The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 22, 2005, Page 7, Image 7
Page 7
Friday, April 22, 2005
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THlfeAMECOCK
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
Gamecock represents
pride, not brutality
We like our mascot.
That’s why we hope new legislation to make cockfighting
penalties harsher won’t bring renewed scrutiny of USC or
pressure to replace Cocky with a far less original mascot —
like a tiger.
A bill that would make penalties harsher for those con
victed of cockfighting recently gained approval from a
house judiciary subcommittee.
This legislation, which would increase fines from $100 to
$5,000 and add a five-year jail sentence, is a credit to
South Carolina’s civility.
This rings especially true after the embarrassing circum
stances that arose when S.C. Agriculture Commissioner
harshly in the Palmetto State.
But in the recent past, animal rights activists have ratch
eted up protests against USC’s mascot, the state’s flagship
university. Representatives of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals have upbraided Carolina for charac
terizing team spirit in such a “cruel” way. Perhaps if we
became the USC Butterflies, these groups would be satis
fied.
But, as any Carolina fan will tell you, the gamecock for
years has represented a fighting spirit and determination
unique to our school — the same determination that pro
pelled the men’s basketball team to its NIT championship
win in New York last month. It doesn’t represent two
roosters tearing each other to pieces.
Because South Carolinians are sophisticated enough to
identify the gamecock not with a cruel animal blood sport
but with a tradition of competitive intensity, the activist
efforts of PETA and other groups are not necessary here.
The purpose of these groups would be better served in
Louisiana and New Mexico, where cockfighting is still
legal.
Charles Sharpe was indicted
last summer for alleged
involvement in an under
ground cockfighting ring.
The bill’s success should
send the message that animal
rights violations such as cock
fighting will be punished
The gamecock
for years has
represented a
fighting spirit and
determination
unique to our school
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.
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 Sinclc
COPY EDITORS
Jessica Foster, Brindy
McNair, Daniel
Regenscheit, Jason
Reynolds, Katie
Thompson, Shana Till
ONLINE EDITOR
Ryan Simmons
PUBLIC AFFAIRS
Jane Fielden, Katie M
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
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ir
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Gough, Joseph Dannelly
ADVERTISING STAFF
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Stephens, McKenzie
les welsh
The Gamecock is the
editorially independent
studeht newspaper of
the University of South
Carolina. It is
published Monday,
Wednesday and Friday
during the fall and
spring semesters and
nine times during the
summer, with the
exception of university
holidays and exam
periods. Opinions
expressed in The
Gamecock are those of
the editors or author
and not those of the
University of South
Carolina. The Board of
Student Publications
and Communications is
the publisher of The
Gamecock. The
Department of Student
Media is the
newspaper's parent
organization. The
Gamecock is
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One free copy per
reader. Additional
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purchased for $1 each
from the Department of
Student Media.
TO PLACE AN AD
The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888
1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184
Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482
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I
Carolina needs football tradition
■ Serious fans should
burn all mascots and
let God sort them out
■
As the semester comes to a close,
it’s hard to believe that we re only
four short months away from the
beginning of Steve Spurrier’s
inaugural season as head coach of
the Gamecocks.
No doubt, his presence alone has
injected a rush of new life into the
veins of Carolina fans everywhere
who are placing all their eggs into
Spurrier’s basket. They’re
depending on the of ball coach to
undip the wings of our lowly
Gamecocks, allowing them to fight
fiercely once again.
My own hope is that Spurrier’s
reign at Carolina will inspire
something that goes a lot deeper —
something that, in my opinion, has
been lacking at our school for the
past 111 mediocre years of
Gamecock football history:
Tradition.
One of the most exciting things
about college life is experiencing the
various campus rituals, folklore and
traditions that have developed
during the lifetime of a university,
especially those having to do with
athletics.
Auburn has its famous victory
cdebrations at Toomer’s Corner,
and the “Tiger Walk,” where fans
line the streets to cheer on their
team as they march to Jordan-Hare
Stadium before each home game.
Tennessee has “Rocky Top” and the
“Volunteer Navy,” a countless
number of boats floating up the
Tennessee River to Neyland
Stadium on game days, forming the
longest tailgating party in the world.
Georgia has Uga and the chapel bell,
which rings out in victory after every
successful sporting event.
□ Mississippi
State fans are
famous for
their cowbells,
and Alabama
fans are
equally famous
for their toilet
paper-topped
boxes of Tide.
Kinn w"at 316
,VIUU Carolina fans
THIRD-YEAR famous for?
PRINT Before
JOURNALISM D e r o r e
STUDENT coming to
school here
last year, I
logged on to the Athletics
Department’s Web site hoping to
answer that question. I had visions
of victory celebrations on the
Horseshoe with hundreds of
students and fans singing the
Carolina fight song as the band
played. I imagined thousands of fans
shouting “Cock-a-doodle-doo” at
each other. But when I clicked on
the “University of South Carolina
Athletic Traditions” link, I was
greeted with a completely blank
page.
After searching other Web sites, I
did find the origin of the
“Gamecocks” nickname, which
came after a 1902 victory against
Clemson.
After the game, USC students
marched around the streets of
Columbia holding a framed drawing
of a rooster standing over a dead
tiger that was taken from the
window of a local tobacco store.
From that moment on, The State
newspaper began referring to the
team as the Gamecocks, and the
name stuck.
Now, that’s an interesting story,
but is it the only one?
When I mention my
disappointment in the lack of
legend, tradition and folklore at
USC, people point to the playing of
the theme from “2001: A Space
Odyssey” as the players run out onto
the field. Well, 2001 was four years
ago, and it doesn’t stir any emotion
or give me the feeling that I’m
witnessing something special that
only exists at Carolina. Lots of teams
play “2001” during their games.
Why can’t we have something more
unique?
One really cool thing we do have
is “Tiger Burn,” but that only
happens once a year before the
Clemson game. I stumbled upon
last year’s Tiger Burn by accident
and was totally awestruck by it. I
wasn’t even planning to watch the
game the next day, but the sight of
that burning tiger, the sound of the
band playing, and the shouts of
“Burn! Burn! Burn!” really got me
pumped up for it. The university
should burn the other team’s mascot
before every home game. I can see it
now — Bulldog Burn, Gator Burn,
Razorback Burn, Elephant Burn.
We’d have to burn a lot of tigers,
though.
There are so many possibilities of
fun things that we could do. Why
not designate the Horseshoe as a
place for everyone to gather to
celebrate victories? Granted, that
might be difficult because we’re the
only school in the SEC with an off
campus stadium, but it could be
done. Why not adopt a live rooster
as a mascot to make appearances at
our home games and give Georgia’s
Uga a little competition?
Maybe I’m totally wrong about
all of this. I’m relatively new at
Carolina, and there very well could
be tons of traditions here that I’m
just not aware of.
If there are, please let me know.
It’s the year of the Cock, Spurrier’s
here and I want to get involved.
New rules: Cane I get a witness.?
■ RH policy targeting
blind baseball bikers
not racist but stupid
With my last breath this school
year, I’ll scream bloody murder.
Rules have changed for the
Russell House. Signs now prohibit
bikes, pets, bats, paddles and canes.
Insofar as we’re not morons, the
signs are a direct response to an April
7 brawl involving about 40 black
fraternity members.
The signs are a bad call. They
have “knee-jerk” written all over
them. Russell House officials
responded to the fight with a bit too
much piss and vinegar, aiming right
at many fraternity members’ canes
and paddles and fluffing the
restrictions with nonsense.
Marshal law has been declared on
the bike-riding blind guy with a
seeing-eye dog, a love for baseball
and an unruly bastard child.
The new rules aren’t racist. The
idea that an unequal reaction to a
predominandy white brawl would
have followed is utter crap. If white
USC Greeks had started fighting
with skateboards, skateboards would
get the yellow-star treatment. The
RH staff would corral skateboards
into ghettos.
This is how the world works.
You’re focused on one thing and pay
no attention to a looming disaster.
The disaster hits, and you’re required
by PR law to be outraged, aghast and
proactive — the signs in a nutshell.
You have to huff and puff and
f
preach and
swear on your
grandmother’s
grave that this
disaster will
never happen
again.
RH officials
will never
STEVEN confiscate
some crippled
VAN »
womans cane
HAREN — unless she’s
THIRD-YEAR thwacking
MECHANICAL people in the
ENGINEERING with it
STUDENT ^ 1
Unfortunately,
fraternity
members and regular students —
black or white or what the hell ever
else — get the evil eye right off the
bat by simply carrying a cane. Let’s
give credit where credit’s due, to the
40 morons who pummeled each
other with paddles and the
melodramatic queens who flew into
a legislative tizzy.
I can understand parts of their
rant, but most of it was sugary
layering, regardless. True, people
should not be allowed to track dirty
mountain bikes or St. Bernards on
the RH carpet. But canes? Paddles?
Someone going to play baseball at
Davis Field?
Beyond the sloppy immediacy of
banning canes and paddles, their
choice of prohibited items is baffling.
I’ve seen people lug stuff through the
lobby that could start a war. Ever see
a dude with a cart of vending
machine snacks? Munchies are
. 5
murder.
Now that the soap-opera actors in
charge of writing these rules can
think about the brawl without
feinting hand-to-forehead, a little
action can go a long way. Cane
lovers everywhere can muster their
forces, talk to the officials and lift this
slapdash ban. I guarantee you’ll have
an audience, one that knows it flew
off the handle like a bitch in heat.
But don’t discuss race if you’re
face-to-fece with RH policy makers.
The signs were not racist, but
thrown together with the “zero
tolerance” mindset of all-or-nothing
idiots who could never even conceive
of any exception to any rule.
USC is usually a litde better with
this. After the basketball team beat
Kentucky and fans rushed the court,
the sports people took an SEC fine
but then addressed the issue with law
enforcement and school officials. My
sorry butt represented The
Gamecock in a meeting with student
leaders about how to ensure a
possibly dangerous court-rush never
happened again.
We talked, we decided and we
acted accordingly# We didn’t analyze
videotape, see someone with a giant
foam finger and push for the ban of
giant foam fingers. We just asked for
more security and some common
sense court boundaries.
I challenge RH officials to retract
these moronic rules. If I come in
with a Louisville slugger and I’m
peaceful as a beatnik, don’t hassle
me. If I start swinging, you have
every right to send me packing.
f
Republican
big-oil ties
threaten
energy plan
■ Bushwacked proposal
to deal with high costs
hits hardest in kidneys
Gas prices stink. After
continually rising since George W.
Bush took office, they’ve reached
an all-time high — $2.16 a gallon
on average in
□ Texas. How
does our great
leader propose
helping us to
cope with these
high prices?
Bush is
supporting an
energy bill that
NICK gives tax
SOMARAKIS breaks to
THE DAILY ^nesses “
COUGAR the Oil
UNIVERSITY OF industry and
HOUSTON does nothing
to help lower
the cost of
gasoline. It s bad enough that gas
costs so much that I have to sell my
kidneys to afford to fill up my car
(I’m still taking bids on eBay), but
now big oil companies get to pay
less in taxes than they used to.
Exxon-Mobil’s profits increased
so much that it had a record
breaking year and its chairman
received a $38 million bonus. Now
we’re giving them tax breaks while
our gas prices rise to record highs?
Only President Bush — a
former oilman with close ties to
the oil industry - could come up
with something like this.
The energy bill allows for
drilling in the pristine area known
as Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Drilling in ANWR might lower
gas prices — in about 10 years.
The only thing drilling in ANWR
would do is allow for these same
oilmen who are going to get a tax
break from the energy bill to
destroy an area that they would not
have been able to destroy
otherwise.
The Republican Party has been
bought and sold by big oil. In the
2004 election, 80 percent of
donations from big oil were
donated to Republicans, according
to the Center for Responsive.
Politics.
This has become a vicious cycle
in which big oil contributes to the
Republicans and then Republicans
win. The Republicans make sure!
big oil receives record-breaking!
profits and gets to drill wherever'
they wish by passing oil-friendly
legislation.
Rather than drilling in ANWR!
and rather than ensuring even;
greater profits for big oil
companies through tax breaks, the
president and Congress should be!
pushing legislation that would
lower the cost of gasoline in the;
short term and help to move us
away from using gasoline at all.
Congress should increase fuel!
standards on vehicles so that cars;
can use less gasoline. The Federal'
Communications Commission
dictated that all televisions be
high-definition by 2006, so why
isn’t there a branch of the
government pushing the
movement toward high-efFiciency
vehicles?
Rather than selling out like they
have done for so long, perhaps
there is a Republican in Congress
with a conscience who will vote
against the energy bill and
promote an alternative bill that
will address the fuel needs of U.S.
citizens rather than the profits of
big oil.
UiNJLlfNlL r\JL,L,
Do you think Michael Jackson
\ is guilty?
Yes 83%
No 17%