Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

4 THE GAMECOCK ♦ Monday, March 1, 2004 Online.Poli ~| I ,1"TTT I VTmPi come I wanted. I’m excited about What do you think of Mel I ■ J J I I 1 ' the upcoming year and getting to Gibson’s new film, “The ■ I ^ M / a / I I I I . put all of my plans into action.” Passion of the Christ?” llJWwl XF \ IkV WONNE MILLER www.dailygamecock.com. ■ ■ A V W ■ X J . 1 ■ J sg vice-president elect, on winn&|%he Results published on Fridays. -- w 1 ^ 1 r ^ runoff against mark mclawhorn on Friday -----i-----: In.our.opinion Votersneed more SG info Student Government should have done a better job of informing students about the possible amendments to the SG constitution that were voted on on VIP in last week’s election. Even though SG ran an ad explaining the changes in The Gamecock two weeks ago, there were no links through either VIP or on the SG Web site explaining exactly, what the changes would do. There were also no references to the original bills on the Web sites, and only by digging through legislation was it possible to learn anything about the proposals. When the public votes on referendums in general elections on a state or local level, explanations spelling out the initiatives in plain English are required on the ballot. SG only summarized the amendments, which did not fully explain the changes that would occur if the amendments were passed. This deprived students of the background information needed to make an informed decision. Since SG posted information about all of the candidates, there is no reason why they couldn’t do the same for the amendments. While SG hopefully did not intend to mislead voters about the intent of the bills, overlooking the chance to reach voters with more information smacks of impropriety. SG president Katie Dreiling and president-elect Zachery Scott have said improving student’s . perceptions of SG is a major goal of their administrations. If SG intends to reduce apathy about the system, student input into constitutional changes cannot simply be a rubber stamp. SG must do a better job of publicizing its actions and cannot rely simply on newspaper and Internet resources to serve as the link to the students they serve. Student voting on constitutional changes must not simply be a formality if SG intends to reduce student apathy. SOUND OFF Create message boards at www.dailygaiiiecock.com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu Gamecock.Corrections In Wednesday’s News, an article should have stated “The Passion of the Christ” was filmed in Matera, Italy and at Cinecitta Studios outside of Rome. If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. AboutJhe.Gamecoek Editor in Chief Adam Beam Copy Desk Chief Gabrielle Sinclair Design Director Shawn Rourk Asst. Design Director Staci Jordan 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, Brad Senkiw, Mary Pinckney Waters, Chaz McCarthy Copy Editors Allyson Bird, Jennifer Freeman, Jessica Foster, Steven Van Haren Wire Editor Z'Anne Covell Online Editor James Tolbert Senior Writer Kevifx 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 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. Burke Lauderdale Advertising Staff Robert Carli, Kate Femino, Latoya Hines Carolina Love, Jesica Johnson, David Weatherford Public Affairs Kimberly Dressier 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 Ler Me explain TO You AGAiN HOW TrtiS WON T HURT YoUR CHANCeS... CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS Let’s combine the Carolinas As you may already know, but probably wish you didn’t, USC is the finest institute of higher learn ing in the state of South Carolina. Not only that, the dirty little town that USC is at the heart of, Columbia, is the capital of this fair state. Let’s pause and think about this: not only is Colum bia the capital GRAHAM of South Caro- CULBERTSON lina, it’s also Third-year th, >,rges, % “city” (or, “metropolitan area,” ha ha) in South Carolina. And if you don’t like it, well, there’s always Clemson. Oh wait, “Clemson,” ha ha. OK, here’s the problem: we live in a small state in the heart of the South with little to no higher ed ucation whose number one export is the Confederate flag controver sy, with racism and white sheets with eyeholes cut out of them a close second and third. This is not a good place to be, folks. A long time ago, a group of South Carolina’s finest citizens got together and realized all of these things. They realized that South Carolina had a poorly educated, largely rural population. They re alized that the state was racist and that conditions would probably never improve for the black pop ulation. They realized that in roads and industry, economy and education, there was nowhere in the entire union worse off than South Carolina, except for maybe Alabama, which is barely a state anyway. In the middle of the 19th centu ry, our best and brightest got to gether, examined the slavery and idiocy and backwardness that have always been the hallmarks of South Carolina, and decided the only thing to do about it was to se cede. Yes, the only long-term so lution to South Carolina’s plight that has ever been proposed was to leave the United States and go off on its own. Fine. So we already knew that we weren’t exactly living in a think tank. (Although the fact that the federal government actually wanted South Carolina to stick around says something about them, doesn’t it.) “So what’s the answer?” you ask. Simple: our neighbors to the north. “Eh?” you say. No, not Them. The neighbors who have a top 10 private school and a top five public school and an educated populace and good roads and industry and a perfectly good metropolitan area of more than a million people with an NFL team. They’re not even using this as a capital city. You heard it here first it’s about time for just one Carolina again, and the capital should be Charlotte. All of a sud den, we’d be one of the largest states in the United States, right up there with California and Florida and New York and Texas. (OK, so nobody wants to be like Texas. Or California. Or New York or Florida.) My point is, with our powers combined, Carolina would no longer oe competing with Alabama for “State Mostly Likely to Be Forced to Secede.” In fact, if we work hard enough, people might even forget about that whole secession thing altogether. Now if we can just work on getting people to stop cutting eyeholes in their sheets, North Carolina just might give us chance. Mmm, I’m gonna go eat at Maurice’s now. I’ll see you guys next week. In.your.opinion Gibson film needs critical analysis The problem with Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ” is not its violence. Anyone who believes that Jesus was tortured, as is stated in the Bible, cannot believe that the exercise consisted of tickling and pillow fights. Torture is vi olent, and exceedingly so. No, what is wrong with Mr. Gibson’s movie is that we are only given violence. We are presented with the fig ure of Jesus, whose humanity and divine powers for salvation have been given up so that he is simply a body, a tortured body. But Mr. Gibson is not alone in this reduction. Everyone has seen the T-shirts that have a pic ture of Jesus’ scarred back, as though his only gift was the abil ity to withstand punishment. Furthermore, there is an in creasing number of Christians who have replaced the cross, the symbol for the path between Jesus-the-man and Jesus-the God, with a nail, that symbol of suffering and hate. * The danger that this type of portrayal provides is that of ni hilism. We are left with a capri cious and cruel God who sacri ficed his only son to show hu manity that suffering is all it can hope for: What would Jesus do? He would suffer and so shall you. There is no message of hope; there is no chance of a “kingdom of heaven on earth. ” Instead, the path of Jesus is the path of suffering, and all the atrocities humanity has com mitted against itself are just an other step along that path. Any reader of the Gospels will see that suffering is there, but there is much more. But this new Christian nihilism, which is not new at all, will have us for get this. One of the greatest dangers arising from this movie is not its reported anti-Semitism. The number of words and pages ded icated to this discussion perhaps cancels the possible danger. No, the real threat comes from the supporters of the film and Mr. Gibson himself. For anyone who does not see their Christ in this film, anyone who equates Jesus with hope and therefore dislikes this film, is said to be, at best, not a Christian and, at worst, a friend of Satan. The discussion that should be occurring is the one between Christians and their own vision, Mr. Gibson’s included, of Jesus, but it is not happening yet. Let it begin now. SID LITTLEFIELD GHADUATE PHILOSOPHY STUDENT SG amendment hurts small schools I believe that Student Government is an opportunity for students to participate and influence the Carolina Community. Thus, after reading about the Senate appropriation amendment, I was very dis turbed. This amendment is an attempt by larger colleges to gain control of SG. It also fosters SG elitism, es pecially among the larger colleges like the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science and Mathematics. The executive offi cers and staff who support this amendment are all from the College of Liberal Arts. It reduces the possibility of more people par ticipating in SG. Many smaller colleges that currently hold two seats could have their represen tation cut in half. It skews the rep resentation to the larger colleges. Certain people in SG think it s OK to limit the number of sena tors, because it would also be eas ier for them to push through their agendas. I believe that all colleges should have a voice in SG. This appropriation amend ment will destroy the voices of the smaller colleges. Letting a few colleges have the voice on campus will only make SG weak er than it is already. WILLIAM LEE GROOMS JR. THIRD-YEAR PHARMACY STUDENT Submission Policy Letters to the editor should be less than %00 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. Citadel graduate inspires sibling As the baby of my family, I’ve received many perks, such as gain ing much sympathy when I cried, like the time my sister, Rachel, ripped the eyes off my beloved pup pet, Tiger. But, now that I mention my sister, it ,-1 makes me think that maybe be ing the youngest isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Rachel was always intelli SARAH gent.In school, ROGERS she was placed Third-year ^ every honors advertising class and was student involved in the Gifted and Talented program. Teachers real ly liked her and so she received the Terrific Kid award numerous times. As for me, I was only good -'at English, was not in Gifted and Talented, was usually called “Rachel” by my teachers, and re ceived the Terrific Kid award only once (and that was just because my teacher knew my dad). Rachel was also involved in every orga nization imaginable and was named Most Talented senior. I didn’t think matters could get any worse, but they did. During her senior year of high school, Rachel decided she was going to at tend the Citadel, South Carolina’s Military College. My father, a grad uate of the school himself, wasn’t too excited about her decision, but supported her nonetheless. I on the other hand, thought it was the dumbest idea ever and knew she would fully regret it. But Rachel went through with it. When we . went down to Charleston to drop Rachel off at the school for her freshman year, I was mainly interested in looking at all the handsome cadet boys sur rounding me. Rachel though, was taking in everything in the most relaxed manner possible. Had I been in her shoes, I probably would have been throwing up while run ning all the way back to Greenville. It wasn’t another month until we saw Rachel, and I didn’t even recognize her. All her beautiful, auburn hair had been cut off, and she was dressed in a military uni form that looked extremely un comfortable and unfeminine. My first inclination was to cry, which I did, but Rachel just told me to be quiet and suck it up. Throughout her years at the Citadel, the majority of Rachel’s female friends dropped out. Rachel was relentlessly taunted by other cadets, Citadel graduates, and random people on the street. I can remember going out with her in Charleston, and being ap proached by two older ladies who asked if my sister and her room mate, Rita, were boys. I wanted to smack them both in the face, but Rachel just kind of smiled and shrugged. Although many would assume she was given an easier time be cause she was female, Rachel wasn’t. She was, it seemed, just one of the guys. A lot of people expected her to drop out, but Rachel never gave up. This past May, Rachel, along with her other classmates, male and female, received her diplo ma with a B.A. in English, from the Citadel. Because our dad was a graduate of the school, she was able to receive her diploma from him. She was the only female who did so. Rachel is now in the U.S Air Force, working as a first lieu tenant at Shaw Air Force Base. I know I’ll probably always be somewhat jealous of her, but I’ve come to realize one thing. I’ve definitely been blessed with one amazing sister. College.Quote.Board THE LANTERN ^gB^OHlO SfATK UNIVERSITY "While it is unlikely (Ralph) Nader will receive 2.7 percent of the votes he did in 2000, any support he gains will take away from the Democratic candidate. Nader is unlikely to win the election, but he has the influence to sway people to vote his way. His campaign strategies seem geared more toward proving three political parties are better than two, rather than simply beat ing Bush.” THE CHRONICLE DI KE UNIVERSITY “While Bush has the right to set his opinion before the nation, and to support legislation in line with his political ideals, his call for an amendment goes too far. The right to allow gay marriage is an issue that should be left up to individual states, and one state is not obligated to recognize a union legitimized by another state. When possible the Constitution should be amended for the expansion and protection of the rights of Americans.” . COURTESY OF U-WIRE . . K!,