Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Wednesday, February 21,1996 nsnfi Serving USCi Wendy Hudson, Editor in Chief ] Tina Morgan, Brent Seelij Editorial Chris Dixon, Martha Hotop, Karen Layne, R Ryan Sims, Stephanie Sonnenfeld, Cece von Candidates sh to keep camp: Promises, promises. We make them every year, but we rarely keep Promise them. pledges, Our New Year's ei resolutions have come ___ and gone. We're still smoking three packs a w .. day. We still cant fit into , those old Levi's. That old m friend still hates us. Our promt, GPA's aren't rising. m We blew it. Or did we just forget? No matter how hard we tiy, we just can't seem to avoid making and breaking those promises. The Christian tradition of Lent begins today, and signals, for some, more promises. Many Christians will swear off things that are impQrtant to them for 40 days in rememberance of the period Jesus spent in the wilderness. Promises and more promises. How can we ever hope to keep them all? As long as we expect great things from ourselves, and others expect Generation from econc As the battle over the I ry federal budget subsides | WIL! and talk of a flat tax gets | put on the back burner, one of the ephemeral issues of our society loomed its head, if for only a second, and very few Americans took notice. I am talking about a reality in our society that veiy few people are comfortable talking about; even more people would like to think it actually exists. I am talking about The Gap. Mo, this isn't going to De a column of praise over one of the national clothing chains or anything related to baseball. I am talking about the widening gap between the rich and the poor of this countiy. In recent years the Forbes and Perots of our society have come to the forefront of the political scene and in turn accentuated that the United States does have a ruling elite. Steve and Ross are both overrun with catch phrases in their attempt to say they are for the common man, but if you look closely at their suggested programs they have a considerable amount more to gain than the average Joe. I know most would argue that if the middle class will benefit from their programs then it shouldn't really matter how much the Perots and Forbes of our country benefit. This may be true, but I am willing to bet that the elite of our country have only one goal: to get more for themselves. 'Illifl urnei infa/1 in XIIID IUW4 new |A/I|^vuai?u Ul WIV '80s as large corporations got into the habit of swallowing the weaker ones in a feeding frenzy that the country is still reeling from. They called it consolidation, but I know a lot of people who lost jobs because of this consolidation. There was one motto of the '80s that highlights my argument: If you iBaHhod? ?? Student Media Russell House-USO C< Wendy Hudson Robbie Meek Editor in Chief Matt Pruitt Ryan Wilson Sports Editors Managing Editor Allison Tina Morgan Williams Brent Seeliger Special Projects Viewpoints Editors Ethan Myerson Martha Hotop Graphics Editor Cece von Koinitz Karen Layne News Editors Copy Desk Chief Chris Dixon Deanna Stephanie McLendon Sonne nfeld C?PY Delk Features Editors The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the University of South Carolina and is published Tuesday through Thursday during the fall and spring semesters, with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and not those of the University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is its parent organization. \ cnk iince 1908 Ryan Wilson, Managing Editor, ;er, Viewpoints Editors obbie Meek, Tyson Pettigrew, Matt Pruitt Kolnitz, Robert Walton, Allison Williams ION 1 ould resolve sign promises p*wal orpflt t.hinps from us. we O O ' will still have to make s, vows, them. , oaths, we promise c you we will only run _____ stories about Greek life and little puppies , whether you like it or not 10 - you will expect us to r do so. You wouldn't take ses we Ufl very serjously if we | lke didn't. Nobody is exempt, including Student Government candidates. Now, we know that the candidates won't be able to make most of their campaign platforms a reality, (and there's a lesson in that: don't make promises you can't keep!) but it would be nice to see an effort by SG to make good on some of their more attainable oaths. Action instead of broken vows. After all, if we don't get feel good . about oursleves when we can't keep \ our own promises, why should we } respect those that break theirs. ] t t will suffer ' ! >mic gap | AN I got it, flaunt it And flaunt >QN I it we did. America 1 I became a overly 1 materialistic and statusoriented society in which anyone would do anything to get that extra dollar. 1 Well thatfs the point of capitalism, right? To get ahead no matter what ( the cost. Well the bottom fell out as the '80s ended, and many Americans realized that they were not going to have the huge house with the threecar garage, and were soon going to 1 struggle just to get by. Out of this 1980s post-mortem came a fact that most experts took to heart: our generation will the be the first in American history that will not do as well economically as our parents did. Not a very pleasant thought, considering most of our parents have busted their asses just to put us through a fairly inexpensive university, and we haved learned to get by from paycheck to paycheck. The Gap is steadily increasing, and the time has come to put a check on the ruling elites; make no mistake, they are ruling elites. Thirty years ago the top 5 percent of Americans owned 40 percent of the nation's wealth. Numbers today indicate that the top 2 percent of Americans controls upward of 60 percent of the nation's wealth. Now tell me The ( Gap doesn't exist. 1 I am a middle class guy; I was } born one and I will die one. I am ] never going to be rich, but I will { never probably be poor either. Our society has prided itself in the idea r of the American Dream, the idea ( that everyone can make it rich in , our society, but there are not that \ many people who can live that dream. * Maybe that's why they call it a , are am. ] s: 777-7726 srtising: 777-4249 : 777-6482 chris CarroU olumbia, SC 29208 Di?*of<<studeiaM?iia Laura Day Tyson Pettigrew Creative Director Robert Wahon Jeff A. Breaux Photo Editors Alt Director Adam Snyder Sue McDonald Jennifer Stanley Jim Speelmon Asst. News Graduate Assistant Dipka Bhambhani Marilyn Edwards , Jennifer Hansen Taylor Asst. Features Marketing Director Adhim Hunt Erik Collins Asst. Sports Faculty Advisor Ryan Sims Jason Jeffers OoHne Editor Cartoonist I I Letters Policy Tbe Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be 200-230 words and must include full name, professional title or year and major if a student. Letters must be personally delivered by tbe author to Tbe Gamecock newsroom in Russell House room 333. Tbe Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters for style, possible libel or space limitations. Names will not be withheld under any circumstances. EEWF ZflHHHQQES ~\\\ (#%)! %mj PlN?0fK.-ni WOTE, UNQUOTE "You'd be burying your head of s< Rememberi When we talk about tradition (or as it is perceived in the South, Fradition), we demonstrate not fierce regional pride but a certain kind of rhetoric, which I will call Southern ralk. Southern Talk buries our whalebone corsets under piles of pungent magnolia blossoms and drowns the bodies of Dur used-up slave labor in gallons of 3weet tea. Southern Talk barely distinguishes a love of tradition from tendencies toward sentimentalism and hyperbole, resulting in the stereotype that the South has never seemed content to merely remember past epoches; we must relive them. Unfortunately, some people live by this rhetoric. Just ask the company that manufactures the military-style costumes for the Citadel. The scene many Southerners paint of lazy Sundays spent on columned porches, mint juleps all around and neighbors who smile and wave on their way to the meeting house is the sketchiest of stereotypes. Not every Southerner is religious. Not every Southerner is Christian. Not every Southerner takes five minutes to pronounce an expletive. In fact, the idealistic reminiscences of the South's great heritage typically reflect the male, white middle- to upperclass viewpoint. The antebellum South could have been a great place?if you had the money and freedom to spend your days hunting, riding and giving orders to your servants and relations. Who wouldn't want that to last forever? When people exalt the South, I imagine they are dreaming of Tara. When women defend the subordinate status of women in the name of Poor roads Some things are more obvious than )thers. I knew from my first week at LJSC that Columbia has the most jeautiful girls east of the Pacific Ocean. But only recently have I realized we ire living in the Third World. Fm not referring to South Carolina. PUifi IaitaKt aaiir*fynrcri/^fl milo 11110 staico iv/ycij wuiitij'siue aim t.uw/ :oastal towns are filled with hardworking buffet lovers. The analogy between poorly educated/low-income South Carolina and underdeveloped nations has been made before. But Fm not making it. It is Columbia, the former state capital, that has earned Third World status. The first thing that tipped me off was our sports scene. We have a realty good soccer team, but as in Brazil, attempts to field a football team have caused ugly failures. Stronger evidence of Columbia's plunge into the ranks of Albania and Rwanda is the enactment of martial law. Can you name our mayor or any elected official? Of course you can't; they all fled in Taiwanese fashion to Cayce with the rest of our city government. We live in a police state. Try walking longer than two minutes without spotting a FiveO. Five Points Thursday nights looks like Poland in the 1980s. Just as the Chinese military is allied with its source of power, the campus police support USC President John Palms. But, hey, we all do; he's a cool cat. But he's just a figurehead. USC's military is in cahoots with PINTS /vo, 60^T,e"!\ ( Voo cox**'* I \ ML of TH6T J \ CAAS ifoff, / \. WH7. y M ;f\r &e$\\ I in the sand to think this was not >x, we must give students options Tom Wall, United Methodist campus minister ng the South Southern AMY tradition, I HARRIS .p know they are P dreaming of j, Scarlett O'Hara, decked out in green ft ribbons: the uncontested prima donna d of Southern belles. I] What's the matter with this picture? s First, Scarlett's life was not all it was c cracked up to be. She never allowed 0 herself to actually be herself in front e of the men she felt compelled to sucker continually. Secondly?and more g importantly?Scarlett is imaginary. c So is the Old South grandeur with ^ which she is associated. The descendants of Southern slaves rarely whistle "Dixie." When contemporary issues such as the a Confederate flag controversy arise 0 regarding the preservation of the status ^ quo, African-Americans have no positive cinematic experiences to fall back on; a their stories are bleaker. What is S history, after all, but a story constructed c to recapture and make sense of what d has passed? Whoever said the winners 1 write the history books wasn't kidding, n My greatest criticism of Southern Talk than is that it mnstructs a skewed li history of tradition that isn't necessarily o authentic or good. o The flag issue, for instance, appears p to be a simple case. If the Statehouse h presumes to fly only flags of the p institutions it represents, then the Confederate flag, which represents a t government that no longer exists, has g no place there. If the flag is to be ^ displayed for commemorative purposes j only, it could fly over every building ? in the state except for government t buildings, which cannot show support j of a deftmct government. j signal Thirds the real I strongman, HANLEY a Gen. Board 0. Trustee. Any E Iranian could think up the idea not to y, honor Washington, Lincoln and King ^ on their birthdays and to search students' Q. bags, but it takes a strong system of j police, dorm security and library goons g to enforce it (In fairness, USC does not ^ discourage recognizing these holidays; it just thinks you should do it on your own time. When asked about the dissang oi King, a spoKesperson aaia, T,eieorate it a day early.") J1 But it is Columbia's roads that have it paved the way for entrance into the u Qadhafi Club. Our leaders have the t same if-it's-broke-don't-fix-it attitude c towards road repair that Marriott has b towards food service. Blossom Street c looks no different from any Haitian highway. Every road is an obstacle c course of parked cars, railroad crossings, s manholes, gorges and frighteningly c uneven pavement It makes one wonder T if the city road manager accepts c kickbacks from Goodyear. The answer is no. Although there are 15 tire dealers on Gervais Street alone, such collusion is implausible. No one in local government is smart or trusting enough to make such a deal. Then why are Columbia's roads so (expletive) inspiring? How could our leaders attempt to clean the sidewalk of its creative pan handlers while ignoring the streets' deterioration? I ) I 1 - , r llljs I ' an issue. With the issues n & that wasn't; 1 I Rather than settle this issue ] romptly, some citizens are spending 1 recious time and money dressing up 1 1 Confederate uniforms and trying )r the new filibuster record ?a wellocumented kind of Southern Talk. < n the meantime, the flag remains a lap in the face to African-American itizens, whose negative connotations 1 f the Confederacy are rightly stablished and grossly ignored. The flag was flown atop the itatehouse during the height of the ivil rights struggle, and Gov. Beasley efends its presence today as a tribute o our past. The argument for emembering the Confederacy ignores certain peculiar institution we cannot verlook. The vehemence and rigidity nth which the matter has been handled as less to do with the law than with hrill emotion. The flag's removal from ovemment buildings has little practical onsequence, Dut its presence is ietrimental to those whom it offends. Tie flag hinders progress toward a lore equitable, tolerant society. In short, talk is not cheap. Our anguage and the stories we tell mold ur perceptions of reality, heritage and ne another. Discourse has especial tower in a culture that reveres its tistory; that is, the narrative of our iast. Southern Talk, widely accepted as antamount to Southern culture, looks [ood on the silver screen but does not ell the multifaceted story of a region, f we do not tell our stories with care, hen we approach denial, idolatry of radition and anti-intellectualism? eaving us high and dry, as H. L. dencken put it, in the Bozart Desert. forld trend Like all of Columbia's problems, the nswer is simple, if not complicated. I tried getting an answer from the IMV. After filling out several forms, I ras transferred to an aging bureaucrat, rho told me the correct pronunciation f "route" (rhymes with "gout"). When asked about the road disrepair, he aid the city was actually well funded. Infortunately, that money is now in lew Jersey. It seems the superintendent )st it playing blaclgack in Atlantic City. The highway department is trying ard to make do with the limited funds ;has. This beltrtightening has brought is the newest road repair innovation, he "metal mattress." Maintenance rews have placed these plywood-sized lumps at select locations around the itv v To call our leaders hypocritical for leaning up Five Points but leaving the treets in chaos is as fair as calling a ollege student hypocritical for switching najors. They are doing the best they an. And things are looking good for Columbia. Free elections are planned or next fall. The many blackjack nachines in town should prepare our oad manager for next year's trip. In the meantime, if we're going to >e labeled Third World, we may as well lave fun with the part. Beep your horn instantly and accept as many free :ondoms as you can. 3^ Lent offers opportunity to reflect CARSON Today BUSH begins what is, mTTnTTtfnSl for many, the most meaningful leason of the Christian year: Lent. Starting today with Ash Wednesday, Christians across the world will reflect in the sacrifices they believe Christ made 'or them, beginning a spiritual journey hat will culminate with the triumph of faster. Ash Wednesday is a tradition that eaches back to the beginnings of the Christian church. The palm branches 'rom the previous year's Palm Sunday ire burnt, and during a service held jometime during the day, they are placed in the foreheads of believers in the sign if the cross. The use of ashes may seem lew to many congregations, but they lave a significant histoiy in both Jewish md Christian worship. The purpose of the day is dual. First, ve confront our own mortality, for while lie ashes are bang placed, the parishioner s told to "remember that you are ashes, ind to ashes you shall return." Second, we must confess our sins before God within the community of faith. This act af confession makes Ash Wednesday, in many ways, a Christian Day of Atonement. The tradition of the 40 days of Lent somes from the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness. Though there are really 46 days between Ash Wednesday and Easter, Sundays are not counted because they are feast days in the Christian tradition. One may notice that throughoutthe Lenten season the "Alleluia" is not used during church services. Sometimes called the "burial of the Alleluia," the use of the word is dropped in deference to the solemnity of the season. Most church music will be about the sacrifices Jesus made, asking "what wondrous love is this?" and the emotions that come forward ii/Lon irAii +VIA urnn^TYrtio rrnac 99 niicn ^ wu 0Ui Ttj ut? nwiivuwuo wujc. Just as Jesus went without bread those 40 days, and just as he gave up his life for us, we are called to sacrifice a part of our daily life. This sacrifice takes many forms, with each person determining what he or she will do without. Some give up meat, others only drink water. Many people give up the noon-time meal every Wednesday, donating the money that would have been spent on the food to a charity. What significance should Lent have for the believer? I had the opportunity to ask this to Father Raymond Brown, one of the world's most prominent New Testament scholars, when he was here last Lent. He answered that Lent is a time to reflect on your relationship with God and to recommit yourself to the vows that were taken at baptism. We should look at the many ways God has worked in our lives and come to have even stronger faith. The sacrifices of Lent are spiritual exercises and should be performed with great vigor. Whatever it is that one gives up for Lent, it should not be something that is easily missed. Another spiritual exercise of Lent is growing in the word of God. One should read the Scripture and attempt to grow closer to God in this manner. One of the most wonderful parts of Lent last year was having Brown speak at the inaugural Nadine Beacham and Charlton F. Hall Sr. Visiting Lectureship in New Testament and Early Christianity. His topic was the passion (trial and death) of Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. This year, the university is pleased to have the Rev. Dr. Moody Smith, the George Washington Ivey Professor of New Testament in the Divinity School of Duke University. On March 28, at 8 p.m., he will deliver his address, "The Passion According to Saint John." Smith's works in the field of New Testament studies are outstanding, and the university is quite fortunate to have him come. His greatest impact, however, will be on the faith of the believer, for he will be speaking only days before Passion Week will begin with Palm Sunday. Last year, Brown was able to move the audience, which filled the entire Russell House ballroom and more, with his message about Jesus' trial, suffering, and death. I am sure that when we leave Smith's address, we will be pondering the meaning of Jesus' death, and through his words, we will reach a deeper understanding of it. Lent is a serious part of the Christian year. Many churches will be having Ash Wednesday services today, and I urge all believers to take part in one of them. But let this be just the first step in the spiritual journey you will take this Lent. Sacrifice something, study the Scripture, and come hear Smith, and I assure you that Easter, with its hope of the Resurrection, will have much more meaning.