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« Quote, Unquote ‘My personal opinion is that we can’t afford to put a 15 percent, or whatevet the budget cut is, on the backs of students.' Mack Whittle, chairman of the board of trustees %\\z (Bamccock Serving the Carolina Community since 1 QOS Brock Vergakis Editor in Chief Clayton Kale Viewpoints Editor Erin O’Neal Spotlight Editor Kyle Almond Sports Editor Brad Walters Design Editor Brandon Larrabee University Editor Amanda Silva Spotlight Editor Valerie Matchette City & State Editor Martha Wright Copy Desk Chief * SG candidates should keep realistic goals Students with plans to be USC’s student body president will take their first step to that end today as filing for Student Government candidacy begins. Soon after the candidates file, students can expect to see fliers and stickers covering bulletin boards from the B.A. building to the Coliseum. The candidates will undoubtedly make the usual promises. Popular platforms in the past have included these favorites: safety, parking and better use of student fees. While it’s impor tant for these and other issues to be discussed, it’s equally impor tant for the SG candidates to be realistic in their campaign plat forms and be aware that they will have about as much clout with the administration as Cocky. This year’s candidates should talk to outgoing SG officers to find out how the system works and how they can be realistic about their platforms. Limiting the number of ridiculous campaign promises might increase student voter turnout because students might believe the SG candidates can accomplish what they set out to do. Incubator could benefit students, if they pursue it It isn’t often that we get to applaud Student Government and the USC administration for working together to do something that actually benefits students. This is an exception. SG President Jotaka Eaddy announced last week the creation of a Student Incubator Center, which will allow students to start their own businesses and get $1,000 in start-up money from the S.C. Research Institute. SG worked with Vice President for Research William Harris’ office to create the incubator. The first meeting for interested students will be tonight at 7 p.m. The grant is an example of what college is supposed to be about — providing training for students both inside and outside the classroom. The incubator center, which will support 10 new businesses for two years, is something that can benefit students if ' they seek it out. — Students should take advantage of the incubator. It’s a rare op portunity to get hands-on training that allows them either to reach for their dreams or just to make a little money in their spare time. As SG and the administration never forget to remind us, the next Bill Gates could be here at USC. 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 durir^ 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 erf 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 ' '400 Greene Street alumbia, SC 29208 Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Student Media Area code 803 Advertising 777-3888 Classified 777-1184 Fax 777-6482 Office 777-3888 Gamecock Area code 803-777-7726 Editor in Chief gamecockeditorOhotmail.com University Desk gamecockudeskOhotmail.com City/State Desk gamecockcitydeskOhotmail.com Viewpoints gamecockviewpointsOhotmail.com Spotlight gamecockspotlightOhotmail.com Sports gamecocksportsOhotmail.com Online www.dailygamecock.com 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, professional title or year and major, H 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 e-mailed to Jmecockviewpointsdhotmail.com. The Gamecock reserves the right to edit for libel, style ^nd space. Anonymous letters will not be publish id. Photos are required for guest columnists and can be provided by the submitter. The Game cock Travis Lynn Sean Rayford Photo Editors Mackenzie Clements Jason Harmon Ashley Melton Kenley Young Copy Editors ■—HIM Charles Prashaw Asst. City/State Editor Betsy Baugh Community Affairs Ann Marie Miani Jennie Moore Katie Smith Page Designers Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Ellen Parsons Director of Student Media Susan King Creative Director Sean De Luna Todd Hooks Melanie Hutto Emilie Moca Martin Salisbury Creative Services Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Sarah Sims Advertising Manager Jannell Deyo Robyn Gombar Kera Khalil Denise Levereaux Nicole Russell Advertising Staff Sherry F. Holmes Classified Manager Only two letters to the editor per student will be printed in a semester. Staff columns take priority over guest columns, unless the guest columnist offers expertise on a subject, or if the subject’s relevance is limited by time. Guest columns and letters may be submitted by e-mail to gamecockviewpoints©hotmail.com. Call 777-7726 for more information. . iiip The aspiring novelist, part two So you’ve made up your mind. You’re going to write your very own great American novel. Good for you. It takes gumption jtst Mjchae, to make that decision. It’s sad is a third-*ear . , journalism major, that everyone has at least one novel him at somewhere inside gamecockviewpoints them and doesn’t ©hotmail.com. do anything about it. But you’re going to let it out. Now comes the hard part — following through. You’ve read plenty of novels in your day, I’m sure. Well, read the novels you were assigned in school, anyway. OK, maybe not, but you probably skimmed through them, right? At the very least, I’m sure you know what a novel is. But how in the hell do you write one? You could try starting with your protagonist. Just to get the ball rolling, we’ll say your protagonist is a man, about 20 years old and a college student. It’s always best to write what you know. Though writing about an ex-car thief turned sushi chef would be interesting, you’d prob ably be able to describe the thoughts and actions of a college student a little easier and with more detail. Your protagonist is anormal, everyday guy, so he needs anor mal, everyday name. We’ll call him Sam. After the protagonist, of course, you’ll need an antagonist, also known as the “bad guy.” He is to be the Grendel to Sam’s Be owulf, the Tybalt to Sam’s Romeo... the Triple-H to Sam’s The Rock. He is the low down, no good S.O.B who always ru ins Sam’s hardest efforts and spoils his great est dreams. We’U call him Dirk, and, just for some drama, let’s make him Sam’s dad. Now, you can’t have a novel with just two characters. It’s been said, time and time again, that sex sells. So it only goes to figure that Sam needs a romantic counterpart. She’ll be the childhood best friend who always secretly adored him. Now that they aren’t kids anymore, Sam realizes he’s in love with her, too. I know this has been done about a million times, but people seem to eat this crap up. We’ll call her Angela, bringing to mind images of angels in the reader to further her character development as a sweet, kind-hearted soul who’d do anything for Sam. Every good novel, or movie for that matter, needs one dramatic death scene. Now, we may end up killing off Dirk, but that doesn’t count because the reader will be hoping for him to die. We need a character they care about to die a horrible, gut-wrenching death. We can’t kill off Sam or Angela, because it’ll be hard for them to live happily ever after with three kids, two dogs and a cat in upper middle class subuibia if one of them is dead We could kill them both and have them together in the afterlife, but now you’re getting all existential on me, and you’re going to lose most of your readers. The obvious solution is to give Sam a best friend. Andy will be Sam’s goofy yet charmingly endearing sidekick throughout the first half of the novel. Then, in one of the later chapters, Andy will find himself face-to-face with Dirk in an aban doned cracker factory. There will be a fight, and, in the end, Dirk will throw Andy in to the machine that makes those crackers with the peanut butter already inside. A disturbing but moving end for a lovable tier character. Now that you have your main characters, you’ll have to throw in some extras. I’d suggest a few henchmen for Dirk and some girlfriends for Angela, but that should be easy now that I’ve done the hard part for you. Now you’re just about ready to get that novel written and knock Mankind off the top of the best seller list. All you have left is to decide what all these characters will do, feel, think and say for the next 80,000 words. Oh well, how hard can it be to come up with a plot, anyway? You just... um... you just wait until next week, and I’ll try to come up with something. Letters f Circus animal tricks not what PAWS claims To the Editor In no way am I trying to discredit the loyal animal activists who protested the circus, but I was just wondering in what circus did co-president of PAWS, Shirin Modaresi, see “animals jumping through hoops of fire and riding unicycles.” I may disappoint many who have yet to see the circus, but there are no animal tricks similar to that in the Ririgling Bros, and Bamurn & Bailey Circus. When I do hear that a circus in my town is featuring those tricks, without a doubt, I will make an ef fort to get better seats. Annie Eariunt Second-year Student Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism Manage ment Bessinger ads’ racism disgusts grad student To the Editor I am a graduate student working to ward a Master of Social Work degree here at USC. As an African-American woman and a person concerned for the political and social justice of minority groups, I am very disgusted about your decision to con tinue to print ads by Maurice Bessinger. Overall, I am repelled by Mr. Bessinger’s overt display of racism. I am bothered by the fact that The Gamecock, which is a representation of USC as an academic community, has decided that finance prevails in the fight for racial peace. I am sure that the paper will not suffer by withdrawing the Bessinger ads. By printing these ads, The Gamecock isn’t supporting the perspective of many of its readers. I urge you to cease printing Mr. Bessinger’s ads in future issues of The Gamecock. I will no longer read The Gamecock. In addition, I will discourage my colleagues and friends from reading any future issues of the paper until this issue is resolved and a formal retraction is printed in The Gamecock. Nicole R Dewitt Graduate Student College of Social Work Green’s letter shows egotism To the Editor I have become enthralled with Darryl Green’s letter to the editor that appeared in Wednesday’s paper. I think it might be the best example of egotism and nonexistent-yet-perceived racism that I’ve ever heard. The guy walked into a store and heard a voice on the intercom say “Security, scan section C, please, which is commonly heard in many stores by many people. For some reason, Mr. Green assumed that he was in this mysterious “Section C” and that he must be under suspicion for theft because he’s young and, presumably, black. He then walked over to another section and heard another an nouncement: “Security, scan section D.” Again, he assumed that, since the whole world must be obsessed with whatever he’s doing, he was now in Section D (Are there really any stores that use section letters for location identification, anyway?), and that all eyes in the store were on him. A letter like this is what makes the whole idea of ubiquitous racism difficult for many people to take seriously, and it’s actually an insult to people who really have been seriously victimized by racism. Dan Britton Fourth-year Student Economics Rising USC crime rate needs swift response To the Editor I am writing in response to your sto ry on the two girls who were held up at gunpoint on Greene Street last week. I am a 24-year-old female MIBS student who lives two blocks from the business build ing. I came home a few days before the se mester started to allow myself ample time to move back into my apartment. At 2 am. on the first night, I heard what I thought was loud thumping coming from our neighbors’ upstairs apartment. There was only one concern — they weren’t home from winter break yet. I called them several times, but no one answered. The thumping and banging persisted. Alone in my apartment, I ran into the closet with my cordless phone and rallerl the nnlice. Thev arrived rather expeditiously and tried to get into Mike’s apartment with no luck. Finally, alter one of the cops searched around the house, I heard, “Get down on the ground! Hands in the air! Now!” The cop’s partner ran around the house to assist, and I peeked around the comer and watched as they apprehended the man that was attempting to break into MY apartment! I ran into my neighbors’ yard when I saw them come outside. Since that night, I have been very cautious of my surroundings and slept with the light on in my apartment. I am appalled that I have to deal with this fear in addition to hearing of so many other students getting robbed, assaulted, pursued, etc. I think that USC and the city of Columbia need to take action. I lived in London and felt safe. Morgan Daniels Graduate Student , Masters in International Business Crimes of the Mind TV can’t i< * replace parenting There’s ” ~ something Eminem gets right: people don’t watch their children closely enough, and they let television do too much of the baby-sitting. We Wonder why children today “walk, talk and act” like Eminem. Children are only human, and hu mans are only animals. One way an animal learns is by imitating the things it observes during interactions. If the only interactions children have are with a television set and a PlayStation, of course they’re going to develop a skewed sense of reality. rified violence, drug consumption and love less sex affects a child’s sense of the real world and human interaction. Has media (for this column’s purpose, media specifically means television, but it can apply to popular music, movies and computer games) really had a negative effect on the way an entire generation of children views the world? Yes. People’s worldviews are based on what they see and hear every day. If people’s behavior didn’t respond to continual visual and auditory stimulation, advertisers would have given up long ago. Because advertising is such a big-mon ey business, it stands to reason that continual stimulation works to change peo ple’s behavior, the brand of cookies they buy or whether they begin to view women in tight skirts simply as sex objects. I heard a film teacher commenting on a suspense movie called The Towering Inferno. In this film, somebody falls to his death from a skyscraper. The film teacher said the students have changed over the years and now laugh unashamed ly at the scene. There is no humor to the scene. Like I said, it’s a suspense film. But an entire class found falling hundreds of feet into a paved surface funny, right? Oh, yeah. The Coyote did it all the time. We’ve established that constant exposure to the media can change a person’s behavior. But why has the programming cnangea over me years irom the nuclear family stereotype in the Andy Griffith Show to a dysfunctional one like Malcolm in the Middle? It’s quite simple, really. Television shows can get away with so much more today than they could in the 60s and 70s. The rating sys ■ tern imposed by government agencies has allowed this change. Out loud, producers complain about the system, but under the table, they’re all shaking hands. The ratings on movies, CDs and television shows are a placebo to appease moms and dads in suburbia. The little “TV-MA” on the top of the TV screen simply says to kids, “watch me. I’ll warp your impressionable little mind.” And “parental advisory” stickers on CDs are badges of honor for pre-teens. Simply put, it’s state-sponsored advertising. Another reason for the decline in decency of programming is the growing number of channels available. Every channel is competing for your viewership, so the shows are designed to shock you and cap ture your attention as you click the remote. I don’t want people to misunderstand me and think I’m a hypocrite when they see me sitting in front of the boob tube. Quality programs do exist on television; however, for every good show you have to choose from, you’ve got 50 terrible ones. To reiterate the opening line, if the programs children watch aren’t monitored K\/ a naront r\r ntlinr nlrlnr tKau ti/Ill infill —J -~—-- -— " — ence their behavior. And with increasing ly violent programs on television, parents shouldn’t be shocked when their chil dren begin to act aggressively. It’s easy to blame the media for such changes, but the fault lies with parents, be cause they’ve failed to monitor what mes sage's children receive or to take the necessary steps to protect children from inappropriate messages. We want to hear from you! Be sure to include you phone number, year and major. Send letters to the Editor to: gamecockvtew-Jolnts@hotmaH.com