University of South Carolina Libraries
Quote, Unquote ‘I've never been [to jail], but I feel like it’s a good time to find out what it’s all about.’ Alberta Brown, protester of school expulsions in Decatur, III. •COCk Page 7 fflk (5gmccoch Editorial Board Sara Ladenheim • Editor in Chief Kenley Young • Managing Editor Emily Streyer • Viewpoints Editor Corey Ford • Assistant Viewpoints Editor Brad Walters • Editorial Contributor Kiki McCormick • Editorial Contributor Jackson's activism merely seeks press he Rev. Jesse Jackson, it would seem, has propelled himself into headlines in an effort to make up for an otherwise lackluster performance in the press as of late. Why else would he take up the cause of a gang of hood lums who started a fight at a school football game and were justly expelled for it? His insistence that the mandatory one year expulsion for the Sept. 17 incident was too harsh is ridiculous. Expulsion is the normal punishment for fighting at school functions. (Jackson might wish to consider that the normal punishment for fighting at most public events is ar rest.) Considering that the school board’s policy was in effect long before the brawl, Jackson’s point that the school board and the principal should reconsider is moot. Former hostage negotiatiors and presidential candidates normally retire to charitable causes; Jackson’s pathetic pining for limelight makes for rather poor social activisim. His former work urging young black males to act respon sibly seems rather undermined by his new message that peo ple who start fights and disrupt school functions shouldn’t be punished according to the rules. We agree with Jackson that the' issue isn’t about race; it’s about a politician desperately seeking attention. If Jackson has nothing better to do then harass Illinois principals and school boards for meting out standard pun ishment to unruly recipients of government funds, he should seriously consider a new line of work. Useless suggestions won't lift boycott Gov. Jim Hodges last week played “Let’s Make a Deal” in an effort to reach a compromise in the Confederate flag issue, but he lost badly. Last Wednesday, Hodges said the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People should suspend its tourism boy cott of South Carolina in return for his efforts to push for a state holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s good that Hodges is trying to compromise, but did he really think the NAACP would accept such a ridiculous attempt at find ing a middle ground? Actually, he didn’t. Hodges told The Associ ated Press that he “knew that both sides would reject what I sug gested.” If Hodges knew his proposal would be rejected, why bother proposing it? Because it’s a showing of good faith, he said. The time to show good faith has passed. Precious dollars are leaving the state by the day — at least 80 groups have canceled conventions and meetings in the state since the boycott was an nounced — and the NAACP has vowed to take further action with the onset of the new year. Instead of dillydallying with dead-end proposals, the governor should seek a compromise (our suggestion: take the damn thing down) and find it fast. About Us ItIMwIWw i; y j yjj j 'fssvStww&vKwsSfS'swoWffw 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 and nine times during the summer with the exception of university holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Gamecock are those of the editors or author and npt 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 the newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. Adoress Thk CUmecock The Gamecock Ladenheim Will Gillaspy 1400 Greene Street Editor in Chief Online Edita Columbia. SC 29208 Kente* Voting Corey Ford Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Student Media Area code 803 Viewpoints Editor Asst. News Editor Advertising 777-3888 Kevin Langston Ann Marie Miani Classified 777-1184 Brock Vergakis Asst. Etcetera Editor Fax 777-6482 NeMS Editors David Cloninger Office 777-3888 Clayton Kale Asst. Sports Editor Associate News Editor Greg Farley Gamecock Area code 803 Rachel Helwig Asst. Photo Editor Editor gcked8sc.edu 777-3914 Etcetera Editor Casey Williams News gcknewsasc.edu 777-7726 Todd Money Asst. Online Editor Viewpoints gckviews8sc.edu 777-7181 Jared Kelowitz Brad Walters Etc. gcketc8sc.edu 777-3913 Sports Editor Graphics Editor, Sports gcksports8sc.edu 777-7182 Kristin Freestate Copy Editor, Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Copy Desk Chief Editorial Contributor -_„_ Sean Rayford Mackenzie Craven DUDMMEffm rBJCT Photo Editor Charlie Wallace Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome Rob Lindsey Philip Burt from all members of the Carolina community. Letters Encore Editor Senior Writers should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Student Mbma Both must include name, phone number, profes- Ellen Parsons Lee Phipps sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten Director of Advertising Manager submissions must be personally delivered to Russell Student Media Sherry Holmes House room 333. E-mail submissions must include Susan Kin, Classified Manager . . „ __ Creative Director Carofyn Griffin tetephone number for confirmation. Krl, B|*;k Business Manager The Gamecock reserves the right to edit tor libel. Julia Bumett Erik Collin, style and space Anonymous letters will not be pub- Betsy Martin Faculty Adviser lished. Photos are required lor guest columnist and can Kathy Van Nostrand Jonathan Dunagin be provided by the submitter. Creative Services Graduate Assistant Call 777-7726 tor more information 1 College Press Exchange National Issues Veterans faced unequaled task College, the time and place for everything, gives us students the op portunity to shape the eventual paths our lives will take. The initial life away from home sup posedly provides the conducive at mosphere for stu dents to develop not only intellec tual maturity, but social maturity as well. Fortunately, this process hardly kicks in for the first few years or so. Why else do we have graduate school? Unlike my initiatory plan, my maturity level regressed the moment I moved onto campus last fall. My behavior at Gamecock football games and the game-night battles of Super Tec mo Bowl tell the story. Collegiate life — while rightly claimed as the best part of your life — is the rude awakening. After being protected and close ly monitored for 17 or 18 years, we are thrown into a world without incessant su pervision in our daily lives, so of course that natural urge to go wild kicks in. Many greet this opportunity, and others, unable to comprehend and control the freedoms, abuse the chance. Yet, the negative mark society collectively places on students not always is justified. This introductory phase in the real world brings out the harsh re alities of living in an environment inhab ited by a vulnerable people. Life isn’t fair. Yes, people overuse this line, but no phrase sums up the whole process better than this one. Horrific calls from Southeastern Conference officials rob the Gamecocks of a chance to upset the No. 4 Florida Gators, you always full for the wrong girl, or Geoige W. Bush leads in the polls for the presidency. Of course, more examples exist. As difficult as this “first” phase of life may be, this generation of students pos sesses no right to complain about every day troubles — minute problems in the scheme of things. In no way at all can stu dents compare their difficulties to those that previous American generations faced in significant, enduring trials. Downtrod den in unemployment and despaired by depression, an entire generation of Amer icans — in the 1930s and ’40s — sacri ficed dreams and goals since the balance of world peace began to tilt in favor of fas cism and imperialism. While Veterans Day already passed, our society must never lose sight of the courageous offering U.S. vet erans gave to this nation. My grandfather has a unique, yet hor rifying, narrative from the world’s great est conflict. My grandpa Cleve Miller, a young kid fresh out of high school, en listed in the Army Air Corps soon after graduation to fight in the European The ater of the Second World War. A youth from Hiddenite, N.C. who helped his fa ther run the family sawmill, Cleve aban doned his current ambitions in life to risk his future for the national security of the United States and the restoration of de mocratic governance and autonomy in Eu rope. Grandpa, through months of training in various locales, ended up a nose gunner — the most cbngerous position on a bomber — in an American B-24. The missions over Nazi and Italian-controlled territory un doubtedly became deemed as some of the most difficult campaigns throughout the war, missions over heavily populated cities in the Anschlus — the meiged Nazi Ger many and Austria — were near suicide. Nazi fighter pilots in the Luftwaffe, Nazi air forces, targeted the nose-gunner posi tion simply because of the vulnerability with its location in the front of the B-24. Grandpa and his crew flew one of the most dangerous and crucial raids over the Romanian (then Rumania) strong hold of Ploesti. Ploesti, the Nazi storage area for the majority of oil for Eastern and Southern European campaigns, became a viable taiget for Allied comrrfanders start ing in 1943. Smoke from the oil refiner ies caused the bomber groups to believe that the raid completely crippled the Nazi supply of oil, yet, in reality, only 42 per cent of the reserves were destroyed. Only the extremely lucky bombers never experienced a direct hit from fight er pilots or German flak. On a mission to bomb Vienna, a Luftwaffe fighter attacked and hit my grandpa’s plane. The crew flew on, however, to complete the run over the Austrian capital. But on the return to Eng land, with no other feasible, thinkable action possible, my grandpa and the other crew members bailed out into the skies over war-tom Europe. Thankfully, he re turned to the foothills of North Carolina to marry, raise a wonderful daughter, and fulfill his duty to maintain the economic boom experience after the war. Where would this nation be without this gritty generation? We all know the an swer, but we rarely acknowledge it. I un derstand life throws us students a few curve balls, but, if life becomes troublesome, remember the sacrifice from American veterans whose sole purpose and goal is to perpetuate the freedoms of the people. By doing so, my grandfather and his fellow veterans gave us the opportunity to flour ish into a rich, free nation in which our daily problems seem trivial in comparison to a generation that focused on sacrifice. Letters Gamecock glory days for the fans long gone To the Editor I can remember when Carolina foot ball stood for something more than just an opportunity for rich alumni to lease over priced Cockabooses and greedy athletics department leeches to sell another ex travagant skybox to someone who would rather cut a deal in an air-conditioned ham ster ball than give a dam about what’s hap pening on the field. Those trappings of van ity and opulence are empty, sterile, coffin-like testaments to the death of the true Carolina football spirit: a spirit of loy alty; defiance to the principle that might or wealth makes right; and wild, selfless, abandoned jubilation for a team that rep llimi';':.-MMMiL.. resents more than just a recruiting season or a chance to sell a value meal and a hot dog. Sadly, the true Carolina spirit is just a memory. Gone arc the moments when, in celebration, our fans would jubilantly blow air horns and toss toilet paper from the up per decks. Gone are the days when the bank would play “Louie, Louie” and the properly constructed, designcd-to-move under-stress upper deck would sway in a wave-like fashion, exemplifying the tu multuous wave of emotions that any RE AL football fan should experience. Gone are the times when the crowd could ex press its opinions about the team’s play, be it good or bad, without a legion of “Brown Shirts” encircling the area, as if by force of numbers, or their mere presence, they could quiet the heart and the mouth of the people who pay, cry, laugh, and scream in adulation for the Gamecocks. Well, I’m here to tell you, those days are long gone, and until the fans take back the sta dium from the fascist overlords and oli garchic tyranny they represent, I promise you that Carolina will not have another winning season. In fact, I doubt if we will ever win another game. Why? Simply because all of the life, the hu manity, and the soul have been sucked out of Williams-Brice Stadium and replaced by the pursuit of mindless progress, progress that pays no attention to the true spirit of or origins of the game, or this institution. Jacob L McCormick Education Doctoral Student Send a letter to the editor gckviews@sc.edu or bring to Russell House 333 Include your name, phone number, year and major. ..- _f~ Social Issues Hooked on turkey phonics Forany°nc MarkPtras who has write, ev«y other, spent the se- Wednes)toyi He mester under a . * . , , can be reached rock (or worse, a | book), one week yt* '* from today marks Gamecock at the day that most gckviews@3C.edu. of us will go home for the Thanksgiving break. Some people, like myself, won’t be going home for the break. Wfc might miss our families, but we won’t miss sitting around that uncomfortable dinner table while we gel bombarded with questions about what we’ve been learning, what we’ve been doing, and who we’ve been doing it with. ror mosc people wno oo nave 10 face this dreariest of holiday traditions, however, I've prepared a little cheat sheet of big words to slip into the con versation. When they have to ask you what the words mean, you can dazzle them with your college education without having to admit that you spend most of your time in Five Points. Doldrums — n. pi. Low spirits; slug gishness. This can be the reason you ex pect your grades to be low. This is also what you are trying to shake olfbeforc finals hit. Dipsomania — n. An abnormal crav ing for alcoholic drink. This is the real reason you expect your grades to be low, but a quick utterance of the word will ease your conscience, even though they will have no idea what it means. Heuristic — adj. Helping to lcam, as by a method of education based on fol lowing rules to find answers. “Mom, Dad, I got a tutor, hc/she’s been helping me heuristically.” Doesn’t that have a certain ring to it? Evanescent — adj. Tending to fade from sight; fleeting; ephemeral. How you fcel about your degree. You can say this while making it sound like your de gree is the most important thing in your life. Epiglottis — n. A thin cartilage lid that covers the windpipe during swal lowing. The part of your throat that gets dry while eating turkey. This is why you need that big glass of wine. Inseminate — v. To sow seeds in; es pecially to impregnate. Actually, if you have to use this word, there’s probably going to be no slick way to gloss over it. Periphrasis — n. To use many words where a few will do. It is usually used in a derogatory form, but it will help you get around all those prying questions. As anyone who has watched a politician knows, talking until you bore people is a good way to remove attention from yourself. Priapic — adj. Of or relating to the phallus; phallic. Of course, this refers to the penis, and now you can, too. And no one but you will know it. Satyriasis — n. The uncontrollable desire by a man for sexual intercourse. In other words, this is just about every col lege-age male; If you’re male, this can also be why your grades are so low. If you’re female, running from this can be why your legs look so good. Suigeneris — adj. Without equal, unique. A great adjective for a bad meal. “How was the turkey?” “Mom, it was suigeneris!” It sounds like a great thing without being one. Lummox — n. A clumsy, stupid per son. Use this on that brother or sister who always wants to stick their lingers in your food, start fowl fights, or pick their nose at the table. Quixotic — aJj. Extravagantly chivalrous or foolishly idealistic. This is what your parents think all college kids are. Beat them to the punch by using it first. Climacteric — n. A crucial period in life, especially the menopause. You probably won’t get to use this one, but if your mother drops the big bomb over dinner, you’ll thank me for it. 1 hope this list is helpful for all your holiday conversations. Make sure to cut them out and tape them to your arms. It’ll give you practice for your finals, just two weeks away!