Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Quote, Unquote ‘We don’t want to be in the position of being network police.' William Hogue, USC Chief Information Officer « %\[t (Samtcotk page 7 We (Bamecock 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 Sumter Street should become green space Columbia City Council has pre-approved a measure that calls for the redesign of Sumter Street between Blossom and Greene streets. Under the plan, metered parking along that stretch would be removed, and a fenced grass median similar to the one on Blossom Street would concentrate pedestrian traffic flow to crosswalk ar eas. This is all in accordance with President Palms’ and the board of trustees’ plans to beautify campus. Instead of creating a divided Sumter Street, USC should pro pose to simply remove that section of the street altogether. It has been mentioned in previous talks concerning the Master Plan that Sumter Street south of Blossom should be converted to green space, so why not take it up a block or two? The street’s removal would make it safer for the many students who traverse the area on foot, and it would go along well with the administration’s green-space theme. In addition, the removal of * that stretch of Sumter Street wouldn’t disturb auto traffic, because traffic flow could be diverted one block away to South Main Street, whose four lanes are rarely filled. Temporary Napster loss shouldn't have occurred Last week, USC’s Division of Computer Services updated the privacy and security of the university server. In doing so, the department mistakenly blocked access to the Napster music server. Students were unable to use the server from last Thursday until Tuesday evening, when Computer Services said they would have the problem fixed. The unintentional block caused an inconvenience to students intending to use Napster, which provides immediate access to thousands of songs. A laige number of students who weren’t able to access the service thought it had been permanently blocked at USC, which wasn’t the case. The real concern, however, isn’t the lost access to Napster. It is whether Computer Services could potentially block access to other services, including the invaluable Internet. Computer Ser vices should have exercised more caution in updating the USC network. Computer Services needs to ensure such blocking will not oc cur in the future when they are updating or otherwise working on the USC server. Students will be grateful if such occurrences are infrequent. 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. Adoress The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Stuoent Media Area code 803 l Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 GAMECOCK Area code 803-777-7726 Editor in Chief gamecockeditordhotmail.com University Desk gamecockudeskdhotmail.com City/State Desk gamecockcitydeskdhotmail.com Viewpoints gamecockviewpointsdhotmail.com Spotlight gamecockspotlightdhotmail.com Sports gamecocksportsdhotmail.com Online www.gamecock.sc.edu Submission Policy Letters to the editor or guest columns are welcome from all members of the Carolina community. Letters should be 250-300 words. Guest columns should be an opinion piece of about 600 words. * Both must include name, phone number, profes sional title or year and major, if a student. Handwritten submissions must be personally delivered to Russell House room 333. E-mail submissions must include telephone number for confirmation and should be sent togamecockviewpointsdhotmail.com. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style and space. Anonymous letters will not be pub lished. Photos are required for guest columnists and can be provided by the submitter. * 1 Call 777-7726 for more information. T« uamkock ■ WOmm StSSlE**? Brock Vergakis Mackenzie Craven Editor in Chief Spotlight Editor Brandon Larrabee Amy Goulding University Editor Sean Rayford John Huiett pho,o 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 *»<■ 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 Stvocht Media 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 ■— - SO WHAT ARE YOU SUPPOSED - TO BE? ' Cultural Issues Our generation needs a voice? I awoke from a deep sleep re cently, and I was trembling and disoriented, but I was able to recall the dream that had given me a revela tjon Patrick Rathbun There is a is a junior journal burning, urgent ism major. He can question on the be reached at minds of my gen- gamecockview eration that must points be answered with ©hotmail.com haste. The question is not whether to vote for Gore or Bush or Nader on Election Day, nor is it whether to vote at all. The question is not when to hold an other free concert in the name of peace and love. It is not even about how to combat ap athy or how to make our voices heard. No; the question 1 have in my mind is much more pressing than all of these are. It is incumbent upon our generation to find a voice to represent all of our views. We are needy in that we need a spokesper son to guide us and speak on behalf of us, by sharing all of our misgivings, con cerns and interests. We must find the voice for our gen eration immediately. We have waited too long to go unno ticed and underrepresented. Someone must speak for the thousands of us by crossing ethnic, racial, social, eco nomic and political lines to share the col lective ideas of our generation. We need a leader who will hear our pleas and consider our opinions to syn thesize a comprehensive generational stance. We need an individual to emerge or to be found that will be an Everyman and speak for all of us. Some say the mainstream grunge pi oneers were — or had the potential to be—the voice of a generation. Eddie Ved der spoke out against the Ticketmaster mo nopoly and recently spoke against global ization and corporate America for Ralph Nader. I forget whether Kurt Cobain was the voice of the slacker generation, or the “me generation,” or the grunge generation. I’m not sure what our generation is most com monly labeled, but it seems these alterna tive rockers were or are not our answers. Does their anti-establishment mentality fit our profile? Our dire search must continue. The only criterion is that the individ ual is Bohemian, and other publications have suggested musicians are the finest vo cal candidates. But all of this is completely unfair. This sort of idolatry should be punish able under law. There is no voice of a generation. It is impossible and irrational to think one per son can speak for thousands of people’s interests and concerns through their art. Various publications unjustly and un realistically labeled John Lennon as the official voice of his generation. I'm cer tain Lennon would have been the last per son to burden himself with that title. I’m certain he would have been angered by such a label. Not so long ago, Bob Dylan was called “the greatest living poet” by Britain’s po et laureate. He found the label both erro neous and meaningless. Such labels contaminate the actual work of the creator. The art should speak for itself, without contaminants. It is not enough to say that one’s work was signif icant or substantial without embellishing? This sort of aggrandizing is not out of character for writers or critics or “truth tellers.” There is an overwhelming and of fensive amount of ranking and overesti mating of the influences of art and social forces. It is insulting to attempt to quan tify creative works. It is commonplace for the general pub lic as well as the literary world to use terms like “preeminent,” “foremost,” “brilliant” and “genius” without blinking an eye or considering the weight such words should carry. The abuse of these words is a sin. A word like “great” now boasts no more meaning than “good” or “nice.” We should strive for truth and caution in our word choice and accuracy. There’s no excuse for calling Kurt Cobain the voice for the slacker generation. There’s no excuse for glorifying Jim Morrison as a profound American poet. He experimented with hallucinogens, and this created the release of some of his sub conscious, which created nothing that can be considered poetry. With a head full of acid and a stomach full of Jack Daniels, I think anyone can find a muse. When people die, others tend to over estimate the influence of the deceased. But this is not the only time such overes timations take place. It is necessary for us to use caution in the language at all times. Sometimes, we are overly con cerned with self-importance, and this col ors our word choices. Letters Lottery and slavery have no relationship To the Editor Once again, I have had the pleasure to day to read the enlightened words of The Gamecock viewpoint staff. I was, as usual, disappointed. In Monday’s issue, the subject of a state lottery was addressed. In the article, a di rect connection was made between op position of a lottery and supporters of slav ery. I have not met a person yet who feels like the “Old South” was so won derful, and that since slavery was so grand, then we shouldn’t have a lottery. I personally oppose the lottery. I also oppose slavery and racism. I oppose the lottery because of the effect it will have on the children of South Carolina. I have stopped at a gas station with video poker machines. I watched a man sit his two, dirty, shoeless kids in a restaurant so he could play video poker. They were skin ny, malnourished and unclean. He wast ed his money on gambling. The same will happen with a lottery. The “dumb rednecks,” as they are so eloquently called in the aforementioned column, may pay the voluntary tax to give us our tax cuts, but their children will in voluntarily be neglected as a result of this. For those of us worried about some one other than ourselves and our wallets, it will be easy to vote against a lottery. Nathan Leaphart Accounting Junior Washington Post " IF YOU'LL JUST CLOSE YOUR EYES AW TAKE MY HANP— * — 4 J Lottery Issues Lottery has brought out worst in politics In this critical election year, many candidates — in their attempt to maintain political power — disgust ingly distort the stances or records of their opponents. In South Caroli- Corey Ford na, however, the 's a junior coalition against a political science state-run lottery has major. He provided the worst writes every deception to Wednesday. He prospective voters. can be reached Through scare tactics at ga m ecoc k and questionable sta- viewpoiRts@hot tistics, this group as- mail.com suredly seeks to de feat the proposal — no matter what the cost. Over recent years, the lottery has be come a dominant issue, primarily moved to the forefront because of lagging educa tion achievement in the South. Lottery proposals served as a deciding issue in 1998 in gubernatorial races across the region; Don Siegelman secured a huge victory in Republican Alabama — despite his attempts, the referendum failed in 1999 — while Roy Barnes replaced Zell Miller in Geoigia with his promise to keep that suc cessful program. And, of course,-Goy. Jim Hodges scored a stunning upset victoiy over incumbent David Beasley. The anti-lottery forces took a call from the Republican playbook by engaging the scare tactics usually associated with those candidates who always drive a wedge be tween social groups in order to fulfill elec toral success. By using the politics ot tear, this group claims that a state-run lottery will steal mon ey away from the overall education budget and that this, like video poker, will prey up on the weak poor. Even The State newspaper has jumped into the fray. Claiming they let the voters decide, the editorial board runs column af ter column against the lottery and uses a full page - instead of a small article - to refute quotes from the newspaper applied in ads. Yet the advent of a lottery does not rep resent the return of video poker, and the two hold notable differences between themselves. While video poker could easily have been rigged, the state-run lottery system will all but eliminate this possible form of cor ruption. While video poker had the potential to become extremely addictive because of a person playing one-on-one with the machine, lottery participants compete against thou sands. While video poker revenues did not go to any form of an education fund, the lot tery will only be used for educational pur poses. The lottery will do nothing but help ed ucation in South Carolina. Despite the statistics from the anti-lot tery crowd, lottery proceeds in most states have risen, not fallen, years after a lottery has begun—especially in New Hampshire. In Georgia, most people still approve of a lottery system (75 percent, according to a poll conducted by the Atlanta Journal Constitution.) But most importantly, another poll by that newspaper finds that 80 percent of those who participate and purchase lot tery tickets earn more than $25,000 annu ally, which dispels the myth that gambling hurts lower-income families. Surely, the revenue from a lottery will only complement current state funding for education and not replace this funding. But while statistical gains may be small, the psy chological significance could have a far-reach ing positive effect for parents and educators. Why can’t we try a different approach to a seemingly never-ending problem for our children? The lottery possibly could create a positive turnaround for the state. For the voters to make an educated de cision, the anti-lottery forces must drop their use of the politics of fear. Finally, we must stop asking, “Why,” and start asking, “Why not?” which is the es sential purpose of how an activist, respon ' sive government is supposed to function. rif