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SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Create message boards at v Does PETA have a legitimate www.dailygamecock.com or point about the mascot this time? send letters to the editor to www.dailygamecock.com. Results gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com published on Fridays. IN OUR OPINION Parking cost is excessive After an embarrassing miscommunication, Parking Services is refunding disgruntled students who paid another $100 to park at the Greek Village. Students said they were led to think that parking permits would cost $100 for the year, not just for one semester, and were surprised when they were asked to pay for the spring semester. But $100 is still a steep price to pay to park near a dorm. Students who live at Capstone House or $100 is still a steep price to pay to park near one’s dorm. Why is the Village parking permit more expensive? Columbia Hall ana don t get a garage parking space can buy a $20 permit that allows them to park in lots similar to that located at the Greek Village. Why is the Village parking permit more expensive? Derrick Huggins, director of Vehicle Management and Parking Services, said the extra money — $80 on each permit—will be used, among other things, to hire guards to prevent people from parking in the Greek Village when big events are held at the Carolina Center. But if Parking Services makes an additional $180 per space at the Village a year, it needs to justify the large amount students pay to park in garages. Some garages are overflowed, and all have minimal security. Are students paying simply to get cover over their vehicles? If Parking Services expects students not to gripe about high prices, then perhaps it should better manage and distribute the funds it already receives from students. Winners and Sinners USC We agree. The Simpsons agree. Last year’s 20-15 makes it official. USC is the best school there is — in South Carolina, anyway. IRAQ Finally agrees to meet U.N.’s Dec. 8 deadline for weapons inspections, now that it has had ample time to hide everything. BLOOD DRIVE USC contributes blood annually to prepare for the transfusions Clemson players will need after the game. CLEMSON Bowl eligible, with six wins already this season. It deserves it after beating such untouchable schools as Duke and UNC. PETA Writes letter to USC asking for the removal of the gamecock’s spurs. And somewhere, a neglected emu dies of loneliness. HOMELESS SLEEP-OUT Certainly a good idea, but participants spent $5 to be homeless. They also slept indoors. Like most homeless people. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In an article Wednesday about the play “You Can’t Take It With You,” the actor who played Donald was improperly identified. It was Maxwell Highsmith. The Gamecock regrets the error. 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 Mary Hartney News Editor Adam Beam Asst. News Editor Emma Ritch Viewpoints Editor Chris Foy ASSi. viewpuinis cunwr 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 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 Tothero* Karen Vaught Online Editor Bessara Khadraoui Community Affairs CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News Desk: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.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, Sean O'Meara, Anastasia Oppert 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 Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD ine uamecocK Advertising. i i i-jooo 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Ifax: 777-6482 CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Student apathy hurts USC TERRANCE E^EEKS GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Students should give a damn about Carolina. This past week, colleges and universities in South Carolina sent student delegations to Columbia. Students assumed the roles of South Carolina officials and legislators. We used the ac tual State House chambers. The South Carolina Student Legislature is modeled after the South Carolina General Assembly. It also has an execu tive branch, which includes the governor, lieutenant governor and staff. I had the pleasure of serving as speaker of the House for the organization this past year. I am also happy to inform you that the newly elected gov ernor of South Carolina Student Legislature is a USC student, Joey Oppermann. Delegates were assigned to ei ther the House or the Senate chambers. Assignments were based on level of experience or debate ability. Students debated bills and discussed issues facing South Carolina. The bills passed by the student legislature and governor will be sent to the General Assembly for review. It is a great way the state Legislature reaches out to stu dents to hear their voices. There were a couple of bills introduced that I thought were promising. I pray that the General Assembly gives them serious consideration. I hope it is not too stubborn to hear the voices of college students for a change. Students founded South Carolina Student Legislature. Its mission is to educate students about the functions of democrat ic government, to promote stu dent input on the making of pub lic policy, and to provide a forum for student debate on public pol icy issues. To fulfill this mission, SCSL seeks the active participa tion of all institutions of higher education in South Carolina. You are probably wondering why I felt the need to share infor mation about an organization that 99 percent of USC students have never heard of. The reason is simple: SCSL, like many clubs and organizations at USC, is com prised of students who, simply put, give a damn about their com munities. I understand that the vast majority of you would rather go to hell than be a part of SCSL. USC, however, has more than 300 student organizations and many of them give a portion of their en ergy to community involvement in the form of service, activism or education. I do not know whether it is college students in general, but everyone at Carolina seems to be so apathetic. I know we are all striving to receive an education. Conversely, I think our constant drive for the almighty diploma is restricting many of us from truly receiving a good education. Learning deals with a lot more than the letters on our tran scripts; community involvement is part of the learning process. We need not continue to neglect improvement of our communi ties. Women should not stand by and allow the Augusta National Golf Club to remain all male. Gays should fight for the ability to be Boy Scout masters. Do your part, no matter what road you choose. I urge Carolina students to take a stand against apathy. It is a cancer that must be de stroyed. Beeks is a fourth-year political science student. IN YOUR OPINION Rapp has trouble delivering his point I was glad to see that a fellow student took columnist Jason Rapp to task for his incredibly misinformed arguments of re cent weeks, especially those concerning Critical Mass and our campus's anti-war protest ers. Reading Rapp's commentary is like rubbernecking at the scene of an awful accident. One wonders how he was given a fo rum such as this to begin with. I've rarely encountered such in ept, poorly considered rhetoric. His column concerning — it’s so difficult to summarize such drivel — the legalization of marijuana (“There’s no need to make pot legal,” Nov. 11) was especially moronic. “I doubt grocery or conve nience stores would sell mari juana, like beer, thus taking away the possibility of ID checks.” The sentence contains abso lutely no information, only pre sumption. How can Rapp as sume that businesses would sell pot to underage individuals? He doesn't even bother to support his suggestion that there would be little regulation of this drug. Come on. “The way drugs and alcohol are sold differs.” This point is so moot, I'd in terpret it as sarcastic, if the columnist had been anyone other than Jason Rapp. Attention: At present, alcohol is highly regulated by our gov ernment. Drugs are not. Thus, they are sold differently. The nature of the manner of com merce by which these two drugs are distributed to con sumers cannot be compared in such pure Ujrms because of the role of government in the mat ter. “While it closely parallels al cohol, I doubt marijuana would be regulated like alcohol is.” Blah, blah, blah. “We don't need to legalize marijuana. It's not the same as alcohol.” Rapp consistently under mines his own argument. It is n't at all clear to the reader whether Rapp is arguing that alcohol and pot are similar or that they are dissimilar. “Alcohol is legal if you’re of age, but it hasn’t made us a na tion of drunks.” Ahem. Binge drinking is a huge problem on college cam puses. Drunken driving acci dents kill many people each year. I seriously doubt that Mothers Against Drunk Driving would be comfortable with Rapp’s statement, however difficult it is to take the guy se riously. I could go on, but I've a life. CATHLEEN POWELL THIRD-YEAR SPANISH STUDENT Boy Scouts should teach tolerance Most of us recognize that of tentimes, the legality of an act and the moral and social values of that act are at odds. I am re ferring to Chris Foy’s Monday column, “Scouts’ policy is per fectly legal.” The headline, at least for the time being, is com pletely accurate, as it is basi cally a summary of the D.C. Appeals Court’s ruling in the case of two homosexuals who were expelled from the Boy Scouts of America due to their sexual preferences. Like Mr. Foy, I am an Eagle Scout. I, too, have great respect for the Scouting organization and its value in a young man’s life. I am ashamed, however, of BSA’s recent handling of issues of sexual preference. Mr. Foy employs the usual ar guments against allowing homo sexuals to be a part of Scouting. He points to the dangers of “per verts and pedophiles in this world,” playing on the social per ception that homosexuality is in extricably intertwined with child molestation. He contradicts his own argument, however, by not ing that the prohibition of homo sexual adult leaders from all as pects of Scouting has failed to eliminate the problem of child molestation within the organiza tion. Unfortunately, this is a dis ease that plagues all sectors of so ciety, and it is far from synony mous with homosexuality. Speaking from personal expe rience, I know that Scouting has a powerful effect on a young man. It builds leadership skills and confidence, and it instills con science and virtue. But tolerance is a virtue as well. There is more than enough intolerance and hate in this world without any organi zation instilling such shortcom ings in our youth. We have a responsibility to safeguard the children within our home, our society and our com munity from the evils of the world, but we cannot justify lead ing our children in a self-righ teous, homophobic witch hunt. MATT RILEY THIRD-YEAR ENGLISH 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. i Prepare for an Iraqi attack PHIL WATSON GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM The apocalypse is near, but my house is safe. A friend called me after the elections and told me the world would soon end. With Republicans in control of the Senate, there will be war in Iraq, and everything will go to hell in a hand basket, she told me. ft seems she’s afraid of Saddam’s army, which I think is now tied with the University of North Carolina’s football team on the ESPN power rankings. But it wasn’t only the Iraqi army she was scared of. Saddam’s two-bit fundamentalist friends would also tear us a new one, she told me. As I imagined Saddam and friends defeating us, then march ing into Columbia, eating our c_i_i n_u ____ci_ 1WVI) AIV l UUi}lUU^ UUJL IVllbW UXIVJ. using them, and ravishing our women, I shuddered in terror. Come on, Saddam, that was my last box of macaroni and cheese. “She’s right,” I later told my roommate. “There’s no way the most powerful military in the world will be able to stop Saddam and his cronies. We must prepare for defeat and the subsequent in vasion that is sure to follow.” And that’s exactly what we did. My house is now Saddam-proof. If he and his thugs come near my property, they’ll get the shiite beat out of them. Saddam-prooflng your home is easy, fun and profitable, like pan handling. All you’ll need are boo by traps, hungry dogs, several ex otic dancers, at least three jars of salsa and a twinkle in your eye. I would go into detail, but that could be a security risk, since ru mor has it Saddam reads The Gamecock online. Just imagine a three-hour movie that combines. “Home Alone,” “Escape From L.A.” and “D.C. Cab” — starring Nic Cage with a crossbow. Unfortunately, that’s the best description of my Saddam-proof home I can give. I think my plan will work. But, if it doesn’t, things could get ugly. I’d hate to live under an oppres j sive Iraqi-ty pe regime. I guess one of my biggest ques tions for the new minister of moral ity would be about the punishment for stealing more than twice. “If I’ve already lost both my hands for stealing but then steal again, using my feet or the Internet, what happens to me?” “What is an Internet, infidel, some kind of electrical torture bag we can put people in if they fly kites?” “Well, no. It’s a network of computers that people use to share information. It’s actually quite useful for students.” “You die now!” Get ready to live like this, peo ple. Chalk on sidewalks doesn’t lie. Evidently, your only chance of surviving the upcoming apoc alypse, brought on by the new Congress, is to Saddam-proof your house. If you don’t want to resist, start growing a beard — that goes for you ladies, too. If it ever does come to that, we’ll all owe an apology to the good folks at Drop Barbecue Pork Sandwiches on Afghanistan, Not Bombs, or whatever they’re called, for not listening to them in the first place. But hopefully it won’t, and I’ll be able to continue shaving every morning without the fear of my government publicly horse-whip ping me for it. In fact, I’m going to call my friend back right now and tell her to have a little bit of faith in the new Congress. I don’t think she’ll be wearing a veil any time soon. Watson is a fourth-year print journalism student.