The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, November 19, 2004, Page 8, Image 8
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THf®SAMECOCK
EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR
Adam Beam
DESIGN DIRECTOR
David Stagg
NEWS EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
THE MIX EDITOR
Meg Moore
COPY DESK CHIEF
Gabrielle Sinclair
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
SENIOR WRITER
Kevin Fellner
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
IN OUR OPINION
Breaking news:
Clemson sucks
After much deliberation, The Gamecock editorial board has
decided to take a stance on the Carolina-Clemson issue. Our
conclusion: Clemson sucks.
It’s a sad testimony of the educational.level of South Carolina
when the second-largest research university in the state can’t
even pronounce its name. Clempson prides itself on originality,
with its orange overalls and its policy allowing fans on the field
after the game.
But the only thing distinctive about Clemson is that god- '
awful orange its fans insist on wearing. Countless high school,
11 i 11
Orange is good for
’80s pop music
and not much else.
euncgc anu jpiu teams snaic me
tiger mascot, and at least two
schools — Auburn and LSU —
use Tiger Rag as its fight song. If
Tiger Rag is the “song that shakes the Southland,” it’s shaking
at least two other Southern schools as well. You’ll also hear a lot
about “the most exciting 25 seconds in college football” that
Brent Musberger said about Clemson rubbing a rock and stum
bling down a hill. There’s no drama — fans don’t even know
what’s going on until the team is already on the field.
Then there’s 1980 and Clemson’s fraudulent national cham
pionship under the questionable recruiting practices of Danny
Ford. Much like South Carolina’s 1984 season, Clemson fans
point to the holy year of 1981 as they went 12-0 and defeated
Nebraska in the Orange Bowl to win the national champi
onship. Ford was fired in 1989 to avoid an NCAA investigation.
Ever since then, Clemson fans have really showed their loyalty
to the program by staying away from Death Valley when times
got tough. In 1993, Clemson averaged nearly 10,000 fewer fans
than the previous season and rejoiced when coach Ken Hatfield
was fired. The reason? Clemson lost three games and Hatfield’s
.770 winning percentage just wasn t good enough.
We could have done the politically correct editorial for rivalry
week, touting the benefits of both schools, wishing a safe game
and enjoyable time for fans — but all we really want to do is
beat the crap out of Clemson. It’s rivalry week. Talk as much
trash as possible. We recommend the classic “cow college” jokes
as well as. the timely Duke slam. And don’t worry — no matter
how much we talk trash about Clemson, they always stoop low
er, with drunk students in Death Valley two years ago passing
around a giant inflatable penis while standing on a grassy hill.
As you can tell, we’ve given this issue careful thought. Go
Co'cks, and long live rivalry.
*
GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know. E-mail us at
gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu.
ABOUT
EDITOR
Adam Beam
DESIGN DIRECTOR
David Stagg
COPY DESK CHIEF
Gabrielle Sinclair
NEWS EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
THE MIX EDITOR
Meg Moore
SPORTS EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
Daniel Kerr
SENIOR WRITER
Kevin Fellner
PHOTO EDITOR
Jason Steelman
SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
Katie Kirkland
PAGE DESIGNERS
Erin Cline, Jennifer
Logan, Chas McCarthy,
Jessica Ann Nielsen,
Staci Jordan
COPY EDITORS
Jennifer Freeman,
Anna Huntley, Daniel
Regenscheit, Jason
Reynolds, Jennifer
Sitkowski, ShanaTill,
Steven Van Haren, Joey
Wallace
ONLINE EDITOR
E.B. Davis
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Jane Fielden, Katie Miles
THE GAMECOCK
CONTACT INFORMATION
Offices on third floor of the Russell House.
The Editor’s office hours are Monday and
Wednesday from 3-5 p.m.
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Senators working hard for change
■ Student Government
requires input in order
to be truly effective
I have two homes on campus. One
is my suite in West Quad. The other is
the Student Government office. Most
people come to the Russell House to
dat, get their mail and attend meetings.
I do this and more, spending much of
my free time around the SG junkies
who too often go unnoticed.
It never ceases to amaze me how
uncaring much of our student body is
about Student Government issues. In
the last election, only 10 percent of the
student body voted for the individuals
who hold sway over hundreds of
thousands of dollars in student activity
fees and represent the student body
before the administration, Board of
Trustees and state legislature.
Since taking office in March, I’ve
served in a Senate that has discussed
dozens of pieces of legislation, most of
which directly impact students. We’ve
debated legislation to encourage the
establishment of a student advocate
program, condemn hazing, create a
way to report hate crimes on campus,
encourage efficiency in the USC post
office, establish a student to serve as a
liaison with the local government, add
three seats to the Student Senate and
encourage parking services to list a
student’s number of parking tickets
online.
But do students care? It’s hard to
know.
Fortunately,
The Gamecock
has taken a new
approach at
covering SG. A
reporter is
frequently in the
office and the
chambers.
RYAN Legislation that
-j- was never
nUU addressed in
SECOND-YEAR previous
scifncf^ volumes of The
STUDENT Gamecock is
now featured on
the front page.
When it comes to getting the word out,
the communicators are doing what
needs to be done. And so, the onus lies
with you to let us know what you think.
With the Student Senate especially,
we operate (at least in theory) on the
idea that we are voting because 25,000
students can’t be assembled to comment
on every issue. I represent more than
6,000 people in the Senate and since
taking office have hardly heard from six.
The members of the Senate are
well-connected on campus, yet still
there is a lack of input on the part of
individual students. Senators are as
diverse as the student body, making it
likely that you have at least one thing
in common with at least one senator.
A dozen are Greek, a dozen are
minorities, five are graduate students,
and almost 20 are women; the body
includes the chief executives of AAAS,
BGLSA, Fraternity Council and the
Carolina/Clemson Blood Drive as well
as members of SCSL, Dance
Marathon, FCA, Young Democrats
and College Republicans. My point?
We’re no different than you, so come
talk to us.
Some students may go the SG route
to embellish their resume,' butTthey are
the easiest to expose. Members of SG
who push initiatives in the president’s
cabinet or sponsor resolutions in the
Student Senate are the people who
truly care about the betterment of the
student body. These individuals are
easy to find and are willing to explore
the issues important to you.
This year saw the advent of “Get
Out the Vote” that drives that
championed the individual freedoms we
have to make decisions for ourselves.
Let me drive it home further: Don’t
sacrifice your individual right to make
decisions in something even so simple as
your college student government.
I’m pleased with the caliber of
individuals elected this February, but
don’t let 10 percent make that decision
for you, and don’t let an even smaller
number of people make the decisions
that affect your student activity fees or
the money your student organization
receives.
I have never once been jaded by my
experiences in SG, realizing that a lot
of good can be achieved through this
organization. However, I only hope
that what I realize to be important will
ring true to 25,000 of my schoolmates,
so together we can achieve good things
for the benefit of our university.
.
IN YOUR OPINION
Wolfe wrong about
gay marriage debate
I read Wes Wolfe's column
("Christian conservatives peddle
ignorance after election," Thursday)
and I’ve got to say, this guy needs a
serious regjity check. He's deluded
himself into thinking that the 53
million people who voted for George
W. Bush are all Bible-thumping,
foot-washing, proselytizing idiots.
Other than the gay marriage
debate, which Wolfe has dutifully
accepted (any good liberal must) as
the only reason for Sen. John Kerry's
loss, he can find no other possible
scenario where "normal" people
would vote conservative. For the
moment, I'll set aside the variety of
other issues that contributed to the
overwhelming failure of the
Democratic Party on Nov. 2 and try
to make some sense out of this gay
marriage problem.
The majority of moderate
conservatives aren’t quite sure what
they think of gay marriage. They
don't hate gay people; they don’t
hate the gay lifestyle either. Had they
been given the opportunity to
choose between the current status
quo and say, a civil union option, I
believe you would have seen a
different result. But that wasn't the
case. That's a big step for any careful
citizen, regardless of how you want
the government to act.
Personally I don't think it's any of
the government's business to define
marriage for its citizens, which
includes a constitutional amendment
to ban gays from the practice. I
believe that marriage, as an
institution of the church, should be
left solely at the discretion of the
church. But once again, voters
weren't given that choice, and when
forced to decide between the norm
and a radical change, people will
inevitably choose the norm.
Just as important is the simple
truth that no one, Wolfe included,
likes being told by the government
what they must accept as morally
correct. This aversion to government
intervention is just as evident in
liberal opposition to the
strengthening pro-life movement as
it is the gay marriage debate. That
same aversion is especially strong
when people in South Carolina
realize the government agents
responsible for this coercion are the
Massachusetts Supreme Court and
the mayor of San Francisco.
Wondering why the backlash
against gay marriage was so
powerful? Wondering why every
single state asked to choose on the
issue chose not to allow it? The
simple answer is this; liberals tried
to force it down Americans' throats.
They went for an all-or-nothing
approach and got nothing. Wolfe
complains about the Christian
Right's involvement in the last
election, but it was the prominent
position of the far left that had the
biggest effect on voters.
The irrational anger that
consumed leftists wasn't and isn't
shared by normal Americans. It
doesn't take a Ph.D. to realize that
both parties should work towards
the middle of the political spectrum
if they want to seriously vie for
independent voters.
I'll close with some advice for
Wolfe: If you want to help the
Democratic Party regain its footing,
then stop trying to justify the liberal
loss through vain and silly attempts
to associate all Republican voters,
and for that matter all Christians,
with the extreme Religious Right.
Stop calling everyone who disagrees
with you ignorant. You might even
try dropping that conceited
assumption that you’re smarter and
more sophisticated than everybody
else. You're not.
CHRISTOPHER SPEAKS
Fourth-year religious studies
and political science student
Elevator prank not
fodder for legal battle
I must say, I heartily disagreed with
Josh DeWinter’s letter to the editor
(“Dorm residents are adults, have
rights,” Wednesday). Maybe in
Washington the Bates West incident is
acceptable adult behavior, but I assure
you I have never been taught that
defecating in a public elevator is even
remotely mature. And until college
students cease to act like children, they
will incur the penalties.
Neighbors, roommates and friends
have been given the choice to share the
fine or turn in the perp. We all know
that rumors spread in a dorm, and
frankly, the pooper isn’t the only one
guilty. If the violator can’t admit his
own guilt, you would think someone
else would turn the in the perp in the
interest of saving himself $20.
But let’s face it — we are college
students, and who wants to share an
apartment with a bitter traitor? However,
if you don’t want to risk a friendship or a
roommate relationship, then your choice
is clear to share the fine.
The university must come up with a
source of revenue to sanitize the elevator.
They don’t build poop scooping in to
the annual budget, and the job is
expensive. The few willing to commit
themselves to this work can charge what
they want, because the residents of Bates
West aren’t going to do it themselves.
On a last note, the last time I
checked, the right to poop in elevators
was enumerated in neither the
Constitution nor the Bill of Rights.
LIZ GARBY
Third-year management and
marketing 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. Anonymous letters will not
be published. Call the newsroom »t 777
7726 for more information.
Majorism
corrupts
students'1
mind-sets §
■ Academic prejudices
divide student body and
prevent relationships
Ophelia Black, fourth-year art student:
“Mechanical engineers? They’re illiterate,
uncouth primates who pound their chests
for no reason, treat girls like crap and oc
□ casionally tinker
with something
mechanical. They
have no interest in
fine arts, except
the fine art of be
ing really stupid.”
Billy O’Dell,
second-year
mechanical eng- ^
ineering student:
VAN “An students?
HAREN Theyre un
important,
noodle-armed
ENGINEERING pansies. They’ll
STUDENT never have a real
job, and they’re all
women or gay men. Their typical day
consists of sipping cappuccino, sculpting
something out of trash and feeding
pigeons. They have math skills tantamount
to Mr. Ed’s.”
Ms. Black and Mr. O’Dell are guilty of
majorism. What's majorism? It’s like
racism or sexism. I know, I know, I’ve been
blind to this phenomenon for a long time,
too. It never occurred to me until recently
how much peoples’ perceptions are skewed
by certain majors.
My buddies and I were down at 300
- Main St. (aka Bastard Junction to many
people) studying thermodynamics. Brian
interrupted the finer points of a heat
exchanger problem to tell us that he was on
thin ice with his girlfriend. I asked him
what the problem was.
“I’m a mechanical engineer.”
“What does that have to. do with
anything?” I asked.
He explained how many students,
mostly of the female variety, thought we
were all tools. Insensitive. Consumed with
work. Inadequate boyfriend fodder.
Victoria, that rare female engineering
student, chimed in. She completely agreed
and said she would never date a
mechanical.
I was pissed. I saw the reasoning (many
mechanicals fit snugly into that
stereotype), but I was still pissed. Brian
ended the discussion with a pearl of
wisdom.
“All women suffer from the same •
mental illness — some more than others.”
Yeah, let’s break that “insensitive”
cfprpnrvne
Some students certainly fit the
stereotypes that others gleefully criticize. I
don’t know squat about business or
education, and I’d be the first to admit it.
Stocks? Pick the ones with funny names.
Kids? Beat that senseless joy out of 'em.
Any BA dweller can call me out on that.
But some students thumb their noses at
anything not resembling their respective
majors. I remember a classmate flipping
through The Gamecock on Nov. 3,
sneering at the art, English and music
students’ quotes about the election. “Get a
real major,” he muttered.
Screw that guy. He’s content to remove
all traces of his humanity and sum force
equations until he dies. Maybe he doesn’t AyVt
realize there’s an X factor in the world that
can’t be quantified, the one that makes
“Catcher in the Rye” so moving; the one
that chills my spine every time “The Sound
of Silence” creeps out of a stereo; the one
that makes the Afghan refugee picture on
the front of National Geographic in 1985
so powerful; and yes, the one that gives me
satisfaction when I triumphantly smite a
thermo problem.
I value renaissance, not blind rigidity. I
like being able to. run at night, do linear
algebra, write a song, copy edit at The
Gamecock, give blood, pound drums,
party, read “Slaughterhouse Five” and fail
circuits tests. Oh yeah, I also like treating
girls with respect and being a gentleman —
just a quick “get bent” to all perpetuators
of the mechanicals-are-all-dogs myth.
No one likes being pinned with a
scarlet letter. We all picked our majors,
and they all deserve respect.
ONLINE POLL
Will the football team beat
Clem son on Saturday?
Yes 48%
No 52%
FROMU'WWDMI.YCAMM'.OCK.WM