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ONLINE This week’s question What would you do with the land across from the Advocacy Center? Vote at www.dailygame cock.com. Last week’s question Should USC continue to increase freshman class size? . See other poll results at www.dailygamecock.com. YES 14% NO Rfi% • TOP 10 Campus beautification projects we’d like to see The Gamecock staff creates the weekly “Top 10.’’ Submit topics to gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com 10. The cheerleading squads. Just kidding, ladies. Gentlemen too. 9. The aftereffects of campus meals aren’t always beautiful. 8. Preston would be a good place to store “safe” plutonium. 7. Preston would be a nice place for a lot of things, actually. Except for Preston. 6. Buy the fairgrounds and turn them into 90,000-seat Williams Brice II. 5. Bye-bye, NAC. Hello putt-putt course. 4. Who wants to press the button to implode the Towers? 3. Waffle House at the Russell House. 2. South Tower Swimming Facility. 1. Parking, parking, parking. EDITOR’S NOTE In the June 12 edition of The Gamecock, a news story was run about PETA and the NCAA. The article did not contain any sources from PETA. We feel that it is important that The Gamecock be an impartial source for USC news and events, and we apologize for the error. The Gamecock strives for ac curacy. If you discover an inaccu racy in one of our stories, please e-mail gamecockeditor@hot mail.com Ugly duckling campus becoming a swan, pride cometh after beautification efforts JASON L. RAPP GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Can better aesthetics improve campus morale? Ignore budget cuts for a moment; ditto parking problems. Indulge me, if you would, and take an objective look around and appraise the aes thetic value of this campus. Overall, it's unimpressive and uninspiring. Given USC's reputa tion of being an ugly urban campus, a face lift is being performed in phases. Thank you, Lord. You are truly a God of mercy. Gone are ugly parking lots around the Russell House and the library, which have been replaced by pastoral greenery in the form of grass. The former Booker T. Washington High School has been replaced by East Quad, which still looks rather impressive as you drive toward campus on Blossom Street from Five Points. We have an even more impressive facility on the way, we’re told, that will serve as our new RE. center and a new, unnamed arena going up in the Vista. Eventually, the Towers will be razed, and students won't have to feel like they live on Chicago's South Side. Sumter Street is undergoing what developers refer to as "streetscaping" to give it a little more of a campus feel and make it blend in with Blossom Street. It might seem a little impractical to past residents, but incoming fresh men don't know that. These changes are long overdue. They won't make us feel like we're on campus in Chapel Hill or at Vanderbilt. However, instead of having a dis gusting, and nondescript campus, we're inching closer to having a campus that will make students feel like they're actually on one. I offer that it might improve something else around here that is sorely needed: apathy and pride. We might love our Gamecocks with a fervor unmatched by most, but do we feel the same about USC? If we don't, we should. Consider these possibilities. If we cared more deeply about and had more pride in USC, we might put more effort into our education, and in the process earn better grades. Admission would become more competitive, and membership in the esteemed Association of American Universities could follow, fulfilling Dr. Palms' long-held dream. A healthy amount of pride can go a long way in making USC a top-tier university: Consider what pride did in the athletics program. Once a confident stable of proven coaches was installed, the sleeping giant many believed USC athletics was awoke and began raising heck in the SEC and beyond. Sports are great, but in the ag gregate, we're here for an education. When you feel connected to some thing, you invest more in it. Unfortunately, the budget crisis and the cuts staring USC in the face make campus beautification look ill timed. But place blame on the state General Assembly, not USC. Also, grass is great, but so is parking. We need a happy medium that isn't there now, especially giv en the increased demand for on campus housing and increasing freshman class size. The parking situation could be approached more equitably for on campus and commuting students, but it can co-exist with a prettier campus. If done correctly, we could all be proud of the outcome Rapp is a fifth-year print journalism student. IN YOUR OPINION Cloning, “playing God” saves lives Thanks to Senate infighting, it appears that voting on legislation that would destroy the lives of life-saving heroes will be delayed until next year. Americans can not afford to leave the fate of these individuals to legislative chance. The heroes in question are the scientists developing human cloning technology-technology with the potential to cure heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. Politicians have responded to their life-saving efforts with the Human Cloning Prohibition Act a ban on all forms of cloning. It passed easily in the House, but is now being stalled in the Senate. Opponents of cloning con demn it as "anti-life." Sen. Sam Brownback, the ban's sponsor, says cloning is "creating human life to destroy." President George Bush calls it "growing human beings for spare body parts.” Rep. Sue Myrick smears it as the "most dangerous and ghoulish enterprise in hu man history.” But human cloning is a highly pro-life technology for actual hu man beings, since cloned embryos can be used to extract medically potent embryonic stem cells. A cloned embryo is created by inserting a human cell into an .egg, which is then induced to di vide until it reaches the embryo stage. These embryos aren't human beings, but microscopic proto plasm the width of a human hair. They have the potential to grow into human beings, but real hu man beings are dying for lack of this technology. The embryonic stem cells ex tracted from a cloned embryo can become any other type of human cell. iney (..<111 ueveiuy iniu panel e atic cells for curing diabetes, car diac muscle cells for curing heart disease, brain cells for curing Alzheimer’s, or into new organs for transplantation. Cloning opponents know all this, but are unmoved. This is be cause their fundamental objec tion is not that cloning is anti-life, but that it entails "playing God” and remaking nature to serve hu man purposes. Columnist Armstrong Williams condemns cloning as "hu man egotism, or the desire to exert our will over every aspect of our surroundings," and cautions: "We're not God." The one truth in the anti-cloning position is that cloning does repre sent "the desire to exert our will over every aspect of our surround ings." But such a desire is not immoral - it's a mark of virtue. Using technology to alter nature is a requirement of life. It's what brought man from the cave to civi lization. Every advance in human history has made man's life longer, healthier, and happier. l nese advances are produced oy those who hold the premise that suf fering and disease are a curse, not to be humbly accepted as "God's will," but to be fought proudly with all the power of man's rational mind. Our lives depend on recognizing that human cloning, like all forms of "playing God,” is a moral, life-pro moting endeavor. This applies not just to extract ing stem cells from cloned embryos, but also to conceiving cloned chil dren (horror-movie scenarios con jured up by hysteria-mongers notwithstanding). Parents should have the right to "play God" with the genetic make up of their children, whether to pre vent them from getting genetic dis eases or to improve their physical appearance-just as they have the right to vaccinate their children or to fit them with braces. The individuals developing hu man cloning technology don't de serve to be condemned and shack led by their government. Instead, they should be celebrated as the heroes they are. ALEX EPSTEIN MARINA DEL REV. CALIF. Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone number, professional title or year and major, if a student. E-mail letters to gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. 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