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Wednesday, April 10,1996 "(Bent Serving I Wendy Hudsc Tina Morgan, Edito Chris Dixon, Martha Hotop, Karen Layn Ryan Sims, Stephanie Sonnenfeld, Cece O P I Line-item vel president wit Being the United Gflrn States President has just HUaw become a much bigger Line-\ responsibility. _____ Now, instead of just EQQ| balancing the budget (well, Line-ite, maybe balancing the the { budget), keeping foreign unpn relations positive and leading the American public, the president can line-item veto any portion of a bill presented to him. This could either aiujpiiiy ui iiimvc uicm a utue more harried. On the positive side of the spectrum, the president now has more of an opportunity to truly lead the country instead of playing partisan politics every time a bill crosses his desk. Now, instead of debating silly portions of bills (you should see some of the stuff those Washington people like to add on) the President can cut to the chase and just get the goods. The flip side, and potential hazard, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR X *1 1 1 Lioerai attaci without facts In his recent letter to The Gamecock, Vernon C. Davenporl proclaimed, "Let us reject this atteanpl by the architects of hate to demonize a man for his beliefs." There are plenty of reasons to rail againsi commentator and former columnisl Pat Buchanan, but unlike others who have submitted "to their hasei impulses," I have based my verdic! on a most enlightened ideal: reason I despise Buchanan simply because he does not have his facts straight I turn now to immigration. The harsh reforms that Buchanar advocates, especially tighter Mexicar border security, offer no cures foi American joblessness. Immigrants provide a boon tc business by serving in a low-wage work force, working in jobs thai citizens refuse and raising consume] demand. California's Proposition 187 haf sent Mexican business running, anc another state has learned well froir Governor Pete Wilson's gaffe. Fellow Republican Texas Governor George W. Bush has said, "ImmigrantKoakinrr 1 a Karl Karl Tnvno ' uaoimig xvx A CAQO. According to the mayor of Houston "In the modern city, how well we capitalize on our diversity is hov well we'll come out." Such attitudes have quite literal!} paid off. According to Victoi Prudencio, director of trade promotior for a Mexico City chamber o: commerce, executives there "don'1 want to do business with California They prefer to do business with the Texas people." The returns on such trade relations are obvious: Texas provides some 47 percent of Mexico's imports, compared with California's 15 percent. Texas is adding more jobs than any other state since 1990 and its consumer confidence levels are at their highest since April 1985 Real statistics, however, are nol mmpplling to Buchanan supporters Along with most of the public, the} are pitifully misinformed on the topie o immigration. A Time poll found when Americans were asked how "ISafficocft k Student Media Russell House-USO Wendy Hudson Robbie Meek Editor in Chief Matt Pruitt Tina Morgan Sports Editors Viewpoints Editor Allison Martha Hotop Williams Cece von Kolnitz Special Projects News Editors Karen Layne Chris Dixon Deanna Stephanie McLendon Sonnenfeld DCopyJsk Ryan Sims cuuor Online Editor Ethan Myerson Graphics Editor The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the University of South Carolina and is published Tuesday through Friday 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 ol South Carolina The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department ol Student Media is its parent organization. track use Since 1908 in, Editor in Chief Viewpoints Editor rial Board e, Robbie Meek, Tyson Pettigrew, Matt Pruitt von Kolnitz, Robert Walton, Allison Williams N I O N n provides h great power mbh is that you need a wellImAmH educated and wellftern veto informed president to mnlrn 1nm/1 aT olnoV* ____ nicuvc bUJGOG xvun i ui oiaoii2MUJI where-you-will decisions. m veto gives Otherwise, every bill gets 7resident sen^ back to where it icedented started from after a reinwpr vote from our trusty little ? 1 Legislature. Is it constitutional to give one person so much power? Some groups say no and have already filed to have the matter studied and brought up in a court of law. Others claim it is the natural progression from the line-item veto priveleges granted to our state governors. Whatever the courts decide, no one can argue that the idea of granting one person so much power is controversial. The line-item veto privelege has been attempted over 200 times since the presidency 01 Ulysses S. Grant. c unwarranted , figures i most immigrants enter the country, t 64 percent answered "illegally" and t 24 percent answered "legally." ; However, Immigration and i Naturalization Service data shows t eight of 11 or about 73 percent, of t immigrants enter legally. Mexicans 5 are the highest percentage of illegal immigrants, but they only represent t 30 percent of the entire group. The fancied wall between the U.S. and ; Mexico is already beginning to crumble. ; American perceptions of i immigrant work habits are also full l of holes. Undocumented immigrants : participate in the work force at a higher rate than the general ) population. Yet June 1993 Gallup s Poll data showed 59 percent of us t agree with the statement that "many immigrants wind up on welfare and raise taxes for Americans." 5 According to U.S. News and I World Report, seven out of 10 l Americans favor paying for welfare r reform by denying assistance to legal i immigrants for at least five years. - Last year, however, immigrants ' made up a mere 5 percent of all , families benefiting from federal i welfare checks and food stamps. A-!., n x .Til J J ' uniy z percent 01 tne ueinumzeu Mexicans receive such governmental r aid. Davenport accuses liberals of 1 blaming "everything they dislike f and don't understand" on Buchanan, t but this is hardly the case. A comment meant for a Gamecock i writer fits Buchanan eerily well: i "Such hatemongering as this 5 columnist and his ilk do is the product 3 of fear and ignorance." 3 Prayer, as Davenport suggests, ; is hardly suited for me and others , on the left who are not submitting s to the impulse to bash and complain. It is needed more by those who t blindly subscribe to Buchanan's xenophobia. T I Jennv Malizia r Political Science, Freshman ws: 777-7726 vertising: 777-4249 X: 777-6482 Chris Carroi, Columbia, SC 29208 DuecIor of S"*'6'" Media Laura Day Tyson Pettigrew Creative Director Robert Walton Jeff A. Breaux Photo Editors Ait Director Adam Snyder Sue McDonald Jennifer Stanley Jim Speelmon Asst. News Graduate Assistants Jennifer Hansen Marilyn Edwards Dipka Bhambhani Taylor Asst. Features Marketing Director ? Achim Hunt Erik Collins Asst. Sports Facu,ty Advisor Keith Boudreaux Jason Jeffere Circulation Editor Cartoonist Letters Policy The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be 200-250 words and must include full name, professional title or year and major if a student. Letters must be personally delivered by the author to The Gamecock newsroom in Russell House room 321. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters for style, possible libel or space limitations. Names will not be withheld1 under any circumstances. NftA Loeetnrs WHATS TV ( M TAKf V?1"* ? \ WAS A H ffi w. QUOTE. UNQUOTE "The line-item vetc Golden Spur, j I wrote a very thougthful editorial w about how we should ignore Clinton's bo lying and cheating because character m doesn't matter in a leader. Alas, this h friggin' computer erased it. Until we co: find said column, I will answer my mail of one more time. ca Q: What is the Golden Spur? They is got beer there? A: The Golden Spur, next door to ad the Russell House Pizza Hut, hosts a isi variety of programs, including debates ca on racism, lectures on foreign cultures, in and performances by third-rate it'i /tAmn/liQno onrl mnolniono Tr* nfV\nr vuiiiuuiuuo axxu luuoivxuuo. xxi v/biivi words, it features many of the things th that make alcohol necessary. Ironically, only non-alcoholic beer of is served. That wasn't always the case, lit In the old days, when we had a good itfootball team, beer was served on th campus. But our academic reputation T1 was very low. The Board of Trustees on (Mungoloids) needed an excuse for our poor standing, and alcohol was the best Oi scapegoat. Since the ban on campus go drinking, USCs academic standing has m soared, and our MIBS boasting has w< become as obnoxious as Christians m bragging about what they gave up for jol Lent. ty There may be grounds for ending w< the campus prohibition. If the If administration actually looked at the I causes of poor school performance, they so might see the real reasons are lei nnderfimdprl dpnartmmts arsH mdiflfenant. be faculty. 1? Secondly, many of the top u? universities up North sell beer in the th student union. Villanova has a wet Pc campus, but they are almost considered m Ivy League, and their basketball team M went to the NCAAs. to A third reason is that as long as alcohol is banned, there will be militant ta RAs who get off by writing people up. it Lilting the ban will also allow us to stop judging an RA as cool just because they Ja ignore drinking (and everything else bi on the floor). dr Perhaps these reasons are too vague tr or unproven. The school is only concerned C< LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Gender equity This letter is written to express thi appreciation for the content of your is April 2 article, "Students celebrate religious traditions." I picked up the yo paper while taking a lunch break from a j research at the law library, and was ini pleased to find that the editors of your do paper had done their homework well ar with regard to the basic facts of the CI Christian faith, i.e. the death and mi resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is be amazing how many persons in our mi general population (including, iinfnrt.iinnt.plv nur rnllpcrp nnnnlnt.innl ini rvr??vw?, ? no longer know these basics, let along of believe them! yo I find it interesting, as a 57-year- I s old father of eight, all but one of whom esi have carried the faith that was taught ac them in their youth into their adult life E1 and are now actively teaching the same an to THEIR children, that the only two na persons whom you interviewed for your t e article were both female, leaving at least Te Gamec Keeping you ii never 6-we tg pfto^Le^? THAI AU6HTT** TO VAJort OCC Success! ^/^i S ^ j / but ? ^*3 ("TftKg v ^7 \ TO wol V. Pj \A w CC; i is working at the state le John Cavanaugh, assistant profes aywalkers ba ith the I MATT I t ttom line: | HANLEY | L oney. It a s n ' t mpletely left the profitable business ^ vices. That's why it sells cancerusing cigarettes in Gibbes Court and ^ always having lotteries. This last reason will appeal to the ^ Iministation's love of money: Beer i l't a clear liquid. If beer were sold on \ mpus, there would be a huge decrease c people stealing Sprite by pretending g s water. t Q: I heard they were gonna raise e minimum wage. What's up? A As part of the Democrat's platform doing things that appear to help the tie people who need the help of know all politicians, Clinton wants to raise e minimum wage to $5.15 an hour, v le logic is that a person cannot live t $4.25 an hour. t These wizards may have a point. ar incomes are way too low. If we're ^ mna raise the minimum wage, let's ake it $100 an hour. Economists c )uld say such a minimum wage would 6 ake people content working in menial * ds, and they would lose Michale Eisner- i pe motivation. That's just fine?we 3uld be spared a 101st re-release of i II Dalmations. ? economists would also aigue (rightfully ? ) that a $100 minimum wage would ad to massive unemployment. Even ^ stter. Americans don't have enough [sure time. Unemployment will allow ? t to learn a new instrument. Clyde, c e Harden Street guitarist, is very >pular with passers-by. He always \ akes enough money to buy a Value eal, and on weekends he often gets Super Size it. Q: I noticed USC has the most lented jaywalkers. They seem to time just perfectly. How do they do it? A: Columbia is a haven for ywalking because the cops are too lsy protecting us from underage inking to notice people walking through affic. Another reason is, although jlumbia ranks third in the country in needed in rel: e impression that the Christian Gospel c unworthy of real masculine interest. 1 T\~ aunt. V x in 1 caouiiauiy ouic suui waa nut i ur intention, but as one who has done s *reat deal of research in earlier years to such subjects as textual criticism, 1 >cument authenticity, and Biblical e cheology, I am prepare to say the t iristian Gospel can withstand the t ost scholarly scrutiny to which it can c subjected and is thus well worthy of c asculine adherents. J Allow me to observe the quite S teresting (and quite unavoidable) mix f Christian and Jewish Holy Days in t ur reporting. To the accurate student, s submit they MUST be seen as t sentially the SAME EVENT, or more t curately, the same SERIES OF t /ENTS. Jesus himself was a Jew, id his passion, both in the four gospel irratives as well as in the apostolic aching that follows in the New sstament, is seen to be the suffering :ock Viewp< tiformec? about what ot 9$ - *v . * PAV " ) IT WAS. N. PUH'T THf*K \ / AnO A Li Xi 14 I - v y rv w ^ i v ivc PAY" J X* )OP iPfA. <v \ vel, and they want to try it ii isor of political science at USC ffle students ( raffic lights per capita, there are some y arge stretches of two blocks without ? ven a blinking light. A solution may be to install a traffic I ight at Bull and Blossom streets, where X nuch of the illegal activity occurs. As , n ?.. . I or timing it just penectiy, it is no letter a mode of street crossing than it s a form of birth control. Eventually, uu will be either knocked up or knocked b lown. I hope it won't take a precious o (orority girl getting run over on her way * o the Stairmaster to make the city get 0 id of that stupid median and put up a * raffic light. Q: My teachers are passing out those p (valuation forms. Should I properly e (valuate them, or just circle the Cs like a vhen I take a test? a A: Teachers are just kidding when b hey say they don't look at the v valuations until after grades are posted ^ Vhat you write about the prof does iffect your grade. As soon as the valuations are stuffed into that envelope, g he Smithers-like teacher's assistant c ushes to his boss's office with the scoop. a Even though you don't sign your lame, the evaluations are not d monymous. Teachers get around the v inonymous rule by asking questions a iuch as "What grade did you expect? 1: iVhat color hair do you have (if you wear ^ i hat, name school or team)? What row c lid you sit in?" s You should still be as honest as s jossible. If you lay it on them really v jood, they may call for your suspension rom school. - 0 Q: Do you make up all these a juestions? A:'Yes, but thafs not to say C hese aren't important issues that real c Deople are talking about. Itfs no different ? ban the Gamecock using actors in its ^ JSC Voices just because our students p iren't photogenic. Fortunately, this a :olumn, like USC Voices, will soon go r jye-bye. t e F ii igious issues a ?f The Perfect Jewish Passover Lamb. ^ [hey are not different events in their listorical happening, but rather the ^ lame. I would add one final thought. It las been my experience, having been r( i true follower of organized religion for hree decades and now otherwise, that * rue devotion to the God and Father of lur Lord Jesus Christ need not be ( onfined to the organizational structure. I Space defies elaboration, but there are STEADILY INCREASING numbers of oik who have felt the confinement of he organization to be unreasonably ind unspiritually restrictive, and have hus been compelled, in order to be true o their inner quest for greater reality, o abandon it. David E. Gregory, Sr. Self-employed Businessman in Legal Research :>ints hers think I I 5_ V it Washington." Columbia: V Capital 5lace to Be chrS 1 Every time I salmon turn around 1 CPP it T trv tn avert my eyes, ut the attempt is always in vain. It ammands my attention no matter where direct my gaze?kind of like a wreck n the side of the interstate. I don't rant to look, but I just can't seem to telp it. It is painted on trucks, posted on oles, schedules and just plain verywhere. My attempts to ignore it re bordering on obsession. It has become n integral part of my world?a living, reathing, all-consuming entity that rill not be denied. I am, of course, peaking of Columbia's motto: A Capital 'lace To Be. In the past two years, I have been . hrough many towns, ranging in size rom burg to major metropolis, and I ji x i -i J? ji _i r an say witnout nesiianon mat, as iar s mottos go, Columbia's sucks. Actually, 'sucks' doesn't begin to [escribe how bad our motto is. It is, rithout question, the worst excuse for . pun I have ever heard, much less seen a print. I've had great-uncles on my aethers side that tell better jokes. What lugs me the most is it's probably opyrighted, and therefore, its possible omeone was even paid to take eight econds out of the day to think of it and /rite it down. However, never being one to dwell n the negative, I am beginning to sense in opportunity here. I figure Columbia's urrent motto won by default. If I could ome up with a better one, maybe they'd ;ive me a little something. Fd settle for ifty bucks, or maybe even blanket mmunity from any previous and future >arking fines. Hell, I am a poor student ifter all. I'm not above prostituting nyself if itH feed me for another week. To that end, I've taken some time o contribute a piece of myself in an iffort to make Columbia a little better ilace to live. I admit it's not much, but fsthe veiy least I could do for my newly idopted city. Therefore, I submit, far your approval, he following possible slogans. Choose visely. Columbia: Where small town and big ity collide in 3 holocaust of twisted J ?u 1 iicuu aiiu uyiiig smapuci. Columbia; Come for the university, stay >ecause we impounded your car. Columbia: Who are we kidding? Columbia: Strom Thurmand's own >ersonal medieval fiefdom. Columbia: A conservative stronghold. Columbia: For the love of God, don't itop! Columbia: Our governor is a Bible humper and proud of it. Columbia: Honk if you love the 700 :iub. Columbia: ItH suck you in, and it will ipit you out. Columbia: Be afraid; be very afraid. Columbia: Parking tickets are our >usiness, and business is good. ]!olumbia: Home of Five Points?a good )lace to tie one on. Columbia: Run far, run fast. Columbia: Our homeless are nonhreatening.