The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 09, 1997, Page 3, Image 3
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i'Mtd
Serving US
Chris Dixon,
Stephanie Sonnenf
Editor!
Lucy Arnold, Achim Hunt,
p- Ben Muldrow, Jennife
Thomas Cot
^ signal need
Whatfs the purpose of a college
library?
It might, be considered the soul
of the university, housing all that
encompasses knowledge, including
books, historic documents and
periodicals.
Or it might be the perfect place
m. for students to do research and
" study.
In short, the library has the
image of being a quiet, reserved
center that promotes learning.
This is true at USC. The
Thomas Cooper Library is
recognized nationally and ranked
among the top college libraries
in America.
in adcnnan to inomas uoopers
national ranking, the library is
also known across campus for the
^ many thefts and sexual assaults
plaguing it.
The reports of flashers in
Thomas Cooper have appeared
in Gamecock crime reports too
regularly, as have the reports of
stolen bookbags and purses.
It seems that it's safer to be
out on the streets at midnight in
a bad part of town than to be in
j) the Thomas Cooper library.
Teachers ne<
to fight drug;
r
The war on drugs has been
around long enough for our
generation to remember the "Just
Say No" and "DARE." programs
of elementary school. It has been
drilled into our heads that
marijuana, LSD, crack, cocaine
} and heroin are evil agents
destroying minds and lives.
We have had former drug
abusers come into our middle
schools and tearfully tell us how
their lives were affected by drugs.
We have had police officers stand
at the front of the cafeteria and
warn our young minds about the
legal repercussions of drug use.
^ So by the time the stuff was
finally offered to us, some of us
said "no" right, off the bat Others,
however, said "ves."
By the time a person is in high
school, the material has either
been grounded in or it hasn't.
When drugs are offered, who will
say yes and who will say no were
long ago determined. High school
is not the time to educate
students. The early,
impressionable years are the
w time. High school is the time to
educate someone else?teachers.
Several teachers at Richland
Northwest High school failed to
report a student who had been
smoking marijuana. They said
^ Student Media Russell House
Chris Dixon News: 7'
Editor in Chief Advertising;
Stephanie FAX: 77
Sonnenfeld
Viewpoints Editor Achim Hunt I
Karen Layne Bryan
Jennifer Stanley Johnston N
News Editors Sports Editors '
Lucy Arnold Mark Hopkins
Features Editors Copy Desk Chief
IVikkl Thorpe
Photo Editor _
? J
The Gunecock 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 editr
Carolina.
The Board of Student Publications and Communications
Student Media is its parent organization.
The Gamecock will try to print all letters receive
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.
?
1
>amecock
C Since 1908
Editor in Chief
eld, Viewpoints Editor
tal Board
Bryan Johnston, Karen Layne,
r Stanley, Nikki Thorpe.
Mier crimes
for action
Students and faculty, as well
as library administrators, have
recognized the problems. They
roolhr mnWri't icmnw tHom /wiilrl
AVUJUJ wum>? V 10UV/&V UJlVJUi^ WUiU
' they?
No, they couldn't.
To combat the random
streakers running around in the
stacks and to deter theft, library
administrators have instituted
an awareness program, urging
students to report crimes as soon
as they happen.
They also have placed red
emergency phones on each floor
near the elevators where these
crimes can be reported.
Future plans include more
emergency telephone installation,
more surveillance cameras, more
security officers and panic buttons
which can be pressed in case of
an emergency.
It would be asking the
impossible to completely eradicate
crime from the library or the
campus.
But, with measures like those
instituted by library
administrators and support from
faculty and students, library crime
can be fought.
ed education
ps in schools
i
i
they did not realize the student
was doing something illegal, 1
because they did not know how <
marijuana smelled. If they had i
simply asked just about any high i
school student, they could have i
pointed out the smell. 1
Teachers spend large
quantities of time around youths, I
sometimes even more than i
parents do, certainly more than 1
police officers do. It is ridiculous
to expect them to help out in the
war on drugs if they do not have
the slightest clue as to what drugs
are?what they look like, smell
like when lit, or what the physical
results are. The ones who know
these things, the police, do not
come into contact with students
nearly as much as teachers.
If teachers had the knowledge
that police do, perhaps a more
vigorous fight against drugs would
exist in the high schools. Yes, it
is true teachers are not paid to
bust kids smoking down in the
bathroom; it is not one of the job
i i i
requirements m ineir teacning
contracts. However, teachers,
like their students, do come into
contact with drugs, and they need
to know what they are seeing or
smelling. Teachers need the
knowledge to be able to fight
drugs in their schools. t
{
(
H ,
USC Columbia, SC 29208
77-7726 Adam Snyder
: 7774249 ?fflce Manager
7-6482 Jason Jeffers ]
Cartoonist
Sen Muldrow Melissa Sellers .
Graphics Editor Online Editor
[kkl LaRocqne Marilyn 1
Lsst Viewpoints Edwards Taylor ]
eginna Green Marketing Director i
Asst News Erik Collins
Jessica Nash Faculty Advisor 1
AsstFeatures j
eff Nicholson
Asst Photo
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sity of South Carolina and is published on Monday,
as, with the exception of university holidays and exams 1
*s or the author and not those of the University of South '
is the Publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of ^
UUfliUiHH
i
id. 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
t
VIEW]
HALe-BOPP?
:HMF
fws IS WW
ON THE NEXT
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I ki
T T
Upcoming
B BB ooking back at all the
I years of my supposed
BBB1 education, I am
sometimes surprised that I am only
a few weeks away from graduating
from college.
I know its cliche, but it seems
Like only yesterday that I walked
through the doors of my first grade
class. My mother took a picture of
me as I was about to go in, and it
3hows a boy red-faced from crying,
scowling at his mother for sending
him to such an awful place.
First grade wasn't really that
had though because I chose to spend
my time misbehaving instead of
learning.
It got so bad that the teacher
had to start drawing a smiley face
an my hand at the end of each day
to let my mother know if I was good
ar not. If I was bad, I got a straight
face or a sad face.
Second grade was the absolute
worst grade of all. In kindergarten
and first grade, the teachers kind
af baby the students, but in second,
they treated us like marines at boot
Apathy: d
Earlier this semester, I
wrote a column about
how apathetic my fellow
African-Americans are
vhen it comes to voting.
Today, I will offer my sincerest
apologies (for I don't do this very
)ften) to these people for I can now
jee what all the apathy is all about.
Whether it be in the Statehouse
)r in the "friendly" confines of this
ampus, this state remains to wallow
n the murky depths of our sordid
Dast like pigs in a pool of slop.
Our lawmakers in Columbia
:reate bills outlawing affirmative
action yet pass bills to produce license
alates bearing the Confederate flag,
ifou wouldn't actually think these
people are looking out for our
nterests, are they?
I last heard the Sons of
Confederate Veterans was having
a public lynching with free fried
:hicken and watermelon, so why
lon't /all just come out and watch.
Of course, the forward-thinking
vorld would have been foolish to
aelieve that our esteemed governor,
David Beasley, was actually serious
vhen he talked about removing that
)ne symbol that shows us how racist
bis state is as a whole.
It had about as much hot air as
POINT!
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(just what
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now In my heart I
- Trinity Johnson, USC se
\ graduatic
| FRED LEACH |
camp. The teachers rarely smiled
and when they did, it was usually
because someone was getting their
recess privileges taken away.
One of the most valuable lessons
I learned from second grade was
that teachers do not like to be
corrected by students..
We were learning about
dinosaurs when the teacher
mispronounced Diplodocus, which
was the longest dinosaur.
I was an amateur paleontologist
back then, so I corrected her. I can
still remember the icy stare that she
shot me across the room as she
arrogantly said it again the wrong
way.
There was a bright spot in second
grade and that was a boy named
Preston. Preston was the class clown
who would entertain all of us with
his antics.
H e would leap across the desk
and yell, "Superman," landing on
the floor with a thud. It amazed me
that he never broke his back.
lefendable
SHAWN SINGLETON
anything said by Rush Limbaugl
or our esteemed president.
Do you honestly believe that thej
will pass the hate crimes bill here'
If anything, they'll probably makt
it legal to assault, kill, or destroy th<
property of anyone because of theu
race, color, creed, or religion.
I personally don't trust anything
said by David Beasley for he is e
redneck charlatan, a hillbilly fron
Society Hill, South Carolina.
This puppet for the Christiai
Coalition was, for years, a Democrat
Yet when he saw the rising tide o
conservatism and the Christiai
Wrong, he switched sides and became
a Republican.
Anytime Gov. Beasley gets i
. sudden attack of morality, horniness
or whatever, Ralph Reed pulls th<
strings to set him straight again
Wouldn't Benedict Arnold be so proui
of him?
Beasley says whatever it take;
to get himself elected, but then again
there is also this guy from Hope
Arkansas, who is just as bad.
Nevertheless, there is one
difference; I did vote for the mai
hum Arkansas for it was either hin
or a 70-something-year-old Republicar
-f
can strike anybody 01
nior, Ail-American softball player
in prompts ir
Preston got into a lot of fights Doo \
and this was a big event at my school. game
The whole second grade would gather on D,
to see his next victim. E
New students always fell prey granc
to Preston, who welcomed them to she \
their new school with a playground backs
pummeling. up al
Preston provided a few interesting wind
moments throughout the remainder A
of elementary school, but the visib!
remaining time I spent there was from
pretty boring. thinl
I was always wishing I could be close
somewhere else, that I could skip I
the teenage years and go right to Pooh
adulthood. my p
As the old saying goes, the grass prote
is always greener on the other side, a feel
Back then, college seemed an eternity 11
away, but now these four years have mom
flown by. You <
The grass that looked so green out v
back then is now looking like grass L
that has been trampled on by a herd unce
of buffaloes. unch
As I experience the doubts and inter
trepidation that accompanies the G
journey into the "real world," I fondly chapt
remember the days when the biggest of an
worry I had was whether Scooby good
and undersl
I from Kansas who was pushing the C
most conservative agenda since Barry Can
Goldwater, and that would have the 1
done wonders for civil rights. \
1 Extremism at the cost of liberty is in ol
one hell of a vice these days. flag
\ Dole himself has been a fence- rais
^ jumper for about 30 years now. civil
As a young senator in the 1960s, the !
' he was one of the few Republicans War
to openly support affirmative action, you,
r Now as an old senator running this
' for president in the 1990s, he is one J
of its many Republican opponents, befo
If there has ever been a place sms
i where apathy runs rampant, it's Coll
right here on this campus. Let's
However, I can't really blame the Was
i offenders for there have been times he's
that I myself have stopped caring. idkx
We attend classes at a university F
in which members of our student sug?
government try to cut funding for I
I the NAACP and the African- from
American Students Association, yet in n
j they allow things such as Old South spin
Weekend and the Homecoming King to "I
? and Queen elections to exist. and
There isn't any racial polarization The
here, is there? Mor
Why should we vote in Student /
s Government elections when stupid The
" idiots like these keep getting elected? ]
* Forget it, there will never be any and
j real change here in South Carolina, citiz
so why should we care?
f
00000 oo?
1
it.
leiiiuries
vould be pre-empted by a Cube
i on WGN. I had a huge crush
aphne back then,
very time I would leave my
Imother's house in Summerville,
vould make me a bed in the
seat of our LTD-HI would gaze
t the stars through the back
ow.
multitude of stars would be
le since we would be far away
the bright lights of the city. I
i that must have been pretty
to heaven here on Earth,
laid in the back seat with my
Bear by my side and knew that
tarents were in the front to
!ct me from any harm. It was
ling of total peace,
vish I would have savored those
ents, but time is not for saving,
can't put it away and take it
fhen you need it.
dfe is a great adventure full of
rtainties but treading into
arted lands is what makes life
esting.
raduation marks the end of (me
er in our lives but the beginning
other. I hope the next one is as
as the last.
tandable
Change is something that South
)lina has managed to elude over
last half-century.
Ve have a senator who has been
Bee for that entire period and a
in which the sole reason for its
ing in 1962 was to protest the
I rights movement and not for
LOO-year anniversary of the Civil
as any conservative tries to tell
but you aren't actually believing
bull, are you?
Jext time the flag bill comes up
re the General Assembly, some
irt-ass is going to read the
imbia phone book for 24 hours.
} bring in Strom Thurmond from
ihington to do the honors since
so experienced at this form of
inally, I would like to make some
jestions for the good of the state,
jet's change the state mottos
i Animis obisque parati (Prepared
lind and resources) and Dum
o spero (While 1 breathe, I hope)
^irst in STDs, Last in Education,"
"Nothing Can Be Finer Than
Smell of Nuclear Waste in the
ning."
Another good choice is, "Screw
State But Don't Touch Our Flag."
Sither way, it denotes how jaded
trashed the values of this state's
ens are.
M