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4 the GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, Novembe 4, 2002 SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Create message boards at Will the football team finish www.dailygamecock.com or with a winning record? send letters to the editor to www.dailygamecock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Results published on Fridays. IN OUR OPINION Students can rock the vote With Election Day tomorrow, television commercial allotments are riddled with political advertisements, and promotional posters can be found at nearly every corner. It’s a time when many are tired of being inundated with campaign publicity. But that publicity is important — and the job of voters is to respond to it. USC provides a day off for Election Day on Tuesday, and students must Issues that affect use the opportunity. The Students are notion that individual votes unique, but don’t truly count is not a good officials won t excuse to stay away from the make these Us Ifeveryone thought that concerns a . .. -i way, the democratic system students are would faU miserably-If underrepresented enough college-age voters take in elections. Part elections, they can form a larger, better-defined contingent. And candidates would be more focused on issues that affect younger generations. Issues that affect students are unique, but officials won’t make these concerns a priority if students are underrepresented in elections. And being faced with choices on the ballot leads to better-educated voters. Registered voters can even take the time between now and Tuesday to research the candidates and the issues. Voting is important; educated voting is more important. /llUUUI Ulllg LU UIC ICUCIdl lull V^UlllllllddlUll, 51.3 percent of the voting-age population in the United States took part in the 2000 presidential election. In South Carolina, that figure was just 46.6 percent. About half the eligible population fails to capitalize on this chance to participate in an active democracy. That’s unacceptable. It’s time for the younger generation to change those statistics. If students haven’t already registered to vote, it’s too late for Tuesday’s election. They should register at the next opportunity, however, so that the next election doesn’t just pass by. Out-of-state students can easily get an absentee ballot, and in-state voters have a day to travel home. With a strong collective effort, students can make their votes count. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In Friday’s paper, the day of the marijuana debate was incorrect in a photo caption. The debate was Wednesday night. In Friday’s paper, a student was identified incorrectly in a photo in The Mix. The student was Gabrielle Sinclair. In Wednesday’s paper, it was incorrectly stated that “Dracula” had been running for 11 years. The ballet has been performed only » off and on since it began in 1991. C The Gamecock regrets the errors. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK • Editor In Chief CONTACT INFORMATION Mary Hartney Offices on third floor of the Russell House. News Editor Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.cdm Adam Beam News Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Aset. New* Editor The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Emma Ritch Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Viewpoints Editor Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Chris Foy Newsroom: 777-7726 ' Editor's Office: 777-3914 ™eTlnU Edlt0r STUDENT MEDIA The Gamecock is the Faculty Adviser student newspaper of The Mix Editors Erik Collins the University of Justin Bajan, South Carolina and is Charles Tomlinson Director of Student published Monday, Media Wednesday and Friday Sports Editor Ellen Parsons during the fall and Kyle Almond spring semesters and Creative Director nlne times durinS the Asst. Sports Editor Susan King summer with the Matt Rothenberg exception of Business Manager university holidays Photo Editor Carolyn Griffin and exam periods. Candi Hauglum Opinions expressed in Advertising Manager The Gamecock are Head Designer Sarah Scarborough those of the editors or Katie Smith author and not those Classified Manager of the University of Page Designers Sherry F. Holmes South Carolina. The Samantha Hall, Julia Board of Student Knetzer, Sarah McLaulin. Creative Services Publications and Shawn Rourk, David Derek Goode, Communications is Stagg Earl Jones. the publisher of The Sean O'Meara, Gamecock. The Copy Desk Chief Anastasia Oppert Department of Jill Martin Melanie Roberts Student Media is the newspaper's parent Copy Editors Advertising Staff * organization. The Jennie Duggan. Tricia Adam Bourgoin, Gamecock is Ridgway, Holly Totherow, Justin Chappell, supported in part by Karen Vaught Bianca Knowles, student activities Denise Levereaux, fees- Une free copy Online Editor Jacqueline Rice, Per reader. Additional Bessam Khadraoui Stacey Todd copies may be purchased for one Community Affairs > dollar each from the Kiran Shah Department of TO PLACE AN AD Student Media. Th^ Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 " -Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax:777-6482 SC 16 NTl STS WOfZV ON PlC? Of^ANf THAT WON'T peTpCTeO U/H£N T^ANSPLAWtep 1NTC tlVMA^S ( we* ne uefr\ 'ZZ THe hospital He |K^=z 1 <V1 ^ Accigg |( ~^g ;SS ^^FTlfr^rrC, '^3ST - J CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS ELECTION 2002 Get to know the candidates TERRANCE BEEKS GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Make sure your voice is heard; vote on Tuesday. Fellow Gamecocks, tomorrow is Tuesday, Nov. 5 — Election Day. It is an important day be cause South Carolinians will elect a new set of leaders to gov ern the Palmetto State until the next election cycle. Tomorrow will be a historic day because ei ther Lindsey Graham or Alex Sanders win DC elected to tne U:s. Senate seat currently occupied by Sen. Strom Thurmond. The seat is open for the first time in 48 years simply because Thurmond decided not to run again. (He did not ask for “just one mo’ time.”) Thurmond is nearing his 100th birthday. I am dismayed and deeply sad dened by the fact that voter turnout among youth has steadi ly declined since 18- to 20-year olds were given the right to vote in 1971 with the adoption of the 26th Amendment. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 36 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds voted in the 2000 election. Every free dom we enjoy as Americans — from full enfranchisement, re gardless of age, sex, creed or race, to practically every quality-of-life issue that makes us a great coun try — was gained through citizen participation in our system. Our system of government is great because it allows everyone to participate. I constantly hear students making arguments that their votes do not matter and that politicians ignore young peo ple. A politician may be a lot of things — a mind reader is not one them. Politicians reflect our apathy. They do not respond to our wishes and concerns be cause, by not voting, we are not voicing our opinions. If we, the people, are disconnected from the government, we, in turn, get a disconnected government. I am a Democrat. I think the Democratic Party is the major po litical party that represents my po litical beliefs. I would love to see Jim Hodges re-elected as governor because of his assiduous commit ment to improving education in South Carolina, as evidenced by the success of First Steps and the improvement of SAT and achieve ment-test scores. The Education Lottery has helped increase both the Palmetto Fellows and Life scholarships. I will not support Mark Sanford because I do not think his voucher program will work for every fam ily. Where will poor families get the additional money to pay for tu ition not covered by the private school voucher? I do not understand exactly how we will improve public schools if we take funding from them. Alex Sanders will receive my vote for the U.S. Senate be cause he is far more experienced in serving the state than Lindsey Graham’s. Lindsey Graham hopes most voters will support him because he will support the president. Mr. Graham, I want a senator who will not be a puppet to the president. As senator, you should serve the citizens of South Carolina, not the president. Steve Benjamin and Rick Wade could both become the first African-Americans elected statewide in South Carolina. I will not vote for them, however, simply because of their race. I will vote for them because I think they have good ideas that will im prove the offices they seek. I will not try to persuade you to vote the same way I do. Each individual should evalu ate the available options and come to his or her own decision. I en courage you to exercise your right to vote. But first, educate yourself on the candidates’ stances on is sues, then go vote on Tuesday. Beeks is a fourth-year political science student. He is the president of the S. C. Student Legislature. War for freedom is sometimes needed I was quite moved by last Monday’s “Sidewalk chalk, not war, useless” letter to the edi tor, written by Stefanie Bopp. It made me think (miracles do happen). I engaged in a thought process for a while and came up with a number of things. First of all, logically, anything and everything must have a reason, a cause and an out come. War is no different from any other interaction between living beings; any war has had those features, if one turns to history. Fnr examnle. the Revolutionary War in the United States happened be cause British aristocrats who lived in the colonies, and hap pened to be landowners and lo cal government officials, de cided not to put up with taxa tion without representation. The outcome was the birth of a unique country that does grant to its citizens many freedoms — one of which is the right to free speech, Ms.Bopp, political speech especially, as in the giv en case. You seem to contradict yourself. We do live in the United States of America, not - communist Russia or any other benevolent dictatorship. World War II, the largest military conflict in the history of humanity, definitely was a time when terrible things hap pened. Yet it was not all about mindless slaughter or abridg ing peoples’rights. It was also about power, balance and ex pansion and the old, colonial IN YOUR OPINION world transforming into the modem society, with its struc ture and relationship between countries. By the way, if our country is so free and just, what would you call the way the U.S. government handled Native Americans in the 19th century? Genocide justified by eco nomics? Most likely. Most other wars are exam ples of politics and economics, which drive a select elite to make ordinary people die fight ing each other and promote their course of action with cheesy patriotic slogans. That is usually done by the govern ment, which in some countries, such as the above-mentioned Soviet Russia or the modern day United States, is insepara ble from the business (econom ic) elite. My advice to Ms. Bopp is to look past those cheesy slogans. What does our, or any other, pa triotic dogma stand for? What does it really mean? Are our soldiers in the Middle East fighting and dying for freedom, or for some corporate mogul's struggle for an oil supply? GLEB A. VELIKANOV FOURTH-YEAR ADVERTISING STUDENT Gamecocks, get your act together use 10, Irmo 18. Yes. This would be the score if all USC's football players were no older than 18 and didn't have years of weight training. Championship high school teams have a better variety of plays than we do. Saturday’s discouraging loss has driven me to write what I know everyone else is thinking: We run the same six plays every series, and five of them are rushes. Our routine play-calling and lack of a passing game have made the Gamecock offense incredibly predictable. Let me give you an example. Let’s say USC has the ball and it’s first-and-10. Play one: Delay to Pinnock. Play two: Jenkins keeper. Play three: Oops, it’s third-and-six now, so we’d bet ter pass. It’s a bomb deep to Williamson, and it’s intercepted. Sound familiar? It does to our op ponents, too. Holtz’s reputation for being a gutsy coach just isn’t true. The truth is, the Holtzes are conserva tive, unless it’s the first quarter or we’re winning big. The other truth is that Jenkins is an amaz ing athlete and might be a good quarterback, too, if he ever got more than a few chances to throw the ball. Poor guy just never has a chance to find his rhythm be cause, every other play, he gets his head knocked off running it down the middle. He has no confidence in himself and in turn, the coaches have none in him. Finally, come on, Skip, let the kid throw across the middle some. Gamecock fans are tired of seeing screen passes and deep-ball disasters. JAY STINSON THIRD-YEAR COMPUTER INFORMATION SYSTEMS STUDENT dUDmission roncy 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. ELECTION 2002 Sanford positive change for S. C. J.K. CHANEY GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Hodges hasn’t improved life for state’s residents. What has Jim Hodges done in four years as governor? The an swer is nothing. Jim Hodges is merely the latest in a line of ego driven Democratic campaigners who think waffling about the “meaning of is” is governing. Hodges exemplifies campaigning over governing and attacking peo ple’s credos with his series of ads starring a Georgian named Bubba. The latest episode in the Bubba attack chronicle is a blatant attack on Mark Sanford’s choice, not only as a parent or citizen, but also as a South Carolinian. It charges Sanford with being out of touch with the good people of the Palmetto State, though it is Hodges who is out of touch with Carolinians because of his relia bility on the advice of brown-nos ing sycophants. Hodges does not t believe in people, and it’s hard to find a Hodges yard sign anywhere in South Carolina, yet anyone with a television set or a radio has ei ther seen or heard his unsubstan tiated character attacks on Sanford. Why is Hodges attacking Sanford? The answer is simple. Sanford has a plan for change, highlighted by new, innovative ideas to make South Carolina a better place. Sanford’s plan, which is M .1__f_il_L.Ji_II 1 T iwi iuc ucuci, iiaa auiu tions for education, business, the economy and state government. Unlike Hodges thinks, being 49th in the United States in education is not good enough, nor is it any reason to celebrate. Sanford has high standards, not attack ads, as his modus operan di. Contrary to popular belief, Sanford is not serving the interest of private schools with vouchers; he is helping to better the future of South Carolina by providing students with a ticket to go after the American Dream. Sanford is empowering South Carolina, not deteriorating its pub lic schools. In just two years, tu ition at USC has gone up 27 per cent, and Hodges has taken much needed funds from the classroom. Do we want that 27-percent in crease to be like Clemson’s four year increase of 74 percent? Hodges criticizes Sanford’s plan to eliminate the income tax by raising the gas tax. Hodges also criticizes Sanford for not being a productive legislator. Isn’t this the pot calling the kettle black? Sanford was a productive mem ber of Congress. He was ranked first for lack of government waste, something South Carolina needs conmat. Why is Hodges criticizing and attacking Sanford’s character and ideas? Hodges is merely jealous. Why is Hodges jealous? He is afraid he will be out of a job and that he will be unable to spend dollars earmarked for special ed ucation on office expenses. Hodges is also jealous of smart thinking, new ideas and change for the better. Hodges enjoys the status quo. Mark Sanford wants to re structure government in order to eliminate unnecessary waste, set high standards for the state and bring a drift of fresh air to the bu reaucratic environment of Columbia. Do yourself a favor; vote for lower tuition, vote for our future and vote for leadership, not lies. I ask you to make Sanford South Carolina’s next governor. Chaney is a first-year business student. He is a member of Mark * Sanford’s campaign staff.