The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, October 02, 2000, Page 4, Image 4
Quote, Unquote
There were tattoo parlors down there, and massage
parlors, but not the type of messages you see today.’
Edward Barnes, co-owner of Underground Columbia site
Zk (Bmecock
Serving the Carolina Community since 1Q08
Editorial Board
Brock Vergakis • Editor in Chief
Kevin Langston • Viewpoints Editor
Nathan White • Asst. Viewpoints Editor
Patrick Rathbun • Editorial Contributor
Brad Walters • Editorial Contributor
Martha Wright • Editorial Contributor
Stores pull sauce
for wrong reasons
The controversy surrounding Maurice Bessinger's views on
the Confederate flag and the slavery-condoning tracts he
sells in his restaurants has led several local supermarkets
to pull Maurice’s barbecue sauce from their shelves.
While The Gamecock in no way endorses Bessinger’s views,
we do believe the supermarkets that have pulled Bessinger’s
sauce have done so for the wrong reasons.
oiores nave earned me popular sauce oil meir sneives ioi
many years, even while Maurice has held the same opinions he
does now. Back in 1976, the Supreme Court ha'd to step in and
force Bessinger to serve African-Americans at his restaurants.
But only now that Bessinger’s views have become public con
troversy once again have stores such as Bi-Lo, Wal-Mart and
Food Lion chosen to ban his sauce.
Given the timing of these stores’ moves, it seems only logical
that the stores are pulling the sauce not necessarily because they
disagree vehemently with Bessinger, but rather to avoid losing
customers who find his now-public views objectionable. If cus
tomers don’t like Bessinger’s opinions, they should have the
right to decide whether they want to buy his sauce — supermar
kets shouldn’t make that decision for consumers just to get good
PR.
To ban Bessinger’s sauce is to say that corporate America, in
its everlasting quest to turn a constant profit, is perfectly justi
fied in punishing someone for his opinion. The stores should
recognize Bessinger’s right to an opinion and consumers’ rights
to choose whether they agree with that opinion, and restore
Maurice’s sauce to their shelves.
Channel 51 has
new lease on life
Cnfortunately for the vast majority of Carolina fans, the
USC-Alabama game was only available on pay-per-view
television. Equally unfortunate was the fact that on-cam
pus students did not have the option of purchasing the game.
WRHA should take the initiative and broadcast all Carolina
games that are not being televised by regular networks. Home
and away games should be televised for students. Why not?
WRHA currently has a channel that serves no useful purpose
and could easily be used to broadcast games. Channel 51 broad
casts 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the top of the
School of Law. Hopefully, avid watchers of this channel will not
mind if WRHA broadcasts all Carolina games that are not being
broadcast by network stations.
This would be a great service to Carolina students and would
make Channel 51 must-see TV.
A _ ^ „ TT ^
A D U U 1 O
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during the fall and spring semesters and nine times during the summer with the exception of university holidays and exam periods.
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newspaper's parent oreaniwtion. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees.
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Tmi Gamecock
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THE STRATEGIC. '
HEEi> IS bEVElC>ftNG: ■
IF THESE UN€S>
INTERSECT, VJE \
CPENTME.
VALVES.
mt
y
2000 Olympic Games
Let the corporate games begin
The 2000
Olympic
Games have
come to a close.
Of course, reflec
tion on the games
is prudent. As 1
write this column,
I am reminded of
the Visa commer
cial with the syn
chronized swim
mers forming the
word “VISA.”
Before they
do this, a narrator discusses the
overconimercialization of the Games
and how it is necessary to marvel at
the inherent beauty of the Games.
What beauty?
The Olympics today do not rep
resent anything more than the corpo
rate takeover of America and the world
it dominates. Let’s look at the spon
sors. Coca-Cola and McDonald’s are
official sponsors of the Games.
Go down to Sydney and see how
many athletes include Cokes and
Big Macs in their diets. There are oth
er sponsors like Nike, an official
Olympic supporter and owner of the
United States Olympic Team (they
don’t actually own the team, just their
souls).
Some athletes are realizing the fal
lacy the Olympics really are. Kaliya
Young, a three time All-American at
UC-Berkeley gave up a year of school
to try out for the Canadian National
Water Polo Team. That was until she
realized that all of her hard work, ded
ication mid sacrifice were going to fill
up the corporate coffers. She quit her
Olympic ambitions and went back
to school.
The Olympics are supposed to be
the triumph over mind and body in
the pursuit of physical excellence.
That may have been true in the past,
but now it’s more about the techno
logical improvements in equipment
and gear in the pursuit of corporate
excellence.
Look at the new Speedo suits de
buting in the Sydney Games. Or those
new speed skates at Nagano. The
records are falling. Are they falling
because of physical excellence or is it
technological excellence?
The beauty of the games is gone.
The moment is over,just like the nar
rator in the Visa commercial says. It
is time for the games to return back
to the traditions of antiquity to revive
them.
When the games began in 776 B.C.,
they were a religious festival honor
ing Zeus. Athletes trained for months
and were reviewed by a panel that as
sessed their physical endowments, etc.
Olympic athletes competed in the
nude and no records were kept. The
winners were given an olive branch
(its vitality was transmitted to the re
cipient), gave public thanks to Zeus
and returned home as victors.
One event in the ancient games
that depended upon technology was
the chariot races. The difference be
tween now and then was that the own
er of the chariot was the winner of the
race instead of the chariot rider.
If that were the case today, the
medal count would be between Speedo
and Nike and other corporations in
stead of between nations.
We need to return to the ancient
traditions. Equestrian events today are
full of pomp and splendor. In an
cient Greece, horse riders rode naked
and bare back. There are some tradi
tions that we may not want to incor
porate, though. In Greece, only vir
gins could watch and women could
not participate in the Games. I say let
them compete, but they have to be
naked, too.
The simplicity of the ancient games
is desperately needed to restore the
greatness of the modem Olympics. If
not, these modem Games will become
a farce like the ancient games became
when the Roman Emperor Nero came
to power. By then, it was slaves com
peting for their lives against wild an
imals instead of free men competing
against one another for glory. Today,
we are all slaves—spectator and com
petitor alike — of the corporate em
pire. 4
Nathan White
writes every
Monday. He can
be reached at
gamecockview
points@hotmail.
com
Letters
African-American
doesn’t necessarily
mean Democrat
To the Editor
I agree with Corey Ford’s statement
that the minority vote is needed — but 1
would like to extrapolate his idea and com
ment on his theory behind it.
First of all, everyone needs to become
informed and then vote. It does not mat
ter what one's race is—voting should not
be overlooked.
Secondly and more importantly, I find
Mr. Ford’s implied assertion that an African
American vote is a Democratic vote to be
quite assumptive and untrue. Does he then
meah a white vole is automatically a Re
publican vote? (I think Gov. Jim Hodges
would quickly disagree!)
Like Mr. Ford, I encourage blacks and
whites (and all shades in between) to look
at the candidates without bias. Once that
is done, then people should ask themselves
the following questions:
1. “Which one offers me the chance
to make something of myself if I work for
it?”
2. “Which one is willing to let me
keep more of my hard-earned money and
let me decide how to invest it and use it
to my benefit?”
3. “Which one does not wish to keep
me dependent on handouts?”
4. “Which one will let me raise my
family the way I would like?”
5.1 believe that once these questions
are truthfully answered, Mr. Ford's as
sumption of where certain votes are go
ing will be wrong.
Darin L. Passer
School of Medicine
Class of2004
Preston open to all
residents, not just
privileged ones
To the Editor,
In response to the editorial in the Sept.
25 edition of The Gamecock entitled “Pre
ston College should be open to all stu
dents,” I launch the following retaliation:
Preston College has received the bad
end of the proverbial stick much too of
ten. Mow much longer will the ignorant
remain uninformed?
The Gamecock has been host to many
instances of so-called journalists shelling
out - to simply put it - lies. The latest in
demnity of ignorance was the misunder
standing of Preston not being open to all
students.
§ Well, if you were to do some investi
gating, you would know that Preston is
open to all students. Unfortunately, you
have to put effort into fdling out an ap
plication to reside in this “experiment.”
Some people go to the extent of tracing
their hand on the back of the Preston ap
plication.
And the dining facilities that are fre
quently conversed about widiin these pages
are completely misunderstood. The food
served is the same from the GMP. Does it
sound all that much better now?
If it does, let Sodexho-Marriott know
so you can pay more for reheated cod or
turkey supreme. So if you want to label
us as “special,” its only because we had
“motivation” and “effort.”
So, please have your “weekend jour
nalists” know something of the subject be
fore they write anything.
Richard De Leon
Public Relations Junior
Get printed in %k (BattieCOCk
submit your letters, columns and editorial cartoons
gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com
Election 2000
Killing me
softly with
his views
This week,
America’s
most active
serial killer struck
again. His name is
George W. Bush,
and his title is gov
ernor, but this is a
matter of chance
— that he has a ti
tle that he was
born into a long
line of politicians.
What makes
George W. Bush
different from peo
ple who kill for
money or sex? Is
he morally just be
cause he murders
to win the bid for
Jennie
Ughtweis
is a senior
English majpr.
She writes every
Monday. She can
be reached at
gamecockview
points@hot
mail.com
the presidency, as an antidote to the al
legedly soft-on-crime Democrats? I’ve
said repeatedly, in conversations to my
friends and family, that A1 Gore will
lose because, like Bush, he believes in
the death penalty, and will not attack
Bush’s blood-splattered record. As much
as I dislike Gore, I respect this move
— the only of his career — for his
own integrity.
After a stay of execution to allow
for DNA testing, Ricky McGinn was
executed for the 1993 rape and mur
der of his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Sa
lon.com and other news servers are
calling the stay of execution “un
precedented” because it is that — it is
one of the few times Bush had grant
ed a stay. (No such mercy was extended
to Karla Fay Tucker, a convicted mur
derer, who, like Bush, found Jesus in
her darkest hour.) Repeatedly, Bush has
denied stays of execution with appeals
to further DNA testing and has also as
serted that there is no way an iimocent
person could have been put to death
in the state of Texas. With similar fuzzy
logic, he calls the death penalty a de
terrent, though any informed political
scientist would probably tell him oth
erwise — and one need only point to
our more liberated Canadian and Eng
lish allies to suggest that the “deter
1V1IV UIW1J VUV1IVUUO.
In 1997, Bush set an execution
record 37 dead in one year. With Oc
tober, November, and December left,
he needs four more sacrifices to beat
his own record. I’m sure his constituents
are cheering for him. And for those
who are keeping track, an annual body
count of 33 out-numbers both Jeffrey
Dahmer and Ted Bundy. So, the blood
thirsty governor is clearly an under
achiever.
The Bushes carpetbagged to the
state of Texas, but that hasn’t stopped
George W. Bush from appearing in a
pair of cowboy boots with the Lone
Star flag emblazoned on them, and it
hasn’t stopped him from enacting vig
ilante justice in the style of the origi
nal Texas Rangers. Indubitably, he is
attempting to mime that folk heroic
quality of the hanging judges of the Old
West.
I prefer the other kinds of heroes
— like the man who lost his daughter
in the Oklahoma City bombing, and
testified on behalf of Timothy McVeigh
at his trial, begging the jury to let him
live. “If I’m ever going to foigive him,”
he said, “I need him to be alive.” Equal
ly heroic are anti-death penalty activist
Suzanne Bosler, who continues her cru
sade despite her father’s brutal murder
_i .i_XT-. t„ _
ouu uiv ui^iuuwiuuii nui iii i ’»uuv,
a group of families who have lost loved
ones to violent crimes, and demand
that their murderers not be put to death.
Also noble are the men and women of
the American Civil Liberties Union’s
Prison Project, which uses statistical
analysis to prove what many people
have always known—that the death
penalty is racist and classist in its ap
plication, with crimes against Caucasian
victims punished far more harshly th;in
those with minority victims.
These are the sort of people who
have risen above the worst possible cir
cumstances, yet maintain their desire
for real justice. They suffer a grief so
profound that I could never pul words
to it — and they forgive and persevere.
And, unlike George W. Bush, they have
no blood on their hands.