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THE GAMECOCK ♦ Wednesday, October 16, 2002 7 ■ SOUNDOFF TT? WTirY VTTTIO ' ONLINE POLL Create message boards at I 1—4 I /1 / I—^ I I I Who will win www.dailygamecock.com or I I ' i I / %/ I II I l the World Series? send letters to the editor to IIJWW I \ B I L V www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com —® m A ¥ ¥ —— L. 1 —■— f' ' Results published on Fridays. IN OUR OPINION Media is key .for the police The police and the media have historically had a tense relationship. But that relationship has come under more strain with the recent sniper attacks in the Washington, D.C., area. That deteriorating relationship has only fueled paranoia and speculation in a public that needs concrete information. After news about a tarot death card linked to the sniper was leaked to the media, police clammed up. A/fpriip nr,crcmi'7Qfirn-»c orp nrvwiHpH wifh rmlv optipra 1 „„„ information about the suspect .1,0U* ®Pncr®te and some details about the in Orijlfl IOJJ» ® crime scenes, leaving residents _ public will only ... . ’ , * Jump at shadows. wlth only the broadest conceptions of the killer. Of course the police must carefully guard some information that could lead to a suspect’s arrest and incrimination; that’s important. But sketches of common vehicles do little to assuage the fear that Washington-area residents feel. The police chiefs must make a careful, responsible distinction between information that should be kept secret and information that will inform the public and possibly bring in important leads—not thousands of paranoid calls. With real information, the media can report without sensationalizing — precisely what concerns the police. But both spheres have the public’s interest at heart. The police’s search would be more ^effective with the eyes of the public behind it, and the way to encourage useful observations is through the media. Working together could speed up the search for the killer and prevent more deaths. Winners and Sinners FIVE POINTS CAMERAS If we see Sharky’s in the next “Girls Gone Wild” video, we’ll know W who to sue. JmjLjM. JAMES BOND 40 years old, and he hasn’t aged a bit. The ladies are looking forward to another 40 years of 007’s devilish British charm. RUDY GIULIANI The new caped crusader, he’s getting paid the big pesos by Mexico City to advise its mayor on how to reduce crime. €) CARNIES Gone, but nightmares guaranteed to last until next October. Charleston, beware; they’re coming. RALLY MONKEY Until he is actually on the field or swinging a bat at the plate, stop giving him coverage on Sportscenter. “JOHN” Inmate harrasses USC students by calling them collect. Stop being a fool. Dial 1 800-COLLECT and save students a buck or two. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. * ABOUT THE GAMECOCK 4 Editor In Chief Mary Hartney • Newt Editor Adam Beam Asst. News Editor Emma Ritch Viewpoints Editor Chris Foy Asst. Viewpoints Editor Erin O'Neal The Mix Editors Justin Bajan. Charles Tomlinson Sports Editor Kyle Almond Asst. Sports Editor Matt Rothenberg Photo Editor Candi Hauglum Head Designer A Katie Smith Page Designers Samantha Hall, Julia Knetzer, Sarah McLaulin, Shawn Rourk, David Stagg Copy Desk Chief Jill Martin Copy Editors Jennie Duggan, Tricia Ridgway, Holly Totherow, Karen Vaught Online Editor Bessam Khadraoui Community Affairs Kiran Shah CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmall.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor's Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Faculty Adviser Erik Collins Director of Student Media Ellen Parsons Creative Director Susan King Business Manager Carolyn Griffin Advertising Manager Sarah Scarborough Classified Manager Sherry F. Holmes Creative Services Derek Goode, Earl Jones, Kimberly Myles, Melanie Roberts Advertising Staff Adam Bourgoin, Justin Chappell, Bianca Knowles, Denise Levereaux, Jacqueline Rice, Stacey Todd 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 ^tudent Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. Columbia, S.C. 29208 Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS A case of the Monday blues TYLER JONES GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Breaking headlines show savagery of world. Mondays are the worst. Especially the dreary and gray ones that arrive early, fully equipped with brain-scrambling pain. Long weekends are never productive, unless you are in the alcohol and drug business, which seems to be the ticket now that the stock market and legitimate investment have taken a nasty dive. But this is neither the time nor place to discuss the infinite labyrinth of economics. No, ma’am, we have big business at hand. Trying to wrap your mind around a thing as big as terror ism or random insanity is not an easy task, and to fathom this on a polluted Monday morning is in deed a gruesome undertaking. Ahh, but we must remember that we are in the days of evil and the only thing worse than the ubiq uitous misery of a Monday is the whiz of bullets by your head at the local Home Depot. The news out of Bali and the Rambo-esque stories of sniping in Northern Virginia brought a new, more chilling wave of trepi dation upon my already uneasy disposition. The brutal game that is modernity has come with a big price tag. We’re now in the midst of the constriction of the collec tive sanity of the world. There’s only two camps left: the fright ened and the crazy. It is rather effortless to make big claims from couches in a va pid metropolis like Columbia, but try going to get your oil changed in Fairfax, Va., without getting your wig pushed back. And let’s not forget the teddy bears in al-Qaida. Their latest work has erased the tourist-addled economy of Indonesia and sent the legions of suburban surfers back to their dorms and desk jobs faster than you can say Kelly Slater. These are stories that sit fat and loathsome in our heads. Heavy, soul-draining weights that seem to spread a foul plague of uncertainty which has, in turn, sent the world into a spiral that is resulting in a collective psyche that is the most sinister since the aftermath of World War I. The entire world sits on the precipice of an engulfing dark ness that is sure to expose its blanketing shadow once the war in the Middle East begins. Peace has become obsolete, and we are the spectators for what is sure to be the last geo-political war. What chilled me more than the sniper and Osama’s thugs was a small story out of Finland that re ceived a back page and a few lines of ink. It seems a disturbed 19 year-old student in Helsinki got directions off the Internet on how to make a bomb and walked into a mall and blew a small chunk of the Earth up with him. The savagery of the story comes from the eye-witness ac counts that say the student walked up to a clown making bal loons for children and detonated the five-pound bomb. Now that, my friends, is a metaphor for the wickedly intense world we live in. All bets are off when the so cialist Scandinavian youth start blowing up children and clowns. So to you, my-friends, I say buckle up for what is to be a wild and atavistic ride into the black hole of history. As an idol of mine once said, “Buy the ticket, take the ride.” Jones is a graduate student in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications. IN YOUR OPINION Freshman thinks he has it right I am writing in response to the letter Emanuel Thomason wrote last Wednesday. I have to say that if I were to walk a mile in his shoes I would cer tainly do so right off a cliff. I don't care about the issue at hand, but even if he could make sense with it, he doesn’t. In his vast wisdom of all his years at USC... Wait! Did I just say year? I did! He has spent one year at this school, and in his vast wis dom, has figured out how things truly work at USC, espe cially for Homecoming and Showcase. The problem I really have is the comment “During freshman year I thought I could make a difference if I only put my mind to it. I discovered that I was sad ly mistaken.” One look at that statement and most would think a senior was writing after four years of trials and tribulations, Dut, unfortunately tor him, he isn’t. If he is only a sophomore, he is about one year from “mak ing a difference.” Since he thinks he can no longer make a difference on this campus, I suggest he trans fer or, even worse, remove him self by taking a long walk off a short pier. Without the hope of creating change, he is a waste of space and is taking up space at a great university where someone with some drive and hope of making a difference would have a chance. What I am getting at is that this guy has given up. If it took him one year at college to give up on making a difference, then when he gets into the real world—if h»doesn't give up on the whole education thing too — then he will eventually give up on that, too. It's sad the state that this guy is in. If anyone knows him or sees him please give him a hug and a cookie, because he needs them. So, Mr. Thomason, I sug gest three things: Take your hug, eat your cookie and do something constructive with your life. BILL HARRITT FOURTH-YEAR MARKETING AND MANAGEMENT STUDENT Gamecock athlete coverage lacking I must say I was truly ap palled to see that The Gamecock did not have an ac tual story covering the USC women's track and field team's visit to Washington, D.C., to meet President Bush. Thankfully, they made the front page of The State, but it seemed a little odd that they didn't get the same respect from The Gamecock. The only arti cle I did recall seeing was a tiny, little 'Briefly' write-up in the Sept. 20 sports section. That’s a bit belittling on The Gamecock’s part. What’s im portant to readers might not necessarily be important to The Gamecock staff, but it seems to me that such a great honor be stowed upon some of our fellow USC athletes should be of the utmost importance to their school newspaper. SHARELL GRANT FOURTH-YEAR ENGLISH STUDENT Simple solutions for parking, graffiti First, what the hell islhe deal with all the faculty park ing? I am not a student who takes classes at the Coliseum, but I do know many depend on the good old Hardee's parking lot. I wasn’t really surprised to see that the university realized students were finding somewhere to park and decided to close that loop hole. Let me get this straight: The university buys the lot for park ing space and doesn’t make it stu dent parking when 95 percent of the people currently parking there are students? I don’t know which group is writing graffiti on the walkways to my classes, but it’s a little tacky. I know, war is bad and peo ple die as result. I don't think war is ever a good idea, but when it is known that a madman has at tempted to assassinate our pres ident, invaded a country, killed his own people with biological weapons, harbored known ter rorists and developed weapons of mass destruction, something must be done. Finally, back to the parking is sue. When my sister attended this university back in the early to mid '90s, freshmen were not al lowed to hSve cars on campus. Why did this ever change? I know it is hard on some of the transit students, but if the park ing problem continues through out the year, maybe the board of trustees should discuss the option of returning to this policy. LEE SIMS FIFTH-YEAR CHEMICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT 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. * Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. Social burden lingers at USC EDRIN WILLIAMS GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM School lacks intelligent student interaction. I have been involved with sev eral groups trying to attract stu dents to our campus, and one of the most popular statistics we use is that USC has more than 300 regis tered organizations. But, as I talked with a friend and mentor this past week, we recognized a problem that persists despite USC’s many student groups. No, we didn’t waste our breath talking about parking, housing or student activ ity fees. Instead, we felt that a more pressing issue is the severe short age of intellectual communities. When he listed the require ments USC must meet in order to make it into the upper tier of col leges and universities, former President John Palms never men tioned the need for intellectual stu dents to interact with other stu dents who share their passions and interests. I wonder whether President Sorensen, once he com pletes his statewide tour, will seek to make the campus more con ducive to such an endeavor. i cuve a iuuiy ai a aiuuein-ui 50111* zation brochure. If you want to play soccer, hike, trade baseball cards or participate in just about any activity, you will have little | trouble. On the other hand, if you are looking for students who want to debate the conflict with Iraq or who are concerned with the grad uation rate of African-American males at USC, you’d better not hold your breath; few avenues exist for such activity. The university real ly does not foster such activity. We spend much more time and mon ey dealing with horticulture. As sad as it seems, providing in tellectual stimulation is totally in the hands of individual students. I was pleasantly surprised to drive by Preston this past week and hear debate blaring over loudspeakers as students expressed their views on the proposed military actions in Iraq. I had to personally con gratulate my friend Joey Opperman for organizing this pro gram that attracted the attention of a significant group of students. But the event didn’t seem to re ceive much institutional support. I noticed only two faculty members there; however, the Associated Press thought it was worthy of its presence. Perhaps the most underused yet important organization on campus falls into the same category as the Preston debate. Under the guid ance of the Office of Multicultural Affairs, the Brothers of Nubian Descent offers a weekly forum for students to address issues that ef fect them personally. Many stu dents allow the name of the group to exclude them from this forum, but while black male students, fac ulty and community leaders fre quent the organization’s meetings, those gatherings are open to any one who is concerned with social issues that affect us all. The group focuses on eradicating all the stereotypes that face young black males on this campus and else where. BOND represents a faction of society that usually receives lit tle attention from “the powers that be.” A few other student organiza tions have a similar task, but all seem to have the same plight: They receive little attention and even less funding. Consequently, a large portion of their effort goes into raising enough funds to stay func tional. Take a look at such top-tier schools as Stanford, Princeton and Yale. I’m sure students there don’t have to choose between intellectu al forums and movie night at the student union. Williams is a fourth-year African American studies student.