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EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR COPY DESK CHIEF
Adam Beam Gabrielle Sinclair
DESIGN DIRECTOR VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
David Stagg Wes Wolfe
NEWS EDITOR SENIOR WRITER
Michael LaForgia Kevin Fellner
THE MIX EDITOR ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Meg Moore Jon Turner
IN OUR OPINION
USC overreaches
on student groups
Last November, USC President Andrew Sorensen quietly added
sexual orientation to USC’s nondiscrimination policy. USC offi
cials had taken lots of heat about the issue from USC students,
and the administration didn’t feel it was necessary to publicize its
policy change.
But this semester the Student Life department sent a memo to
all campus organizations stating they must update their constitu
tions with the new sexual orientation clause or they cannot be an
official student organization. This means, according to Student
Life Director Jerry Brewer, that the
USC should not , . ,,
. . organization will be taken off
exert so much ® . .
, UoC s Web site and cannot use
control over
... USC facilities for meetings or other
student groups, 6
unless the events‘
university gives A maiorit>r of student orgamza
the grOUpS money r‘ons rece've funding directly from
the school. A portion of student
activity fees goes to Student Government, who then decides how
to divide up the money to student organizations. But there are a
number of student groups, such as the NAACP and the
Fellowship of Christian Athletes, who do not receive this money
because they are organizations with a political or religious mission.
If a student organization receives funding, USC reserves the
right to regulate it. However, if student groups don’t receive USC
funding, either by force or by choice, then USC officials should
not have the authority to dictate student constitutions. This issue
isn’t about sexual orientation. We find it hard to believe any stu
dent organization on campus would endorse discriminating against
anyone.
Students should have the right to organize with other students
who share their interests and not have to worry about USC offi
cials dictating group policy. We understand that USC has to worry
about liability issues, so its regulation should be limited to restrict
ing activities on USC property, not on policy and ideas expressed
in student organizations.
IT’S YOUR RIGHT
Exercise your right to voice your opinion
Create message boards at
www.dailygamecock.com
or send letters to the editor to
gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
Ofi Wednesday’s front page, Evoka was misidentified in a photograph.
In Wednesday’s The Mix, “War Pigs” should have been credited to Black Sabbath.
The Gamecock regrets the errors.
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at
gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu.
i-——-——— -1
ABOUT THE GAMECOCK
EDITOR
Adam Beam CONTACT INFORMATION
nc«irw niocrmo Offices on third floor of the Russell House.
David Stage The Ed,tor s office hours are Monday and
Wednesday from 3*5 p.m.
copy desk chief Editor: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu
Gabrielle Sinclair News: gamecocknews@gwm.sc.edu
news editor Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu
Michael LcForgia The Mix: gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu
Sports: gamecocksports@gwm.sc.edu
asst_news editor Public Affairs: gamecockPR@yahoo.com
Jon Turner Online: www.dailygamecock.com
viewpoints editor Newsroom: 777-7726; Sports: 777-7182
Wes Wolfe Editor's Office: 777-3914
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Bush creates fantasy, calls it reality
■ The president still
misleading American
public on the Iraq war
Like George W. Bush, previous
presidents, both Democratic and
Republican, have led the country into
wars based on lies, shrouded themselves
in a veil of secrecy and used their power
to enrich campaign contributors. While
at an extreme level under this
administration, this type of behavior is
not new. Our country and the entire
planet face increasingly difficult
challenges, and right now the United
States is led by people who live inside
their own fantasy world.
In a recent debate, Bush promoted
America’s missile defense program. He
told the world that “We say to those
tyrants who believe they can blackmail
America... you fire, we’re going to shoot
it down” — practically daring a nuclear
state to launch a nuclear missile at us.
Unfortunately for us, the missile defense
program doesn’t work. According to the
Union of Concerned Scientists, previous
Pentagon evaluator Phillip Coyle,
former Chief of U.S. Strategic
Command Eugene Habiger and all
independent evaluators the program, the
missile defense system recently deployed
in Alaska can’t protect America from a
nuclear missile. Nor will it be functional
in the near future — it might never be
functional. Even the chief weapons
evaluator in Bush’s Pentagon says that,
at best, the missiles have “20 percent”
functionality. Yet, Bush applied his
“bring it on"
bravado to a
nuclear missile
attack on our
cities. Feeling
safer?
We know
that the
administration
MICHAEL “ , about
n p n m Saddam s non
delKvj ,
existent nuclear,
CO-HOST OF chemical and
THE SEED SHOW,
WCEO 840 AM biological
weapons; misled
the country
about Iraq/al
Qaeda ties; and brouglit America into
an illegal, unprovoked war which has
killed or wounded tens of thousands of
people, including thousands of
Americans. It is possible, however, to lie
to the public but still understand reality
yourself. The Bush administration
shows no indication it can do this. As it
became apparent that America was
going to invade Iraq regardless of the
degree to which Saddam submitted to
inspections, the International Atomic
Energy Agency pleaded with the
administration to make sure that
America secures Saddam’s largest
stockpiles of high level explosives. In the
build up to the invasion, the IAEA had
enacted a tight monitoring process on
these weapons to ensure that they did
not fall into terrorist hands nor would
they be used as part of a nuclear
weapons program. The Bush
administration ignored the warnings of
the IAEA. Three hundred and eighty
tons of these explosives have gone
missing. These weapons are likely being
used by Iraqi insurgents daily as
roadside bombs, and some are probably
in the hands of terrorists looking to
attack the United States.
So the Bush administration ignores
the pleas of the IAEA. Not vety sensible,
but not surprising considering his feud
with the organization during the
buildup to the war. Still, you would still
expea them to listen to the advice of
their own generals. Before the invasion,
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K.
Shinseki told the administration that it
would need to roughly triple the
number of troops proposed by Secretary
of Defense Donald Rumsfeld in order to
control Iraq. Instead of listening to his
advice, Bush forced Shinseki into early
retirement. Army Secretary Thomas
White backed up Shinseki’s assessment,
and Rumsfeld soon fired him. Shinseki
and White were right, as even former
Chief U.S. Administrator of Iraq Paul
Bremer admits, and their failure to take
his advice has had a lot to do with the
chaos we now see in Iraq.
The climate heats up, and Bush’s
Gulf War ally Tony Blair calls it the
most serious crisis feeing humanity.
Bush puts his head in the sand. The
HIV epidemic ravages America and the
world — our leadership talks about
abstinence-only education. As real
problems emerge and grow, this
administration reueats to its own Paer
Pan world. And all of us living in this
real world are paying the price.
IN YOUR OPINION
r i
It upsets me when I hear about
schools and communities canceling
Halloween celebrations because they
are supposedly “satanic” or offensive
to some groups, such as Wiccans.
For the satanic part, I didn’t learn
about how Halloween came from a
Celtic belief? that it was the eve of a
new year and that the boundaries
between the living and dead worlds
were at their weakest. The
Halloween I learned about was a
secular holiday based on the
Catholics’ All Saints Day/Eve. All
Saints Day is a holiday designed to
impress upon children that death is
nothing to be scared of, just a
normal pan of life. Nothing satanic
there. And for offending groups, I
feel that this is just like Christmas.
For any information on that, just
watch the second-greatest “South
Park" episode of all time, where the
town tries to offend nobody during
Christmas — it doesn’t work. So
let’s all dress up, enjoy ourselves and
have some fun for a night.
CHRIS HERRING
Second-year criminaljustice
student
We’ve already paid,
so stop charging us
I was infuriated to read The
Gamecock and see, splashed on the
front cover, that parking rates have
increased (“Raised garage fees due
next month,” Wednesday). It’s one
thing to go up on prices, and I could
understand if they did so next
semester. However, when students
have already paid for their garage
spaces it is unfair to force them to pay
additional money to keep their space.
I feel as though I’ve been scammed.
Another problem widi parking is
that people double-park and receive
no fines for it. I’ve called and reported
people who were double-parked, and
the parking office stated that they
wotdd place a ticket on said car, but
they never do.
If I’m going to pay $180 — now
$240 — for a garage space, I expect
parking enforcement to ticket the
people who take up two spaces!
How much can it possibly cost to
pay for a new garage? I’m sure the
school is turning a big profit out of
the parking situation — I can just
envision USC parking (or the
treasurer) laughing all the way to the
bank. What’s next? After we pay this
increase, will there be another increase
due at a later date? I shall wait and see.
Since Herbert Atoms doesn't
seen to thirk that $65 is a let,
stating “ttet is only $2 a d^r,
which is not too bad," I guess he
wouldn't mind paying my
increased parking payment.
CHRISTINA BASS
Second-year psychology
student
Sketch comedy flyer
unnecessarily mean
While talking with friends in
LeConte Monday, I noticed a flyer
with a familiar headline copied ont6
the top: “Comedy show suffers
mishap.” The reason this headline is so
familiar to me is because I cut out that
article from The Gamecock when it
was printed on Sept. 20. The reason I
cut it out was because I was “the
woman” referred to in the article. On
Sept. 19, I was in the audience of
Sunday Night Alive when, purely by
accident, the handle of a ceramic vase
broke off which sent the vase into the
audience, hitting me direcdy on and
around my right eye. Miraculously, an
eye doctor was in the audience and I
was taken immediately to his office
where 1 received approximately 30
stitches. It was a totally random
incident, and while I wish that it had
never happened. My vision is fine and
five weeks later the scars are barely
visible. I have no hard feelings towards
anyone on the cast of SNA. In fact, I
have attended every show since and
proudly support the cast for the clean yet
hilarious comedy show they present
every Sunday night. Therefore, it was
extremely offensive to me that a group
would make light of the situation and
uses that particular headline to advertise
for their auditions. I cannot put into
words the anger that I felt when I saw
this flyer and continued to see others
around campus. Not only am I offended
because I was the one who was hurt in
the incident, but also I am offended on
behalf of the cast of SNA. I would hate
for anyone to be discouraged from
attending SNA simply because of seeing
that flyer on which the headline and the
accompanying comments were placed
completely out of context.
I do wish that whoever is in charge of
their advertising would try to be more
tasteful in their method of grabbing
attention in the future, instead of
exploiting for their own benefit an event
that was indeed misfortunate, but that
had no serious consequences. I feel that if
anyone truly does have the right to mock
SNA, I do, and I have no desire
whatsoever to do so. Whoever came up
with the idea for this flyer should be
ashamed.
CHELSEY KARNS
First-year English student
f
Check out
Maurice
Bessinger’s
online
column on
student
activism at
www.dailygamecock.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
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be published. Call the newsroom at 777
7726 for more information.
Bush true
to his word
in war on
terrorism
■ We can’t trust John
Kerry to keep America
safe from ai Qaeda
The presidential election is less than a
week away, and I am voting to re-elect
President George W. Bush.
Both candidates are patriots and
would do their
I-- best to serve and
j: protect our great
| country. The
debates arise
when you begin
to discuss the
actions needed to
1_| bring about the
goals both
RAY candidates desire.
LEMOINE The primary
issue of this
NEBRASKAN election is the war
on terror. The
most fundamental
job of the
government is to
provide security for its people.
Make no mistake. Despite what the
pundits on both sides are telling you,
either candidate would aggressively
pursue al Qaeda across the globe. The
question is: Who will do it better?
I think Bush has done a great job in
unprecedented circumstances. No one
could have anticipated the challenges his
administration would have to face.
There was no playbook for this war on
terror.
Kerry’s assertion that U.S. action
must pass a “global test” is ridiculous.
Kerry later claimed this was a
misstatement on his pan, but it speaks to
his mindset.
The United Nations cannot be relied
upon to safeguard the security of the
United States. One has to look no
further than the genocide in Darfur to
see the United Nation’s impotence.
Domestically, one of Kerry’s big
failures is his refusal to disavow partial
birth abortion. This brutal practice was
successfully banned by the Bush
administration with the help of the U.S.
Congress.
Bush is a strong leader. He makes the
tough decisions, and he sticks with what
he knows is right. It doesn’t matter to
him what national polls seem to say. He
doesn’t get carried away in the ebb and
flow of world opinion.
Bush knows the difference between
right and wrong. This is why he is able to
clearly define the axis of evil. It is this
moral clarity that makes the media elites
hate him so much.
This same moral clarity makes me
admire him. I am going to vote for Bush
because I relate to the way he approaches
his job as president. I know Bush might
not always tell me v/hat I want to hear,
but he does tell it the way he sees it.
I don’t get the same feeling from
Kerry. Kerry seems like the kind of
person who will tell me anything to get
my vote. He seems to tell me all the
things he thinks I want to hear. I don’t
want a president who waffles along with
the uncertainties of poll numbers.
I want a president who will lead
resolutely in uncertain times. Bush has
set the correct agenda to win the war on
terror, and he will lead us resolutely to its
successful conclusion.
This doesn’t mean Bush is my dream
candidate. On the contrary, I wish Bush
would do certain things better. There is
no doubt the intelligence in Iraq has
been a disaster, both before and after the
war.
I don’t blame Bush for this, but I am
also surprised more people weren’t held
accountable for these failures. I wish the
president would be quicker to react in
situations like this, quicker to initiate
needed reforms.
But it is not a perfect world, and
there are no perfect candidates. For my
vote, however, Bush is the best man for
the job.
His moral clarity and firm leadership
• will guide the United States successfully
through the uncertain times of our brave
new world.
ONLINE POLL
Will you vote on Nov. 2?
Yes 91%
No 7%
Undecided 2%
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