Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TBafil Serving USi Stephanie Sonnenfe Chris Dixon, V Edttorii Martha Hotop, Achim Hun Jennifer Stanley, Lisa Noworatzk) MTV gets you interested in I Voter turnout in recent years has been close to patheticin MTV's Che America. On the campaign average, about a helpfi 50 percent of f J Americans J eligible to vote have participated in elections during each presidential election year. And the turnout is even less during non-presidential election years. This is downright pathetic, as many pteople across the country have realized. Because of this, there have been many efforts over the past few years to get more people registered to vote. One of these is the National Voter Kegistration Act ot 199d, the socalled Motor Voter Law, which has made it much more of a convenience for people to register than before. To help get young people to vote, there has been a movement called "Rock the Vote," which was formed some years ago. It uses popular musicians as mouthpieces to get people to vote by having a Rock the Vote booth at their concerts. As an extension of this drive to get young people involved, MTV has started its Choose or Lose campaign. Sexual orienta unfair, unacce The U.S. Senate's passage of the Defense of Marriage Act, Gays dese and its fedlure to rights, wi extend the moral iu, Employment frQm ^ f Non-Discrimination Act, sent the gay rights movement back 30 years. The Defense of Marriage Act, which passed by a vote of 85-14, defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman. The bill said states do not need to recognize same-sex marriages that took place in other states, and spouses in same-sex marriages | would not be able to receive any Social Security or veterans'benefits if same-sex marriages become legal. President Clinton said he would sign the Defense of Marriage Act, which is disappointing since he showed unprecedented support fnr fh/i (mv fYvmmimitv fllllinc tlw ~ ./ --73 *92 presidential campaign. Clinton is obviously playing politics. Instead TSaflfcock ^ Stephanie Cece von Sonnenfeld Kolnitz Editor io Chief Special Projects Chris Dixon Lisa Viewpoints Editor Noworatzky Martha Hotop Copy Desk Adam Snyder Robert Walton News Editors Photo Editor Jennifer Stanley Brian Rish features Editor Graphics Editor Achim Hunt Rob Gioielli Sports Editor Asst. Viewpoints The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the University of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and 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 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. Buck C Since 1908 ;ld, Editor inChief iewpoints Editor il Board t, Brian Rish, Adam Snyder, Cece von Kolnitz, Robert Walton M I O N ng people J.S. politics The MTV Choose or Lose bus, with >ose or Lose Tabitha Soren, is n provides travelling around il service country > wDeoDle trying to inform igpeople. people about the election, get them involved and register them to vote. The fact that MTV is covering the election is great, because tor many people, this is the only political information they get. There are many young people in this country, including many on this campus, who don't watch CNN, but do watch MTV. By keeping them informed and getting ? them involved, MTV is providing jj a good service for America and its Ld youth. But, MTV has not offered a completely unbiased viewpoint. Their coverage has leaned to the left. Which is fine if they admitted ~~ to being biased, but they purport to be actual journalists. Also, they _ really have a duty to be fair and unbiased, because they provide coverage for many people who don't get it anywhere else, and r? t.hpv knnw this Thus MTV has a duty in a sense to present all sides of the issue, and not show / bias in their reporting. * ition bias = iptable, unjust ha an . . ne hmh| of trying to win ge votes, Clinton should stick to ne me equal one side and th thmit /7*?i; either sunnnrt, int wf " r i t deements gay rights like ml overnment. ^in ^01 w not support *: them. T h e re, Employment Non-Discrimination re. Act failed to pass by one vote. The an bill would have extended current mi civil-rights laws to gays to protect Mi them from being fired from their jobs simply because of their sexual orientation. This blatant discrimination v would not be tolerated if it were ^ based on race, religion or gender, so it should not be tolerated when based on sexual orientation. We can't allow the government to dictate to us what is morally right. As Americans and consenting adults, we have the right to live our lives as J we please, without any ^ government-sanctioned discrimination. sh< he dei . ha] s: 777-7726 J}8 srtising: 777-1184 ha : 777-6482 Keith Boudr.au* ?WWBBffin Circulation Manager Chris Carroll atr Dipka Bhambhani Director of Studea Media hat Jessica Nash Laura Day Asst. Features Creative Director Bryan Johnston J.T. Wagenheim at Dwayne M Direclor OUl McLcmore Mark Hopkins Asst. Sports Graduate Assistant Nikki Thorpe Marilyn Edwards are Asst. Photo Taylor of l Jason JefTers Mattering Director Daniel Brown Erik Collins Cartoonists Faculty Advisor thi all he The Gamecock will try to print all letters received. Letters should be 200-25Q words and must include full name, professional title or year and major if a student. w? Letters must be personally delivered by the author to d The Gamecock newsroom in Russell House room 333. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit all letters for style, possible libel or spaoe limitations. Names will not W (1 be withheld under any circumstances. f 6> ^ j V 1^ WRONfr PlAC? "Through my [PALS a Stacy Race, (JSC student \ nternet services 1 Lucy Arnold I knows more about aliei know about sex really ji to me. ' f PV Vlflhv " T fViint r>m"ViQr>o I ~J> J- - fv*" H_H "Uh. Hey." inhibitions" just isn't goc "Have you ever seen Inhibitions are the bas JKL JWL that Star Trek Inhibitions are thei episode where Dr. bathrooms, clothing usher has sex with a parasite? That charge by the hour. I e always turns me on. How hout you, President Clinton fro by?" inhaled, and they k< Lucy has left the room. congressmen from moc I'm sorry, but there's my big problem the State of the U: th meeting people on the internet, Inhibitions keep your rticularly in chatrooms.Technology her size 23 bike shorl s allowed people with lots of brains imagine her without tl d not enough stuff to put in them a Games on the net a w and exciting opportunity to try and of irritation to me. Th t dates. games where these peop Now, I always like to try something talk to each other and 1 w, and when somebody told me about They are supposed e great chatrooms available on the kinds of things, anotl ernet, I was game. You can meet such meet spooky people. Tl teresting, intellectually-stimulating you start playing a gar ople in chatrooms, they said. Nobody a newbie. And everyboc irries about how you look, they said. "Oh, another stupid nev id, guileless, I believed. in some games, they ki] Well, there's something to be said for Sometimes they just r lying on looks to a certain extent. I name. Now, when yoi alize that my chatroom experiences with that, who is goinj i not all-encompassing, and that there to stop being a newbie ay be some very nice ones available. F11 tell you who. Los aybe. the game until they ge But being hit on by some nerd who make fun of newbies. )^omen don't deserv< Nikki La Rocque I sister is a fi&hter and 3 in. i Friends told her of ot HhUUmmSHHHI some might have taken, r came home one afternoon this of our family. She stay summer to find my baby sister There are some peo crvinff. She's not a babv. reallv. but from name-rflllincrj wl L sixteen. She's the youngest though, and wonder what my si d so will always be my "baby sissy." this man. She's pretty, i She is pretty and smart and playful, one against her. Did she i has close friends, and the phone is to work? Bend over a 1< r blessing and our curse. She is the hair back? She mu arest, most loyal person and had a something. She must t ppy, sheltered childhood. All three of She did not. Even did. Now, at sixteen, she has a worn skirts and not sh< ppy, melodramatic high school pouted and puckered, stence. So when I found her crying, engraved invitation to ssumed a boy had done something years her senior, to coi ocious, like stood her up, or a girlfriend He was an adult. S i said something untrue and unkind, childhood, learning to 1 Turns out she was sexually assaulted up. He was responsible f work. My mother told me that one and actions. It is i t of three women will be sexually responsibility to protec' aulted or raped in her lifetime. There help them safely learn : three sisters, and it happened to one Thi s guy serew ed is. taught my sister somel Her boss did what some will her that no matter how ;eringly call the "politically correct she has, someone can ng" and fired the male who thought spirit, take away her f pretty sixteen year old girls want to her that a brown belt in touched by unfamiliar men. However, can't protect you someti happened to be one of the more learned it for situation! >erienced staff members, and his loss But I hate him fo: s somewhat felt. taught her that has i So, of course, it was my sister's fault, impact. He taught hei lat at one time she did efficiently was African-American men' Idenlv nicked aDart bv her boss. Mv with snmpthinnr nnlvtn c uue IHW btlOWbYS fc To 6*6AK UP. >S] buddy, I've seen the process .of d nd it's extremely scary." vho volunteers with PALSS, Palmetto AIDS Life Support Serv useful, despite a lis than hell ever get rid of the natural frustrations tha jst doesn't appeal occur when you have no job, no life ani no friends, but plenty of time to sit arouw le concept of "no and play "Who Shot Woozer's Blank; d for some people. Mud?" is for our society. If you play games on the interne eason we have and would like to respond to these viciou and hotels that chaiges, don't tell me, be nice to a newbie nhibitions keep But, on the other hand, there ar m admitting he things I love about computers and the& jep Republican new-fangled ideas. The informatioi >ning him during superhighway gives you access to jus nionaddress. about anything (as long as you're 21). Aunt Margie in It's an exciting moment when yoi ;s (well, can you find a link to a web site about your favorit hem?). band' movie statf model/ cartoon charactei re another source You click on the link and wait... abou ere are all these twenty minutes for the enormous graphi le wander around, to load. But it's coming, until (ta-da! ry to find things, the computer serves you up a delectabl to be interactive error message: Sorry, your server hai ler great way to unexpectedly contracted a type A vira le thing is, when ... Take two aspirins, shut the piece o ne, they call you junk down, and start her up tomorrow ly you meet says, If by some miracle of coprocessor vbie." Sometimes, you do happen to land on a web site 11 you right there, don't consider your chickies hatched. aake fun of your The skill of navigation must still bi 1 have to put up learned. I'm rather like a dog whili y to play enough online? every single link catches m; ? attention, and before you can say "Clicl jers. So they play to return to the Galactic Squirrel: t good enough to Homepage," I'm headed off toward This helps them something else. This activity of gettini s blame when sexi tood her ground, and hurt you. My sister is now wary o her jobs, which young, black men. She, who is one of thi , but not the baby most fair-minded, unprejudiced girls ii ed. South Carolina, now gets apprehensivi pie (I will refrain if we're in a gas station late at night an( io will read this there is only one other person pumping ster did to entice gas, and this person happens to be mail ? :i I tii i i * so siruve nuniDer ana Diacn. by nis one action, tnis mai wear tight dothes changed my little sister's perspective o )t and brush her the world. That is most unfair, ist have done Idealists live in a world I wish I coul( tave asked for it. inhabit I believe in the idea that everyon< if my sister had should be able to do what they lawfully irts to work, had want without having to worry about th< did she hand an reactions of society. I believe in th< this man, some idealists' world, but I do not live there ne on to her? I realize that in order to function in this Ihe is just out of society, one can wish and hope and try >ecome a grown- to change things, but in the meantime or adult decisions must play by the rules in order to survive jvery adult's Yet, even then, this sometimes doesn'l t the younger, to work. My sister played by the "rules,1 how to survive, and the ending of the game changed foi up his role. He her. thing; he taught When a woman is sexually assaultec miirh hnrlflvmp nr ranorl nonnlo moVi not vv.wm^vnv *?A A |/VV^/IV A U011 tV UOIV TT HOt UIVj still crush her she do?" As a society, we care whethei ight. He taught or not she was drunk, or high, was i Twa Kwan Doe wearing provocative clothing, or hac mes, though you been flirting outrageously. We tend tc 3 like this. forget these things don't matter, r the lesson he Someone was violated. They did no! made the most ask for this invasion. Who can truthfull) to be scared of say they would willingly, verbally ash who offer to help someone to make them fearful, feel get you secluded degraded and wipe but the results o! MS THE eath, ices ggravations t lost in hyperspace is known as net-surfing, i Although you may be an innocent and ^ non-paying member of the online y community, net-surfing is a concept t invented by people like America Online, g who stand to make a lot of money if they ,i can manage to lose you in the tide. e But in the end, e-mail has got to be e the best idea since Pringles (once you n pop, the fuuuuun don't stop), t If s a real convenience to be able to talk to a professor instantly. And if you 11 have friends with e-mail, you can talk B to them too, whether they're at USC or ' Anchorage Tech. (If anybody got really excited when they saw the words ^ Anchorage Tech, you'd better calm down e because I made that up. However, I know s for a fact that there are schools in Alaska.) s But be careful. When you go in to ef mail someone, the computer asks you what name you call yourself. And since 3 you're writing to your boyfriend, you ? write in your cutesy little nickname, Cuddlepuppy. So you write a note to your Tiger, ^ and then decide to check on your biology i grade. You could get a note back that s reads, To Cuddlepuppy, you got a C. s Love, Professor X Technology is a tricky, g manipulative thing. Tally assaulted f past, positive experiences? This is what s happens when anyone is physically or i sexually violated. The physical ill3 treatment is the least of the problem. It * is the lasting, warped emotions and ? perceptions that are the most damaging. Although men do create a percentage of those sexually assaulted, the vast majority of sexual-assault victims are j women. As women, we must protect 1 ourselves. We should be able to walk J alone at night, after drinking and wearing ; that cute, little black skirt, without ; worrying about the man following us. We should be able to kiss a guy and j then say "no, stop" at any point in time r without wondering whether or not he , will decide to stop. We should, in the ideal world, but we can't in this one. To survive, use common sense. Don't walk home from Five Points alone. Keep tabs on how much you drink; don't get so blown you have zero control of rational | thoughts and actions. If you're going out alone with an unfamiliar guy, or into unfamiliar territory, P t people know where you'll be, when you expect to get ( back, etc. Use the APO escort service, 777-3825. t These precautions may seem r overzealous, but unfortunately there is ; a need for them. For help in dealing with I sexual assault or rape, one can call the f Rape Crisis Network at 771-7273.