling after we have RYAN found out that a few of our own cit E\ WILSON izens are responsible for this act. Columnist In the past, we could always bomb N some area if they were responsible 3 for a terrorist act against the U.S. No one could have planned for What do we do now? The Unitan explosion in Oklahoma City that ed States gets vehement when our rocked the very foundations of this innocent children are needlessly society. The entire nation watched murdered, but now U.S. citizens as smoke poured and rubble fell are responsible ? how are we gofrom a federal building in an ob- ing to react? scure little midwest city; all the Considering this attack came while the nation wondered why. from a far-right faction of our own We saw the picture of the fire- society, we should see the general fighter with the bloodied baby in movement to the right that Rush his arm, later to learn that baby Limbaugh predicted so well stopdid not live. This and many other ping in its tracks. Sure, many peoimages have been seared into our pie are disenchanted with governminds for years to come. ment, but they are not willing to In the early hours after the ex- blow children up to prove a point plosion, the public, guided by the Even Newt Gingrich suggestmedia, speculated on who was re- ed that the federal agencies be sponsible. The first description of beefed up to keep events like this suspeds led us to believe that some from happening in the future. Arab faction was the culprit. (Sounds a lot like more government That first possibility, much like to me, how hout you, Newt?) Susan Smith saying a black man I can only hope those who comabducted her children, was wide- plain about the effectiveness of our ly believed to be true. The bomb- government are watching now. The ing brought back to mind the World speed and decisiveness at which Trade Center incident, in which an many agencies have reacted should Arab faction was held responsible, teach those "less government" peoso everyone accepted it to be the Ple the errors of their ways, case once again. 13111 not trying to trivialize the My generation has grown up event by making it a left/right iswith the idea that terrorism exists, sue>but many allegations have albut only in some faraway land. In ready been made saying the antithe span of a few years we have government rhetoric that has sathad two attacks on our own soil, urated our society is partly The first one we deemed okay be- responsible for this tragedy. I wish cause those responsible were not this wasn't the case, considered to be "one of us," what- W e have been thrown into a ever that means. new age- Let's only hope we land But Oklahoma is different Hie on our feet. "XSaflcocIt ill: Jim Green ? ? Art Director p^eC,? , Jimmy DeButts THefT. Harper Elizabeth Thomas Editor in Chief Ryan Wlbon Tina Morgan Adv Graduate Asst Chris Muldrow Sports Editors Asst. News Adv. Oraduate Asst Viewpoints Editor KlmTruetl James Ponce Kenee Gibson Carson Henderson Photo Editor Asst. Photo Marketing Director Radhlka Taiwanl Ethan Myenon Ben Pillow Christopher Wood Copy Desk Chiefs Ryan Sims Stephanie Sonnenfeld Asst. Advertising Erin Galloway Graphics Editors Asst.Features Manager Wendy Hudson Gregory Perez Larry Williams Erik Collins News Editors Design Editor Asst. Sports Faculty Advisor Susan Goodwin Jason Jeffen Keith Boudreau* racuity /vu visor Allison Williams Cartoonist Circulation Editor Features Editors Letters Policy The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the "D* Gamecock will try to print all letters receivet University of South Carolina and is published Tuesday Letters should be 200-250 words and must include fu through firiday during the fall and spring semesters, with name, professional title or year and major if a stnden the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Letters must be personally delivered by the author l Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the The Gamecock newsroom in Russell House room 333. editors or author and not those of the University of The Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters ft South Carolina. style, possible libel or space limitations. Names will ni be withheld under any circumstances. rhe Gamecock VIEWPfflN Quote Unquote "I hope there will be that an Everything I kno1 Ed. note- In respecting the writer's nationality, this column was spellchecked in the Queen's English of David Copperfield, Robertson Davies and W.H. Auden. Unlike Robert Fulghum, I needed more than kindergarten to learn everything I know. And even as the sun sets on my second degree this isn't a whole lot. But what I do know is that everything I know I had to learn at least twice. I know that: If you get the chance to kiss a girl, do it. I have seldom passed on kissing a girl and not looked back at that moment with a lingering element of regret for the what might have been. (Postscript: Having found the woman I plan to wed next spring, I ignore this advice and suggest that these words are only of interest to singles or people who feign commitment, i.e.' those who still buy condoms.) French women do not universally wear their black hair in bobs, but I have spent much time admiring those who do. (Of possible interest to those singles mentioned above). Life is too short to drink cheap beer....or cheap wine, or any alcoholic beverage that costs more than $4 a bottle. My favourites (that's o-u-r, not o-r)? Beer-Warsteiner, gin-Tanqueray, tequilaCuervo Gold, white wine-Gewurztraminer or a Vouvray, red wine-any Italian red over $15 that doesn't give me a hangover. Automobile manufacturers should be forbidden to make red or British racing green ragtops. Respectively these colours should be restricted to the Italians and the British. Apple rules no matter how much Microsoft coopts and bullies the computing world and makes their software look and feel like a Macintosh. A proper cup of tea is enjoyed hot. Contrary to what Rush Limbaugh thinks, not everyone wants to be an American. Despite the 14 months of winter, almost everybody else does seek to move to Canada because of our absurd largesse with welfare for people who have never heard of Gordie Howe or the Stanley Cup. Canadians are much more welcoming to newcomers once they learn to spell G-r-e-t-z-k-y. Snakes are the evil and twisted creation of somebody wired on bad acid. Life's greatest mystery isn't Easter Island or Stonehenge, it is trying to figure out why anyone would ever seriously consider living in Tasmania where every snake is poisonous. Year of Summerto Yet another semester has come and gone here at the good ol' University of South Carolina (pop. 26,000).It flew by me like a fly near a cow patty. This has been the first semester I've written for The Gamecock, and I'd like to thank Lee Clontz and Chris Muldrow for affording me the opportunitv to brine vou these thouehts each week. r I'd also like to thank the USC population for giving me such a warm reception (well, the ones who didn't use it for their bird cage anyway). As most of you faithful know, I usually write a lot about my hometown of Summerton (pop. ii 975), located in Clarendon County (pop. 27,035), situated in the Lowcountry of South Carolina (pop. 3.2 million). I have always been told to write about what I know, and I know more about Summerton than Hillary Clinton knows about cattle futures. I have tried not to talk about Summerton too much, but I know I have overdone it just a little. One fan of the column, a newcomer to USC this semester, told me she felt like she knew more about Clarendon County and Summerton than she did about Columbia, j. And yes, there are other Summertonians at " Carolina besides myself. io In fact, there is another one on the staff of The Gamecock, but she'll never freely admit it. * The others who aren't afraid to say they are from Summerton usually dread Thursdays be ITS Thursday, April 27, 1995 i /<^ s ' p p a lot of different kinds of basically intellectual acth i exciting and otherwise unavailable at the universi Karl Haider, USC anthropology professor on the Residential College iv I had to learn at NIGEL RAVENHILL i?" Columnist H k? ? ! ^ ? 1 If you really don't know what you want to do in life, go away for a while to a land where the * natives don't speak your language or at least raea speak it with a strange accent and a Big Mac is gagi called something as exotic as a "Royale With 0f tj Cheese." ^ Americans can't play ice hockey, and Canadians can't play basketball. This explains the last- t^10s ing detente between the two neighbours. ciab Classical music is tragically absent from the mai cultural interests of our contemporaries. Rather c than classical music i?the-classic sense which includes opera, symphonic,"string quartets and per' chamber ensembles, to most people under 30 clas- 'ots sical music is anything by Deep Purple or Eric I Clapton. What sorrow. No, I would never want to marry the heroine of a jn country ballad. , If you are seriously considering killing your- as self, spend the time to put on any CD by the Smiths or Morrisey. You'll be instantly relieved 1 to discover that there is someone far more dis- the tressed than yourself, and maybe your problems pag, can be conquered^ Think about it. ^ More doesn't necessarily mean better, it just means more. we^ It's acceptable to laugh aloud anytime a girl Scol says, "I don't normally do this, you know." Ap- for i propriate response: "And I'm very grateful that j you're making this moral and sexual distinction just form ft." cvo; After shaving my head last month, I realized that black people without hair just look cool, while life whites just look weird and psycho. uat< I will never understand why anyone would c want to boil a peanut other than for a joke. The intransigent right wing so ably repre- wer sented by some members of this editorial staff fr?r really needs a dose of the other side of the fence. Tha I wouldn't want to wish them ill, but what are jn a they going to do if their daughters marry across j racial lines or if their sons admits they're gay? People are just people, and you don't have to like in anybody of a different stripe. Maybe you might coc* I in (pop. 975) stories < DREW STEWART / cause they worry the rest of USC will think they cole are like me. I One such fellow Summertonian told me if he to C gets asked about barbecue, Rimini or that stu- I pid "Yankees Annex Myrtle Beach" column one stoc more time, he's going to run over me with his evei four-wheel-drive. I Many people have asked me, "Why don't you rea( write about politics?" listt Politics and my style of writing are like a bar- his becue dinner and a roller coaster ride: it ain't mir wise to mix them. Besides, Pat McNeill and Tom- I my Touchberry pretty well sum up what I'd say few if I wrote a political column anyway. ard I also frequently get asked, "Have you been torn other places besides Summerton?" (Then they ] usually try to state the population and get it ove] wrong.) ing Yes, of course, I have. What do you think I am, a tree? I have been to Manning and Sumter fa]j several times. You folks must think I have no 975 culture. jn ? I've had one or two people ask me "What would j I do to make USC ajittle more Southern?" ^ar 3 df Vhl) fcR ^rs. i" i \ MASS Transit./ | ~cf AHEMPRW, | 1 acfGEK MASK i \ lllDftPffaM J I j JIGNE HILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS hiladelphia ISA rities [in Preston] ty." ; least twice consider them simply as someone to whom wouldn't offer a beer and not as a scourge to corned and hated. One day when the energy our youth has diminished you may need the of one of those you marginalized, rhe best beer is actually that which is free, j never appreciated how much my parents " mt to me until Mom passed on to her next enement and I was left with the surviving half ) le parental units, my dad, a person whom I lire beyond the limits of my vocabulary. To ? ie who take their parents for granted, appre e their past sacrifice and the limited time rening that you have with them. Sunday mornings are made for the newspabagels and cheese and real orange juice with of pulp that sticks in your teeth. ^eople don't kill people and neither do guns, bullets kill people, and I don't see anywhere ie Second Amendment where it says that one the right to carry ammunition. So just ban ammunition. ' need the silence of snow falling at night and rustle of autumnal leaves to appreciate the sage ot time. Whenever I get the feeling that I can write I, I only have to look toward the oeuvre of F. it Fitzgerald, Shakespeare or Evelyn Waugh instant humility. Dying for one's country in some stupid irrelrit overseas war is just stupid, rhat there must be some legitimate role in for statistics. Although even after two gradi courses it continues to escape me. South Carolina would be a wonderful place e it not for the heat, the snakes crossing in it of a tee shot and an anamoly called grits, inks for the memories and the education both nd outside the classroom. [ look forward to returning to the Southeast he autumns of my graying years for Gamec football, sea breezes and par fives. Sheers. comes to close i'irst, I'd get a barbecue place in the Russell IQP uid I'm not talking about the heated pork you at Maurice's; I'm talking straight off the pit, ced for 10 hours over hot oak coals, based in jgar and pepper hog meat with liver hash, slaw, sweet potatoes and hushpuppies. would also like to bring some country bands !ockstock. f CPU would bring in Hank Williams Jr. Cock:k would probably enjoy its biggest success r. Anally, many folks ask me what do I call the iers of this column. Rush Limbaugh calls his eners "Dittoheads" and Mickey Mouse calls faithful "Mousketeers," so what should I call le? thought about it for a while, came up with a prototypes, and finally decided what you, the ent readers, can call yourselves: Summerally Enhanced. am really going to miss writing this column r the summer. I have looked forward to writit as much as a redneck looks forward to "Hee n." Don't you worry, though. I'll be back this with some more stuff from Summerton (pop. >) Maybe by then, someone will have a baby own and it'll be Summerton (pop. 976). Vlost of all, USC, have a Summertonally Eniced Summer.