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Quote, Unquote ‘If we want to be ... one of the top five institutions in the South, we have to raise our standards.’ i 1 SG President Jotaka Eaddy, on USC’s goals for 2005 Whe (damecock 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 Goals for university should be reached The University of South Carolina Board of Trustees have recently set a list of goals for the university to reach by the year 2005. These goals, according to Board Chair man Mack Whittle, will move USC closer to the require ments for the Association of American Universities. Of these goals, USC is to achieve an endowment of $600 million, increase state financial support to-100 percent, achieve an average SAT-score of 1175 for all incoming fresh men, promote diversity to prepare students for the workplace of the 21st century, promote the achievement of every facul ty member’s full potential, provide one of the five best un dergraduate programs in the South and be nationally ranked annuallv in all SDorts. It would be absurd for us to say setting these goals is a bad thing. It isn’t. Every university should set high standards in their mission to better their services and students, regardless of any underlying reasons or intentions. While the goals might be a bit lofty and along the lines of wishful thinking, it is better than having a Board of Trustees with no goals. Of course, now that these goals have been set, the Board of Trustees has placed added pressure on themselves and USC to see that they are reached or, at least, strived for. We’ve seen how this university can be a bit late in projected goals. Just look at the Strom Thurmond Health and Wellness Center (or lack thereof). We simply ask that the board follow through. Pregnant addicts' arrest a dangerous precedent AU.S. Supreme Court decision expected early next year could set a dangerous precedent for both illegal search es and cases of child abuse. In October 1989, the Med ical University of South Carolina in Charleston turned over to police urine samples from pregnant women who tested positive for illegal drug use, though no search warrant was filed. And after giving birth, 30 women were arrested for child abuse. In 1993, 10 women sued the hospital, Attorney General Charlie Condon, and others for inhumane treatment. South Carolina is the only state that prosecutes pregnant drug users for child abuse. It’s clearly a tragedy when a baby is born addicted to drugs. But prosecution of pregnant drug users doesn’t ensure prevention. The only thing the policy it might prevent is prenatal care, because women won’t seek treatment when doctors’ samples can become state evidence. So far, cases have dealt with women who tested positive for cocaine, marijuana, heroin, LSD and amphetamines. But charges were brought against one woman who went into la bor with a 0.14 blood-alcohol level, though alcohol is a legal drug. So what’s next? Can we prosecute pregnant women who smoke? How about their partners who smoke — sec ondhand smoke is also dangerous. Caffeine isn’t good for de veloping fetuses, either. Shall we lead away in shackles preg naru rrappucino-unnKers.' Perhaps if the Supreme Court finds in favor of the women who were arrested, our state will learn prevention is better than prosecution. 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 newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activities fees. Address The Gamecock The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 . Offices on third floor of the Russell House. 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Anonymous letters will not be pub lished. Photos are required for guest columnists and can be provided by the submitter. Call 777-7726 for more information. Brock Vergakis MacKenzie Craven Editor in Chief Spotlight Editor Brandon Larrabee Amy Goulding University Editor Sean Rayford John Huiett Photo Editors City/State Editor Charles Prashaw Kevin Langston Amanda Silva Viewpoints Editor Asst. University Editors Jared Kelowitz John Bailey Day Sports Editor Asst. City/State Editor Kyle Almond Nathan White Night Sports Editor Asst. Viewpoints Editor Mackenzie Clements Aubrey Fitzloff Jason Harmon Miranda LaLonde Ashley Melton Ann Marie Miani Brad Walters Jennie Moore Martha Wright Katie Smith Copy Editors Page Designers Sruoaxr Meom illiillli Erik Collins Carolyn Griffin Faculty Adviser Business Manager Ellen Parsons Jannell Deyo Director of Robyn Gombar Student Media Kera Khalil Susan King Denise Levereaux Creative Director Brantley Roper Sean De Luna Nicole Russell Todd Hooks Advertising Staff Melanie Hutto Jonathan Dunagin Emilie Moca Interim Ad Manager Martin Salisbury Sherry F. Holmes Creative Services Classified Manager College Press Exchange AM IMPSKlAMTQUEsnoN: vihatwiu, each oftueseguys DOVJrffl HIMSQ?AFTCRW&W>SIF HE LOSES? War In The Middle East A mother's prayer for her daughter My prayer, penned on a scrap of paper, was only five letters long: Devin, my daugh ter’s name. I reached high for a crevice to K,ia McKorm,ck push my prayer in- is a graduate stu' to; I found a good dent in educational niche and wedged psychology. She it tightly. Stepping can be reached at back I heard chirp- gamecockview ing, and looked up p0jnts to see little birds @hotmaii.com and hoPPing about m at kikjwm brush growing out x ii tl ©hotmail.com of the Wall. They thrive there, obliv ious to Bar Mitzvahs and chanted prayers, just as I imagine they have for hundreds of years. Around the bend from this, the West ern (“Wailing”) Will, are steps they say Je sus sat upon to teach. In the same small stone block of Jerusalem sit the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa. Both mosques are understandably dear to Muslims, as the surrounding landmarks are to Christians and Jews. I plan to do a great deal of traveling in my life, but I don’t ever expect to find a more solemn comer of the world. Nor do I expect to find a sunrise more stunning than the one that surfaces over the mountains of Jordan, as glimpsed from a perch across the Dead Sea in the desert oasis of En Gedi. And I’ll be content if I never find a place where the stars are brighter than from the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Most of all, I’m convinced I’ll never understand Jesus of Nazareth as I do in the Holy Land, whether gazing at mil lenia-old olive trees in the Garden ofGeth semane or hiking through the still desert. Israel is a beautiful, peaceful place. Just recalling my trip there, almost two years ago, calms and comforts me. I like to think about the thousands of prayers said every day at the Western Wall, join ing and lifting my prayer. For the past few weeks, we’ve been seeing images that blow my ideal to pieces. Tear gas in Nazareth. Bombs, bullets, stones flying in Jerusalem. Ftre and smoke bil lowing out of vqhides behind which armed soldiers crouch - in Bethlehem, of all places. Hundreds of people dead over terri tory, over the right to claim this peaceful land. (And yes, I’ll continue to use the “p” word to describe Israel because I think a landscape can have inherent affective qual ities, especially as coupled with historical significance that transcends current events). And I take it personally. I, like millions representing several faiths worldwide, take it personally be cause Israel houses the most important memorials of my own religious heritage. I resent the scrabbling that is taking place over and around said memorials. It is wrong that it should not be safe to take a pilgrimage there because of violent po litical bickering. Some places should be held sacred. One of the most sacred places in Jerusalem is tire Church of the Holy Sepul chre. Like Israel itself, the church is di vided among factions; the Orthodox, Catholics, and others guard their inches of tomb jealously. I vaguely remember our tour guide saying that to reduce conflict, a family of Muslims has held the keys to the church for generations. It is time for a disinterested party to hold the keys to Jerusalem. I don’t know enough about interna tional politics to recommend any party for the job. I do think Jerusalem needs some new, creative designation, perhaps unlike anything we’ve ever seen before: a city that is technically part of one or more states, but which is controlled by an in ternational committee. I have no idea how it would work; I just know that as long as both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem, it is going to be a major point of contention. The best solution I have is to make Is rael part of the United States. (Yes, I’m actually serious.) It already feels like the 51st state — or, more accurately, the 6th borough of New York City. Half the population has a Long Island accent. The first thing I saw driving out of Ben Guri on Airport was a Corona billboard; I thought we’d taken a wrong turn and land ed in Newark. With that much in com mon, why not? Okay, I know, radical intervention would destroy part of the charm of the place, and certainly, it might be stepping on the rights of those who claim it as then own, but we all have a little ownership in Jerusalem, and therefore we should all have access to it. In fact, I hope that Some day I’ll feel it’s safe enough to take Devin there, and show her the Western Wall. Letters College students justifiably apathetic To the Editor The 2000 Election is less than two weeks away and the presidential election appears as if it will be close. With both of the candidates scratching for votes in the states still up for grabs (South Carolina is not one of those states) they are trying to get undecided voters as well as trying to pick up some of the non-voting popula tion. Much of this non-voting cast group can be found amongst ourselves. The young, college-age population is consistently a non-voting demographic. Hoping to spark our interest in voting, Gore and Bush have spelled out what they will do specifically to redress the problem of low voter turnout. Gore will push for campaign finance, specifically through the McCain-Feingold Bill, and Bush pledges to end Washington’s political bickering. Both of these gentlemen will have no more success than if the big bad wolf tried to blow down Williams-Brice stadium. Sure, many of us “college youth” might be turned off from politics by its vulner ability to corporate money and by the seem ingly endless arguing in which nothing seems to get done; however, these issues are page one of the list of grievances the length of a Kenneth Starr report that eli gible young voters have against current politics. Of these, I’ll attempt to name a few. First off on the indifference list: Social Security. This is a hot topic of debate be tween the two candidates, whether to put this money one place or put some in one place and give the rest back to whomev er to do whatever they choose with it. Does this interest the young voters? No, be cause few expect that under either plan it will be around when we end up at the retirement age. Next in line is the question of what to do with public schools. OK, this is an easy one. Being somewhat recently departed from primary education, 1 think 1 can say that neither candidate will do enough ei ther way for education, public, private or home-schooled. The amount of influence the federal government has over schools is next to nothing. As I was once told, if you want to make a real difference, stay out of Washington. What many of these school districts need is nothing short of a revolution, which neither the local, state or federal government is willing to pay for. After these first two topics, you have to wonder what the election is about. Tax cuts are one of the remaining hot top ics. I haven’t made any money yet, so I don’t expect any money back from either candidate. But I would like to see them take all that great surplus money and pay off the national debt that I had nothing to do with. I don’t fancy paying the inter est on that laige sum through my taxes through the course of my working years. OK, the next few reasons for the ab sence of college people at the polling booths are my personal favorites. First, lots of col lege students smoke. The government is anti-tobacco (and whatever else you may smoke). Students like to drink. There are more complaints of the “col lege class” I’m sure; these are just those that come prevalently to mind. If these complaints don’t seem to concern you, then that’s fine; you’re a good follower. It pisses me off, but I’m going to vote Nov. 7 just so next year I can whine and moan about why I voted for the other guy. Jason Bailey International Studies Junior Lottery not linked to S.C. blue laws To The Editor In response to Jennifer Murray’s let ter on Oct. 25, I’d first like to agree that Brock Veigakis’ column, “Charleston res idents destined for hell,” was hilarious, that blue laws are pretty stupid for the most part and that legislating morality general ly doesn’t work so well. My agreement quickly ended when the letter unreasonably and absurdly at tempted to link blue laws with the forth coming lottery vote. There is a blindingly obvious difference between blue laws and a lottery; blue laws don’t hurt anyone, but it has been demonstrated that lotteries op erate off the poor, for the most part. “So what,” you might say, and then proceed to make an invalid analogy with the sale of alcohol. A state-run lottery is n’t like being able to buy liquor. It’s like the state selling liquor, while advertising using methods that normal businesses are prohibited from making use of and telling the public that the quickest way to get rich is to drink. The difference is, the state is obligated to protect its citizens, while busi nesses have no such obligation. If we al low South Carolina to get into the gam bling business, we effectively forfeit our rights to protection. Wally Altman Mathematics Junior War In The Middle East Alliance with Israel might stall peace in Middle East And now, the ugly side of our alliance with Israel, serial vi olator of U.N. reso lutions and occa sional abuser of human rights. What has been on display in the Middle East over the past couple of weeks is an example of what happens when an entire army acts like the NYPD. “You throw rocks at us, we’ll hit you with rockets from heli copter gunships and automatic machine guns, i ne picture 01 witness ana oaiance, don’t you think? For anyone who wants to look at an example of partisanship ending and politics beginning at the water’s edge, just look at U.S. policy toward the Middle East—a pol icy so skewed and so unbelievably entrenched, it seems more ingrained in American polit ical thought than the Cold War mentality that spawned it. Republicans and Democrats both seem to want to come to bat for Israel whenever something happens. Both sides of the aisle roundly denounced America’s decision to abstain from a U.N. Security Council reso lution (as if those mean anything to Israel) condemning Israel’s excessive use of force. (Imagine that — using one of the world’s most powerful armies to combat a rag-tag group of stone throwers is viewed by some as excessive force. Foreigners are crazy like that.) Of course, the Cold War can’t be com pletely blamed for what happened in Palestine. There are some things that politi cians find even more important than our pet ty political differences with Russia, namely New York and California’s electoral votes. Foiget the fact that Israel repeatedly vi olates or tries to negotiate away any Secu rity Council resolutions it doesn’t like. Res olution 242, for example, calls on Israel to withdraw from all of the territories it oc cupied during the 1967 war. That would include East Jerusalem. But Barak knew he could call Clinton, have a little heart-to-heart and get praise for his decision to agree to partially follow the resolution. And maybe get some more weapons. Gotta keep those kids and stone throwers from destroying the Israeli army, y’know. In the meantime, the ugliest part of the death toll — of more than 100 killed, all but a handful have been Palestinians — was ig nored. The initial gunship attacks were sparked by the brutal lynching of two Israeli soldiers by a Palestinian mob. The murders were horrifying, but let’s give the Palestini ans a break. After all, they don’t have the right kinds of weapons to make it look clean and anesthetic, as Israel does when it cuts down nine- and 12-year-old children in the street. Perhaps the most surprising fact about the Middle East is the fact that U.S. policy ' toward Israel and its Arab neighbors is based on a Cold War mentality: Arab nations ac tually accepted aid and weapons from the Soviet Union (sometimes after the U.S. re fused to provide such aid), and were there fore inherently evil. Fan of Ronald Reagan that I am, I must say: Get over it. Even the Gipper knew when the Cold War was over. The horrible, awful truth is that both sides are at least partly to blame. If nothing else, Arafat’s rhetoric has contributed to a climate where violence was the inevitable outcome of any disagreement. However, Is f ull V PAmAnPA fl*-A ■ 1 rllAA ir/ua AAA t l-\A *.aa1-a in their hands—was in no way proportional to the crime. (Imagine if we had rocketed ^ the protestors in Seattle. The uproar would have been deafening.) But where is the out rage at Sharon’s visit to the temple? Where is Clinton’s bottom lip-biting condemnation of Sharon intentionally trying to pick a fight? Here is a man who allowed attacks on Palestinian refugees and then visits one of Islam’s holiest sites. Sorry they didn’t role out the red carpet for ya, pal. The fact of the matter is that the United States can never pretend to be “an honest broker” if it re fuses to respect the fact that Israel can be wrong. And there can never be peace if Israel cannot bring itself to the conclusion that the world should not bend over backward to ac commodate slaughter, defiance and inflam matory acts that reek of tribalism and in tolerance. 0 Brandon Larrabee is a junior jour nalism major. He can be reached at gamecock viewpoints@hot mail.com