Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Create message boards at Should John Palms still be www.dailygamecock.com or on USC’s payroll? send letters to the editor to www.dailygameeock.com. gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com Results published on Monday. IN OUR OPINION Rogers’death is loss for TV It’s a sad day in the neighborhood. Fred Rogers, host of “Mister Roger’s Neighborhood,” died Thursday of stomach cancer at 74. For years, children could depend on his cardigan, sneakers and calm way of talking to them about complicated issues. His was one of the last children’s shows that didn’t have to incorporate bright colors and loud music in its program to keep viewers’ attention. Rogers’ death also signifies the end of simple children’s programming. Even one are t e C}1iidren have absorbed today’s ^children’s ^ast pace>anc* *ts reflected in programming! their TV shows Just as a(Mt programming has become more aesthetically pleasing in hopes of keeping viewers watching, children’s shows rely on flashy characters and loud theme songs to keep children interested. Gone are the days of simple television, when “G.I. Joe” could be politically incorrect and no puppet on Sesame Street had AIDS. Generation Y children’s shows didn’t get in your face about such subjects. Parents used to argue that there was too much violence in cartoons, yet there isn’t an episode of “Power Rangers” that doesn’t involve a gang—and they are a gang—beating something or someone up. The difference is that Wile E. Coyote and Elmer Fudd aren’t real; they’re cartoons. The actors who play the “Power Rangers” are real. But Mister Rogers’ calm attitude and positive outlook on life were a breath of fresh air. He was someone children could really look up to. And with him went a good example of what children’s programming should be. Gamecock Quotables “Even if someone came in and managed to hog-tie me and steal my database, there is almost nothing that could be done \vith those hand reading data.” BRAD DAWGERT INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY MANAGER FOR CAMPUS RECREATION ON THE THURMOND CENTER’S NEW BIOMETRIC HAND READERS “Mister Rogers was the father who was available. He was the unhurried guy who always had time for the kids.” ALANHILFER CHILD PSYCHOLOGIST ON THE LOSS OF •MISTER ROGERS" HOST FRED ROGERS “The male sports get more publicity, but they also bring in more money, so it sort of equals itself out.” SAMANTHA JENNINGS THIRD-YEAR BIOLOGY STUDENT AND USC SOFTBALL PLAYER ON GENDER EQUALITY IN USC SPORTS “My application, honestly, was a masterpiece. But it didn’t start that well. I got my first draft back, and it looked like an animal sacrifice had taken place on it.-” STEVEN BURRITT 1995 TRUMAN SCHOLAR AND USC HONORS COLLEGE ALUMNUS ON APPLYING FOR SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS. 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 Editor In Chief CONTACT INFORMATION Jilk Martin Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Managing Editor Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com Charles Tomlinson News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com Viewpoints: gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com News Editor The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com Adam Beam Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Asst. News Editor Online: www.dailygamecock.com Wendy Jeffcoat Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor's Office: 777-3914 ST7SSEdit0r STUDENT MEDIA The Gamecock is the editorially independent _. ... Faculty Adviser student newspaper of The Mix Editor Erik Comns the University of South Corey Garr.ott Carolina. It is Director of Student published Monday. Asst. The Mix Editor Media Wednesday and Friday Meg Moore Ellen Parsons during the fall and spring semesters and Sports Editor Creative Director njne times during the Matt Rothenberg Susan King summer, with the . . _ exception of university Asst. Sports Editor Business Manager holidays and exam Brad Senkiw Carolyn Griffin periods. opinions _. . _... expressed in The Photo Editor Advertising Manager Gamecock are those of Johnny Haynes Sarah Scarborough the editors or author . .. . _... and not those of the Asst Photo Editor Classified Manager university of South Morgan Ford Sherry F. Holmes Carolina. The Board of u . „ „ rv Student Publications ea ^ ®.s ^”e^9 Production Manager and Communications Sarah McLaulm. Katie Patrick Bergen is the publisher of The Smith. David Stagg Gamecock. The „ Creative Services Department of Student Page Designers Derek Goode. Media is the Justin Bajan, Samantha Ear| Jones. newspaper's parent Hail. Staci Jordan. Julia Sean O'Meara, organization. The Knetzer, Shawn Rourk Anastasia Oppert Gamecock is supported in part by Slot Copy Editors Advertising Staff student-activity fees. Crystal Boyles. Tricia John Blackshire, One free copy per Ridgway, Emma Ritch Adam Bourgoin, reader. Additional Bianca Knowles. copies may be Copy Editors Denise Levereaux, purchased for $1 each Jess'ca Foster Aiysson Jacqueline Rice. from the Department Goff, Mary Waters Stacey Todd of Student Media. Bessam tthadraoui TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 Community Affairs 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Kiran Shah cr oaono r- ca J! uNlmuil j.. wii CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Women inspire all invention DAVID STAGG GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Men would still live in caves if not for women. The human race never ceases to amaze me. What man has done through history is startling, thought-provoking and awe-in ducing. Man has constructed build ings more than 100 stories tall. Man has devised a way of putting a piece of machinery a mile in the air going at speeds of ridicu lous miles an hour merely to get to places more quickly. Man has invented quite possibly the most over-looked wonder in all of our years — the remote control. The inhabitants of the human brain — roundabout found in 94 percent of everyday people except for New York taxi drivers and peo ple who go straight at a red light while in the right-hand lane — have found that by inventing things, they can make money. The Money Buys Things Act, passed by Congress, almost en sures that we be amazed in what humans come up with. The law goes as follows: Money buys things. Men like women. Men create things to earn them mon ey. Money buys things. Men buy things to impress women. It only follows that all things are created to impress women. Men must in vent to impress. You know it’s true because I just wrote it down. Who needs toothpaste when there is some thing to buy for your wife? HUSBAND: Honey... WIFE: Do not talk to me. You ran out of toothpaste last week. You have not bought or used any such product in said period of time. HUSBAND: But I bought you this ridiculously large diamond ' at a ridiculous amount of money, thereby proving I am sacrificing myself for your happiness! WIFE: Aww! Now go do your laundry. And that is worth every penny. But the human brain doesn’t stop there. It’s like a marathon runner or Strom Thurmond fili bustering on the Senate floor. Maybe saying that everything was invented to impress women is a little lofty, but it sure hasn’t stopped men from driving for economic profits. So, what do you do when it seems everything has been invented? You invent things like reality TV shows. But you also must promote your inventions. Therefore, in vention gives birth to a very large and unwieldy baby — ad vertising. In Britain, commonly known to Americans as “The Place Where If Music Comes Out, It Has To Be Good and We Must Listen To It,” Gucci, commonly known to Americans as “Gucci,” has released a controversial ad campaign. In it, a naked woman is wearing an open kimono with the shape of a “G” shaved into her pubic hair. There is a man kneeling in front of her, as Gucci claims, “staring at the ‘G.’ ” Right. The “G.” That’s what he’s interested in. If that wasn’t odd enough, it seems that inventing can go more awry. In another news release, a Catholic priest in Germany has devised a way of brewing beer in his washing machine. He can brew 40 pints in 10 hours. The news release from Reuters begins as follows: “Michael Fey, 45, a Catholic priest from the western city of Duisburg, came up with ' the idea of converting his 35-year old toploader to provide beer more cheaply for youth outings he organizes.” This is brilliant. He uses his washing machine to make beer for YOUTH outings. I guess the brain will never cease to amaze me. Stagg is a second-year media arts student. IN YOUR OPINION Media watchdogs need to wake up How sad that the main stream media is content to lie down and hum while our pres ident and his Cabinet of corpo rate oil and weapons execu tives lead us down a path of vi olence with no foreseeable end. The profits from this endless war on terror will go to these weapons and oil industries. The rest of us will pay with the lives of our sons and daughters over seas, the sacrifice of our per sonal freedoms and security. Do we expect the families and nations friendly to the tens of thousands of innocents we will be killing unjustly to po litely say “thank you”? To try to forestall terrorist retaliation to our aggressions, we will be asked to live in a worlciof increasingly onerous restrictions and Orwellian surveillance — not the free America that veterans died for. Not the America where we treat others fairly and get the same in return. Saddam has not attacked us. Saddam has attacked no coun try; therefore, our attack is un provoked, immoral and un precedented. Saddam is not Osama, and the rest of the world sees our shift in focus and looks with narrowed eyes upon our country. If the media, in their once honored role as the eyes and ears of the American people, continue to sec no evil and hear no evil in the corporate takeover of our government and its forceful taking of a sovereign ration for its re sources, then the media deserve the wounded America that their disregard for honesty in reporting will bring about. An America in which media’s role will be reduced to the function of Pravda in the USSR of old. As for me, a proud citizen of the land of the free and the home of the brave, I stand tall and say loudly, “not in my name.” DAVID SINGELYN WATER SPRINGS, CALIF. Name-calling isn’t a good argument Unlike Joshua Rauh (“Protesters fail to be repre sentative,” Wednesday), I have not been sitting on the sidelines of the war debate. I have en gaged peers and community members on the issue, protest ed, chalked and given away food in the name of peace. Fortunately, those I talk to are not closed-minded enough to simply dismiss my argument be cause I don’t look like them, or I refuse to toe the line of the rul ing class. Opponents of the war are not simply “wannabe 1960 hippies,” and hawks who try to dismiss us as such help prove that they are losing ground in le gitimate debate. The doves have not had to resort to calling hawks fascists, jingoists, impe rialists and sheep because we have an actual argument. Labeling Food Not Bombs “an organization whose name is a slogan that a sixth-grader could have come up with” is a cheap attempt to sound macho and scare off sympathizers. Until you see us in action, please refrain from critiques. I trust that Gamecocks ;~/ill be able to see past the'*ad hominem attacks made by war hawks and look into getting truth ful and unbiased information to make up their minds on the war. DANIEL REGENSCHEIT FIRST-YEAR PRINT-JOURNALISM STUDENT USC needs to get priorities straight Every day I pick up a newspa per, I am reminded of budget cuts that are causing problems in the USC community. Fewer teachers, bigger classes and the tuition in crease all sound like major prob lems to me. I see in The Gamecock, how ever, that John Palms, our former president, is still receiving top pay — as in $211,923 a year. I can see and could possibly even understand President Sorensen receiving $215, 000 a year. But why are they acting like the budget cuts are so major? It is not directly hurting them. It doesn’t seem as though they care that they might lose a diverse stu dent body because of the tuition increase. If we are in such a bad fix, why do we have — and why are we still getting — all of these new luxuries? Yes, USC has major money. It seems we are using the money to build things that will bring in more money. My question is: Is education our top priority? ASHLEY COLEMAN FIRST-YEAR NURSING 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. fa Letters will be edited. Anonymous letter* will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. Ignoring Iraq is not an option SS ALLYSON BIRD GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM Opposing war with Iraq is forgetting Sept. 11. As I see the demonstrations and read the columns, my gut tells me that something is wrong with the anti-war movement. But I also know that before I start affirming war, I better know damn well what that something is. So here’s something. To me, opposing war with Iraq is forgetting Sept. 11, dismissirig real, pervasive terrorism as some fictitious evil created by the minds of conservatives. How can we protest ridding ourselves of the threat of Saddam Hussein, who is just waiting to get the push-button power we have? If we let Saddam compile nu clear weapons and further de structive technology, ladies and gentlemen, the difference between “them” and “us” is that he won’t hesitate to use it. The problem with Iraq is noth ing new. We didn’t take issue with helping the Kuwaitis in the Gulf War, but now that the cannon is aimed at us, are we supposed to turn the other cheek? Granted, maybe “Daddy’s war” should’ve ended with the first George Bush, but we can’t possi bly ignore the threat of unfinished business. The world climate is dif ferent now. America has been at tacked on its soil, and Iraq re joiced. But what about the civilians, you say? Saddam himself has tortured and executed those with political views different from his own. People are dying in Iraq anyway and will contin ue to die. If we initiate change, though, the dying could eventu ally cease. But what about our people, you ask? This isn’t Vietnam — yet. We aren’t sending a trickle of troops in blindly only to face the music, to let them die and to then hit replay — repeatedly. But it can be, if we lessen our pro-ac tive stance. Do you call me a detached young female? For 10 years, I’ve lived in Charleston, where the military presence is strong. I had never dated a civilian until I came to college. I cried with and for the Navy boyfriend I had on Sept. 11, and I still keep in touch with friends who are living under the ominous threat that their units will be called next. Yes, that upsets me. These troops are people and not pawns, but I have come to accept that this is the job they chose and have trained for. They are ready. War is never uplifting, but we cannot sit back and let threaten ing nations tease us. If they hate us so much for being a superpow er, we might as well be one. I am not opposed to war with Iraq. After Sept. 11, a new holy war began, and that’s what makes our situation frightening. Unlike after the Crusades, we won’t come OUl U1 ims W1U1 new spices, SILKS and trade routes. But we might find that renewed sense of faith. Iraq won’t go away if we de cide to be passive. Remember who started this more than a decade ago. Take a trip and see the unfin ished business of Sept. 11 and the chunk missing from the New York City skyline. And, for our country’s sake, re alize that the root of “ignorance” is “ignore.” I sure hope that’s worth some thing. -I? Bird is a first-year print journalism student.