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? iUTe Serving US fhrifl Hirnn Stephanie Sonnenfi Editor! Lucy Arnold, Achim Hunt, Bryan Johnsto Jennifer Stanle Bring cpm with Jack, It's one more rush. Make it through midterms, and everyone's outie here. Cram, run those copies, proof that paper, and then?sunfilled relief Ah, the blessed, blessed sacrament of Spring Break. Ifs as if the cities of Panama, Miami and New Orleans take on mythical roles. They become glittering destinations, always fun, always exciting, always filled: with promise of adventure. Don't forget alcohol. Spring Break is filled with the promise of alcohol. Alcohol, and illegal narcotics, are unfortunately the biggest part of the destination for many students.The bottles of Jack Daniels and Smirnoff will be packed more gingerly than the underwear and swimsuits. Such non-alcohol focused breaks, like Alternative Spring Break, are few and far between. While we commend those students who will actually accomplish more than a drunken stupor this break, these people are few and far between. \\t~u : l r J vv mie we may liuu mure redeeming qualities in Alternative Spring Break, that doesn't mean we want to see our Mow students Random ki leads to tin One day, a 63-year-old grandmother was plunking change into other people's expired parking meters in Cincinnati. Sylvia Stayton was performing a random act of kindness. The same day, Stayton was arrested for putting money in the meters, despite police officers warning her she was breaking a city ordinance. Stayton was arrested in October and was fined $500 Monday. She's got money to cover the debt?she received $350 from supporters. This is a sad story. Here's a lady doing something nice for other people and she's punished for it. Sure, she broke an ordinance. But, it's a ridiculous ordinance. In a world riddled with homicide, pedophilia and overall injustice, isn't it even more disgusting to see a woman doing something nice and getting in trouble for it? Of course, in a perfect world, stuff like this wouldn't happen. Everyone would love everyone, Student Media Russell House Chris Dixon News: 7, Editor in Chief Advertising: Stephanie FAX: 77 Sonnenfeld Viewpoints Editor Ac him Hunt I Karen Layne Bi7?* Jennifer Stanley Johnston News Editors Sports Editors * Lucy Arnold H * Hopkins n John Lyons Ben Pillow Features Editors C?Py Editors Nikki Thorpe Photo Editor The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the Univet Wednesday, and Friday during the Fail and Spring semesti | periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editc Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications Student Media is its patent organization. The Gamecock will try to print all letters receivt include full name, professional title or year and delivered by the author to The Gamecock newsnx reserves the right to edit all letter for style, possib withheld for any circumstance. >amccock C Since 1908 Editor in Chief eld, Viewpoints Editor n u ooara n, Karen Layne, John Lyons, Ben Muldrow, sy, Nikki Thorpe. mon sense Smirnoff get busted. Have fun. Just dont be stupid about it. Drinking's one thing. Drinking and then grabbing the steering wheel and taking the Jeep out onto the beach at 6 a.m. is quite another. That would be stupid. That's simply asking authorities to arrest you. Partying in a hotel room is fine. Cranking the Camels to unprecedented noise levels is not One may as well wave a flag out the window to notify police which room you're staying in. Drugs are just plain idiotic. Just because the drinking aee in New Orleans is 18 doesn't mean the mayor has sent you a personal invitation to walk down Bourbon Street lighting a bowl. Please people, we are in oollege. We have to have some sort of common sense to make it this far. Ifs not that hard to figure out Know the laws of the land you'll be in. One can always safely assume public intoxication, disorderly conduct and illegal narcotics are unacceptable. Have fun, but privately and quietly. Don't come back to school with a court date waiting. indness act ae in jail children in third world countries would eat a McDonald's fat-free value meal everyday, and we'd all receive jobs paying $80,000 per year on graduation day. Hmm. But that's not the real world. The real world is a place where people really hate each other, are hungry and are broke. Cold. Harsh. True. But, sometimes, human nature surprises us?such as in the case of Sylvia Stayton. Yet, the beauty of Stayton's act was marred by some obscure ordinance, probablv enacted for some inane reason. People are begging and pleading with each other to be nice. When they are, what happens? It's as if society has forgotten how to be nice?how to care from the heart, how to do something out of kindness. There's another option: let people go on hating each other. Lose more kids in freak drive-by shootings. Prompt more wars. Advocate hate. Be careful though, you might get arrested while doing it. use Colombia, SC 29208 17-7726 Adam Synder : 777-4249 Office Manager 7-6482 Jason JeffTers Cartoonist len Muldrow Melissa Sellers Graphics Editor Online Editor ikki la Rocque Laura Day Lsst. Viewpoints Creative Director eginna Green Erik Collins Asst. News Faculty Advisor Jessica Nash Marilyn AsstFeatures Edwards Taylor elf Nicholson Marketing Director Asst. Photo sity of South Carolina and is published on Monday, :rs, with the exception of university holidays and exams as or the author and not those of the University of South is the Publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of :d. Letters should be 200-250 words and must major if a student. Letters must be personally >m in Russell House room 333. The Gamecock le libel or space limitations. Names will not be V YIEWJ C SO... VjJ S V IOU CMMO n?t?**vn|NK #w?v?'v wmu She's a verj Joyce Compt Journalis Get the facts first, then I distort them as much as you | please.** This is the journalist's creed, according to Mark Twain. As any novice to the field would tell you, this is our focus; this is what we are about, destroying other people's reputations and careers. I don't think this the case. As the World's Biggest Cynic, it is situations like these that make my job so easy. Journalism,according to Singletonian philosophy number 30, is a double-edged sword that seems to cut us to pieces with every article or column. We are like meteorologists; they get blamed for the weather, no matter how beautiful it is. People are never satisfied with it; either it is too hot, too cold, or too windy. Our jobs are very similar. If we don't run articles describing the misdeeds of our leaders, we will be looked on as government agents performing an obvious cover-up. However, if we do run them, the conspiracy theorists look on us as headhunters who will sell our own families up the river because "the people have a right to know." All over the country, our field has been hit hard by certain unfortunate incidences over the past year which have License t I iifn nin'rlnr Tnm/4-nnrr ^UM^. vaw-iij, xuuviuiig. Inspirational. Caring. Precise. Political. I never knew it was possible to turn a license tag slogan into a political venture but David Beasley found a way. He took his 1994 gubernatorial campaign slogan, "Putting families first," and put it on state auto tags. After pressure from state representatives and the populous, he vetoed the proposal. Now citizens are encouraged to let their creative juices flow and think of ideas for the tag. I really don't see what the big deal is about a license tag slogan. The only time you notice tags is if you are out of the state and you see a car from your native land. Of course there is car tag bingo for those really long trips. And do */ 1 ' JOINTS ?6 THPCT NCIN N set? J OH 16AH. iri J A BeAoTY. >/ m It NTS (M THE EW|K?: mi vApeg pvNisHCS u f good player and j to rise to th on, Lady Gamecocks softball head V ts deal wil | SHAWN SINGLETON | nHSHl done wonders for our reputations. The sordid Richard Jewell affair in j Atlanta, the Primetime Live debacle ] involving Food lien and these consistently i awful tabloid news shows such Hard \ Copy and Inside Edition all contribute j to the public's view of us as a whole. < I cannot blame the masses for thinking the way they do about journalists i in these cases because they screwed up. i At the same time, I do not understand j how we could be called "liberal" by our more conservative brethren out there in j the peanut gallery. ( This goes back to what I wrote earlier about the world never being satisfied. ] Ifwe tried to say nothing but good things ( about the conservatives all the time, instead of printing the truth, then the i liberals would bitch. c Personally, I consider myself centrist i because even though I do blast conservatism on a consistent basis, I do 1 not support the Brady Anti-Weapons i Law nor do I support the President's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy, of which t my former branch still does not adhere j to. Please don't call me a "bleeding heart" i liberal because even they get a bit wacky t at times. Maybe it's those channeling t ag slogan: | ADAM SNYDER | ] you really tninK trie cope care what saymg is on your car as they are jotting down ( your number for speeding. But I guess my first two points are ; really why tags and slogans are so ( important. It is one small way a state can extend itself well beyond its borders. . To people in far-off states, a tag is the i only thing some may know about your i home state. Rus, they give awards far those things. Ironically, a tag which does not even ] sport the true Carolina wren, won an i award. And this year the palmetto tree looks more like a palm tree to avoid it looking like an atomic bomb exploding. Something that costs too much money r I 'ou expect very gi e occasion. I coach on Ail-American senior ' th more t crystals and the '60s anti-war music. Also, there is another contingent that feels that they have been vilified by the press. These are our fellow Southerners. With all the fun stuff that has been going on here, why shouldn't they be ridiculed? If anyone can find something positive in this part of the country that is beneficial to any and every group of people here, please inform me of it so I can stop this grievous injustice. I cannot truly speak for my fellow writers, so I speak solely for myself in this case. There are a great deal of bullies in our business, including myself. I write opinions based on what I have gone through in that 21-year struggle called life. However, just like a features writer, [ must have the facts before I write my )pinions or else they will not hold water. I have to study just as much nfbrmation as anyone else to write those :ool columns that the people love so nuch. Facts are an important part of our business, no matter how tasteless and lgly they are. Without them, we get into huge rouble and we will probably find ourselves obless. The truth isn't always pretty and if s id to us to make sure the Deople get the ruth, the whole truth, and nothing but he truth, with a catchy spin, of course. s aren't f to design (anything for a tag is too much) and is made by inmates can actually win an award amazes me. And the fact that metal and paint placed under a bumper and next to an exhaust pipe can be considered aesthetically pleasing. A slogan adds the final touch to the ambiance of the tag. And South Carolina deserves a great slogan. So, here are some of my suggestions. After today's release of these ideas, I may just pass them along to the "slogan committee tor their perusal. 1 encourage you to send in your ideas too. In response to the ongoing Confederate battle flag controversy, the state tag shouldn't be without Civil War slogans. Instead of North Carolina's "First in Flight," S.C. should adopt "First in Civil War" as the slogan. Or, following the lead of Texan's proclamation "Remember I WiPL. - I /A HA\//N<5 TO MAK6 10U& C.O-VJORVOEJ ? 4 ~~^1 I \' u> IS ood players Trinity Johnson linn fn n4-n nail lai/io Even though last week was not a good week for us, I hope the readers out there realize how hard our jobs are. The editors go through personal wars against themselves every day over what is printable and what is not. What do the people have a right to know about? What or who should be left alone? Our daily situation is a "damned if you do and damned if you don't." There will always be someone who will disagree with what we say or write. However, our right to speech must not be suppressed, according to Voltaire. In closing, I challenge our detractors to take a walk in our shoes for once to see just how hard it is to do what we do. I would also like to challenge my fellow writers to be more responsible with their stories to keep incidences like the aforementioned ones from happening again. Just because we are protected by the First Amendment does not give us a license to ignore the facts. As for me, I choose to live by the words of those great street philosophers, The Roots, by "never doing what they do," and writing in my own personal style. This keeps me out of too much trouUe. ree P.R. the Alamo," it should read "Remember Fort Sumter." "Holding on to Yesterday" would be catchy, but maybe the state should get right to the point with "Keep It Flying" blazing across the tag*s top. It could read "SRS: We Bring TwoHeaded Things to life." BMW has added i more than economic development to the state, so a "BMW Is Our International Culture" slogan would be in order. The High Country, Midlands and Low Country seem to never want to end their rivalries despite the benefits cooperation could bring. For this, the slogan should read "Three Regions, No Reason." All of these slogans. I believe, would be great for the state tag. But the best slogan would be a take off of Beastey^ "Putting Families First" slogan?"Beasley: Putting Me First." . 1