University of South Carolina Libraries
SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Create message boards at What do you think about www.dailygamecock.com or former. USC president James send letters to the editor to - Holderman’s conviction? gamecockopinions@hotmail.com www.dailygamecock.com. Results published on Fridays. ( IN OUR OPINION Commit to ending abuse It seems that every month claims awareness for such a variety of issues that they eventually begin to blur together. This month, however, the issue at hand hits home. Today marks the beginning of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and USC students need to get involved to raise awareness of the month. The State reported Thursday that South Carolina was once again ranked first in the nation in killings of women by men; the study also showed the state’s _ average ot homicides ot Problems like this women by men was more than will dissipate twice the national average, only when people problems like this will name them and ,. . . , . . .. dissipate only when people take an active ... role in ending name them and take an actlve the cycle. role in ending the cycle USC students need to participate in and talk about the reasons behind events scheduled this month, most notably “These Hands Don’t Hurt” and the Silent Witness program sponsored by the Office of Sexual Health and Violence Prevention. Sponsor a Silent Witness and take the time to read true stories around campus and honor the memory of the hundreds of real victims. Paint your hands in a pledge to never use them for violence. The collective attitude toward domestic violence must change before any real results will come. The issue in the spotlight this month is desperately important. Don’t brush it aside. Winners and Sinners GAMECOCK FOOTBALL Another moral victory for the Gamecocks. Summers busts up Tennessee defense. S.C. STATE FAIR A big “hell yes” to deep-fried Twinkies and the Gravitron. ACADEMIC TEAM Placed second in national . tournament at the University of Georgia. JAMES HOLDERMAN South Carolina’s favorite mobster/USC president is headin’ for prison. BLACK HOLE Scientists discover super-massive void of doom at the center of the Milky Way. NIGERIAN SPACE PROGRAM Puts need for clean water, health services and education on hold for the sake of $13 million satellite. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS An article in Friday’s paper about World War I posters should have said a World War I symposium was held in 1997 by the USC Archives at the South Caroliniana Library, not the Thomas Cooper Library. The Gamecock regrets the error. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@hotmail.com. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor In Chief CONTACT INFORMATION Charles Tomlinson Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com Managing Editor News; gamecockudesk@hotmaiLcom am earn Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@hotmail.com The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com News Editor Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com Michael LaForgia Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Asst. News Editor Newsroom: 777-7726 Alexis Stratton Editor's Office: 777-3914 Viewpoints Editor STUDENT MEDIA The Gamecock is the Gabrielle Sinclair nl editorially independent Director student newspaper of __ _... Scott Lindenberg the University of South The Mix Editor Carolina. It is Meg Moore Faculty Adviser published Monday, Erik Collins Wednesday and Friday Sports Editor during the fall and Brad Senkiw Creative Director spring semesters and Susan King nine times during the Asst. Sports Editor summer, with the Wes Wolfe Business Manager exception of university Carolyn Griffin holidays and exam Photo Editor periods. Opinions Morgan Ford expressed in The Advertising Manager Gamecock are those of Sarah Scarborough the editors or author Head Page Designers and not those of the Shawn Rourk. David Manager University of South staBB Sherry F. Holmes Carolina. The Board of Student Publications Page Designers and Communications Justin Bajan, Samantha Production Manager is the publisher of The Hall. Staci Jordan, Philip Amber Justice Gamecock. The Whitehead Department of Student Creative Services Media is the Slot Copy Editors Whitney Bridges. newspaper’s parent Amy Genoble, Alyson Robbie Burkett, organization. The Goff, Trieia Ridgway Sean O’Meara Gamecock is supported in part by Copy Editors Advertising Staff student-activity fees. Mary Waters, Steven Van John Blackshire, ^ P6r1 Haren, Jessica Foster, Adam BourgoiIli Ben reader. Additional Alicia Osborne Sinclair, Jesica copies may be Johnson. Ryan purchased for $1 each Online Editor Gorman, Laytoya ,r°™ ‘"e °ePa*ment James Tolbert Hines of Student Media. Public Affairs ^0 PLACE AN AD Kimberly Dressier The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax:777-6482 CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Had it up to here with Dean WES WOLFE GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM Democratic front-runner needs to take a hike. I’ve had enough of Howard Dean. I’m a Democrat, and I love my party, but we’re a bunch of crazy nut-jobs if we’ve got this character near the top nationally as well as in Iowa and New Hampshire. The Dean campaign smacks of an elitism that turns off many Democrats. First, the campaign name: “Dean for America.” Could he possibly be more pre tentious? Then there’s how the campaign refers to the candidate by all of his titles: Gov. Howard Dean, M.D. That’s as ridiculous as supporters of John Edwards saying, “Sen. John Edwards, J.D.” Just because Howard Dean went to medical school doesn’t make him more qualified to be president and doesn’t make him better than Edwards or Sen. John Kerry or anybody else in the Democratic field. Also, the former Vermont gov ernor put his haughty attitude on display in the first Democratic de bate here at USC last May. He was giving the impression that “I’m the real Democrat, and all the oth er candidates here and their sup porters are just poseurs.” Nice. I love a guy who is pissed off at his fellow party-members going into an election during which the GOP controls both the presiden cy and Congress. Dean’s “meet-ups,” where sup porters gather and meet in a pre determined site on a regular ba sis, would look like a revolution ary campaign idea. But the way the campaign is handling the meet-ups makes it seem like its grass-roots support is the real Democratic Party while other campaign supporters aren’t as committed to Democratic values or committed to making the party as success ful as it could be. Can Dean’s campaign opera tives lay off the send button on ■ their e-mail accounts? I signed up for every candidate’s e-mail up dates so I can have an idea about which campaign is going where. Well, the Dean e-mails are going somewhere — directly into my e mail trash bin. In the past two weeks, I’ve re ceived more than 50 e-mails from the Dean campaign. When you send out nearly four e-mails a day, it’s spam. And no one likes spam. To show what kind of mes sage tactics the Democratic front runner is using: I have to clear out my inbox every two days. While he’s at it, Dean could lay off the attitude. That abrasive and combative manner might play well with New England Democrats and some hard-core party activists, but down South, we like our politicians to be a lit tle nicer and so do many other Democrats who will be voting in the primaries.' Hence the reason that the lat est poll on the South Carolina pri mary race has Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina in first place with 23 percent and Dean in a four-way tie for third place. As a lesson drawn from the 2000 Gore campaign, Democrats have to be able to carry parts of the South. I know it might be fun to toy around with the idea that Howard Dean could be a real ver sion of President Jed Bartlet from “The West Wing,” but fic tion is fiction, and reality is real ity. Let’s go and find a candidate who can win in the real world, not on NBC every Wednesday from 9 to 10 p.m. Wolfe is a fourth-year public relations student. IN YOUR OPINION Organize support for Kentucky game This letter is to all students. I was reading on the Fighting Gamecocks Forum on Gamecockcentral.com, and a poster came up with an inter esting suggestion: that the fans at the Kentucky game, to be shown on ESPN on Thursday night, wear alternating colors by section. The suggestion was that even-numbered sections wear garnet, while odd sections wear black. It would be really effective and would look good on television. I know that as students, we aren’t really as signed a section, but we can choose a color and sit in the corresponding section. This might bring back mem ories of the blackout debacle of two years ago, but this isn’t Florida, and everyone will be watching this game all across the country. Plus, the team would really be pumped by it, and they could use all the sup port that they can get after the disappointing loss at Rocky Top. Spread the word, even to those who aren’t students. Let’s make it stadium-wide. We can show the nation what Gamecock sup port is all about. KIEL SELEY FOURTH-YEAR IfUUKilOUS STUDIES STUDENT Tone toward alumni is intolerable After reading the Gamecock three times a week since I was a freshman, I have become frus trated with the tone that people use when writing a letter to the editor. In» Monday’s issue, I found it appalling that Jennifer Wilson would write, “I was amazed at the stupidity of the USC alumnus who wrote to the Gamecock...” when the article she was talking about had ab solutely no malicious intent. The letter then said, “Maybe since this alum has nothing bet ter to do than complain about issues that are no longer affect ing him, we should give him the career opportunity of improv ing the shuttle system.” The let ter concluded with, “... so grow up and get a job.” While the letter may have had some good points, I hope that none of our alumni saw it. Alumni of this university con tribute very large amounts of money for our education when they are under no obligation to do so. Letters such as these are only embarrassing to the uni versity. I am not just picking on this one writer because I see it every week. We can have live ly debate and disagreements through the In Your Opinion section without using un founded personal attacks and rude language that reflects poorly upon USC students. MONICA GILBERT THIRD-YEAR advertising STUDENT Simmons wrong for number of reasons Justin Simmons believes President Chirac of France is fond of dispensing advice to oth er countries and that proposing a rapid timetable for giving the Iraqi people control of their country is preposterous. Neither of these assumptions is true. First, let us put Chirac’s pro posal into context. It was not gra tuitous advice, as Simmons im plies, but rather a negotiating point made in the context of President Bush’s appeal to France for military and financial help in rebuilding Iraq. Further, Chirac’s proposal was not without precedent. He simply suggested that we act in Iraq as we did in Afghanistan by turning over power to a governing body com prising people from that country and then sticking around to help. True, there are differences be tween the two, but both are Muslim countries with populations made up of rival tribes, and both have ex perienced cruel, repressive regimes. Afghanistan is not an over whelming success, and I am not de fending Chirac’s plan. I am merely pointing out that it should not be dismissed as ridiculous. At the very least, such a plan shows respect for the Iraqi people, many of whom are well-educated and quite capable. Further, ceding authority to the Iraqis would convince the rest of the world that our invasion of Iraq was not about oil, a belief that hurts us internationally. Finally, it might be argued that Chirac’s plan is at least as realistic as the idea of im posing democracy in Iraq, a laud able goal that might turn out to be wishful thinking. France has had much experi ence dealing with Arab countries and Muslim populations. France has the world’s fourth-largest econ omy and the world’s third-largest military force. This is why President Bush, rather than laugh ing at the French, is turning to France for some much-needed help. ELIZABETH JOINER use PROFESSOR EMERITA 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 gamecockopinions@hotmail.com. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. use will save us from our blunders , w LAUREN ADAMS GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM Some more evils our school should destroy. The university has bravely de cided to tackle the threat of hav ing our impressionable students wearing “Cocks” across their^ butts. This will in effect eradicate^to the “Cock” menace, but perhaps its efforts would be better suited to preventing other trends. Here are some helpful hints, USC. Green space—let me just open by saying I love trees, grass and flowers. It’s not the green I’m con cerned with so much as the space. Lauren needs to park. We’re not experiencing a tree shortage in beautiful, leafy Columbia. We are, however, experiencing a shortage of space. Believe me, if trees could park on us they would. It’s us or them. You choose. Fanny packs — How can some one take something as lovely as a fanny and make it as ugly as a fan ny pack? This disgusting combi nation of belt and bag is both of fensive and embarrassing. Before, you strap one on, I want you to do me a favor — call me. I will come over and carry your stuff around for you all day. I will do anything to stop you from putting on the waist bag. I’m not going to lie; I had a gold fanny pack back in ’89, dur ing my young and impressionable days. I thought it had gone the way of Dustin Diamond’s career until I saw one of the splatter painted va riety on “Sex and the City.” It was like a home invasion to see that fanny pack where it wasn’t sup posed to be. I don’t want to live like this anymore; if you see a fanny pack, please, rip it off the offender. Low sperm counts/genital de formities/feminization — recent r studies report that in the past 50 years, sperm count has gone down, and the rate of genetic deformities (the result of exposure to certain pesticides that mimic the female hormone estrogen) and she-ism have gone up. This wouldn’t be such an issue if these problems weren’t being inherited by the younger generations. The Y-chro mosome can’t repair itself, so any deformities we develop are pre sumably going to be passed down to our children. Sucks for them. Short shorts — if you’re a dude currently wearing hot pants, do me a favor and punch yourself in the face. I am horrified by the growing trend of shorts hovering above the knee. It’s not just the length, but also the heinous color’ choices. Yes friends, I have seen the pink short shorts. Many peo ple will defend this with “Oh, that’s salmon” or “Pink’s the new Drown, it s not, ana tying to your self won't help you sleep at night. The Dukes of Hazzard wouldn’t have been quite as successful if Daisy Duke had been Daisy Dude. Mullets — known by many names: the Missouri Compromise, the Canadian passport, et cetera. It’s not the business in the front or the party in the back that both ers me, but the combination of the two. They’re a train wreck. I can’t look away. I’ve lived in harmony with these hair-don’ts, but some thing happened the other day that changed my mind forever: I saw a child sporting an El Camino. That innocent face turned up to me in silent pleading, wanting me to un derstand the hair wasn’t of his de sign. I’m not going to mince words, so let me just say it: child abuse. If you see this, call D.S.S. for parental negligence. Aren’t there laws to prevent this kind of thing from happening? Please help us, USC. Together we can clean up this campus for the children of tomorrow, if there are any— see sperm counts. Adams is a third-year anthropology student.