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ONLINE POLL What was more controversial during the past 50 years — racism or Communism? Let us know at www.dailygamecock.com. Results posted Friday. AMECOCK 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 Reports of date rape show need for caution Local law enforcement agencies have had at least 12 reports of attempted date rapes since October, emphasizing the need for increased vigilance when you go out to have a good time with your friends in Columbia’s bars. In at least seven of the reported cases, the women recall being sexually assaulted while they were incapacitated by drugs slipped in their drinks, and because the rate for reporting such crimes is extremely low, there are likely many more women out there who have experienced a similar situation and for one rea son or another did not speak up about their victimization. Despite the term “date rape,” most victims of the crime are assaulted by those they do not know, who often slip the drug GHB into their drinks while they aren’t looking. Most of the victims report they were out with female friends when the crimes occurred. GHB can be odorless, color less and tasteless, and causes impairment ranging from a feeling of extreme drunkenness to unconsciousness. After a USC student was caught in 2003 with a GHB lab in his Columbia Hall room, it’s clear that the date rape drug is a problem in Columbia and is not isolated to any particular area. Never let someone you don’t know buy you a drink unless you watch the bartender make it, and never leave drinks unat tended. Simple precautions and awareness of your surroundings is enough to ward off a potential attack. If you feel like you have been drugged, let a friend or bartender know immediate *y People who suspect they have been victimized, even if they cannot remember details, should go to an emergency room and have tests done before showering or otherwise destroying potential evidence. There is no excusing the cowards who drug victims then take advantage of them sexually, and by speaking up, past vic tims can help to catch and put away those who perpetrate these crimes. Never let somone you don’t know buy you a drink unless you saw the bartender make it. 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 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 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 CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. The Editor’s office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. Editor: 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; Sports: 777-7182 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 Garen Cansler CREATIVE SERVICES Burke Lauderdale, Chelsea Felder, Laura Gough, Joseph Dannelly ADVERTISING STAFF Robert Carli, Breanna Evans, Ryan Gorman, Caroline Love, Katie Stephens, McKenzie Welsh The Gamecock is the editorially independent student newspaper of the University of South Carolina. 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CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS One class can make a big difference ■ Black experience seminar changed the way I look at the world Leon Litwack spoke at USC on Tuesday, and I surprised myself by being disappointed I couldnit go. He’s one of the top civil rights historians in the country, and I’ve read parts of his book and many of his articles, and that fact surprised me, too. I think it’s hard to learn anything in college. I think we come here just to put off adulthood. Sure, we take classes and learn more about the things we already know,, but we rarely have those earth-shattering academic discoveries in college that change your life, like memorizing the multiplication tables. But then I met Patricia Sullivan. Since most of you don’t know her, I’ll take the time to introduce her. She’s an African-American studies professor at USC. She writes books and presents papers and does other professorly things. But she also teaches the Black Experience in the U.S. class, which is how I met her. Until I met Patricia Sullivan my idea about the civil rights era went something like this: A long, long, long time ago there was this thing called slavery where white people owned black people and took care of them but didn’t pay them. Southerners didn’t like the way they were being treated by the government so they decided to leave, and people made a HUGE deal about that so they had this war and they lost. After the war black people were free and had different churches and schools and water fountains until Dr. Martin □ Luther King Jr. came along and changed it. Now everything' is fine. All my South Carolina public ADAM education went BEAM down the drain with my hrst FOURTH-YEAR reading PRINT r JOURNALISM assignment for STUDENT Sullivan’s class. I read first person accounts from former slaves being interviewed by college students in the 1930s. Grown men talking like little children because that’s how they were brought up to think. I read about a boy who would sometimes sleep in the woods for days because white men on a fishing trip occupied the bridge he had to cross. I saw pictures of burning, naked black men surrounded by white men, women and children dressed in their Sunday best, smiling for the camera. I learned about Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old boy who winked at a white woman in a gas station in Mississippi and ended up getting his face smashed in and his body tied to a cotton fan and thrown into the river. They caught the guys who did it, but an all-white jury acquitted them. I read about JA Delaine and Levi Pearson, men who watched their kids walk to school down dirt roads, being passed by white school children in yellow school busses. So they got a bus and asked the school board for money to put gas in it and were chased out of town. In Sullivan’s class I sat around a conference table with about 15 other students. We would meet once a week and for two and a half hours we would debate the civil rights era and how it changed America. We had serious discussions about race and, I won’t lie to you, it wasn’t always pleasant. We argued, we got emotional, we learned. I can honestly say it’s the only class that’s changed me. 1 didn’t know it changed me until this past summer while I was working for The Item newspaper in Sumter. It was my first week there, and I was working the weekend shift. I had to drive to Summerton and cover a parade celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that ended school segregation. Viola Pearson, Levi Person’s widow, was the grand marshal. I got to talk to her, and I felt like I was interviewing Michael Jordan. As the parade started down the street, I walked alongside the float carrying Mrs. Pearson, taking notes for my article. But the real story was on the streets. I stopped under the awning of a hardware store and watched the parade with a black woman who never thought she would see a day like this. I asked her a dumb “how do you feel” question and she answered me in tears. After that, I just shut up and tried to soak it all in. I felt like I was observing history. I learned all of this because Sullivan’s class was the only class available for me to take the first semester of my junior year. While the first civil rights class I took was for convenience, the next two that I took were on purpose. Who says you can’t learn anything in college? IN YOUR OPINION Newspaper hurts surf club’s stature Why choose to support the sport of surfing by using some random guy who has nothing to do with USC (“New surfers hit waves as sport gains popularity,” Monday)? Wouldn’t it be wiser to promote surfing and support a university associated organization that surfs? Not only does the Carolina Surf Club surf, we also give free lessons, travel for really cheap and have a blast. We snowboard, surf, body board, kite surf, ski and long board skateboard. The Carolina Surf Club is an organization that has been misrepresented many times in The Gamecock, or not represented at all. Articles in the past have given a perspective of the organization that reflects poorly on USC. Alter all that, The Gamecock published an article on some random guy in Fort Lauderdale when they should have been publishing an apology article for misrepresenting the Carolina Surf Club and informing USC students that the Carolina Surf Club has been officially suspended. In the future, The Gamecock might want to promote university-related organizations rather than destroy them. ADAM SCHAFFER Fourth-year English student Fox doesn’t know U.S. Constitution I was at the same student meeting that was opened up with a Bible reading as Anna Fox; 1 actually was sitting next to her (“Campus programs should avoid cultural exclusivity,” Thursday). The reading lasted less than one minute and was followed by a short prayer and an explanation. The speaker explained to us that he wanted to open up each meeting with some type of devotion, whether that be a reading from the Bible, another religious book or even a motivational book such as “Chicken Soup for the Soul.” He continued to explain that each week a different member of the group would lead the devotion and would have total discretion of what to read from. I encourage Anna to volunteer for next week and choose a book other than the Bible. The other flaw in Fox’s article is when she makes references to our Constitution. She claims that our Constitution says we must keep a separation of church and state. As a conservative I know what the Constitution says, and that is not in there. The famous quote “separation of church and state” was made by Thomas Jefferson in a letter he wrote to a citizen who asked if the federal government was going to adopt the Baptist church as a national church. The liberals in this country have completely misused that quote, and it shows when wellreducated people actually think it is in the U.S. Constitution. Our country was founded on Christian principles, but no one has ever forced those principles on anyone. The speaker at the meeting never said you had to believe what he read or think like him. He read the Bible because it has great life lessons in it whether you believe in them or not. Ms. Fox, if you don’t believe in the Bible, why are you so upset that it is getting read? Are you afraid of the impact it can have? Are you afraid its 4 teachings will convince others to believe? Let s talk about moving forward. This is a book that many people live by, so let us live by it. You choose your belief and your reading, but I will read the Bible when it is my turn because that is how I start my day. You don’t have to agree with me, but please do not discriminate against my beliefs. RANDY DARGAN Third-year hotel, restaurant and tourism management 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. RETROPOINTS Editorials and columns from The Gamecock's past. March 28 -April 1 ONLINE POLL Would you like to see The Gamecock printed five days a week? Yes 76% No 24% _FROM WWW IMILYGAA1KCQCK.COM Mickeys: Columbia ’’s hottest new dating tool ■ If you don’t take care of your drunken pals, evildoers certainly will Last summer, I saw two hookers shouting at each other in the street, not 150 feet from my house. One was telling the other to clean up her life. I rode past on my bike, right between them, trying to think what that would entail. Probably about 100 years of detox and a Brillo pad. I was new to the STEVEN neighborhood, VAN but not to the HAREN perils of living in this capital city. THIRD-YEAR USC students MECHANICAL , , S ENGINEERING know the hobos, STUDENT the rape risks, the theft risks, etc. Or they should know. I’m amazed at how many hayseeds leave their cars unlocked, dorm-room doors ajar and valuables in plain sight. Now bend over. But in general, on campus and even in my third-world rat’s nest on Senate Street, I feel safe in Columbia. It’s got its crime just like most major metropolitan areas, but it’s no Washington, D.C. It’s no Adanta. If you want to see those cities, just come by my neighborhood. We’ll make crack in a bathtub. My fighting hooker story exemplifies that while Columbia has a huge spectrum of criminal activity, risks are not the same person to person. I almost always feel safe, but others sometimes don’t. Some people like USC’s call boxes, but others don’t feel one bit protected. Girls are more at-risk. They’re the sheep. Everyone else are the wolves. Since October, according to The State newspaper, 12 women have come forward saying they were drugged at Columbia bars. Seven claimed they were later sexually assaulted. Date rape is a sad, sick and tragic thing. Unfortunately, it’s a crime of opportunity, and date rapists always seem to get a window in which to act. Hey, we’re in a college town that rubs elbows with the city. Bar life is huge. I know that. Girls (and guys) just wanna have fiin. Girls will, of course, find themselves in high-traffic, high-volume areas all the time. Liquor abounds. Bars and clubs aim their business at young women, often offering reduced or free admission, because young girls draw young guys, and they all bring money. It’s a vicious, delicious cycle. People driving through Five Points get an eyeful. The phenomenon of the drunk girl is a funny thing. Hammered, tanked, three sheets-to-the-wind girls aren’t attractive. In fact, nothing gets me softer in the pants than a drunk girl — makeup smeared; belligerent, sobbing or slutty; smelling not like a girl should (aka fragrant) but like booze and piss and cigarettes. dome guys think of baseball when they need a hormone killswitch. I think of that one horrible time — an admitted mistake — I went to Banana Joe’s for about 10 minutes. I saw Columbia’s finest selection of common tramps. It was like Caligula’s pajama party. It was Sodom and Gomoron. “So, puke here often?” Everyone needs personal responsibility. It keeps you grounded. Guys and girls play a role in preventing date rape, or unwittingly increasing the chances of it. If girls are going to get hammered and go to a bar or party, they need friends. Lots of ’em. Specifically, they need someone whose sole purpose is to stare at their drinks non-stop for four hours. When they go to the bathroom for the first round of vomiting, they won’t have to worry about that smarmy guy popping rohypnol into their Shirley Temple. Groups make everything safer, and not just in date-rape prevention. Guys should always walk girls home at night. No excuses. This way, when confronted by a burglar, the girl can be sacrificed while the guy makes a panicked getaway. That’s why we walk in pairs here at USC. When people place themselves in stupid situations, bad things happen. Of course they do. Sad stories can be eliminated with some tight-knit friends and a keen eye for shady characters. Brawling whores excepted, Columbia can be a safe little town if we give our local drunks a helping hand. . i