Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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i Quote, Unquote ‘I don’t care who had slaves. Slavery is oppres sion, and that’s what the flag represents.’ Edward McClendon, NAACP member It Fraow, April 7,2000 Wat (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 Night shuttle bus proposal unrealistic USC’s Department of Vehicle Management and Parking Ser vices has proposed a plan to run a campus wide shuttle bus system between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. Sunday through Thurs day each week to replace the current point-to-point APO escort service. The proposed plan would have designated stops around campus and estimates 500 passengers each night. Alpha Phi Omega, USC’s public service fraternity, has been running APO escort for the past 31 years. It has been very helpful to students who need to get around campus after hours and do not feel safe walking, but it is not busy enough to warrant after-hours shuttles. APO escort averages closer to 50 passengers on a good night. An estimate of 500 passengers each night would be 10 times the number the current escort system gets on a good night. If an after hours shuttle were available to students, about 100 passengers a night would be much more realistic. Just as importantly, the university would be spending too much money on this plan. Doing the math makes the proposal seem even that much more ridiculous. USC plans on paying $12 an hour times two drivers per shift times three shifts per night times five nights running per week times 14 weeks per semester and you get $5,040 right there. When you add to that $20,000 for each of the two vans plus gas and maintenance, the sum of the investment is more than $25,000. The number of students who seek transportation after hours on this campus does not necessitate this kind of system. The system would also force students to walk to designated shuttle stops, pos sibly into a dangerous situation, and stops are not planned for any of USC’s garages. On top of that, APO is a volunteer organization and paying them for running the shuttles would change their standing with the community. The proposal is unrealistic and idealistic, to say the least. The current escort service works well and is pretty much problem free. Why bother changing a system that works? -+■ S.C. Legislature not working for people Another flag rally took place on the steps of the Statehouse on Thursday, with flag supporters on the front steps, some of whom were dressed in full Ku Klux Klan garb. Simulta neously, flag opponents stood on the back steps of the Statehouse and had their own rally. Despite the fact that nothing broke out between the two par ties, police in riot gear were standing by. South Carolina has been a circus for too long now. We are a national spectacle, simply because of state legislators’ stubborn ness in refusing to remove the flag from the Statehouse dome. South Carolinians overwhelmingly support the removal of the flag, yet state legislation has not made any progress in plans to move the flag to a more appropriate place, like a museum or a monument. . It seems that the people of South Carolina are not being repre sented by those we elect to represent us. About Us 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 not those of The University of South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher cf The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is the newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. . The Gamecock AOORESS The Gamecock ’5'"1** Y“"« Amy Gouldin* 1400 Greene Street Cd.tor .r’ Cfaef Trams Urnn Columbia, SC 29208 ^Watte? Photo fd-tors _ .... Managing Editor Will Gillaspy Ofirces on third floor of the Russell House. Brock Vergakis Online Editor Stuockt Media Area code 803 Viewpoints Editor Peter Johnson Advertising 777-3888 Kal« *&■ Viewpoints Editor Classified 777-1184 News Editor Kelly Haggerty pax 777-6482 Brandon Larrabee Patrick Rathbun Office 777-3888 Associate News Editor Asst. News Editors ■ Rebecca Cronican MacKenzie Craven GAMECOCK Area code 803 Ann Marie Miani Asst. EtCetera Editor Editor gckeddsc.edu 777-3914 EtCetera Editors Elizabeth Rod News gamecocknewsdhotmail.com 777-7726 David Cloninger Asst. Sports Editor Viewpoints gamecockviewpointsdhotmail.com Shannon Rooke Rob Fleming Etc. gcketcdsc.edu 777-3913 Sports Editors Asst. Encore Editor Encore! gamecockencoredhotmail.com 777-3913 Kristin Freestate Charles Prashaw Sports gamecocksportsdhotmail.com 777-7182 Copy Desk Chief Shawn Singleton Online wwwoamernrksr.edu 777-2833 nii/mv rksriu ui/allv* *>UQMnniOM Poucy Copy Editor Senior Writers . , . Kevin Langston Emily Streyer Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome Encon Edit„ Editorial Contributor from all members of the Carolina community. Letters Stuooit Mhma should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an . t -7/-W-1 _. Ellen Parsons Business Manager opinion piece of about 600-700 words. Director Sherry Holmes Both must include name, phone number, profes- Susan King Classified Manager sionai title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten Creative Director Erik Collins submissions must be personally delivered to Russell Kris Black Faculty Adviser House room 333. E-mail submissions must include Julie Burnett Jonathan Dunagin telephone number for confirmation. Todd Hooks £r?uale stant The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, ^***y a ^ u , r . v , , Kathy Van Nostrand Gina McKelvey style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub- Creative Services Melissa Millen lishfcd. Photos are required for guest columnist and can Kenton Watt Brantley Roper be provided by the submitter. Advertising Manager Nicole Russell Call 777-7726 for more information. Carolyn Griffin Advertising Staff College Press Exchange r-1 ■■ —^ HNH.CNR£ 90 IT TOWOTP n&Bk1 L KBSVJER? J c«n WWE R FRIEND?! rzzz “ :z] Nature forces men to evolve differently In your most recent Gamecock, a columnist attacked men and their “bar baric” actions [“Males failing to evolve,” April 5]. Unfortunately, this attack cited evolution as its main source for the attack. Mr. Kale, who is not a biologist or anthropologist, took an example of male aggression in a hypothetical situation as an example of how modem man is still a Neanderthal. Although I am neither a biologist nor an anthropologist, this example is clearly a perfect example of evolution in that a man’s strength was challenged, and he felt it necessary to meet that challenge. Women have evolved differently than men; they, in most species, are not the protectors of the tribe, so their aggression was not necessary. Males were called upon for this essential duty, and thus their anato my and body chemistry is different. Women have traditionally been the nur tures. So because they may continue to show these traits, have they not evolved, either? No, that is ridiculous, but obviously far too complex of a top ic for that column to explore. The fact is that nature forced men and women to evolve differently, and thus they have generally different social and biological traits. I don’t aigue that we should harness the valuable qualities we have to offer, but let’s not discount the qualities men can offer by using too large of a brush to mistakenly paint the entire male gender. Jason Allman Philosophy Sophomore Columns shape dysfunctional society This semester, I have been acutely aware of a disturbing pattern in the columns that lard your pages. They are socially irresponsible and badly written. I teach women’s studies and English, and in both disciplines I stress the power that language has to shape our society. Un fortunately, the language in your columns works powerfully to shape a dysfunc tional society. Ms. Craven has argued that “sluts,” whom she defines as anyone who dress es to display her body as a sex object, do not deserve any respect and cede their rights to be treated with human digni ty Editorial pages have long served as a place in which journalists can cogently present social issues that they feel pas sionately about or that merit scrutiny and change. Responsible and eloquent journalists in The New York Times, Washington Post, Nation, U.S. News and World Report and countless cam pus newspapers use the editorial page as a forum for civic discourse. But these journalists, unlike those writing for The Gamecock, have a keen sense of the power of language and of the norms of aigument and sentence structure. Have the fledgling journalists writ ing for The Gamecock ever read any of these editorials.to learn style, struc ture and word choice? Judging by the poorly written, badly argued columns that pollute the pages of our campus newspaper, obviously not. For example, in Ms. Craven’s “slut” piece, she argued that men did not display their bodies as sex objects until they had been suc cessful at business and that women have done so only since the 1920s. So, Ms. Craven, is “sluttishness” OK if the gen der being “slutty” has money and power? Was no one displaying his or her body in the millennia of human society before the 1920s? Mr. Veigakis’ most recent women-talk-too-much piece makes silly generalizations about women and men that reduce our diverse soci ety to those with female genitalia who chatter incessantly and those with male genitalia who are “watching and lis tening.” LeeDavinroy Department of English and Women’s Studies College Press Exchange etmUTEO u THIS National Issues End the Cuban embargo With the Cold War over a decade ago and de fense information showing that Cuba poses no threat to U.S. national secu rity, why is there still an embargo that every country besides the U.S. and Israel has voted at the United Nations General Assembly to lift (for eight consecutive years)? An embargo that foreign policy ana lysts claim is unusually harsh” because it includes cutting off food and medical supplies. One premise, according to current U.S. foreign policy, is that a communist is in power. Funny how that doesn’t stop the U.S. from electing China—yes, Red Com munist China—a most-favored nation sta tus. Another justification is the violation of human rights in Cuba. Human rights— defined as what and by whom? In the U.S., we take the most basic “human rights” for granted — the right to live and be edu cated — because it is all around us. Thus enabling us, to demand more secondary rights such as freedom of speech and the press. wuier Luuiunei me uui as> luriuuatc. Ask any third world country citizen below the poverty line if they prefer freedom of speech over medication, or having a de mocratically elected leader over education. They’ll probably tell you to stick freedom of speech up you know where. There is a hierarchy of human rights. It starts with the “right” to live, then the right to be educated. Only a healthy, educated citi zen can demand more secondary and ide alistic human rights. Understanding this point, it can be ar gued that Cuba provides more “human rights” than do most countries in Latin America. Cuba provides its citizens with universal health care, basic subsistence and an unparalleled educational system, as ev idenced by an astonishing 98 percent lit eracy rate. So if Cuba’s communism and human rights are void reasons to justify current policy, why hasn’t the U.S. begun to nor malize relations by lifting the embaigo? As a matter of fact, the U.S. has gone the opposite direction with the passing of the Helms-Burton Law in 1996, which now requires an act of Congress to lift the em baigo. The only logical explanation: Ap pease Cuba Americans. Ironically, Cuban Americans don’t seem to understand that protesting any effort to begin normalizing relations with Cuba is only affecting their own people and some times relatives. They, like the U.S., think that by crippling Cuba, Castro will even tually call it quits. Well, it’s been 10 years since the fall of the Soviet Union, 40 years since the embaigo, and Castro is nowhere near giving up the throne. vxouu i» mui ui puwei, mie urn because the more the US., pushed by Cuban Americans to maintain Cuba in an eco nomic choke hold, the more the Cuban na tionals look to Castro as a sort of messia ah. The US. sets up a platform that favoh, the person they are trying to hurt-Castro. By choking Cuba’s economy, Castro has the platform to stand in front of his Cuban people and turn stones into bread and wa ter into wine. The most visible results of the policy seem to be the struggle of the Cuban people and the disapproval of almost the entire world. The world, like me, can not understand why the US. maintains a policy that not only prohibits any Ameri can aid to Cuba, but also attempts to pre vent other countries from helping. It is time that Cuban Americans and the US. realize that the current policy does not work. To beat Castro, Cuba needs to be inundated with capitalism. Once the Cuban people taste democracy and taste capitalism, Castro will lose his power and popularity among his people. And as a byproduct of normalizing re lations with Cuba, maybe we could pick up a couple of pointers on education and universal health care — heaven knows we need them! Mario Ona is a public rela tions senior. The Viewpoints editor can be reached at gamecock viewpoints® hotmail.com