Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Friday, January 17, 2003 SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Create message boards at Are you glad to be back in classes? www.dailygamecock.com or - Absolutely 33 % send letters to the editor to I’d rather be sleeping 67 % gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Classes started again? 0 % • _ ====^=============_ IN OUR OPINION Have equal expectations Stating his measured opposition to the program, President Bush entered the fray over the University of Michigan’s affirmative-action programs Wednesday. Michigan’s admissions process, which ranks minority status with almost twice the weight of a perfect SAT score, is being tried before the U.S. Supreme Court for racial bias. Michigan’s program proposes that by admitting the socially disadvantaged, it can turn around the bad fortunes of racial prejudice. But affirmative action involves a different, subtler discrimination: the soft bigotry of low expectations. It hurts the people it is intended to help, as employers learn to suspect me quality oi degrees awarded to minorities, it belittles their accomplishments, leaving minority students to wonder whether they earned their degrees through merit or selection. True equal opportunity is colorblind, as well as genderless, secular and merit-based. As the president said Wednesday, “As we work to address the wrong of racial prejudice, we must not use that means to create another wrong.” Affirmative action is meant to help the disadvantaged, but college is too late in the game. If we are serious about aid, it should begin in our elementary schools and high schools. Aid should aim to put people on more equal footing. It cannot correct 18-year-old discrepancies. College admissions should consider merit- not race, gender or social standing - when accepting students. Gamecock Quotables “Volunteering is important on the Martin Luther King Jr. Day because it is a way to give back to the community in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and vision.” SONDRA WEISS COORDINATOR OF THE OFFICE OF COMMUNITY SERVICE PROGRAMS ON PARTICIPATING IN COMMUNITY SERVICE “Aren’t you glad your mom was pro-life?” FRED KERR SLOGAN WORN BY PRISON CHAPLAIN AT ■STAND UP FOR LIFE AND MARCH RALLY" SATURDAY AT THE STATE HOUSE “It’s like losing a member of your family. He’s done so much for me and the South Carolina program.” LOU HOLTZ use HEAD COACH ON LOSING DEFENSIVE COORDINATOR CHARLIE STRONG “To be blunt, there’s something wrong with a system that forces colleges and universities to hire lobbyists to compete for state funding.” MARK SANFORD GOVERNOR ON WHY HE WANTS TO CHANGE THE WAY COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES RECEIVE STATE FUNDING GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In an informational graphic about the price of textbooks on the front page of Wednesday’s paper, the price of “Intermediate Accounting, 3rd ed.” should have been listed as $117.00. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us atgamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK I Editor in Chief Jill Martin Managing Editor Charles Tomlinson News Editor Adam Beam Asst. News Editor Wendy Jeffcoat Viewpoints Editor Erin O'Neal The Mix Editor Corey Garriott Asst. The Mix Editor Meg Moore Sports Editor Matt Rothenberg Asst. Sports Editor Brad Senkiw Photo Editor Johnny Haynes Asst. Photo Editor Morgan Ford Head Page Designers Sarah McLaulin, Katie Smith, David Stagg Page Designers Justin Bajan, Samantha Hall, Staci Jordan, Julia Knetzer, Shawn Rourk Slot Copy Editors Crystal Boyles, Tricia Ridgway. Emma Ritch Rim Copy Editors Mary Waters, Gabrielle Sinclair Online Editor Be sam Khadraoui Community Affairs Kiran Shah CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.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 Advertising Staff John Blackshire, Adam Bourgoin, Bianca Knowles, Denise Levereaux. Jacqueline Rice, Stacey Todd The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. It 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-activity fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD •/ The CaamecocK 1400 Greene St. Columbia. S.C. 29208 ^Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 "NO DECISION HAS BeeN MADe..." CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Reveling in our differences ALLYSON BIRD GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Martin Luther King Jr. would have been proud. No one ever believes me when I say I had never seen a black per son until I was 9. At my Rhode Island summer camp, there was one girl who was half black who hung out by herself. Other than that, I thought all black people were like Steve Urkel and com pany on “Family Matters,” the only television show with African-American characters that I watched regularly. And then I moved to South Carolina. I got it straight after that: white people are the dorky ones. Even if we try to act like we’re black, we’re still just dorky. My first day of fourth grade was tough. I was seated next to Rochelle, a girl with a head full of weave. I was convinced for my first month of school that her name was really Michelle and that she was just pronouncing it in correctly. But then I noticed all the other naxnetags on the classroom desks and realized that many of them had q’s in places I didn’t know they’d fit. Although jump ing into an education with the Gullah dialect was much like hop ping the countries of Europe like steppingstones, I found the white dialect equally confounding. One of my best friends, Jenny, would only let me call her Jennifer for years because, in South Carolina, Jenny is pronounced “Ginny.” Being the cultured folk my parents are, we went to the Moja festival in downtown Charleston right after we moved there. We three white spots dancing down Market Street color one of my first memories of life in South Carolina. We were also frequent diners in Alice’s, a restaurant that specialized in fried chicken, macaroni, grease-laden green beans and sweet tea. It was the cheapest home-cooking dive in town, but somehow, most of my new friends had never eaten there. A few years later, O.J. hit the news and shook the racial situa tion. One morning, around trial time, I was outside with my dad when we noticed a car parked alongside our house. We then spotted the driver, a black man wearing gloves and carrying a machete; he appeared to be hid ing in our trees. “Allyson, why don’t you go in side for a minute,” said my dad, walking over to the stranger. I watched them talk and talk, un til I lost interest. I mean, hell, I was hoping to get another peek at that bloody glove on TV. As it turned out, the man had been cutting the center fronds from the palmettos in my yard since before my house was built so that his wife could make sweetgrass baskets, a dying African folk art. He still comes every year. I know that just as there are horrible white people, there are equally horrible black people. Like the lady at the DMV with purple lipstick who failed me the first time I took my driver’s test. But my first year in Charleston, I watched the Martin Luther King Jr. parade run through the city. I knew that black people and white people re ally are different. But just as we take sides when problems arise, we should celebrate when we consider how far we’ve come as an American society. I know Martin Luther King would. Bird is a first-year print journalism student. IN YOUR OPINION SEC isn’t ready to be called the ‘best’ The men’s basketball game at the Carolina Center Wednesday was an embarrass ment to two institutions seek ing respectability this year. When it opened almost three months ago, it was under standable that the Carolina Center was not entirely fin ished. In the past three months, however, little has been done to finish construc tion, despite ample time. After Wednesday’s game, of ficials decided not to let fans exit through the student doors. This left thousands of fans waiting in the lobby as they were funneled through anoth er gate. This was inconve nient and, even worse, dan gerous. This problem will be even more pronounced on Saturday, when there will be an additional 5,000 fans in at tendance. Mike McGee, our talented athletics director, should see to it that the Carolina Center is finished so that it might become the “crown jewel of the Midlands” it is billed as. The game itself was equal ly troubling. This is supposed to be the season the SEC es tablishes itself as one of bas ketball’s power conferences. The conference is supposed to be the best, top to bottom, with every team capable of finding a way into postseason play. Wednesday’s game showed that the SEC has a more basic concern than its status as one of the nation’s best confer ences. The officiating during the game wa;s quite possibly the worst I have ever seen — this includes the 2002 Olympic fig ure-skating scandal. The offi cials constantly missed routine calls and repeatedly looked at each other with confused looks, unsure what call they should make. Gamecock fans have long suffered from appalling football officiating, but this was even worse. The SEC has to combat a number of image problems stemming from universities such as Alabama and Arkansas that routinely break all sorts of rules. Although recently hired SEC Commissioner Mike Slive might not be able to quickly re solve that problem, he can eas ily improve the officiating by hiring more competent offi cials. CHRISTOPHER WELLBAUM THIRD-YEAR POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENT USC should get its priorities straight Reading the front page ol The Gamecock’s Jan. 13 issue, my face was overridden with expressions of concern and ag gravation. Once again, the university is being forced to cut its budget, meaning fewer classes and higher tuition. Ironically, on the same page was the success of the added dining facilities and the upcoming fitness cen ter. How is it this university can afford to add new dining and fit ness facilities, yet can’t seem to offer enough classes, keep great professors and maintain a rea sonable tuition? What exactly are we paying for: a perfect body or a good place to eat? Are we so wrapped up in this artifi cial society that intelligence and knowledge are no longer priori ties? I know these projects are prob ably supported by different groups with different means of funding, but I think the univer sity needs to rework its priori ties, with education being first and everything else coming next. If this university did not have classes and professors, then none of these other projects would even exist. What are we telling the gener ations of tomorrow, that college is no longer a place to get an edu cation, but merely a place with good benefits? We, as students should expect more from this university. I, per sonally, would much rather have a wide variety of interesting classes to choose from then a multimillion dollar fitness cen ter. But, to me, education is a pri ority. I am only glad that this is my final year, but for those who will still attend, are you going to let this university decide yours? BETH DAUDISTEL FOriiTIf-YKAH MARINE SCIENCE STUDENT FREE SPEECH Exercise your rights. SEND LETTERS TO THE EDITOR TO l IAMKCpCKYIEWpiNTSfeHOTMAIL.COM. 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. Some people are just crazy SHANNAREED GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Therapy and medication can’t cure everything. I’ve been ill for about four days, and I think the lack of fresh air has caused a decrease in blood flow to my brain. How else can I explain why I’m glued to the tele vision watching “True Life” on MTV? And it’s not the cool episodes, either, but in my deliri um, I can’t stop watching. Maybe I need therapy. In fact, that was the episode — “True Life: I’m in Therapy.” Everywhere you turn, there’s a support group or counseling ses sion or hot line reaching out to heal your emotional wounds. Therapy: It’s the new cure-all, the patent medicine for the millenni um. You can add it to your to-do list right before Pilates and right after a seminar on feng shui, and you’ll be as chic as any other bourgeois wannabe. It’s like church; it’s the one place all peo ple go to at least once before they die, but do we really need it? Whatever happened to just crazy? I suggest the system be redone. If you haven’t had the unfortunate occasion to see a therapist, I’ll run down the scenario for you. Forget about receiving any advice or anything useful to your personal situation. Be prepared to go on and on and on about your life while your doctor nods and writes relentlessly in a notepad. Now, remember, the notepad reveals all that you’ve always wanted to know about yourself, complete with insights and use ful professional tips, but like nir vana, it is out of your grasp. Like the teacher’s edition with all the answers, you’ll never get to see it. And after you’ve talked and talked and talked about yourself, you’ll make another appoint ment and make your payments, which can be anywhere from a day’s pay to a week’s pay. Sucks, don’t it? The sum total of emotional breakdowns and breakthroughs in our lives weaves colors into the tapestry of our characters, our personalities. Some people are just whacked out. The guy who barks at you in the park might need a little help, but the girl who wears purple socks up to her thighs every day doesn’t neces sarily need a therapist, just a stylist. If we listened to the media and school counselors every time we get a C on a term paper, we’d be out to get a nreicrmtion for Prozac, Xanax or Valium. We’re the young nation of ad dicts, and the problem isn’t mari juana or cocaine or whatever your parents think you’re smok ing or snorting at college. It’s all the Ritalin they’re pushing on middle-schoolers that’s whacking ’em out. Some folks are just hyper, and some folks are just damn moody. And isn’t some of the fun about life learning who you are from the mistakes you make and the crap py advice you get from your friends, who don’t know much more than you do? I’d rather get advice from my friends; they love me, and, if what they tell me doesn’t work out, I can give them crappy advice in return. If your therapist screws up, you don’t get your money back. It’s a bum deal. It’s the only occupation outside of meteorology in which you can be wrong all the time and still get paid. But, like all fashions and fads, the tide will change. I wonder what the next new thing will be — maybe enlightenment through continuous viewing of “Law and Order” episodes. Reed is a fourth-year public relations student.