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_ Vol. 94, No. 20 Wednesday October 11, 2000 _ ina Community since 1Q08 Bombing victim’s father speaks Sean Rayford The Gamecock Bud Welch spoke to students about the death penalty Monday night by Maggie Stewart The Gamecock “I just want everyone to know who my kid is,” said Emmett “Bud” E. Welch while hold ing up a picture of his 19-year-old daughter, Julie Marie Welch, who was killed in theApril 15, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Welch spoke Monday in the Lumpkin Audi torium of the Darla Moore School of Business to discuss his feelings towards the death penalty. He was the featured speaker for the second annual Joseph Cardinal Bernadin Lectureship, and he discussed forgiveness and the death penal ty in his presentation, “From Rage to Reconcil iation.” In his speech, he discussed his opposing view of the death penalty and his personal journey to forgiveness before an audience of about 60 peo ple. Welch has been giving speeches like these for three and a half years, across the country, ap pearing on numerous television and magazine news programs including Time, Newsweek, USA Today, Parade Magazine, Dateline , Today and Good Morning America. He discussed the aid the Catholic church gave him in helping to alleviate the pain associated with his daughter’s death. Welch has continued to be an active mem ber in the Catholic church and community since Julie was killed. The presentation included not only Welch’s story of his daughter and how he came to terms with her death, but also the foigiveness he has for the family of Timothy McVeigh. At the beginning of his speech, he reflected on his daughther’s life She was aspiring to be a foreign language teacher. The Wednesday after her death, she and her father were supposed to meet for lunch at a restau rant across the street from the bomb site at 11:30 a.m. Unfortunately, her life was cut short before the meeting ever took place. For several months after her death, her fa ther would still go to that restaurant every Wfednes day at 11:30 to and “meet” her for lunch. He also faithfully went to the bomb site every day after her death until January 1996. He then realized his mind was still negative ly trapped on that fateful day. The pain he and his family were experienc ing was strong, but he realized only he could help it end. At the time of her death, he felt an immense amount of rage towards McVeigh family. He wanted to kill McVeigh himself once he saw him on television, and he strongly support ed the death penalty. It was then that he realized through temporary insanity , he was no better than McVeigh. He decided to make a change. He asked himself several questions. “Do we need the trials to begin now? Do we need the convictions; do we need the executions; what do we need for Bud Welch to gain some assemblage in his life?” He struggled with that question for weeks until he finally came up with the answer that ex ecuting McVeigh would be an act of rage and revenge. In his mind, he felt that an act of rage and re venge was exactly the reason why Julie and 167 others were dead. He said it was McVeigh’s rage against the fed eral government that had led him to commit that act of violence. He then decided forgiveness was the an swer he was looking for, which lead to the be ginning of his path to recovery and the end to his torment. It was at that time he decided that he would be against the death penalty, and he wanted to meet with McVeigh’s father, Bill McVeigh. “I knew that someday I had to go tell that man that I cared how he felt, and I did not blame he or his family for what their son had done.” A meeting was arranged for Saturday, Sept. 5 and the two met at Bill McVeigh’s house. While there, Welch also met Bill’s daughter, Jennifer, who was the same age as Julie when she died. During their conversation Welch kept look ing at a photo of Timothy on the wall, and the two fathers looked at each other. According to Victim see page 2 Sixth Man Club gets approval by Brandon Larrabee _The Gamecock The Athletics Department has ap proved Student Government’s “Sixth Man Club” proposal, which will cre ate a specially designated student sec tion at four of USC’s 2000-2001 home basketball games.. The proposal involves turning 942 of the Coliseum’s seats - half of section T and all of sections U and V - into an organized student section, according to SG Pres. Jotaka Eaddy. No other stu dent seating will be affected by the plan. “I’m happy for the students. I’m happy for the athletic teams” whom the fans will support, Eaddy said. “I think it’s a positive move for the university,” she added. Associate Athletics Director for Ticketing Chris Massaro said the ath letics department was excited about the new section. “We feel that anything we can do to help generate student excitement in our events is an idea well worth try ing,” Massaro said. The seats are not new student seats, but will be set apart as a special section that students can request when they get their tickets to the game, according to Eaddy. Students willbe able to ask for either general seating or seating in the Sixth Man Club. “We’ve never had organized stu dent seating and that’s what makes it different,” Eaddy said. “It’s kind of like focusing in ... on a concentrated area,” she added. She said SG was working on getting shuttles for the approved games and was trying to get t-shirts and pom-poms for those sitting in the special section. Ad ditionally, cheerleaders would focus on that section of the stadium, Eaddy said. The proposal will only be in ef fect for four of USC’s 2000-2001 games: when the Gamecocks play Auburn Jan. 20, Mississippi Feb. 17, Arkansas Feb. 20 and Tennessee Feb. 27. SG had wanted a Clemson game to be included in the list, but the athlet The Sixth Man proposal will only be in effect for four of USC’s 2000-2001 games: ❖ Auburn Jan. 20 ❖ Mississippi Feb. 17 ❖ Arkansas Feb. 20 ❖ Tennessee Feb. 27. ics aeparimeni warned 10 promote in terest in conference games and were concerned about the fact that the game SG wanted fell in the first semester. The time of the game was also a concern, according to Massaro. “The thought was that weeknight games might be a good time to do this promotion,” Massaro said. The Clemson game is slated for Sat urday, Dec. 9. Eaddy said she understood Massaro’s concern. “It would’ve been nice to start off with a Clemson game, but I can un derstand ... where he’s coming from,” Eaddy said. Eaddy called the absence of a Clem son game “a small price to pay” for get ting the idea off the ground. “If that’s something we have to take, we just have to take it,” Eaddy said. It s not known whether the plan will still be in effect when USC opens the new Vista arena, scheduled to be completed in 2002. Eaddy said the plan was only a pilot program in its cur rent form. The plan was part of Eaddy’s “Con tract with Carolina,” the platform she ran on in last year’s SG presidential election. The university desk can be reached at gamecockudesk@hotmaU.com. BS2=Z22ESS*_-i —2-Tg» I — Amy Goulding The Gamecock Former USC student Carrie England Is on a national tour raising money for Children’s Miracle Network. Kissmobile arrives in Columbia by Brandon Larrabee The Gamecock The way Carrie England tells it, she wasn’t really looking to drive a huge candy-shaped ve hicle across the United States when she gradu ated from USC. “When 1 graduated, 1 was just looking for a fun opportunity,” England said. That’s when she heard about the Hershey’s Kissmobile from fellow USC alumnus Ryan Lind say. “We both heard about it through the grapevine,” England said, referring to herself and fellow “chocolate ambassador” Khara Lentel, from Lincoln Nebraska. Not surprisingly, the vehicle gets noticed, ac cording to Lentel. “We get a lot of attention,” Lentel said. England, who graduated in May, and Lentel drove the Kissmobile onto Greene Street Mon day. The 25.5-foot-long, 11.5-foot-high truck, shaped like three of the famous chocolates, was parked in front of the Russell House from 12 to 1 p.m. England said the vehicle was there to raise donations for Children’s Miracle Network, as well as raise awareness of Dance Marathon, which England was involved in while she attended USC. The kissmobile was invited to the university by Dance Marathon, England said. Dance Marathon felt lucky to have the Kiss mobile come to USC to promote the event, ac cording to Kristen Cullen, who’s in charge of public relations for the event. She said two USC students - both of whom had been involved in Dance Marathon - had been Kisses SEE PAGE 4 I I Today 73 45 Thursday 74 43 Spotlight interviews The Ladies Man Page 8 “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” — Benjamin Franklin Wednesday • Carnegie Hall Jazz Con cert at the Koger Center • Student Senate 5 p.m. • Carolinian Creed Week • SG Cabinet 7 p.m. • National Boss Day Thursday • Spanish Harlem 7 p.m RH Ballroom •80’s Rock Music in a Video Age, RH Theater 8 p.m. |fy i