The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, January 14, 2000, Page A5, Image 5
Quote, Unquote
'If Dan Quayle can do it, it can’t be that hard.’
Hillary Rodham Clinton, on her “Late Show" appearance
Friday, January 14,2000 Wbt 0aiTlCCOC(l PageA5
Whc (Bamecock
Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08
Editorial Board
Kenley Young • Editor in Chief
Brad Walters • Managing Editor
Brock Vergakis • Viewpoints Editor
Peter Johnson • Assistant Viewpoints Editor
Sara Ladenheim • Editorial Contributor
Emily Streyer • Editorial Contributor
Supreme Court ruling
unfair to journalists
Journalists, despite gripes to the contrary, perform public ser
vices when they consult driving records for the purpose of, for ex
ample, disclosing that some school bus drivers have drunk-driving
records. The public needs to know this stuff, right?
Wrong, according to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision that the
1994 Driver’s Privacy Protection Act prohibits states from making
driving records available to the public. Journalists’jobs just got
harder.
We understand the importance of protecting the privacy of citi
zens who have driver’s licenses. It is true that making driver’s li
cense records publicly available heightens the risk that evil-doers
will misuse the information by targeting abortion clinic workers at
their homes or stalking - but information like a home address is
available through one way or another to anyone who desires it
badly enough. Furthermore, private investigators will still have ac
f cess to driving records - stalkers and extremists have only to hire a
P.I. to get a home address and phone number of anyone registered
with the Department of Motor Vehicles.
Insurance companies and other businesses still have access, too.
States are still allowed by the federal government to sell our per
sonal information to marketing companies. How’s this for protec
tion of our civil liberties? Is this the thin end of the wedge?
What’s next - removal of marriage licenses, voter’s registrations
and property ownership from public record? Sometimes, individu
als are “protected” by having private concerns a matter of public
record - it is for our safety, not for our dignity, that criminal trials
are held publicly. The media are justifiably concerned about the
court’s decision. Our position is not a knee-jerk response to a
threat against free speech, nor is it an arrogant reaction to a minor
transgression against the Fourth Estate. This ruling inhibits journal
ists in doing their most important job — gathering information in
the interest of protecting the public.
Serve on MLK Day
For the second consecutive year, USC will celebrate Martin
Luther King Jr. Day on Monday by declaring it a day of service for
all students, faculty and staff members. Although no classes will be
held, the university’s Office of Community Service Programs is
encouraging the Carolina community to participate in some form
of service — to make the holiday “a day on, not a day off.”
The Gamecock staff, too, is asking USC students and faculty
members to register with the university’s office and get involved
Monday in the day of service. After all, civic responsibility and
community service are large parts of what the King holiday is all
about.
Many USC students fought hard to get university administration
to recognize the holiday and honor one of the greatest American
figures of all time. By taking part in Monday’s activities, the USC
community can pay homage to King’s memory and the lofty, pro
gressive ideals he espoused.
King envisioned a day when men and women of all races, reli
gions and nationalities could cooperate to bring about nonviolent
social change in their communities. It’s our turn to give a little
back to our city and take a small step closer to realizing King’s vi
sion. Make Monday a day of service, not of mere recreation — “a
day on, not a day off.”
About Us
k The Gamecock is the student newspaper of The University of South Carolina and is published Monday, Wednesday and
9 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 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
the newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees.
Adores*
The Gamecock
1400 Greene Street
Columbia. SC 29208
Offices on third floor of the Russell House.
Student Media Area code 803
Advertising 777-3888
Classified 777-1184
Fax 777-6482
Office 777-3888
Gamecock Area code 803
Editor gckeddsc.edu 777-3914
News gcknewsdsc.edu 777-7726
Viewpoints gckviewsdsc.edu 777-7181
Etc. gcketcdsc.edu 777-3913
Sports gcksportsdsc.edu ' 777-7182
Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833
Submission Poucy
Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome
from all members of the Carolina community. Letters
should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be ar
opinion piece of about 600-700 words.
Both must include name, phone number, profes
sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten
submissions must be personally delivered to Russell
House room 333. E-mail submissions must include
telephone number for confirmation.
The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel,
style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub
lished. Photos are required for guest columnist and can
be provided by the submitter.
Call 777-7726 for more information.
I HE uAMECOCK
Kenley Young
Editor in Chief
Brad Walters
Managing Editor
Brock Vergakis
Viewpoints Editor
Clayton Kale
News Editor
Brandon Larrabee
Associate News Editor
Rebecca Cron lean
Ann Marie Miani
EtCetera Editors
David Cloninger
Jeff Romig
Sports Editors
Kristin Freestate
Copy Desk Chief
Renee Oligny
Copy Editor
Amy Goulding
Travis Lynn
Photo Editors
Student Media
Ellen Parsons
Director of
Student Media
Susan King
Creative Director
Kris Black
Julie Burnett
Todd Hooks
Betsy Martin
Kathy Van Nostrand
Creative Services
Kevin Langston
Encore Editor
Will Gillaspy
Online Editor
Peter Johnson
Asst. Viewpoints Editor
Kelly Haggerty
Patrick Rathbun
Asst. News Editors
MacKenzie Craven
Asst. EtCetera Edita
Shannon Rooke
Asst. Sports Edita
Rob Fleming
Asst. Encae Edita
Jared Kelowitz
Charles Prashaw
Shawn Singleton
Charlie Wallace
Senior Writers
Sara Ladenheim
Emily Streyer
Editorial Contributors
Kenton Watt
Advertising Manager
Carolyn Griffin
Business Manager
Sherry Holmes
Classified Manager
Erik Collins
Faculty Adviser
Jonathan Dunagin
Graduate Assistant
The Washington Post
"PLE4SE LET ME FINISH-WAIT—
PLEASE-LET ME FINISH-"
<lII that A
el£>ow
and no }
lxtsketball
Social Issues
New Year's Eve disappointing
w
’s
the party of the
millennium or a
big disappoint
ment? This
New Year’s Eve
was no different
from the rest,
aside from a few
more fireworks
and the press’s
ability to make
us feel as if we
were celebrat
ing the holiday
from the most
well-known
places in the
w u 1 1 u —
Moscow, London and of course, Times
Square.
I look at New Year's Eve celebrations
as one of those times when no one dares
admit that they didn't have fun or that their
party was a complete bomb. Have you rat
ed your celebration yet? It might just fall
short when you lay it out in front of you.
New Year's is supposed to be “the sneak
preview of what the new year has in store”
or “the party of the year” or decade, in
some instances, or millennium, in this year's
case. Millennium! That means my whole
upcoming millennium will be based on
how my New Year’s rated on the scales of
fan and success? Oh, shit.
I personally feel that New Year's Eve
and the hoopla surrounding it is pressure
laden and overrated. I've talked to so many
people this year who just didn't enjoy the
millennium celebration any more than they
have in the past. To some, New Year’s is
just another wasted, overpriced holiday.
If you look at the history of New Year’s
Eve, you’ll see that it's based on the Gre
gorian calendar and wasn’t adopted by Eng
land until the 18th century. So the cele
bration is fairly new, although the years
will have technically passed through two
full millenniums in the year 2001. It was
invented by people, for people, kind of
like the gift that keeps on giving. But what
if you didn't feel like re-giving that gift this
year? What if you were too bogged
down with the thank-you cards for your
holiday gifts and the planning for the up
coming Super Bowl bash? New Year's is
another excuse to get drunk, which is a
fine tradition to many, but why spend all
that money for an event that just might
end up fizzling anyway?
It's amazing, the money people put in
to New Year's. Thousands of dollars. Look
at the New Year’s concerts given by stars,
like Bette Midler's in Las Vegas - hundreds
of bucks a pop to see a versatile, renowned
artist perform at all ranges of her talent. If
it were any other evening, you could see
that show for a mere fraction of a cost. It's
all about the marketing. I can see it now:
“Bette's first show of the millennium! Don't
miss it!” But will her show have any less
content or give any less customer satis
• faction Jan. 3? I don’t think so.
We, of course, are the victims of this
marketing. It astonishes me how people
can vault into the first month of the new
year, indebted to credit cards and exhausted
from the hard work of the gift-giving sea
son, only to squander more money on a
sketchy endeavor. That's right, it's a sketchy
scene, especially if you go to one of the
more populated or more lively areas sur
rounding Columbia, like Broadway at the
Beach, for instance, or Savannah, not to
mention the faraway but elusive pre-Mar
di Gras scene in New Orleans.
Topless girls. Body shots. Disappear
ing roommates. Hedonistic activities.
While all of this sounds like a iot of
fun, it's also a risky chance that you'll
end up benefiting from the experience.
Yes, of course, an opportunity to see free
nudity (and perhaps advance the viewing
to a later midnight kiss-tumed-gropefest)
is an invaluable perk of being of prime col
lege age at a wild rage at a midnight ex
travaganza; that, 1 don't protest. I do, how
ever, sympathize (not to be confused with
empathize) with those lowly chums who
accompany their cuter and more charm
ing roommates, only to be shafted and left
singing “Auld Lang Syne” alone, with a
. few bottles of flat champagne and an arm
chair, dreaming of next year, when he or
she would be the one scheming on the
sought-after prey and still popping fresh
champagne at the three and four o'clock
hours.
Attending wild parties or not, most of
us saw the various celebrations around the
world, preceding and following the Times
Square tradition so long awaited with the
oh-so-prominent Carson Daly and John
Norris of MTV. Thank God we got to see
pre-pubescent Christina Aguilera perform,
but where were those Backstreet Boys?
Oh yeah, they were ringing in the New
Year privately.
Privately is the way many people, in
cluding myself, opted to celebrate this year.
Such a contrived holiday could never beat
those sporadic nights with my nearest and
dearest, accompanied by no expectations
or overdrawn bank accounts. New Year’s
' Eve is pressure and continuously turns out
to be both a failure and a success - a fail
ure to the mass of celebrators (it’s OK -
you can admit that you were under
whelmed) and a success to those marketers.
So start saving your money now -
Valentine’s Day roses will be skyrocket
ing for February. Why buy your loved one
flowers now while they’re inexpensive
and more meaningful? Ah, yes, Hallmark
would be devastated.
Meredith Davis
is a junior Jour
nalism major.
She can be
reached via The
Gamecock at
gamecockvlew
points@hotmaii.c
om
Letters
Eating disorders big
hurdle to overcome
This letter is in reply to Brock Ver
gakis’ column on eating disorders [“Eating
disorders aren’t diseases,” Jan. 12]. My
immediate reaction to this editorial was
one of anger and disgust. As someone who
has had and has seen several other close
friends struggle with these diseases, I feel
as if 1 have been personally attacked.
As many know, eating disorders are
most prevalent during adolescence and in
to college, and they affect women at a much
higher rate than men. However, there
are men who suffer, too. Take a look at
your high school wrestlers who starve
themselves to weigh in and then binge eat
only to have to drop the weight again. Is
that not disordered eating?
I became a “fat” kid around age 8, when
my parents moved me to a private school
to avoid a bad school district. Daily, I had
to bear the harsh comments of elementary
peers and even adults. My first boyfriend
told me that his dad called me his "little
fat buddy." Can you imagine what this does
to a 13-year-old? I’ll tell you. It makes her
a victim to anorexia for five years. I did
not draw positive comments from ANY
ONE when I lost almost 50 pounds in three
months. My closest friends hated me for
what 1 was doing; my family would not
even acknowledge my problem. This dis
order is not a “compliment-fishing nondis
ease.”
To this day, I am only friends with one
person, who stuck with me through those
years, and I cannot even bring up the
subject of eating disorders to my family
members for fear that they will drag me
through the mud for what I did to them.
It took five years to look at my body in the
mirror again.
And then I went to college, only to
hate myself again. 1 was bulimic for my
first two years here at USC, taking laxa
tives almost every other day. During the
summer of my freshman year, 1 lived off
of apples, cottage cheese and laxatives.
And no one knew. No one had the faintest
clue, because bulimics maintain their
weight, they do not lose it as drastically as
anorexics.
Two years without compliments or ac
knowlec|gment. It took being close to some
one who ignored my body for the first time
in my life to make me wake up for the fi
nal time, and even he does not know. So
let me ask you this: If I am fishing for com
pliments, where are they?
Reading this column breaks my heart
because I think the editor is sipiply mis
informed Why don’t you take a trip to the
local hospital and enter the ward where
80-pound girls lie dying in their beds with
tubes in their arms and nurses watching
their eveiy move? Why don’t you ask them
what it’s like to die?
Why don’t you take the time to over
come a mental illness of self-contempt that
haunts those girls and many walking the
streets today? These girls dread to walk in
front of any reflective material for fear that
they might catch a glimpse of their bod
ies, that they might see FAT. Well 1 do, and
so do countless women in this country and
all around the world. I hope your friend
recovers, and I hope that your letter is not
read by all those girls out there who have
been a victim to this very real disease. God
help those with terminal illnesses like AIDS,
leukemia and cancer. You are right. It is
not fair, it is not their fault. But how dare
you trample those people who chose to
kill themselves slowly, possibly for the rest
of their lives, for in my eyes, they are even
sicker.
Gweneth B. Lazenby
Marine Science Senior
National Issues
S.C.used
to national
spotlight
Wun boutn
Carolina's
customary
adoption of diveigent
or lost, causes, the
state’s history, no
matter how one
looks at the picture,
grabs the attention of
any student of histo
ry. By bucking na
tional trends, like es
tablishing a defiant
resistance to Union
occupation follow
ing the Civil Wfcr, the
state acquires an un
rivaled reputation in
the national spotlight
—albeit often a neg
auve one. Historians
relish the opportunity to research the rich his
tory of South Carolina. esDeciallv the state's
rebellious role in the Civil War. Many histo
rians, however, neglect the state's significant
role in the Revolutionary War. The most ’
battles in the war occurred in South Caroli
na.
After the British Army, under the com
mand of Sir Henry Clinton, failed tt> destroy
Geoige Washington’s Continental Army (the
regular army) in the Northern campaign of
the war, the British government proceeded to
focus on the Southern states — or colonies,
as they still called them — and then move
north to finally defeat Washington. The plan
nearly succeeded. With the exception of the
British attack on Fort Moultrie -an early, enor
mous victory for the Patriots both psycho
logically and strategically in 1776 -the British
conquest seemed evident. In 1780, the Patri
ots surrendered Charleston, tlip largest sur
render of the war; British Lt. Col. Banastre
Tarleton slaughtered a band of Continentals
at the Wixhaws; and when the Americans fi
nally had a chance to defeat the British, they
were routed in the debacle at Camden.
i lie cause iui /AiueiiKui uiucpcuueuce op
peared bleak and dismal in South Carolina ex
actly 219 years ago; only a third of the Amer
ican people embraced the prospect of freedom.
Another defeat of the southern Continental
Army by the British would have left the Pa
triot militia at the hands of the daunting Gen.
Cornwallis, thus, in all probability, all but wip
ing out resistance to Britain in the entire South.
The commander of the Southern Army,
Nathaniel Greene, devised a dangerous, risky
plan by dividing his army. Brig. Gen. Daniel
Morgan, a seasoned veteran of the war and
hero of the Saratoga campaign, commanded
the other wing of the army. Cornwallis, af
ter learning of the split, sent Tarleton and his
unbeatable legion to obliterate Morgan's band
of Continentals and militiamen. Even if Tar
leton did not engage Morgan, the British would
force the Patriots to cross the Broad River in
the Upstate into certain defeat at the hands of
Cornwallis.
So as ultimate defeat loomed, Morgan re
solved to end his retreat and fight Tarleton
in January of 1780. At a cluster of cow pas
tures in northern Spartanburg County known
as the Cowpens, Morgan halted his army to
battle the British. On Jan. 16, a day before the
battle, Morgan invented a battle strategy to
throw off the advancing Tarleton, whose army
strongly outnumbered the Patriots.
Militia sharpshooters would hit the on
coming British officers. Following the shots,
these men would retreat to the main militia
line under Gen. Andrew Pickens, who would
then fire two rounds and retreat past the right
flank of the main line held by the Continen
tal regulars under John Eager Howard. The
Continentals would have to then finish off the
charging British.
i ne oaiue oegan jus as Morgan nau wtsneu.
Yet, the Continentals, under the mistaken
move of a company officer, began to retreat
along with the militia. Sensing a pending route,
Tarleton, better known as the Bloody Bastard
for his butchering of surrendering oppo
nents,allowed his bloodied men to advance
upon the American defense line in an unor
ganized rush. At the most critical moment
of the battle, Morgan rode around his retreating
men and rallied them by shouting, “Give them
one fire and the day is ours!”
Cowpens totally changed the character of
the war. For Greene, whose plan was not to
win battles but just fight them, the miracu
lous victory at Cowpens granted him the abil
ity to pursue a frightened Cornwallis into
North Carolina Eventually, Cornwallis would
retreatto a peninsula in Virginia named York
town, thus giving the Americans the inde
pendence which changed the course of world
history.
»
Corey Ford
is a sophomore,
liberal arts major.
He can be
reached via The
Gamecock at
gamecockview
points@hotmai(.c
orn