The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, August 19, 2004, Page A11, Image 11
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THlfeAMECOCK
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR IN CHIEF COPY DESK CHIEF
Adam Beam Gabrielle Sinclair
^ DESIGN DIRECTOR VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
^ David Stagg Wes Wolfe
^ NEWS EDITOR ASSISTANT NEWS EDITOR
Michael LaForgia Jon Turner
THE MIX EDITOR SENIOR WRITER
Meg Moore Kevin Fellner
IN OUR OPINION
Richer university,
poorer students
Hurricane Charley wasn’t the only unwelcome sight to
USC’s welcome back weekend as students were met with
doubled parking sticker prices, higher food prices at on
campus restaurants and the usual outrageous prices for
textbooks.
^ Students are also picking up the tab on an 11 percent
tuition increase handed down by the Board of Trustees in
June.
For th6 P3St tWO gut what is most startling is the
„yea •aMKW! Ve. in rhetoric from USC
heard is budget , . „ ,
cuts budget admimstrators-For the Past two
cuts, budget cuts years a11 we ve heard 1S budget
and how USC cuts> budset curs> bud§et cuts and
Students need to bow USC students need to accept
accept the fact the fact that getting a quality edu
that getting a cation costs more. But this year,
quality education USC officials are boasting of a
costs more. record fund-raising drive. USC
raised $149.3 million for research
Hand $69.7 million from private giving in 2003-2004.
^’rivate giving is up 20 percent from last year’s totals, and
the research money is the highest for any year outside a
capital campaign. The figures also include $29.4 million for
academic enhancement, $8.9 million for scholarships and
$5.5 million for faculty development. USC President
Andrew Sorensen called the totals “gratifying,” saying it
enables USC to “provide scholarship and enrichment pro
grams that make the difference between a good educational
experience and a first-class one.”
But lost in that assessment of USC’s educational experi
ence is the price of being a student. So before we go pat
ting ourselves on the back for all the money we’ve raised,
let’s pause to seriously consider the effect on the senior
psychology student who works two jobs and takes 18
J^iours a semester so he can graduate on time and still pay
for college, which includes more than just a tuition bill.
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CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
Kerry doesn’t compare to Bush
■ A conservative is
• more able to secure
peace and democracy
John Kerry’s lack of a defining
issue has changed the general
election into a referendum on
Iraq. November might provide a
mandate for Bush’s invasion, or it
might censure it. For lack of a
better (or different) issue, this
election is about foreign policy.
And on this issue, Kerry has slid
to the center. He now stands with
Bush to support the invasion
though no one has found weapons.
So much for spirited opposition.
Unfortunately, when Kerry
stands with Bush, it has been for
' his mistakes, and those times he
has deviated have been for the
absurd.
After Bush taunted Kerry to
agree the war was just regardless
of national security
considerations like, oh, finding
real weapons of mass destruction,
Kerry ought to have contradicted
him, not stood with him.
Nobody, not Bush, not anyone,
would have invaded Iraq in the
absence of a potential threat. It’s
a sign of how politicized the war
is that Bush dredged up this daft
little jab.
The real question is whether
the right decision was made on
the available evidence. Bush’s
answer is yes. Nader’s is no.
Kerry finds
the invasion
worthwhile
but says Bush
should have
brought
friends. In
anti-Bush
- deviation on
COREY “ct
GARRIOTT
said he plans
FOURTH-YEAR t0 mend
PHILOSOPHY relations with
STUDENT Europe so
they will
march
happily into the quagmire.
This is absurd. Kerry cannot
hope to usher European armies
into Iraq. Left-wing solidarity?
Whatever. Europe’s leaders have
their own voters to worry about,
voters who oppose the war.
Besides, Bush has not been
unsuccessful. His appeal to
conservative nations has brought
49 countries to the coalition of
the willing, though mostly for
Afghanistan. Two-thirds of al
Qaeda’s original leadership has
been killed of captured. We now
have a cooperative ’ regime in
Libya — imagine that. Best, the
construction of democracy in
Afghanistan has been sensitive to
local custom, using the country’s
traditional system of national
tribe meetings to occasion the
election.
Today, in the land of the
Taliban, Afghan women —
previously disenfranchised —
gather in mosques, which were
previously opposed, to register to
vote.
Instead, Nixon’s anti
communism immunized him from
criticism that he would sack
American interests in favor of an
untenable ideal.
Similarly, Ariel Sharon can
propose Israeli withdrawal without
appearing to be an appeaser.
Bush’s crusade for democracy
has little to do with conservatism,
the measured suspicion for grand
crusades. It smells more like the
French Revolution.
So, progressives: if you’re
looking for a candidate who thinks
he can score one for peace, liberty
and democracy, it’s not Kerry.
However flawed, Bush had the
special ability as a hardliner to
accomplish something moderate in
Afghanistan and stands a small
chance of turning around an Arab
regime.
In contrast, all Kerry is good for
is opposing Bush. He waxes more
conservative about the war’s
management than the right, then he
wanes back when speaking about
multilateralism. His candidacy
underscores the left’s disturbing,
visceral hatred for a man who beats
progressives at their own game.
IN YOUR OPINION
Liberals are wrong
to trash U.S. troops
In response to Ms. Gregg’s
piece on the state of free speech
in America (“Free speech isn’t
un-American,” August 13) I
would note that the very fact
that private companies and
consumers are expressing their
feelings about liberal celebrities
shows that freedom of speech is
alive and well in America.
This is nothing new. Liberals
talk about their disagreements
with conservatives, and vice
versa. Yet, when conservative
business leaders, concert goers
or CD purchasers express their
displeasure with the remarks of
liberal celebrities by firing the
celebrity, leaving a concert, or
not buying a CD, they are
accused of trying to stifle free
speech.
Ms. Gregg ponders whether
or not the suppression of
certain liberal celebrities is
more un-American than the
statements of the celebrities
themselves. 1 would have to
disagree, along with the so
called un-American •
conservatives who are causing
this uproar in the first place.
We really do believe that
when someone calls our boys in
Iraq nothing but Iraqi prisoner
abusing lowlifes who are giving
their lives for a lie because of an
oil-crazed wacko in the White
House, they are making an un
American statement. We
support our troops and their
brave work. When they are
treated like filth, we defend
them.
The real issue at hand is that
many Americans do support the
troops and do not support those
who trash our military and our
president. Liberals have nothing
intellectual 0%. logical to base
their claims on or defend them,
so they in turn complain about
those darn conservatives taking
away their free speech. For
something to be classified un
American, it must be in direct
opposition to our great country.
I can think of no better way to
express this sentiment than by
trashing our brave military or
our brave commander in chief
in a time of war.
BRAD LEAKE
First-year political science
student
Haggard correct on
Arao-Israel conflict
I am writing in regard to the
Aug. 4 issue of The Gamecock. I
would like to thank Paige
Haggard for her column titled
“Hypocrisy cheapens justice.” It
is time Americans everywhere
open their eyes and understand
what is truly happening in the
Palestinian land.
The Israeli army is indeed one
of the most powerful armies
next to the United States and
with that said is capable of
“wrong doings.” Since they are
classified as an army, a lot of
Israel’s harrowing actions are
not classified as “murder” or
even “terrorist-like behavior,”
but rather actions that they
classify as protection from
terrorism. Israel is supported by
the United States and therefore
Americans believe' that whatever
Israel does is justified. *
If the killing of innocent
bystanders is “regrettable” then
why do they continue to do it
on a day-to-day basis? We must
not be a one-sided nation to
those who do as much
bloodshed as their accused
enemy, but rather be
sympathetic to all those
innocent civilians who lose ttotir
lives for no rightful reason. Paige
Haggard, 1 commend you for an
admirable, open-minded article
that we don’t see much when it
comes to this issue. I agree with
you when you say violence plus
deaths equals more death.
SUZANNE FRAU
First-year pharmacy student
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7726 for more information. v
Column
topics not
as easy as
they look
■ Grammar, football and
President Bush seemed
like good ideas
The beginning of the semester is
always a trying time for The
Gamecock staff. The first paper of
the fall semester, this one, is so
n corpulent it
needs to go on
a diet cocktail
of Atkins,
South Beach
and Weight
Watchers. As a
result, we
editors panic
trying to find
uiro writers, so I
spent the time
WOLFE that I was
.. _ supposed to be
FIFTH-YEAR
PUBLIC coming up with
RELATIONS a column topic
STUDENT by e.mailing
willing
columnists and sending out plaintive
pleas over instant messenger.
My first idea, from way back in
the spring when I was
contemplating my editorial move
from Sports to Viewpoints, was to
do an entire column on the idiocy
of women who spell the word
“women” with a “y,” e.g.
“womyn.”
You see, it leaves out men. As
a result, the word is used by what I
would term radical lesbians. As a
left-of-center fellow, I usually only
use the word “radical” when
accompanied by the phrase
“conservative morons.” However,
in this case 1 have to deviate. A
purposeful slam on half the world’s
population — which includes me
— by way of grammar seems a bit
too much. Just because these
womyn aren’t attracted to men
doesn’t mean we, the men, should
be removed by convenient letter
placement. Still, not wanting to
take a swipe at what seems by and
large to be a left-wing crowd, I
decided to look elsewhere for
column fodder.
There’s always the upcoming
college football season. As a native
of Birmingham, Ala., I’m
hopelessly addicted to the ups and
downs of the University of
Alabama’s football program. If
asked, I could probably rattle off
every one of the 12 national
championships won by the
Crimson Tide. That’s right - not
six, not seven, but 12 national
championships, dating from back
to-back title victories in 1925 and
1926 to the latest triumph in 1992.
This year, the team I’ve been
following since birth will once
again tangle with the team of my
alma mater. Thankfully, I will be
one of the fortunate to be at
Bryant-Denny Stadium in
Tuscaloosa on that grand Saturday.
Of course, the last time I was in the
same place along with Bama and
Carolina, the Tide had a
spectacular fourth quarter
meltdown.
I could go on and on about how
lightning won’t strike twice and
how you can’t keep down a storied
program like Alabama’s — while
USC has an overall losing record
for the history of the team - but
that would be more suited for the
sports section and would invite
plenty of nasty letters to the editor.
Then there’s the race for
president. A report from the
Congressional Budget Office on
Friday revealed that not only did one
third of President Bush’s tax cuts go
to people who made an average
annual pay of $1.2 million, but that
the middle class is actually, when all
is said and done, paying more in
taxes. Somehow, saying, “1 told you
so” just isn’t enough this time.
Even I said way back in December
of 2000 that there’s no way George
W. could mess everything up that bad
in four years. Then came a moribund
economy, a quagmire in Iraq that’s a
part of an incompetent foreign policy
and poorly fought war on terror, not
to mention an attorney general who
would like to tell womyn what they
can and can’t do in men-free
bedrooms or kitchen tables. A trained
monkey could do better. But it’s no
use saying spiteful things about the
president. More nasty letters, after all.
Oh, well. Maybe I’ll figure out a
good topic next time. %