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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.
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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
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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.