The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 07, 2003, Page 4, Image 4
SOUND OFF
Create message boards at * bowl-eligible this season?
www.dailygamecock.com or YES 54%
send letters to the editor to NO 33%
gamecockopinions@hotmail.com (INSERT CEREAL JOKE HERE) 13%
IN OUR OPINION
Leaders must
show decency
Resident Hall Association President Adam Hark is
taking heat this week because of lewd pictures he
placed on his personal Web site. The site is full of
suggestive pictures, including one of Hark wearing
nothing but a strategically placed sock. The images
have led one South Quad resident adviser to move
for his impeachment.
What Hark must realize is that he is a public figure
whether he wants to be or
not. He represents all on
campus students as well as
the university.
As American citizens,
Hark and his friends have
every right to post these
images on their Web site.
As an elected student leader,
however, Hark should show better judgment. When
Hark took upon himself the responsibilities that
come with being a public figure, the option to act like
his fellow students is revoked.
How can RHA accomplish anything when it can’t
be taken seriously by students, much less university
administrators?
Hark should take the image off of his Web site.
When he leaves the elected office, he can put it back
up in good conscience. If he continues to give into
his instincts, RHA might have a solid base for
impeachment.
When Hark took
upon himself the
responsibilities that
come with being a
public figure, the
option to act like
his fellow students
was revoked.
Gamecock Quotables
“I just saw the brotherhood,
and the minority aspects
never bothered me.”
JARODD WEBB
PHI BETA SIGMA PRESIDENT AND FOURTH
YEAR MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
STUDENT ON MINORITY-BASED FRATERNITIES
“The Web site says to Housing
and USC that at Woodrow,
you can get away with this
stuff.”
HAZEL MATTHEWS
FOURTH-YEAR CRIMINAL JUSTICE STUDENT,
ON A WEB SITE THAT SHOWS RHA PRESIDENT
ADAM HARK WEARING ONLY A SOCK
“I want people with
Confederate flags on their
trucks to put down those flags
and vote Democratic, because
the need for quality health
care, jobs and good education
knows no racial boundaries.”
HOWARD DEAN
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE AND FORMER
VERMONT GOVERNOR, ON HIS
CONTROVERSIAL REMARK ABOUT THE
CONFEDERATE FUG
“If I was going to pay for
something, I would buy the
album.”
JOSH BELLAMY
SECOND-YEAR POLITICAL SCIENCE STUDENT, '
ON NAPSTER, A MUSIC-DOWNLOAD SERVICE
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
In Wednesday’s editorial, Howard Dean should have been
identified as the former governor of Vermont.
A story in Wednesday’s paper should have stated that the first
. Caucasian member of Alpha Phi Alpha was inducted in 1987. Also,
the fraternity has 25 to 30 members.
The Gamecock regrets the errors.
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
Charles Tomlinson
Managing Editor
Adam Beam
News Editor
Michael LaForgia
Asst. News Editor
Alexis Stratton
Viewpoints Editor
Gabrielle Sinclair
The Mix Editor
Meg Moore
Sports Editor
Brad Senkiw
Asst. Sports Editor
Wes Wolfe
Photo Editor
Morgan Ford
Head Page Designer
Shawn Rojrk
Page Designers
Justin Bajan, Samantha
Hall, Staci Jordan, Philip
Whitehead
Slot Copy Editors
Amy Genoble, Tricia
Ridgway, Mary Pinckney
Waters
Copy Editors
Jessica Foster, Steven
Van Haren
Online Editor
James Tolbert
Public Affairs
Kimberly Dressier
CONTACT INFORMATION
Offices on third floor of the Russell House.
Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@hotmail.com
News: gamecockudesk@hotmail.com
Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@hotmail.com
The Mix: gamecockmixeditor@hotmail.com
Sports: gamecocksports@hotmail.com
Public Affairs: gckpublicaffairs@hotmail.com
Online: www.dailygameGOCk.com
Newsroom: 777-7726
Editor’s Office: 777-3914
STUDENT MEDIA
Director
Scott Lindenberg
Faculty Adviser
Erik Collins
Creative Director
Susan King
Business Manager
Carolyn Griffin
Advertising Manager
Sarah Scarborough
Classified Manager
Sherry F. Holmes
Production Manager
Amber Justice
Creative Services
Whitney Bridges.
Robbie Burkett,
Sean O’Meara
Advertising Staff
John Blackshire,
Adam Bourgoin, Ben
Sinclair, Jesica
Johnson, Ryan
Gorman. Laytoya
Hines
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, vyith 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 Gamecock
1400 Greene St. *
Columbia, S.C. 29208
Advertising: 777-3888
Classified: 777-1184
Fax: 777-6482
Not everything needs a label
ALLYSON BIRD
GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM
The ad bug has begun
to slowly infect us all.
Labeling has gone too far, and
I’m not even talking about the
verbal, sticks-and-stones type of
labeling.
I’m talking about the actual la
bels on everything these days.
News broke about two weeks
ago that two area towns, Chapin
and Prosperity; are considering
placing advertisements on their
police cruisers.
Bumpers, trunks and hoods of
the dreaded cop cars would re
flect sponsorship in exchange for
cheap replacement vehicles,
which would otherwise demand
a formidable chunk of the annual
budget. Turns out Prosperity is
a misnomer.
Just who these sponsors will
be is still up the air, but imagine
finding yourself in the flashing
blue lights of what equates to the
Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile.
Also recently, the government
began considering encouraging
or requiring that restaurants la
bel their menus by listing calories
for each selection. The goal in
mind is helping people eat better.
I don’t want the government to
help me eat better; I really think
I can handle that one myself.
Plus, who wants to ruin a nice
evening out with the knowledge
that each bite of that filet mignon
is taking two weeks off your life
and adding two centimeters to
your waistline?
These two examples of label
ing madness are merely the tip of
the iceberg in today’s world. Our
coffee has to be labeled as “hot”
so that we don’t sue McDonald’s.
Is hot coffee really that much
of a surprise?
When I was younger, I thought
that the “no purchase necessary”
label meant that if someone who
stole the candy bar had the win
ning wrapper, he still got the
cruise. These labels are the be
ginnings of moral corruption.
I think the one type of label that
gets to me the most, though, is
those little placards cities put on
trees in decorative spaces to honor
donors. It looks more like the tree
is wearing a nametag to me. “Oh
look, this tree’s name is Cynthia.”
And the little bricks with all the
names on them, like on the
Horseshoe, are pretty annoying as
well. It’s dizzying trying to walk
across them if you’re compulsive
like me and try to read who you’re
stepping on. Gravestones as labels
are still OK for now. It’s pretty bad
when you pick up something to
tally unrelated, like a beer, to read
a label that it was manufactured
in a facility that processes
peanuts. That sure is a buzz-killer.
And then there are those
signs that just look stupid. The
“Slow Children Playing” is a
prime example.
Couldn’t they just slip a com
ma, a dash or a colon after “slow”
so that it doesn’t make these
places look like neighborhoods
of developmentally challenged
children? Come on, evil label peo
ple, do it for the kids.
So labels are there for our own
benefit. They’re there to remind
us who paid for different elements
in the world around us and to
make up for our own deficits in
common sense. I would say that
the next thing to come would be
companies paying us to wear then
labels. But we already pay them
for that privilege when we spend
top-dollar to wear name brands.
Looks like this labeling bug
just can’t be squashed because,
based on the brand names on all
our butts, we’ve already sat on it,
and it sure ain’t dead.
Bird is a third-year print
journalism, student.
IN YOUR OPINION
Kearns is innocent
until proven guilty
Admittedly, I have little
faith in the American justice
system — or basically any
American institution. I no
longer own U.S. Treasury
bonds. I have paid federal in
come taxes only twice. I am not
a registered voter (and will
likely remain as such — at least
until Carl Weathers, finishing
out the triumvirate, wins the
North Dakota governorship).
And while I fully under
stand that it is indeed a
quintessentially “American”
concept that allows me to pen
both the aforesaid and the fol
lowing (although the Greeks,
English and French were all
centuries — millennia even —
ahead of Jefferson, Madison
and Charles Cotesworth
Pinckney), I feel inclined, out
of sheer judicial compassion
for the rights of my fellow
man, to comment on the recent
duspeiisiuu ui nciucua i-uipuo
ad hominem” of one such
Timothy Robert Kearns. To
the best of my knowledge —
and given the barrage of anti
Tim Kearns literature now cul
minating, including a front
page admonition in Monday’s
edition of The Gamecock (as if
a previous sectional insert,
campus-wide e-mails and nu
merous dormitory warning
posters would not suffice) —
myself and nearly 28,000 oth
ers are certainly more than
knowledgeable; Mr. Kearns
has been convicted of no crime
whatsoever.
To quote The Gamecock
(twice), the USCPD Web site, a
flyer I saw by the elevator of
Columbia Hall and the various
other media in which Tim
Kearns’ image, stature, license
tag and Zodiac sign have ap
peared, Mr. Kearns has merely
been “charged with kidnapping
and sexual assault,” is in fact
“free on bond... and awaiting
trial” — and, oh yeah, “might
be trespassing on campus.”
Sure, Tim Kearns definite
ly looks like your archetypal
sexual predator (but then
again, so does half the balding,
beer-bellied, Impala-driving,
51-year-old male population
living in the Greater Columbia
area).
Ultimately, I’ve grown
rather weary of the increas
ingly ridiculous “Kearns sight
ings”: “roaming around
LeConte after dark — naked,”
“enjoying a few laps in the
Blatt indoor pool — naked,”
“gyrating suggestively in a go
go cage at Platinum — naked”
(when he should’ve been just
topless) and “waiting for a muf
fin at Einstein Bros. Bagels —
impatiently.”
tnougn already. To all gar
net-, black- and blue-blooded
Americocks everywhere, this
mass character defamation of
innocent-until-a-prejudiced
jury-of-his-peers-proves-oth
erwise Timothy Robert Kearns
must cease and desist imme
diately! If not, then the terror
ists, and Ole Miss, really have
won.
LOGAN YOUNG
SECOND-YEAR MUSIC COMPOSITION
STUDENT
The Gamecock is
wrong about Dean
As I was looking over the
Viewpoints page Wednesday, I
couldn’t help but notice the ed
itorial talking about Virginia
Gov. Howard Dean. My inter
est was immediately piqued, as
I wondered if this Virginia gov
ernor was of any relation to the
former governor of Vermont and
current presidential candidate
Howard Dean.
Of course, as I read over the
piece, I realized that The
Gamecock actually was attempt
ing to refer to Howard Dean the
presidential candidate and for
mer Vermont governor. I’m
rarely shocked by the poor qual
ity of writing and reporting in
The Gamecock, nor am I gener
ally shocked by the poor writing
and analytical reasoning abili
ties of the majority of those writ
ing in the editorial section. After
all, with a staff composed en
tirely of amateur workers, one
cannot expect a terribly high
quality product.
However, I find it exception
ally egregious that no one on the
entire editorial staff bothered to
find out who Howard Dean was
before writing a critique on him.
If the newspaper can’t even be
bothered to check such a simple
fact, perhaps you should think
about shutting down and not
wasting any more student funds
by printing this garbage.
BYSSHE EASTON
FOURTH-YEAR MATHEMATICS AND
PHILOSOPHY STUDENT
Got something
to say?
gamecockopinions@
hotmail.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
gamecockopinions@hotmail.com.
Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters
will not be published. Call the newsroom
at 777-7726 for more information.
4 kinds
ofpeople
you can’t
live with
SARAH ROGERS
GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM
Adjusting to roommate’s
quirks can be a struggle.
The biggest lesson in college is
learning how to live with anoth
er person, learning how to share
with that person and learning
how to tolerate that person.
College prepares young people for
marriage. Or rather, shows them
they’re probably better off single.
I have had my fair share of
roommate horror stories. Some
are far too graphic to put into writ
ing. However, I will share four
roommate types to watch out for:
♦ The neat freaks. I admit I
probably belong in this particu
lar group. The neat freaks are con
stantly on tl# lookout for some
thing to scrub, vacuum, dust,
straighten or fold. When you are
out of the room, watch out. If they
see anvthins on vour side of the
room that looks remotely untidy,
they will lose all control and at
tack the mess, feather duster and
all. Cleaning is more important
than studying, sleeping or eating.
They are only able to relax if in
an immaculate room.
Make your bed. This will make
them very happy.
♦ The caffeine addicts. Identified
by bloodshot eyes, caffeine addicts
can usually be found gulping down
a Mountain Dew, munching on a
Hershey’s Bar and chewing on
espresso beans. They will always
either be tapping their foot,
twirling their hair, rocking back
and forth or kicking their feet up
in the air. Their favorite type of
music is punk, which they enjoy
jumping around the room to. My
cousin, Bert, a prime example of
this type, downs about eight Surges
a day. After becoming immune to
caffeine, he now speaks in mono
tone, like the Clear Eyes commer
cial guy with the glasses.
♦ The nerds. Probably the most
beneficial, the nerd roommates mo
tivate you to actually study every
once in a while. Their danger
comes in mysterious forms.
Studying is their lives. Nothing
less than an A+ will do on any test,
paper or homework assignment.
They go by the rule that for every
hour in class, a minimum of two
hours must be applied to studying
the subject. Any distraction, such
as the television, computer or tele
phone must be eliminated. And
don’t you dare commit the No. 1 sin
of having the volume up on your
instant messenger while they are
studvine. which is always.
These roommates’ favorite
books are a dictionary and the
saurus, and they are always sure
to carry around a calculator, pen
and white out anywhere they go.
Their favorite pastime is figuring
out difficult math equations and
conjugating foreign verbs. They
are especially dangerous because
they will make you feel like the
dumbest person around and will
lower your confidence level by
about 95 percent.
♦ And finally, the partiers.
Always in search of the perfect
bash, their favorite beverage is
beer, and their favorite food is
cigarettes. They do not limit their
partying to just weekends but in
stead declare every day a party
day. They have the tendency to
wake you up every single night
when they come stumbling into
your room sloppy drunk, singing
a song that makes absolutely no
sense at all. Their favorite music
is techno and rap. This roommate
type loves wearing sunglasses
during the daylight hours because
they are usually hungover.
Otherwise, you can find them
curled up underneath the sheets,
taking a “recovery nap” before the
next party.
Rogers is a third-year electronic
journalism student.