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Serving U, m._!. r\* uins lsixon, Stephanie Sonnenl Editor Lucy Arnold, Achim Hunt, Bryan Johnstc Jennifer Stanl I Despite ec Bates drai What does it take to make a strong community? The University's experiment with the idea of "community" was to renovate Preston, the allmale residential hall next to Woodrow on Greene Street, spend a good deal on qualityfurniture, a backbone connection, extra-curricular funding and to let women in. However, during the recent housing signing process, some USC students have shown their idea of "community" to lie elsewhere, away from Greene Street. With an out-of-the-way location, jokingly called "the other USC-Columbia campus," Bates hardly seems to be a place students would clamor for. But despite hall bathrooms, old furniture, stinking elevators and hallways, Bates has Prisons m for entert S.C. State Attorney General Charlie Condon said prisons should not be places of entertainment. He, like some other state lawmakers, think television shown in state prisons should be restricted to public television. Families of inmates disagree. They think this is one way officials to cut inmates off from the real world. According to an Associated Press article, a bill in the S.C. legislature would restrict prisoners to watching just public television. Currently, prisoners watch shows such as "Baywatch" and "Jeopardy." All oo c n ?; i rr.il ul . piiauno uavc televisions in day rooms, where the prisoners can watch television. Some prisoners even have their own TVs, according to the article. The article featured one lady whose husband had been imprisoned for 23 years. She said the prison system has taken so much from the prisoners already that they should have TV rights. She said being locked away in prison is punishment enough. That's where she's wrong. When did prison become a paradise? Essentially, prison is a place where people pay for Student Media Russell Hi Chris Dixon News: ' Editor in Chief Advertisin Stephanie FAX: 1 Sonnenfeld Viewpoints Editor Achim Hunt Karen Layne Bryan Jennifer Stanley News Editors Sports Editors p Lacy Arnold M"* Hopldni John Lyons B?11 P11,ow Features Editors Cop? Editors Nlkkl Thorpe , Photo Editor The Gamecock is the student newspaper of the Univi Wednesday, and Friday during the Fall and Spring seme; periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the edi Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communication! Student Media is its parent organization. The Gamecock will try to print all letters recei' include full name, professional title or year and delivered by the author to The Gamecock newsrt reserves the right to edit all letter for style, possi withheld for any circumstance. 5amecock SC Since 1908 Editor in Chief [eld, Viewpoints Editor lal Board >n, Karen Layne, John Lyons, Ben Muldrow, ey, Nikki Thorpe. tnditions, v?. students proven popular with students who call it a community. And they want to go back next years as sophomores. Maybe it has something to do with being co-ed. Maybe it actually has a lot to do with the nasty conditions often associated with Bates and the Towers. Perhaps Bates residents have bonded due to the adverse living conditions. Nothing like loving your neighbor when she has just finished killing yet another cockroach for you. Which goes to prove the old V U I I l-l ? a- 777-4249 Office Manager 77-6482 Jason Jeffers Cartoonist Ben Muldrow Melissa Sellers Graphics Editor Online Editor i Odd La Roeqne Laura Day Asst. Viewpoints Creative Director teglnna Green Erik Collins Asst. News Faculty Advisor Jessica Nash MarlKn Asst.Features Edwards Taylor lefff Nicholson Marketing Director Asst. Photo srsity of South Carolina and is published on Monday, ( iters, with the exception of university holidays and exams ton or the author and not those of the University of South i is the Publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of , i red. Letters should be 200-250 words and must I major if a student. Letters must be personally x>m in Russell House room 333. The Gamecock ble libel or space limitations. Names will not be 1I1CLA_L1.11 j UlUlACy UUil Wy yUU happiness." While applications to cozy Preston Residential College have lowered this year, the rather squalid conditions of Bates have enticed students to come back. Stranger things have happened. [it meant ainment their crimes, where they contemplate the laws they broke and try and prove their worth as citizens. Flipping channels all day and watrhintr Yasm#*?n Rlppf.h and David Haselhoff prance around on a beach isn't punishment. In fact, watching PBS isnt punishment?having no television at all is punishment. Prisoners should be working, not playing. They should be trying to better themselves and their community. People are in prison for a reason. They just don't arbitrarily , end up behind bars. They've broken laws and deviated so far from law-abiding society that they don't deserve to be pampered. Sure prisoners will no doubt complain about this bill if it passes. But they can complain all they want. At least they still get to watch television. Maybe watching "Sesamee Street" or "This Old House" can teach these prisoners something. Or maybe it will make them turn off the televisions and read a book or actually contemplate their actions. Or maybe it will prompt them to listen to National , Public Radio. vase USC Columbia, SC Til TTOA I Adam Svnder VIEWF j *ojlo gu tu juiuvycuua. wuat IIAC there are thousands of different 1 makes and models of cars. The thing < that people and cars have most in j :ommon is that we were both ] produced in some fashion and neither < 3f us have any idea how we got here, '< aor did either of us have any say so 1 in what type we would be. Just as some of us are white, and some of us are black, some cars are Fords and some are Chevys. Just Singleton's coli To the editor: I assume it was Shawn Singleton's intent to offend as many people as possible with his last column, "Singleton explains personal philosophy" (19 March 1997). His column included a number of inane sexist comments, such as the Rush Limbaughesque statement that "Feminism is a movement that was created so that unattractive women can gain a place in society." (Perhaps a lesson in history would be useful for Singleton; maybe he doesn't know how recently feminists fought for a place in society that included the ..Just u rEN6USH PATIENT JERRY MAGUIRE SHINE SECRETS & LIES FARGO ? 1997 The Gamt We know we're a took ? Kristi Arney, w Cars and p< was just thinking, you [ I can draw a lot of similarities between people and the cars that they drive. If you think about it, we have a lot in common. Just like some cars have 2 doors and some cars have 4 doors, some people are big, and some are small. Some cars roll away from the factory as elegant sports sedans, others a hatchback. I imagine that cars don't really have any control over what make and model they are. I wonder, if cars had souls, what they would say to each other as they were parked in a parking lot. I wonder if there would be some sort of hierarchy in the automobile kingdom? Certainly a Lexus would take precedence over a Subaru. Cars 1 are a lot like people, think about it. We both are born, require maintenance and fuel, grow old and ! sventually die. < Instead of going to cemeteries, < JOINTS Why is another excrucia The English Patient going tonight? You dc se this handy Ga 3-HOUR HlSTOb RUNNING TIME OR FACTYES VI NO N( NO NO NO NO NO VES jcock i better team than idvantage of the h< roman's golf coach on her team's ] eople really CRAIG PATTON I J ^mmmm BHSHli y a like some of us are scholars, and I some of us are athletes, some Fords I are Mustangs and some are i Aerostars. Pretend like our bodies are automobiles. r They are, if you think about it. r Pretend like our bodies are li automobiles, and our minds are v whatever type of electronics are on i: board. Just like on some cars you t have your basic electronics such as lights, turn signals, and d instrumentation. You also have a t vast array including fuel injection, t ABS, speed sensitive steering, cruise control, etc. t So, just like a car, each of us is r here with what we were given. Some t of us are Subarus, and some of us s are BMWs. Some of us got the sport fc trim package, while others got standard issue. Some of us came tl equipped with cruise control, some tl of us didn't. e So, now that I have you in the frame of mind that each of us is a o certain type of vehicle, let's play a fi game. The next person you see, c picture them as a car. All you know p of that person is what they look like, so make a mental classification as r to what type of car they are. tl Now, make a mental classification b as to what type of car you deem o yourself to be. Be honest with yourself 1< are you a Lexus, or a Subaru? Did I lmn unfairly ta right to vote, the right to own ] property, and the right to a decent 5 university education.) ] Singleton also stated, "The best j way to clear a swimming pool is to j go to the edge and yell, 'Greg i Louganis."' Does he imply that people i are that afraid of physical proximity 1 to gay men? Or is it the memory of ' the diver's Olympic accident to which 1 he refers, and the fear of HIV-positive i blood contaminating the water? Either < way, the joke is offensive. I cannot help but be reminded of ] the quite similar and equally reprehensible racist joke I heard as 1 a kid, which featured a racist ej^thet 1 ting/y dull movie like 'to win all the Oscars ? the math... imecock Oscar VCAL BRITISH BASED STARS ES LOTS > NO SOME LOTS ; no we showed here i >me-course advai ilay at the Lady Gamecock Cla I do mirror ou get the sporty suspension, or the m-board computing system? Are tju honestly content with your make ind model, or do you yearn to be a i'errarri? Or are you, in fact, a i'errarri and enjoy burning rubber n front of your lesser counterparts? Do you arrogantly boast of your nake and model, or do you curse the nanufacturer for making you a emon, or are you genuinely content rith your vehicle? You can draw nteresting parallels between the >ehavior of cars and of humans. Watch the next person you see Irive (walk) by and compare them o a car. Some people are all about he chassis they were given. Its like a souped-up hot rod with inted windows. It may have a fresh tew paint job, shiny rims, and gold rim all around it, but you just can't ee whatas inside of it. People try to le just like cars these days. Everybody wants everyone to hink they're a Lexus, so they fancy hemselves up with all manner of xtras. Just like you can pour all sorts f money into a car on things like ancy speakers, gold license plate hains, and big oversize spoilers, ieople can do the same. Some people are so intent on naking others think they are a Lexus, hey even make themselves think it iy injecting themselves with all sorts f performance enhancements that at them be a Lexus for a short time, low many people do you know who rgets feminist! "ather than Louganis's name. Perhaps Singleton thinks it's funny that he las turned a common racist joke into i homophobic or ADDS-phobic one. Anyone who has dealt with irrational societal fears about HIV, and anyone who grew up with fag-bashing slurs will probably not find it amusing. 1 ne tact tnat Louganis grew up witn both racist and homophobic taunts makes Singleton's reuse of the joke sven more troubling. Ironically, Greg Louganis will be here in Columbia next Friday (April 4th), speaking at a sold-out dinner for Common Threads, an AIDS benefit organization. All proceeds Guide! DISABLED/ DISFIGURED CHARACTERS YES NO YES NO NO Jason 3-97 md don't feel we titage. issic this weekend. each other s are really Subarus, but hit the highoctane in order to rank up there with Dale Earnhardt every weekend? I wonder what the world would be like if there were one car who ranked far above even the loftiest Lexus? This one vehicle would be the King of the Cars. It would know every other car inside and out, and no car, no matter how technologically r* dirnw n/%/1 nnrvi a mnni* auvaiitcu, tuuiu even eurnc ueai touching it. I wonder what that would do to the hierarchy of vehicles, as it were. If there were one all-knowing, superior vehicle on the road today, would there be any difference between a Lexus and a Subaru, when it comes down to it? Wouldn't all the other cars in the parking lot put down their petty grievances and foolish pride out of respect to this 'God of Cars.' I wonder, if this God of cars went away for a little while, what would happen. Would all of the cars go back to their old behavior? Perhaps even go so far as to deny the existence of the Supreme Being? Would the cars go back to their fancy tires, and applaud their superior instrumentation. I wonder what the King of Cars would say when the time came for him to roll back into town? It kind of makes you wander about our own behavior. If there were a King of Men, what would he say about each of us when he rolls back into town? 5, homosexuals from the ticket sales will go to help people living with HIV in our state. In light of Singleton's display of intolerance and prejudice, it is worth remembering that some people use their lives and their talents to help others. Maybe in the future, Gamecock columnists should be required to reread the Carolina Creed, which states, "I will discourage bigotry," and "I will demonstrate concern for others." Ed Madden, Assistant Professor of English l I