The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, March 23, 2005, Page 8, Image 8
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EDITORIAL BOARD
EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
THE MIX EDITOR
Jennifer Freeman
ASST. VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Patrick Augustine
SPORTS EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Chas McCarthy
COPY DESK CHIEF
Steven Van Haren
IN OUR OPINION
Educators fail to teach
youth about inhalants
This week’s news that inhalant use among 12- to 17-year
olds is up is a disturbing anomaly in an overall downward
trend in national drug-use statistics.
While government programs to dissuade young Americans
from trying illegal drugs have had mixed results, they have at
least done a good job of educating potential drug users about
the dangers of such activities. But while the work of the
Office for National Drug Control Policy has centered on
gateway uiugi j>ucii a^ maiijua
Two million na, they believe lead to the use
Americans admitted of other substances, it appears
tO USing inhalantS they have neglected to inform
in 2003, With half teens and pre-teens about the
having USed risks of inhalants.
inhalants for the Inhalant! such „ h
first time. . , .. . .
glue and gasoline give the user
a feeling of euphoria because
of a lack of oxygen in the brain, which can cause permanent
damage or even death.
Given the ease of access to such products and an ignorance
of their effects or dosage, it is no wonder more teens are using
them and suffering the consequences in the pursuit of a cheap
high.
l wo million Americans aamiueu to using liinaiaius in
2003, with half having used inhalants for the first time.
Eighty percent of new users were younger than 17. Clearly,
in-school efforts to scare kids out of using “harder” substances
like cocaine or heroin are working at the expense of compre
hensive efforts to educate about inhalants, which can be
found in nearly every home.
While many gateway drugs do not carry the immediate risk
of death or impairment, inhalants do. Most other substances
already have a place in American drug culture, which usually
prevents new users from getting in over their heads. Since it is
impossible to prevent teenagers from having access to the
products, education is the only way to prevent young people
from experiencing neural impairment, convulsions, deafness,
blindness or dying from “huffing” inhalants.
IT’S YOUR RIGHT
Exercise your right to voice your opinion
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GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS
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gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu
I-;-1
ABOUT THE GAMECOCK
EDITOR
Michael LaForgia
DESIGN DIRECTOR
Chas McCarthy
COPY DESK CHIEF
Steven Van Haren
NEWS EDITOR
Jon Turner
ASST. NEWS EDITOR
Kelly Cavanaugh
VIEWPOINTS EDITOR
Wes Wolfe
THE MIX EDITOR
Jennifer Freeman
ASST. THE MIX EDITOR
Carrie Givens
SPORTS EDITOR
Jonathan Hillyard
ASST. SPORTS EDITOR
Stephen Fastenau
SENIOR WRITER
Kevin Fellner
PHOTO EDITOR
Nick Esares
SPORTS PHOTO EDITOR
Katie Kirkland
PAGE DESIGNERS
Jillian Garis, Staci
Jordan, Jessica Ann
Nielsen, Megan Sinclair
COPY EDITORS
Jessica Foster, Brindy
McNair, Daniel
Regenscheit, Jason
Reynolds, Katie
Thompson, Shana Till
ONLINE EDITOR
Ryan Simmons
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Jane Fielden, Katie Miles
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H
CORKeD.
CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS
All the coolest cats wear neat hats
■ Scientific evidence
suggests hat-wearing
causes fame, fortune
I was walking down the cereal aisle
the other day when I reached enlighten
ment. As Siddhartha Gautama was
awakened under the full moon, so was
I awakened under the silver glow of the
fluorescent bulb overhead. As I looked
around me, I came to the realization that
I, as did all the great figures of yore,
needed a spiffy hat.
All around me, the secret to success
was immediately obvious: Chef
Boyardee, Mr. Peanut, Cap’n Crunch,
the guy on the oatmeal box — they all
wore unique head adornments. Even
Facebook celebrity Wes Wolfe sports a
hat in his iconic black-and-white por
trait.
Yet if my extensive studies in logic
have taught me anything, it’s that cor
relation does not necessarily imply cau
sation.
Sure, these guys are all exemplars of
success, and sure, these guys all wear neat
hats, but does one necessarily cause the
other? Today we will conduct an em
pirical study on some of the abovemen
tioned grocery store subjects to find out.
Chef Boyardee was actually born
Hector Boiardi in Italy during the late
19th century. He was born without a
hat, and historical evidence indicates
that the hatless baby Boiardi was indeed
not a successful chef. Credible sources
(i.e. my imagina
tion) indicate
that he worked
in the coal mines
where the other
coal miners
would tease him
and call him
names.
CURTIS Hea latLer
r' ■ iniii moved to the
CHOW united States
FOURTH-YEAR where he pur
STUDENTCS chased a novelty
chefs hat. It was
at this point that
his life took a
drastic turn. The hat gave him confi
dence and an identity, so much so that
he had his name legally changed to
“Chef." Unfortunately, people never
seemed to acquire the fine palate neces
sary to enjoy dishes like “Beefaroni” and
“Ninja-Turtle-Shaped Pasta with Meat
Sauce.” He changed the spelling of his
last name to a fun and wacky phonetic
equivalence, and sales went through the
roof. *
Cap’n Crunch once served as Lance
Corporal Crunch in Her Majesty’s Royal
Navy. His daily duties included menial
tasks like'swabbing the deck, walking
the plank, and doing the occasional
sailor jig while other sailors laughed and
threw peanuts at him. Desperately want
ing to be cool like the other sailors, he
asked his parents for a trendy new hat.
Being loving parents, they conceded,
took him to Hollister and bought him
a hat along with some overpriced and
gaudy clothes. He was soon the talk of
the ship and was immediately promoted
to captain. Then for some unrelated and
unspecified reason, he started selling ce
real.
Mr. Peanut grew up witnessing the
atrocities being committed against
peanut kind. In 1975, he applied to Yale
Law School as an underrepresented mi
nority.
Against all odds, he was accepted and
matriculated for fall admission. Still, his
hardships were far from over. Sure, peo
ple were used to seeing peanuts —in
glass bowls, at the circus and at the gro
cery store. But a peanut in law school?
That just wasn’t right.
Mr. Peanut received many anony
mous threats and nasty phone calls. He
resolved that he needed to fit in more
with his campus envitonment. That’s
when he started wearing the top hat and
monocle.
Slowly but surely, he began to be ac
cepted by his colleagues. Over time, he
became the most popular student on
campus. Unfortunately, all the popular
ity got to his head, and he forgot his own
heritage.
In a dark turn of events, he began to
market his own kind for human con
sumption. To this day, peanuts view him
worldwide as a slave trader and tyrant.
So as we can clearly see from these
examples, if I am to be successful and
feared, I need a neat hat.
IN YOUR OPINION
Criminals don’t fit in
on football lineup
I was excited to read about
spring practice starting for our
ailing football team. It’s clear that
there have been a lot of negative
feelings and news reports regarding
Spurrier’s squad. What I wasn’t
excited to see was that at least two
of the probable starters for the
Garnet and Black game are alleged
felons. Perhaps the allegations will
be proved unjustified, but I doubt
>ny of us are putting a bet on that.
Maybe this game doesn’t matter,
I know it’s just a spring exhibition.
What really bothers me is that it
seems as though the individuals
involved in one of our university’s
most embarrassing moments will
continue to play football. As
though it wasn’t bad enough to see
it all over the local news and even
USA Today, now we get to see what
these thugs can do for us next fall. I
can see it now: “USC football
forfeits after starting lineup
arrested."
I think Spurrier needs to take a
long look at what he’s doing.
Maybe these are the best football
players, but why should he set us all
up for more embarrassment? I
would completely forgive any
football player/felon who would
publicly come clean and apologize
for the embarrassment caused.
What I won’t do is stand and cheer on
unremorseful criminals who don’t
deserve to wear our school colors.
Hopefully, Spurrier will realize that
winning a few games isn’t worth
. risking our university’s reputation.
CARLY JACKSON
Third-year chemical
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. Anonymous letters will not
be published. Call the newsroom at 777
7726 for more information.
REIROPOINTS
Editorials and
columns from
The Gamecock's past.
March 28 - April 1
Republicans
benefit from
gay-rights
controversy
■ Progressives should
wait until country is
ready for gay marriage
I wish the debate on gay marriage could
be put on hold.
Gay marriage ought to be legalized. The
only justification for denying this social
n benefit to gay
citizens is a desire
to turn one’s f
orthodox religious
faith into public
policy.
Still, pushing
for legalized gay
marriage might do
more damage than
DANE it’s worth to
ROBERTS progressive causes.
For months,
DAILY LOBO n e m « r r a r i r
Democratic
UNIVERSITY OF pundits have been
NEW MEXICO ,. , .
scratching their
heads over
November’s
presidential election returns. One common
theme in their musings has been the
apparent stupidity of the red states in voting
against their economic interests.
States that voted for Bush are
significantly poorer and more dependent on
government assistance than states that voted
for Kerry. Most of the blue states, which are
generally the wealthiest and most
economically vibrant areas of the country,
pay more to the federal government in taxes
than they get back from Washington. All
the red states but two, on the other hand,
receive more from the federal government
than they pay in taxes.
Why, then, are these red-staters voting
for a party and a president that will lower
taxes for the very wealthy — a group they
overwhelmingly don’t belong to — and
slash the government programs they depend
on?
x iiv on11woi uuitt-iaaut acu.|/au iuuum
is the three G’s of American politics: God,
gays and guns. The heartland voters go
Republican because that party represents
their traditional values. Some pundits,
including myself, would go on to point out
how little these issues have to do with good
governance.
What concerns me is a rapidly
expanding deficit made possible by foolish
tax cuts and a debt-ballooning plan to make
Social Security benefits dependent on the
whims of the stock market.
So how does the Republican Party
manage to muster so much support in the
face of such reckless policies? According to
one theory, Republican politicians distract
attention from substantial public policy
issues and rally their base of conservative
supporters by exploiting cultural wedge
issues, such as the three G’s.
The only problem with this theory is
that it’s not just conservative politicians
pushing gay marriage into the spotlight —
it’s gay rights activists, too.
A majority of Americans appose gay
marriage. Most victories for gay marriage
are happening in liberal municipalities and
in the courts.
But winning an issue through the courts
is a somewhat shallow victory. Nothing
quite enrages Americans like having
decisions made for them. Nothing quite
enrages conservatives like the decisions of
the supposed legions of liberal, activist
judges.
\Y/Via»n rimmc in a rlpm/vrimr Iacp art
election, they deal with it and move on.
When citizens strongly disagree with court
decisions, however, they feel
disenfranchised and angry.
So, what’s the alternative to winning
through the courts? Passing legislation.
Opposition to gay marriage will pass. It will
be seen as a last gasp of the conservative
revival of the last two decades.
Polls show younger people support gay
marriage to a far higher degree than old
folks. As the older generations’ electoral
influence passes away and education levels
rise, gay marriage will become a reality.
In the meantime, I think we should
avoid making it the rallying cry of the
religious right. If the issue stays in the
forefront, it will empower the worst kind of
politician in Washington and put the rest of
the progressive agenda on hold indefinitely.
WINNERS AND SINNERS
KOFI ANNAN Responding to the need for reform, | .
the U.N. secretary-general proposes major changes to w
the United Nations so that the international body may ■
better fight international terrorism and poverty. |
VETRORESINA L.L.C Italian company to invest
$9 million in a new Greenville plant, which will employ
30 people.
. / ■
U.S. CONGRESS Judicial activism? How about
legislative activism — congressional Republicans,
forgetting their commitment to states’ rights, lead the
federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case.
JEFF WEISE Minnesota teen kills grandfather and
grandfather’s girlfriend, extends shooting spree to his high
school to kill seven others.
, -If'-.