The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 14, 2000, Page 5, Image 5
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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.
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The Gamecock
Ken ley Young
Editor in Chief
Brad Walters
Managing Editor
Brock Vergakis
Viewpoints Editor
Clayton Kale
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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