Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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' SOUND OFF ONLINE POLL Should sexual orientation be added Create message boards at to USC’s nondiscrimination policy? www.dailygamecock.com or , www.dailygamecock.com. send letters to the editor to Results published on Fridays. gamecockopinions@hotmail.com IN OUR OPINION Lynch story still unclear , What a mess. No one knows exactly what happened in Iraq with Pfc. Jessica Lynch. Conflicting reports have been released since her company’s convoy was attacked March 23. The media and U.S. military have disregarded other members of Lynch’s unit, many of whom also were taken prisoners. In the name of ratings, news It is evident that Lynch’s “story” played a part in bolstering support for the war in Iraq. media tnrougnout tne united States have created an image of a one-woman army. Possibly swayed by the media’s treatment of Lynch, the military awarded her a Bronze star essentially ior DiacKing out, being a young woman with a jammed M-16 rifle and surviving nine days as an injured prisoner of war. i The Pentagon initially reported that Lynch had been wounded by Iraqi gunfire but had kept fighting until her ammunition ran out. Though corrected later, retractions in papers and on television were largely played down. Whether the military or the media is to blame for the confusion, it is evident that Lynch’s “story” played a part in bolstering support for the war in Iraq. Lynch’s biography hit shelves Tuesday. In this book, even Lynch, who shared the $1 million book deal with writer Rick Bragg, admits she has no recollection of at least three hours of the ordeal, which leaves the nation in debate over what happened those nine days in March. Winners and Sinners FCC Allows cell phone owners to transfer their home numbers to their cells. Thanks, Big Bro’! GARRY KASPAROV The man versus the machine plays to a tie in virtual chess match. LARRY FLYNT Pomographer with a heart of gold says he has pictures of Jessica Lynch posing nude, but won’t print them because she’s “a good kid.” GOOSE CREEK POLICE Storm into high school, guns drawn, looking for drugs, only to find nothing. GREEN RIVER KILLER Admits to killing 48 women, mostly prostitutes. ROBERT DURST Millionaire found innocent for chopping up a neighbor in self-defense. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS In Monday’s paper, information at the beginning of a story about Student Government’s promotion ofTeacherReviews.com should not have been attributed to Katie Dreiling. A story in Sports on Monday about the men’s soccer team should have read, “Throughout the game, ball control and intensity that lacked in previous matches was present against UNC.” 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 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 Rourk Page Designers « Justin Bajan, Staci Jordan. Philip Whiteheai Slot Copy Editors Amy Genoble, Mary Pinckney Waters. Tricia Ridgway 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.dailygamecock.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 I 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, with 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 ^ ! CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Autumn and its dirty tricks DAVID STAGG GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM Whatever happened to the days of fall? Columbia generally has a prime climate to live in. Before this weekend, it was mid-70s with a calm breeze in the air, trees dancing gaily in the wind, chil dren roasting marshmallows over an open fire before one gets too close and sets their hair aflame forcing a panicked scream from all within a five-mile radius as said child flees to the nearest body of water, which, due to the nice cli mate, provides a dousing — but more importantly, soothing—ef fect on the flame and charred skin. Well, unbeknownst to me, no one uses the word unbeknownst anymore. Also unbeknownst to me, was that now, somewhere amid the hustle and bustle of ONE DAY, autumn has already passed us by. What happened to the days of yore when the weath er was docile, the temperature was enjoyable and people used more than one Old English word in a single paragraph? The trees don’t even change colors anymore. One second they’re green, next second they’re a LIGHT green, and then WHAM! They’re on the ground, brown, trampled on and in pieces even though no one has walked near that tree for thirty years. The leaves drop quicker than Ted Kennedy’s pants at a college bar. I spent this past Friday re laxing outside because the weather was so agreeable that I needed a thesaurus to find more than one word for nice to de scribe it. On Saturday, I left for Atlanta. There, I also relaxed in the somewhat cool weather they were experiencing. On Sunday, I entered my portable climate controlling device known as my car to drive home. Naturally, those of us in the car left the windows up because when you go 80 on the freeway and open a window your brain and internal organs are sucked out through your ear. But when we returned home and the car was safely under the 80-mile-an hour suck zone, we exited its safe confines only to enter an ice-aged abyss where our T-shirts were no longer enough to keep ourselves at a decent temperature. It’s almost like fall is playing hide-and-go-seek with us. Well, fall, I’ve got news for you: You’re hiding, but you’re like that one kid who plays hide-and-go-seek, but unbeknownst (last time, I swear) to you, everyone else has already finished playing and is enjoying marshmallows over a fire (until some kid sets himself ablaze) while you sit with a smug smile on your face in a cramped spot, most likely under the sink, where water has been dripping on you for 45 minutes before you start to realize something is wrong. Yeah, no one olly-olly oxen-ff eed you this time. We don’t need you anyway. In fact, that’s our motto: Personification is a good literary device. And I’ll be darned if I don’t personify you as a rejected hide-and-go-seeker. Sucker. So I say bring on winter! Give me Christmas! Give me snow! Give me puffy jackets with fur so outrageously excessive it looks like a capybara got stuck under the collars with super glue and its babies got wrapped around the top of the matching boots! And if you feel the same way, we should get together and start a We Don’t Need Fall Club. Trouble is, fall won’t be around long enough to experience our protests. Stagg is a third-year media arts student. IN YOUR OPINION Don’t impeach Hark for Web site Shame on those attempting to impeach Residence Hall Association president Adam Hark for the content posted on his personal Web site! Are we completely forgetting both the spirit and the grounds of the impeachment process as well as the value of the freedom of expression in this country? What rule has Adam Hark bro ken? The impeachment process was included in our Constitution as a deterrent to keep elected officials from com mitting “high crimes and mis demeanors.” Adam Hark has committed no such acts, nor should he be impeached be cause some expression he made through a personal Web site was deemed offensive and “in decent” by a group of people. The freedom to make such an expression, so long as it does not present a clear and present dan ger to others in society, is one that is greatly esteemed in this country. The Gamecock printed an opinion that said, "When Hark took upon himself the re sponsibilities that come with be ing a public figure, the option to act like his fellow students was revoked.” How is it that as free dom-loving citizens we can say that because someone was elect ed to an office, they can no longer enjoy the same freedoms as every other citizen can? This to me is shocking. As students at a university, and especially members of orga nizations like RHA, we are sup posed to be the more progressive people in our society. We are supposed to exact change and pursue the protection of our per sonal liberties. By impeaching Adam Hark, we are journeying into regression by attempting to limit a person’s right to express themselves and their opinions without harming others. Sure, these images are of questionable decency, but that does not give us a right to limit Hark’s ability to express himself in this manner. “The very purpose of a Bill of Rights was to withdraw certain subjects from the vicissitudes of political controversy, to place them beyond the reach of ma jorities and officials and to es tablish them as legal principles to be applied... Only a persistent positive translation of the faith of a free society into the convic tions and habits and actions of a community is the ultimate re liance against unabated tempta tions to fetter the human spirit” (Supreme Court opinion, West Virginia Board of Education v. Barnette, 1943). Forget the fact that this Web site was intended as a “joke among a few friends,” the RHA shouldn’t waste time on some thing as trivial as a Web site. If these sex and drug issues on campus concern you, tackle the actual abuses of sex and safe ty against assault on students on campus and the blatant use and abuse of drugs in our residence halls and university institutions. JEFFREY GLEASON TIllltD-YHAIt POLITICAL.SCIENCE STUDENT ‘Radio’ is not insane, homeless I am responding to “Homeless would be perfect mascots” (Nov. 5) by Gabrielle Sinclair because I do not see how anyone can link homeless, mascot and Radio together. Radio was not homeless. It was apparent in numerous scenes of the movie that he lived in a house with his mother. Second, he was not the team mascot. Radio was a defensive coach on the T.L. Hanna football team. The school’s mascot is a yellow jack et, and Radio was never used as a mascot. As the director of Best Buddies, an organization dedicated to en hancing the lives of people with intellectual disabilities by pro viding one-on-one friendships, I am furious that someone would use Radio as a humorous analogy. Radio’s mental age is 10. Most 10-year-old boys love football and would love to be part of the local football team. Radio had a dream of being part of that team, and that is what he got and still has. People with intellectual disabilities tend to be excluded from society, and just because he was finally social ly accepted at T.L. Hanna High School does not mean that he was “misunderstood and ultimately stripped of his personal dignity and his will to live.” ' I have seen what it’s like for a person who is intellectually dis abled to be included in society and to be a part of something. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever seen. Obviously, some people still want to make fun and exclude these people from society. Maybe they need to spend a day with someone who is intellectually disabled and then tell me if these people are as insane as you think. MEGAN INGLE TIMHD-YKAII BUSINESS MANAGEMENT AND MAHKETINO 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 gamecockopinions@hotmail.com. Letters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more information. Bush places Bremer at fault WES WOLFE GAMECOCKOPINIONS@HOTMAIL.COM In Iraq, there’s always someone else to blame. L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. civil ian administrator for Iraq and de facto chief executive of that na tion, was called back to Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. What this means for us is that Bremer got a proper “call back to Moscow.” You see, when Soviet spies would screw up, they’d get a mes sage to return to Moscow. What this meant for the agents was that they’d face execution or some oth er terrible punishment so that the blame could be lain. Bremer’s call to Washington wasn’t so much life-and-death, but included meetings with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, all the while getting the public-relations shaft from the Bush administration for the ongoing Iraq mess. Going into the 2004 election year, it now looks like President George W. Bush is using Bremer as a scapegoat for the mistakes he and his henchmen, namely ol’ Rummy and Condi Rice, made in Dlanninefor the Deace in Iraa. After all, who wouldn’t be look ing for a back door with what has been happening in Iraq lately? Just yesterday, there was a rocket attack against the headquarters of the provisional authority, a bomb exploded in Baghdad, a bomb exploded in Basra and killed six people, and Iraqis set fire to a police station and the mayor’s office in Haditha. This doesn’t count the attack on the al-Rashid hotel on Oct. 25 that resulted in the death of a U.S. colonel and the fiasco surrounding former Army Pvt. Jessica Lynch, who is angry at the way the mili tary portrayed her rescue in Iraq. Certainly the American public won’t take too well to the exploita - tionofa 20-year-old war veteran. These failures have forced the administration to look around for someone to blame, so the Bushies are blaming Bremer for not set ting up the Iraqi government fast enough and allowing more American troops to return home. It’s gotten so bad that the Bush administration is suggesting Bremer set up a plan for turning power over to an Iraqi govern mental structure before a consti tution is written. The Bushies pre viously held that a constitution was essential to the passage of au thority from the U.S. civil au thority to an Iraqi government. And to think, this wouldn t even be a problem if the Bushies hadn’t been so nationalistic and tried to actually cooperate with the other nations in the world. Maybe a multinational peace keeping force wouldn’t be so prone to attacks, since the attacks against U.S. forces seem to be driven by a psychotic anti Americanism. But it will not be. We’re stuck in Iraq with a president that would rather assign blame than fix the problems he’s gotten us into. After all, when you look at a guy that has banned the media from covering the ceremonial re turn of deceased soldiers to the military morgue in Delaware and an administration that has ex ploited a 20-year-old prisoner of war, you can’t expect true leader ship in a mess like Iraq. So, let’s all watch the slow-mo tion train wreck for the next year and pray that someone with better ideas and actual leader ship is elected president next November. Wolfe is a fourth-year public relations student.