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% > -w ~r- - Quote, Unquote ‘It’s really important to look out for the rights of peo ple not in America, and for schools to take care of work ers everywhere.’ Christine Cook, USC Amnesty International president ■ _■ fflic (5mecock 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 S.C. Legislature makes strides in civil rights ednesday proved to be a fruitful day of compromise within South Carolina’s Legislative bodies. On the same day that the state Senate voted overwhelmingly in favor of a Confederate flag compromise, the S.C. House voted overwhelmingly in favor of a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Under the Senate’s bill, the divisive flag would be removed from the Statehouse dome, while another version would be mounted behind the Confederate soldier monument on the Statehouse grounds. The House’s bill, too, calls for negotiation, as it provides for a Con federate Memorial Day in addition to the King holiday. The margins of victory for the two bills, 36-7 and 82-35, respective ly, prove that most of South Carolina’s lawmakers are ready for progress. It’s about time. Granted, the bills face their share of detractors. Some lawmakers 0 think it’s heresy to utter “the Confederacy” and “Martin Luther King” in the same breath. Similarly, NAACP members say that they’re not pleased with the flag compromise and that their economic sanctions against the state will continue. The NAACP, though, will never be happy until every semblance of that flag is hurled into oblivion. But these hurdles are trivial, relatively speaking. The. Legislature has already overcome the more imposing obstacles of racism, filibuster and general government apathy. And while neither of these bills can be en acted without undergoing the normal bureaucratic cycle of revision, re voting and re-signing, they are steps in the right direction. Bravo to the S.C. Legislature. It has finally stopped cowering in the corner long enough to put in motion some important legislation that should work wonders for race relations in South Carolina. More impor tantly, our lawmakers are fulfilling their civic duty by finally speaking on behalf of this state’s majority. We applaud the progress. t Student senate meetings pointless Even with a newly elected Student Government, the nev er-ending stream of foolishness at student senate meetings continues. In order to foster better senate communication, Sen. Jessica Lentini proposed that senators sitting in the back move to the front, so that senators could hear one another. This seems like something senators should do out of courtesy, but it was such a hot issue that a vote was taken on it. Not only that, but the mo tion was overwhelmingly denied. Apparently, it’s not necessary for our elected officials to be able to hear each other when de bating such important issues as where they’re going to sit. The other major item on Wednesday’s senate agenda was creating a “secret pal system” among student senators, pro posed by Sen. Chrissy Stauffer. When senators do important work, we must give credit where credit is due — and we’ll be sure to do that when some thing of value actually gets accomplished. Until then, is there really any reason to wonder why only about 10 percent of the student body votes when Election Day rolls around? 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 of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Media is the newsoaoer’s parent organization The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. Address The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Studekt Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803 Editor gcked@sc.edu 777-3914 News gamecocknews@hotmail.com 777-7726 Viewpoints gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Etc. gcketc@sc.edu 777-3913 Encore! gamecockencore@hotmail.com 777-3913 Sports gamecocksports@hotmail.com 777-7182 Online www.gamecock.sc.edu 777-2833 Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome from all members of the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. 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The Gamecock Ken ley Young Editor in Chief Brad Walters Managing Editor Brock Vergakis Viewpoints Editor Clayton Kale News Editor Brandon Larrabee Associate News Editor Rebecca Cronican Ann Marie Miani EtCetera Editors David Cloninger Shannon Rooke Sports Editors Kristin Freestate Copy Desk Chief Renee Oligny Copy Editor Kevin Langston Encore Editor Student Media Ellen Parsons Director Susan King Creative Director Kris Black Julie Burnett Todd Hooks Betsy Martin Kathy Van Nostrand Creative Services Kenton Watt Advertising fjanager Carolyn Grifflr! Amy Goulding Travis Lynn Photo Editors Will Gillaspy Online Editor Peter Johnson Asst. Viewpoints Editor Kelly Haggerty Patrick Rathbun Asst. News Editors MacKenzie Craven Asst. EtCetera Editor Elizabeth Rod Asst. Sports Editor Rob Fleming Asst. Encore Editor Charles Prashaw Shawn Singleton Charlie Wallace Senior Writers Emily Streyer Editorial Contributor Business Manager Sherry Holmes Classified Manager Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Jonathan Dunagin Graduate Assistant Robyn Gombar Gina McKelvey Melissa Millen Brantley Roper Nicole Russell Advertising Staff College Press Exchange / aoi^e P6A&T«(5 ovt *fn6 Host. PuuLl'ne ir p§|r . / ✓ State Issues War wasn't fought over slavery Many r°; think the Con federacy rep resents slavery. The truth is that by 1861, only 6 percent, of Southerners owned slaves at all. Of this 6 percent only 3 percent were the large plan tation families like you see in “Gone with the Wind.” There is no way that V4 percent ot Southerners are going to endure starvation, disease, mass destruction of their homes and death to fight a war so that 6 percent of the pop ulation can keep their slaves, a practice that was dying out anyway. Slavery was not only a Southern in stitution. The fact is that slavery exist ed in many places in the North until the practice was abandoned because it wound up costing them more to keep the sys tem than it would to abandon it. Two percent of free African-Americans owned slaves of their own, as well. During the occupation of Frederick, Maryland, by the Confedrate army in 1862, inspectors from of the Union Army Sanitary Commision noted there were more than 3,000 fully armed and equipped African-American soldiers in cluded in the Southern ranks. This was long before the Union army allowed African-Americans to serve in their army. People might say they were forced to fight, but if that is the case, then would the Confederacy take the risk of fully arming the African-Americans? Another example is that during the war, virtually all able-bodied men be tween the ages of 16 and 45 were in the Army. If African-Americans resented Southerners so much, then they would have taken advantage of the situation and revolted. That would have brought a quick end to the war, as there could not have been anyone around to repress a rebellion. Instead, they were able to keep food production at a rate to allow the Army to be fed, and, they were al so able to produce the materials need ed to equip the army. In 1842, the English abolitionist James S. Buckingham noted that feel ings of hatred and prejudice were much stronger in the North than they were in the South. Confederate President Jefferson Davis even adopted an African-Amer ican boy who was 10 years old and lived with them in the Confederate White House in Richmond until he was tak en away from him by union soldiers af ter the war. In 1862, President Abraham Lin coln proposed an amendment that would preserve the institution of slavery in the South for then and for all time, if the states would rejoin the Union. If the South was fighting for slavery, all they would have to do would be to ratify the amendment, and their cause would be won. They did not, suggesting that slav ery was not their reason for fighting. In a survey done after the war, more than 75 percent of slaves professed noth ing but love toward the Confederacy and good feeling for the most part be tween slave and the small number of masters that there were. In order to find out about slavery, what better source could one possibly have than the actu al words of former slaves? The sad truth is, the people who crit icize the flag are those who do not both er to do any research on their own: They like to.call us “racist” instead and they like to say the same tiling about the flag, as well. Many people that go to this school are saying this, too! The sad thing is that this is a university where people are supposed to research and say what they say on fact not fabricated lies. The battle flag should be an issue that brings black and white together, as it repre sents both our heritage and sacrifice. And it does represent both of our heritages. African-Americans did as much as any white man did to defend the South. This is emphasized by those 75 percent interviewed that say so. Black soldiers fought in our Armies, worked with whites in the factories in order to keep production up enough to equip the Army, were POWs in north ern prison camps, endured starvation and disease, just as the whites did, in the defense of their nation. After the war, some of the most outspoken Southern supporters were African-Americans. I truly believe that, were they here to day, they would be ashamed of the way people today are denying their cause and their convictions. They would sup port the idea of eliminating racism, but in no way would they support a stand against a Confederate emblem, the em blem they fought for. The flag also represents more than heritage; it represents our convictions to the Constitution of The United States of America. It represents our love of freedom, and it says to the rest of the world that we are willing to do anything, willing to pay any price, in order to pro tect those freedoms from anyone who would try to take them away. I am aware that many terrible groups such as the KKK and Neo-Nazis like to portray the'battle flag in the wrong light. Therefore, a solution that I propose is to remove the flag, but replace it with another Southern emblem, one that does not have the racist connotations that the battle flag does. A perfect candidate would be the Stars and Bars, a Southern emblem that does not have the battle flag pictured anywhere on it. If anyone has a problem with that proposal, then they are not anti-slavery; rather, they are anti-South and anti-Constitution. r David Wright is a guest colum- J nist. The Viewpoints editor j can be reached at gamecock viewpoints® -jl hotmail.com Letters Ms ■■■■ ‘ i:.:;; Pro-Life advocates offensive to women While attempting to find the illusive spot in the parking lot alongside the Rus sell House, the center of our campus, 1 was visually attacked by giant, seven-foot posters of dead babies. These posters all screamed Pro-Life in bold letters, claiming that the pictures of dead babies are the result of the pro-choice stance. As a woman, it took all that 1 had not to spit on the men. First off, let me get it out of the way that 1 do not mean to offend anyone, es pecially not men, and allow me to make it clear that I love children and one day hope to have ten. Personally, I would never have an abortion. But that doesn’t mean that I shouldn’t have the choice to. My problem is that all of the individ uals holding those posters of deformed ba bies were MEN. That’s right, not a'single female among them. Now, when dealing with something as intimate to women as abortion, don’t you think that they should at least have ONE woman in their ranks? I am so sick of men telling me what to do with my body. Men say we should be thin, we should wear the trendiest clothes, and we should curl our hair and wear make up to please them. We should “Just Say No” to abortion. It was very disturbing to see that this is sue, which 1 feel should be debated and de cided by women only, being that we are the ones that it truly effects, at least on the USC campus, was represented only by males. I am also appalled that this university would allow them on campus. I understand the whole “freedom of speech” bit, but is n’t there a line that has been crossed? If they were holding up posters of graphic pornography or of people twisted in auto accidents, the president would have had them run away. It is all about tact. And, by allowing those men with their dead babies to harass us, shoving their pamphlets at us, it shows that the people who run this in stitution have very little. I think that before the state of South Carolina starts to worry about the abortion issue, we should focus on the fact that our government, supposedly working for the people, has made it legal for insurance com pames to cover the expenses tor Viagra out not for the pill. So, men are allowed free hormone-enhancing drugs that promote sex, and women are not allowed birth con trol to regulate the population? This seems a little backwards. So, what happens now? We ban abor tion, we don’t have the money for the pill, and the result is kids in poverty, attend ing schools that are 49th in the nation? Yeah, that makes sense. Our options are diminishing, as women in the South. The government has no right to tell me what to do with my body. If we allow that to happen, then they will be telling us what to wear, who to many, and God knows what else. We shouldn’t give a patriar chal government the right to make choices for the women of this country. We don’t need another Viagra incident. And funny little men with disgusting signs are not going to change my mind. TaraHanshaw English sophomore > Campus Issues Smiling brightens your day It’s raining. I have four ex ams today. I have-to work tonight. My suite mates yelled at me for no good reason. I didn’t get any mail this month. My boyfriend dumped me. My editor killed my last six-story ideas yes, this happens. My best friend for got my birthday, and, even worse, they canceled chicken finger day. Those are all the reasons I have to frown and give everyone arounu me a poui. dui u you see me on the street and see my dumb founded expression, you are probably going to say to yourself, “What’s her problem.” Every day on my way to class, I see one of three types of people. The cheeiy type, they smile, say “Hi” or at least ap pear to be alive to the world. I applaud this person; you may not realize it, but your smile goes a long, long way. The second type is the don’t look at me, I won’t look at you type. These are peo ple who are afraid if they acknowledge the wrong person, they might get shot by someone who saw them. It’s the whole, “I am better than you so don’t even look at me” attitude. I feel sorry for these people; they spend so much time ducking from people that they are missing out on some great opportu nities for friends. I don’t mean just be cause of me, but because of this univer sity population as a whole. The third group of people are those who purposely avoid peers, but those who are too shy to say anything. It’s ok; we aren’t going to bite. We are just people too, and if you think some one is going to mock you for smiling at them you need to stop being so silly. I am not saying I want everyone giv ing fake smiles and being perfectly hap py. But if people who live in the south are known for being friendly, then how come there are so many people stand ing at the traffic light pretending to look cool? Whose image are you going for, anyway? Nobody at this university is go ing to give a damn about you unless you impact it in some way. Why not say hel lo to someone walking in the same di rection as you are? Oh, 1 have the answer. Is it because people are racist? Is it because they don’t want to flirt? Is it because they forgot how? No matter the reason, there is no excuse. We should all be happy enough to smile at someone else. We should look people in the eyes and show our pearly whites. The few positives can out weigh all the negatives if we choose. No matter what problems you’re facing I can bet you any amount of money that someone else in this world has a bigger, more com plicated problem. Need a reason to smile? You found a penny on the street. Maybe because you found a free washer in the laundry room. You can even smile if you hap pen to be wearing your favorite outfit. Thinking of ways to smile can im prove your quality of life. However, if you choose to stay mad at the world, go lock yourself in your room until you fall asleep. Your lack of ability to smile awards you a time out because the rest of us don’t want to see your frown. For those of you who are curious about my introduction, no, those things mentioned earlier are not true. I was illustrating a point. Don’t ever let any one or anything steal your joy. MacKenzie Craven is a journalism sophomore. The Viewpoints edi tor can be reached at gamecockview points@hot- . mail.com