The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 17, 2003, Page 4, Image 4
4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, March 17, 2003
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IN OUR OPINION
Run a shuttle
to Five Points
USC once considered running a shuttle to and from
Five Points. For a marginal fee, the shuttle would
conveniently and safely cart students back to campus
after a night on the town.
Former USC President John Palms kiboshed the
plan because he said it would encourage underage
drinking and because of potential problems between
the Five Points Merchants Association and USC’s
Board of Trustees. The project was dropped.
With a new Now, with a new president in
president in charge of use, the shuttle plan
Charge Of USC, should be proposed again in the
the plan for a midst of reports that crime—
Shuttle to Five hold-ups and muggings—is
Points Should be rising in Five Points. Jessica
proposed again Black, a second-year graduate
in the midst Of business student, was fired at
reports that twice by a robber in Five Points
Clime ere IS ^ast montb. Lesha Utsey,
on the rise. . , _ _ ..
spokeswoman for the Columbia
Police Department, said robberies have been on the
rise lately, possibly because of economic downturns.
A shuttle might or might not encourage underage
drinking; either way, enforcement of the law is the
responsibility of the police and individual bars. But
without the shuttle, USC students could find
themselves at the end of a gunpoint.
The shuttle would also help prevent drunken
driving. Both underage and legal drinkers sometimes
drive under the influence; regardless of the legality,
both cases could end in tragedy. And a new president
i
might give the program another chance.
College Quote Board
MICHIGAN DAILY
JOSEPH LITMAN, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
q “My man G-Dub is an em
barrassment. ... Whether he’s
inventing language, pausing ev
ery six seconds to remember
what he’s been told to say next
or simply bungling a common
•- aphorism, G-Dub constantly
makes himself seem stupid, and
that reflects poorly on the pub
lic that both voted for him and
has allowed him to remain a
bumbling fool. We should feel
ashamed of him, and mostly,
ourselves.”
OKLAHOMA DAILY
AMINTA OSSOM, UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
“American entertainment is
a disgrace, and it is unfortunate
that the rest of the world inter
prets the entertainment indus
try’s images and messages as
representations of this society.
“Although large corpora
tions and studios are the mak
ers of most entertainment, it is
equally true that viewers share
in the responsibility to for what
the entertainment industry
produces. Viewers get what
they ask for.”
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
An article about Islam in last Wednesday’s paper should have
stated that Muslims profess their faith by saying, “There is no God
« but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet.”
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us
at gamecockviewpoints@hotmail.com.
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CARTOON BY HANNAH ANGSTADT/THE GAMECOCK
China could sway N. Korea
PATRICK AUGUSTINE
GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM
U.S. needs help from
evolving Asian nation.
America faces an internation
al crisis of epic proportions, and
it is not in the Middle East.
While the world is focused on the
outcome of UN inspections in
Iraq, North Korea has reactivat
ed its nuclear weapons program
in defiance of a 1994 treaty it
signed with the US and the in
ternational community. Unlike
Iraq, the North Koreans possess
the ability to produce weapons
grade nuclear material, and it is
estimated that they could enrich
enough for several bombs by
July. Also, North Korea has bal
listic missiles capable of reach
ing our west coast and implicit
ly anywhere in Asia, a fact that
makes their nuclear ambitions
all the more ominous for the
world community.
What should frighten
Americans is not that North
Korea can build a nuke, but that
its poverty-stricken, authoritar
ian regime would go so far as to
sell nuclear material to terrorist
groups like al-Qaida.
Furthermore, while Iraq can
successfully be contained by the
coalition troops who have pa
trolled its borders since 1991, the
threat of military force will only
provoke the already unstable
leader of North Korea, Kim Jung
H. This is a man who stands 5 feet
3 inches and compensates by
wearing platform shoes and
Transformer costumes — hardly
the man you want at the helm of a
nation with nuclear capabilities.
In much the same way that
sanctions have impacted the peo
ple of Iraq and not its leadership,
continuing to isolate North Korea
will not achieve world security.
Similarly, North Korea distrusts
Washington’s diplomatic over
tures because of the American
troops stationed along the
Demilitarized Zone between the
Koreas, where they have been
since the cease-fire that ended the
Korean War. We alone cannot
bring peace to the region either
through military force or negoti
ation; we need China’s help.
China has been a growing force
in the region by virtue of its pop
ulation and economic signifi
cance, and therefore it makes
sense to include them in negotia
tions that concern the security of
their region. Furthermore,
though, is the fact that they pro
vide the preponderance of the aid
that Pyongyang receives from the
international community, and
thus have significant leverage
with the North Koreans.
Don’t think, however, that this
Sino-Korean closeness stems from
the fact that both nations are com
munist — they are both so in
name only. When I was in Beijing
in 1996, the joke was that the na
tional bird of China was the con
struction crane, and one look at
the smoggy skyline was enough
to confirm the fact that the coun
try was, and still is, modernizing.
The Communist Party under
stood that to resist modernity
and open markets was to ensure
a swift end to their power, while
opening the state to limited capi
talism would allow them to main
tain a tenuous hold on power.
While corruption is rife, the
openness that is allowing China
to move into the technological
age will eventually undermine
communism and lead to the
democracy that the student lead
ers of the 1989 Tiananmen
Square uprising longed for.
2008 will see Beijing lift the veil
on an extensive campaign to re
construct the city for the Summer
Olympics, but it is only through
engaging China and confirming
their fundamental role in Asian
affairs that we can hope for peace
and democracy in the region, and
change in North Korea.
Augustine is a third-year
political-science student.
IN YOUR OPINION
Pro-war arguments
don’t make sense
This letter is in response to
Allyson Bird’s column
(“Ignoring Iraq is not an op
tion,” Feb. 28).
Saddam Hussein is agree
ably a bad man, and pretty
much everyone wants him out
of power. This is not the issue.
The issue is how to go about it.
Saddam Hussein is not the
cause of everyone dying in
Iraq, as Bird insinuates. In fact,
it is economic sanctions from
the United States and the use of
depleted uranium bomb shells
that we used in the Gulf War
that is killing millions of Iraqi
children and other citizens.
Bird mentions things such
as “push-button power,” and
how the protest movement has
“forgotten the events of Sept.
11.” The latter statement bor
ders on one of the most absurd
things I’ve heard all year but,
for the sake of argument, I’ll ad
dress it.
Sept. 11, which involved
mostly Saudi citizens and not
Iraqis, is largely unlinked to
Iraq and Saddam. It scares me
that the United States has this
“push-button power” in a world
that is supposed to be peaceful.
It makes no sense how peace
will come from this action, and
our European allies see this
same fallacy in Bush’s argu
ment.
Our country gave every sin
gle weapon Saddam has to
Iraq in the late ’80s, when we
wanted him to overthrow
Iran. Dick Cheney was getting
rich by selling these weapons,
and Donald Rumsfeld was vis
iting Baghdad to befriend
Saddam.
As for how Iraq should be
dealt with, I think the inspec
tions are working. Saddam
made the decision to destroy
his Al-Samoud missiles as re
quested, and Hans Blix has said
that further compliance and co
operation is becoming a reali
ty. We should let the inspectors
do their jobs and quit warmon
gering before we are put out of
the world community.
MATT SMITH
FIRST-YEAR HISTORY STUDENT
Undergrads aren’t
qualified to teach
I can be a witness that USC
is not placing its students as a
priority. I am a continuing-ed
ucation student and had the
most unpleasant experience of
having an undergraduate as
my lab instructor.
She was unprofessional in
her behavior during lab, flirt
ing with one of the male stu
dents, yelling at the class for no
apparent reason and becoming
annoyed when students asked
her to explain material. At one
point, she danced around the
room with a pineapple on her
head! I could not believe USC
hired undergraduates to teach
their labs.
I placed a call to Clemson
University and, to my surprise,
found out they do not utilize un
derclassmen to teach at all.
They have graduate students
teaching as well as some visit
ing Ph.D. professors.
If things do not change, there
will be no way I send my sons
to USC. Budget cuts do not need
to be at the expense of a quali
ty education, and having un
dergraduates serve as lab in
structors is insulting.
LINDA MALDONADO
1986 USC GRADUATE
Doctors should stop
doing circumcisions
The Aug. 22,2002 circumcision
death of a baby boy in
Vancouver, British Columbia
should be a wake-up call for par
ents, physicians and hospitals
alike.
No medical group in the world
recommends infant circumci
sion, including the American
Academy of Pediatrics, the
American Medical Association,
the American Academy of
Family Physicians, the
American College of
Obstetricians ana gynecologists,
the Canadian Paediatric Society,
the College of Physicians and
Surgeons of Saskatchewan, the
Australian College of Paediatrics,
the Australian Medical
Association, the British Medical
Association, and the Royal
Australasian College of
Physicians.'
Parents, protect your children.
Physicians and Hospitals, stop
performing unnecessary, painful,
mutilating circumcisions upon
defenseless children for your fi
nancial gain.
PETRINA FADEL
CROTON, N.Y.
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information.
use to
soon be
awash
in green
TYLER JONES
GAMECOCKVIEWPOINTS@HOTMAIL.COM
Ralph Nader to make a
St. Patrick’s Day visit.
When the arsonist St. Patrick
lit the Irish countryside on fire in
the fifth century, it is quite cer
tain that the inaugural St. Patty’s
Day bash went something like
this: pagans dancing, lots of drink
ing, bonfires raging, and ol’ Patty
waving around crosses and con
verting the godless savages right
and left.
But as history writes, the first
true St. Patrick’s Day celebration
kicked off on March 17,1762, in
the Big Apple. Fast-forward to
2003. Our celebrations probably
look more like the one in the fifth
century, with ale flowing and
boozy revelers playing the part of
the undisciplined heathen. And
so it should be. St. Patrick’s Day
is a symbolic start of spring, a sea
son where our good friend photo
synthesis gives us back the green
we have missed all winter long.
And speaking of green, word
has it that the monotone prince
of consumer rights will be in our
back yard tomorrow to give the
USC community a stirring speech
on something that has to do with
either war, recession or seat
belts. That’s right, Ralph Nader
will be packing them in the
Russell House tomorrow to
spread the gospel of the Green
Party to a bunch of political zom
bies fresh off a week of spring
break brouhaha.
course, lUDe mere 10 usien
to the third party leader who has
no shot of ever winning an elec
tion, unless he moves to Sweden
where the Green Party might take
a third of the vote. Sure, Nader is
a good guy, a necessary foil to the
greedheads in Washington, but
show up Tuesday night and take a
good look at the crowd gathered
to see the author of “Unsafe at
Any Speed,” and you are sure to
get a glimpse of some of the most
well-educated losers that America
has to offer.
But if the Nader crowd isn’t
green enough for you and you like
your losers in white, then head on
down to Augusta in mid-April,
where the green is ubiquitous and
so will be the controversy. Word
is that Martha Burk and her gals
(possible Naderettes) will be in
full protest mode along with
South Carolina native Rev. Jesse
Jackson and his Rainbow/Push
Coalition
And let’s not forget the clean
linen of the Ku Klux Klan, who
plan to throw their hoods in the
ring for their own band of 19th
century-style political protest.
The possibility of something
truly gruesome and jaw-dropping
is not out of the question. With
this wonderfully designed quag
mire in Iraq festering on the but
tocks of society, the potential for
some ugly scene that shatters the
social sanity of this country is en
tirely possible. Who knows?
Perhaps some vicious race and
gender riot could erupt and set
us back into the ’50s? I doubt
Dubya and Ashcroft would mind
a quick departure back to the
silent conformity of the
Eisenhower days.
So when you hoist up a few for
St. Patrick and the rest of the
shamrocked sycophants running
around today, think of the green
that will be dominating the land
scape in the coming weeks, and
remember what that little frog
puppet said: “It isn’t easy being
green.” That is, unless you’re
Tiger Woods, and the only green
you worry about is the color of
your jackets.
Jones is a graduate student in the
College of Njass Communications
and Information Studies.