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4 / / /-v .. r, II “There needs to be changes Unline. made to the site so the reviews Did you vote in this week’s can be more trustworthy and pro Democratic presidential pri- fessors don’t have these issues. ” mary?, , DYLAN GREENE www.dauygamecock.com.teacherreviews.com founder, oi Results published on Fridays. site is taking to avoid lawsuits In.our.opinion History must be preserved One of South Carolina’s historic sites is at the center of a firestorm over memorializing Reconstruction. The Penn Center on St. Helena Island, near Beaufort, was the first school for freed slaves in the South, and was established during Reconstruction. It is significant that among the 380 existing national park sites, 30 of which are devoted to the Civil War, none concentrate on its aftermath in the South. While Reconstruction is viewed with mixed feelings, its historical value must be preserved while locations such as the Penn _ . ..0U. Center still exist. Both U.S. Reconstruction is _ viewed with mixed S6"'1™2 HoUmgs' D‘s c feelings its 311(1 US‘Rep-Joe Wllson- R‘ historical value must s c-have introduced bills be preserved while ^ Congress to initiate sites Still exist, studies on making the ‘ Penn Center, and five other Reconstruction-era sites in the Lowcountry, part of NTa+irvnal Par’lr Qxrctom The inclusion of the sites.in the national network of historical and natural monuments will serve to both memorialize the period and potentially bring more tourists to the Palmetto state. However, the plan has met with resistance by the Sons of Confederate Veterans, who feel that Reconstruction is a time that merits no official recognition. The group opposes the move to create monuments out of the sites on the grounds that Reconstruction was the source of poor race relations between whites and blacks in the South. They have put pressure on Wilson, a member of the SCV, to withdraw his support for the $300,000 study into incorporating the sites in the park system. Even if the Penn Center is exemplary of a painful period in South Carolina’s history, it deserves to be memorialized, if for nothing else than to educate future generations about a significant period in American history. SOUND OFF Create message boards at www.daitygamecock.com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu Gamecock. Corrections In Feb. 2’s Sports, Jeremy Burgess’ name was incorrect and he should have been identified as an offensive lineman. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. AboutThe.Gameeock Editor in Chief Adam Beam Copy Desk Chief Gabrielle Sinclair Design Director Shawn Rourk News Editor Michael LaForgia Asst. News Editor Alexis Stratton Viewpoints Editor Patrick Augustine The Mix Editor Meg Moore Asst. Mix Editor Jennifer Sitowski Sports Editor Wes Wolfe Asst. Sports Editor Jonathan Hillyard Photo Editor Morgan Ford Asst. Photo Editor Johnny Haynes Page Designers Erin Cline, Staci Jordan, Brian Ray, Brad Senkiw, Mary Pinckney Waters Copy Editors Allyson Bird, Jennifer Freeman, Jessica Foster Steven Van Haren Wire Editor Z’Anne Covell Online Editor James Tolbert Senior Writer Kevin Fellner CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. Editor in Chief: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu News: gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports@.gwm.sc.edu Public Affairs: gamecockpr@yahoo.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 Editor's Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA The Gamecock is the editorially independent Director student newspaper of Scott Lindenberg the University of South Carolina. It is Faculty Adviser published Monday, Erik Collins Wednesday and Friday during the fall and Creative Director spring semesters and Susan King nine times during the summer, with the Business Manager exception of university Carolyn Griffin holidays and exam periods. Opinions expressed in The Advertising Manager Gamecock are those of Sarah Scarborough the editors or author and not those of the Classified Manager University of South Sherry F. Holmes Carolina. The Board of Student Publications Production Manager and Communications Amber Justice is the publisher of The Gamecock. The Department of Student Creative Services Media is the Whitney Bridges, newspaper’s parent Robbie Burkett organization. The Gamecock is Advertising Staff supported in part by Adam Bourgoin, student-act,v.ty fees. Latoya Hines, Jesica 0n®free "°Py per, ■ Johnson, Caroline reader. Additional Love copies may be purchased for $1 each Public Affairs from the Department Kimberly Dressier of Student Media. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 fax: 777-6482 CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Five fail-proof SG slogans With all the activity swirling around the Democratic presiden tial nomination, it’s easy for us to forget about the elections that re ally matter. That’s right, candi dates all over USC are get ting ready to run for Student Government president, and soon we’ll GRAHAM have a host of CULBERTSON T-shirts, flyers Third-year anduninspir- jgggj ing campaign slogans dis tracting us from the less impor tant aspects of college life, like homework and puking out of windows in the Towers. So, before these campaigns re ally get started, and we have to choose between the candidate who hands out blue T-shirts and the candidate who hands out red T-shirts, I thought I’d suggest some sure-fire slogans for any would-be SG Presidents. Slogan 1: “I am responsible for the free newspapers.” I have no idea who in SG is responsible for the USA Todays and New York Times all over USC, but whoever it is, I want to elect them for an other term. Maybe they’ll get us The Washington Post. Slogan 2: “I am not responsible for attempting to spend hundreds of thousands of student activity fee funds on putting a GPS system in the USC shuttles, and I promise to spend that money on getting someone besides Chingy to come to USC.” Now, I’m afraid that the person responsible for the news papers and the person responsi ble for trying to put GPS in USC shuttles is the same person, but let’s hope not. If any of you have ever actually ridden on a shuttle, write in and let us know, because I have my doubts. Slogan 3: “I suck.” It is a well known fact that anyone, in fact, attempting to be SG president will, in fact, enormously suck. If any of our aspiring leaders/C-av erage political science students would actually admit that they’re not worth electing, at least we’d have an honest candidate on our hands. Slogan 4: “Not only do I suck, but I will openly acknowledge that I want this job exclusively to pad ffly resume for when I apply to law school and do not, in fact, ac tually want to be SG president.” If any of our fine candidates would run with this slogan, I’d not only vote for them, I’d sign on as campaign manager. I mean, seriously, any candi date with the guts to admit the truth and still run a campaign to be a figurehead whose most im portant duty is sitting on the shoulders of the largest SG lack ey at football games deserves to be elected, no questions asked. Slogan 5: “If elected, I will win the College Football National Championship.” This is an excel lent campaign promise, but re member only to make it if your name is Demetris Summers. If your name is Skip Holtz, please remember to have yourself fired immediately. Well, that about wraps it up. I don’t know about you, but I’m ex cited to see what happens as the race heats up and various candi dates promise things such as bet ter food in the GMP, $10,000 signs bearing a map of USC and paid for by your money, and a repeat ap pearance by Chingy in which he plays more than two songs before pulling the fire alarm and scam pering out of the Russell House with $15,000 of activity fee mon ey. On second thought, let’s just not bring Chingy back at all. in.your.opmion Quit your whining about USC parking I too am outraged by the parking situation at the Strom. It is clear that our campus de velopers need to reconsider their priorities when planning construction. Along with many of my fel low students, I spend my time at the Strom to improve my fit ness and appearance. Being ripped and huge takes commit ment. I have a lifting routine, I run miles of circles on the track, and then I challenge Mother Nature on the climbing wall. Strikingly, this university doesn’t seem to care. After I spend hours physically ex hausting myself in order to im prove the beauty of our campus, parking services expects me to have to take that bridge all the way across me street to me place where my car had to be parked. Could they not have put a parking lot on the roof of the Strom, or under the basement, so that the utmost convenience in parking could be enjoyed by the users of this facility? After my daily routine, such a walk across the street really takes a toll on my Ephedrine steeped muscles. A few days ago, I had to turn back to my car after walking to the Strom. Since the walk was so long, I didn’t have any energy left for lifting. Even at my incredible level of fitness, I often question if my body can endure the jour ney of epic proportions. Students, make your voice heard. I for one will not stop un til a police-escorted valet is available to return me to my car. These endless hours of in convenience and walking across the street must end. JOHN NEIL FOURTH-YEAR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING STUDENT Chow distorts facts on penal system I was dumfounded by Curtis Chow’s column (Feb. 4, “Kicking butt lowers crime”). The sheer number of unfound ed arguments Mr. Chow pre sented makes it impossible to address each of them so I will focus on the pertinent ones re garding the American justice and penal system. First and foremost Mr. Chow and his readers know that no criminal wants to go to prison or finds prison appeal ing, regardless of the ameni ties. It is inaccurate and dis honest to say otherwise. Mr. Chow presents racial profiling as a legal loophole and a way of protecting the rights of the accused. By definition, racial profiling has nothing to do with accusation or even sus picion. It is the use of race as the sole basis for investigating an individual. It violates the fun damental principles of a demo cratic society, is illegal and im moral. Finally, the cost of carrying out an execution versus the cost of housing a convicted felon is debatable. The deterrence effect of capital punishment is also de batable, but the fact that inno cent men are on death row is un deniable. In 2000, Illinois Gov. George Ryan placed a moratorium on capital punishment after a re view revealed that, since the death penalty was reinstated, 13 inmates had been exonerated, five by post-conviction DNA test ing. Frontier justice has come and gone; the justice system must have checks, especially when the state is attempting to take a life. Whether Mr. Chow wrote his column with no research and lit tle thought or did so to gain a re action from his sensational state ments is unknown. As for the readers, we can find comfort in the fact that he has at least anoth er year to develop his ideas before he receives a degree. JANEK C. KAZMIERSKI FOURTH-YEAR MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 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@gwm.sc.edu. Letters will be edited for space, possible libel and style. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777 7726 for more information. What’s love got to do with it? Valentine’s Day is a swirling vortex of pain, confusion, loss and love. It’s a day when some are born, yet others die. A day, my friends, that would suck less if you had a date — ami right? With these □ hot tips you won’t have to order the soup for one while some other couple is eating pasta, Lady and the Tramp style. You ADAMS won'‘ be tbe Third-year new guy in the anthropology prison we call student Valentine’s Day anymore. Leave the soap there, my friend; your week is about to get a lot better. Make them an offer they can't refuse: Example — cover yourself in gin and go to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting. Put some spare ribs in your pockets and don't stop walking until you hit Jenny Craig. In short, you want to find your prospective date’s Achilles heel and crush them in the sexiest way possible. Trust me, they'll thank you for it with con fectioner’s hearts and Whitman’s Samplers. And don't talk to me about ethics; if this tactic isn't for you then maybe Valentine’s Day isn’t for you, pansy. ♦Don't rule anvone out Homeless doesn't necessarily mean heartless. Don't judge people based on your usual narrow-minded standards, e.g. cleanliness, age, mental capacity, etc. Everyone smells the same when the lights are out, if you know what I mean, and I think you do. When you hand Hobo Mike a dollar I want you to stop and look past his cataracts, deep into his 76-year-old eyes and tell me that's not someone you'd like to spend a night in front of a roaring fire with. ♦Slipping one past the goalie.Once you've picked your unsuspecting Valentine’s Day date, just play it like you've al ready made plans with them for the big night. They'll be so con fused they'll just go along with it. YOU: Hey, how was your weekend? Oh, by the way, I made the reservations. HIM OR HER: What reserva tions? YOU: See you tonight. He or she will thank you for reminding him or her once you tell him or her you've actually been dating for three months. ♦Makeover, ’80s style: This is basically going to be you trying on lots of clothes while “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” plays in the background. Throw some clothes around, tease something, take a dance break, then how about you throw more clothes around. At the end of all this you should be able to walk into class in slow motion and have every body want you. Just remember: after Valentine’s Day the ’80s magic wears off and it's no longer ac ceptable to wear T-shirt ties and acid wash. You will in fact be ridiculed and the date you had will hate you, for obvious reasons. ♦The Internet: Ask Jeeves. Seriously, talk to him. I asked him this very same question and he told me to “wear something slutty and go to a bar.” He really knows how to treat a woman. The Internet can also serve as a pixelated romantic playground. Find yourself that spe cial someone at one of those online dating thingies (Match.com, ImDesperate.com, etc.) If Oprah ap proves it’s gotta be good. Check your self-respect at the door and come with me on a won derful journey of love. Coll ege .Quote. Boa rd DAILY FORTY-NINER h. CALlrijRaA STATE I .DIVERSITY OF LONG BEACH ‘Thisyear's Super Bowl had everything the game usually does ^ n't — a thrilling, down to the wire finish and... a boob. But nobody even cares about the game anymore. That aside, there is some thing of a double standard at work. In the football genre alone there is, right or wrong, constant use of the female body to sell products and rally crowds.” -r ■ THE PITT NEWS I NIVKHSITY OF I'lTTSISI HUH “If there's one thing more emotionally painful than watching some one maim a kitten, it's buying college textbooks. Every semester, stu dents shell out hundreds of dollars—the average outlay is $898 a year, according to a new study by the California Student Public Interest Research Group. The big textbook publishers' need to make a profit , runs directly counter to the larger need to make education accessible to everyone.” COURTESY OF U-WIRE