Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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3 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, February 6, 2002 SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Create message boards at Is the Sumter Street construction www.dailygamecock.com or worth the inconvenience? send letters to the editor to www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Results published on Fridays. IN OUR OPINION I Confounding crimefactors In keeping with the national trend, drug arrests at USC have more than doubled. And the total crime index at USC jumped from 352 crimes in 1999 to 742 in 2000. The significant increase certainly isn’t an indication that Columbia is the Southeast’s newest version of South Central L.A. Students shouldn’t feel the need to bar their windows or worry about the next drive-by shooting. But there’s still cause for concern. Any amount of Crime index statistics are misleading because We have no idea what they truly say about (JSC’s crime. crime is not a good thing. It’s disheartening that Ernie Ellis, director of law enforcement and safety at USC, equates the crime index increase with things like football games, concerts and other peripheral campus events. Shouldn’t students feel just as safe then as they do walking to class? Of course, the true problem with the crime index numbers is that we have no idea how many crimes are actually being committed — we only know how many have been reported. Is crime truly up, or are more arrests being made? The USC police could be doing a superb job, or they could be slacking while any number of crimes are being committed and not discovered or reported. Actual crime might have skyrocketed in the USC area, or just the actual arrests made. We’ll never know. The best way to react is to act—members of the USC community need to report crimes when they see them, and we need the quality USC police officers to stick around instead of seeking riches in other areas. It’s not so bad to protect college kids. Winners and Sinners JAMEL BRADLEY Breaks USC’s career 3 pointer record. And people actually say he has a disability? LAUREN HILL Former USC student and H Playboy Playmate wins “Fear Factor” by eating bug-covered fruit. Nice to know what a * Carolina education gets you. CAROLINA WEATHER Shorts get replaced overnight by wool coats and scarves. Anything to get us in the Salt Lake spirit. Snow days coming? USC COMPUTER SERVICES Internet is as on H again, off-again as Robert Downey Jr. ’s ■ sobriety. Emphasis on the off, again. HP ST. LOUIS RAMS 14-point favorite loses Super Bowl, costing gamblers millions of dollars. ALABAMA Boosters put football program in the ^ hurt locker. Franchione has his hands “Tide.” GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. Write us at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Mary Hartney Editor in Chief Glnny Thornton News Editor Kevin Fellner Asst. News Editor Mackenzie Clements Viewpoints Editor Carrie Phillips The Mix Editor Justin Bajan Asst. The Mix Editor Chris Foy Sports Editor J. Keith Allen Asst. Sports Editor Brandon Larrabee Special Projects Martha Wright Design Editor Page Designers Crystal Dukes, Sarah McLaulin, Katie Smith, David Stagg Kyle Almond Copy Desk Chief Copy Editors Crystal Boyles, Andrew Festa, Jason Harmon. Jill Martin, Paul Rhine Corey Davis Photo Assignments Photo Technicians Robert Gruen, Candi Hauglum Mark Hartney 3nline Editor CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com University Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com City Desk: gamecockcitydesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 STUDENT MEDIA Erik Collins Faculty Adviser Ellen Parsons Director of Student Media Susan King Creative Director Carolyn Griffin Business Manager Sarah Scarborough Advertising Manager Sherry F. Holmes Classified Manager Creative Services Todd Hooks, Earl Jones, Jennie Moore, Beju Shah Advertising Staff Betsy Baugh, Denise Levereaux, Laura Miller, Jackie Rice, Stacey Todd TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene Street Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 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. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for one dollar each from the Department of Student Media. V - WOULD f SOMEONE 1 / PLEASE 1 I CO^ERMJP I i EMBARRASS- 1 jmmmmmmjji mi nw—lifc SPIRIT OF | JUSTICE ■uifriai ■■■ 3 SPIRIT of JUSTICE CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS The firstfemale kamikaze J—l clipmicrht havphppn thinking VippHc Thp Uillinp nf fripnriQ TAYLOR MARSHALL-GREEN GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM The face of Middle East violence has changed with a woman bomber. Wafa Idris is a nurse. Well, she was. She stepped from the car on Sunday and, trembling, walked as fast as possible to get close to the most people without appearing to be a bomb-toting radical. But, then again, she wouldn’t have looked like a bomb-toting radical — she was a woman. She was strapped with the same explosives the PLO uses to argue its opinion on territorial disputes. You want impact? Well, anyone who’s been wondering where the women are in all this — besides being innocent victims or half of an oppressed Afghanistan population — now you know. As Idris stared up at the edges of buildings on that holy day, about many things at once: The miscarriage that led to her infertility. The rare divorce that followed. The Palestinian child with a dime-sized hole in his head who she held when on duty as a nurse. Maybe she thought about her dress size. Maybe her regrets. Maybe her beliefs. Idris was a nurse who ran into many a battle and pulled from it the wounded, dead and martyred. Her life after ninth grade included trying her hardest to get pregnant, saving lives, trying to get pregnant and saving lives. About 15 years later, she gave up. So she took the cause into her own hands. She is now a martyr, a leader in spirit, a trailblazer and a pioneer in the field of women’s terrorism. How on Allah’s earth could a person who had worked so greatly to save life want to explode herself in a crowded area? Can you feel your arms, Wafa? Can you feel your legs? Can you feel your heart? She might have gone into shock and shut down. Her decapitated head might have been technically unconscious. She might have watched others run and cover themselves with their newspapers and shopping bags. This 27-year-old Palestinian had seen enough. The holes in She was finished with saving life, extending life, knowing and serving and producing life. Her baby hadn’t happened and her marriage had failed because of it. She wasn’t a childbearing woman — not a great attribute in the Middle East. She was a sterile nurse who saw the daily bloodshed of her people. So now the Israeli police force will be looking at men and women alike. Idris has her own fan club in the same refugee camp she spent most of her childhood. Her followers might serve Arafat on many occasions, and most will be male, but the place of women to change the course of life isn’t as orthodox as once before. Idris will be a martyr — she made sure of that. But how will women fare in the future of terrorism? Idris took with her an elderly man and injured scores of others. Could she have taken more lives if not for faulty timing? Did she do what she set out to do? Will there be other women who volunteer their constitution to Allah? And what-will the young nurse think who is cleaning up their remains? Marshall-Green is a fourth-year broadcast journalism student. IN YOUR OPINION Elections coverage should be unbiased It’s the beginning of the spring semester, and for many of us involved in Student Government, that means it’s time for SG elections. After last year’s election-time mess, including inappropriate behavior by The Gamecock, it appears that, less than a week into the election process, The Gamecock is at it again. First, on the front page of Wednesday’s paper was a story featuring how Brook Bristow was the first person to file as a candidate for president. The story says Mr. Bristow filed at 8:30 a.m.—are you seriously telling me that The Gamecock just happened to have a photographer and writer in the SG office that early in the morning? And how about that 5-by-8 picture on the front page. I’m glad to see that Brook is more important than President Bush, who was given a 2.5-by 3.5 picture the day after the State of the Union. You did include that David Bomemann filed at about 11 a.m., but the picture used for David didn’t cover half the front page and wasn’t even a Gamecock photograph. The 1-by-l photo of David was the file photo SG keeps on their Web site. But the suspicious behavior doesn’t stop there. On Friday, you all were nice enough to post a list of those who filed for the various offices. As I read I see, Brook Bristow, David Bomemann, Ankit Patel... “Wait a minute, doesn’t Bomemann come before Bristow? Oh, they must have listed them in order of filing,” I tell myself'. But as I look down, I see that candidates in other races are all in alphabetical order. Surely this is just a typographical error and not The Gamecock pulling another election-time stunt. Surely our fine campus news source has more integrity than that. Perhaps Mary Hartney should take a look at the mess former editor Brock Vergakis got himself into last year when he had The Gamecock publicly endorse candidates for executive office. None of the candidates The Gamecock backed won last year, so maybe Mr. Bristow should ask for Ms. Hartney to throw favor toward another candidate. DAN COOPER FOURTH-YEAR MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS STUDENT STUDENT GOVERNMENT CABINET TECHNOLOGY DIRECTOR Editor’s note: The candidates filing for SG president were unintentionally listed in the wrong alphabetical order in Wednesday ’sand Friday’s issues. A challenge to all black students I can remember when everybody around us was discussing the Confederate flag. Mosf of my friends and relatives were so happy when the flag was taken off the State House dome. A lot of you dislike ads run by Maurice’s in The Gamecock, but every time you open The Gamecock, you see the ads. Are you so content with your blackness that racial issues don’t affect you? I pose this question to my African American brothers and sisters. What happened to unity? If the only thing you’ve learned from Martin Luther King Jr. is the “I Have A Dream” speech, then you have missed the essence of what he was fighting for. This is Black History Month, and I want you to think about what’s really going on around you. One person can voice an opinion, but a thousand can make a difference. RANDY SUTTON SECOND-YEAR HISTORY STUDENT College might be mastermind scheme This is in response to Bethany Mitchell’s Monday column, “College: Do We Need It?” Bethany, I’m glad you wrote the column; it’s important to realize that we don’t actually need college and that it’s a form of secondary taxation. We get taxed through our income, we get taxed when we buy goods, and now we get taxed (tuition) to get a job. We are all victims. It’s funny how we play along with the loops and turns, such as prerequisites. They’re given to us and actually tax the money we work so hard to get in order to produce more income that is later taxed as a result of a job. Personally, I believe the education system is a mastermind business scheme that many mindlessly play into. This supports the same theories behind the movie “Good Will Hunting,” written by Matt Damon. We all watch the movie, and we all still play into the BS. Sadly, we can better educate ourselves by traveling the world and reading books in seclusion than we can at most colleges. * School, love and money TACARAHALL GAMECOCKVIEWPOlNTS@HOTMAIL.COM Growing up helps you to prioritize the necessary and the less-necessary. Today, it’s not unusual to hear that many of us are full time students with jobs outside of school. But when you add the words love and relationship to the equation, life becomes a tad bit more chaotic. Is it too much for the average college student to handle? During my iresnman ana sophomore years, I was involved in a long-distance relationship with my high school sweetheart. I thought I was extremely lucky, because I didn’t have to participate in the strenuous and time-consuming efforts of dating, in search of the perfect mate. Those four semesters, I maintained at least a 3.5 GPA, 18 credit hours and a 30-hours-a week job. I attribute my successful balance to my youth — in every aspect. My school curriculum wasn’t very difficult, because I hadn’t really decided on a true major. At the time, I thought my relationship was serious, but now I know the meaning of “puppy love.” Today, I am 22 years old, a fourth-vear advertising maior. a part-time state employee and a full-time girlfriend. The difference now is that everything is intensely serious. Because I’m a senior, I can almost feel my fingers gripping around my degree, so every class and every credit hour counts. Over Christmas break, my boyfriend and I decided it would be more economical for us to move in together, rather than live on campus. So now, between studying and working 20 hours a week to pay my share of household bills, I am cooking, cleaning and offering support for my companion. My boyfriend and I are both working seniors in college, so the balance is more difficult to maintain. If given the choice, I wouldn’t forfeit any of the three, but I honestly believe that if I weren’t spiritually grounded, no balance would exist. I decided to get the opinions of a few of my peers on balancing love, work and school. They all said time management was the most difficult aspect of trying to balance all three. One male, a fourth-year elementary education student, said the most rewarding aspect of his relationship is that it’s a constant learning experience. Megan Wright, a married fourth-year public relations student, said the most rewarding experience of her relationship is having a constant companion. Though Megan isn’t employed outside of school, she balances her time between a full credit load and her husband. She also said she and her husband both earned higher grade point averages after getting married seven months ago. My conclusion is that each situation is case sensitive. At the tender age of 18,1 thought that I had everything under control, then I later realized that I really had nothing to control. Balancing school, work and love can be it difficult at times, and I wouldn’t recommend that everyone try it. If you don’t have to work to support yourself, enjoy the time while you have it. If you enjoy dating and aren’t ready for the seriousness that goes along with fidelity and commitment, then don’t rush into it. Most importantly, get and keep your priorities in order. Once you lose sight of that order, you’ll welcome the dreadful imbalance. Hall is a fourth-year advertising student.