The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, April 25, 2005, Image 1
The University of South Carolina Vol 98 No 98 • Since 1908
---*- MONDAY, APRIL 25, 2005 -—
Altman’s remarks
irk constituents
I* Lawmakers comments on domestic violence
spark controversy among South Carolinians
By KELLY CAVANAUGH
assistant news editor
FROM AP REPORTS
A lawmaker’s comments
questioning why abused women
would return to men who batter
them has drawn protests from
South Carolinians, including
members of the USC community.
“I do not understand why
women continue to go back around
men who abuse them,” S.C. Rep.
John Graham Altman, R
Charleston, said Tuesday in the
interview on WIS-TV. “I’ve asked
women that, and they all tell me
the same answer, ‘John Graham,
^Fou don’t understand.’ And I say
you’re right, I don’t understand.”
“The woman (who is abused)
ought to not be around the man,”
Altman said in the interview. “I
mean, you women want it one way
and not another,” he told the
female reporter.
Jeff Stephens, a third-year
English student, asked “What does
he know about it? I mean, I’m a
guy, I wouldn’t go around saying,
hey, I’m a guy, and let me tell you
how to live your life.’ I thought he’s
supposed to be one of the smart
People in the world,” Stephens
said.
Joe Roberts, a first-year English
student, said he thinks Altman’s
c°mments are ignorant. “At a base
P'evel it makes sense, but it’s not
• that easy to just leave. It’s never
that easy,” he said.
“There’s a lot more involved
"han just leaving an abusive
-tsband. I guess (women) just feel
■tere’s no way out,” Roberts said.
Meagan Powell, a third-year
electronic journalism student, said
-:
she thinks it is a lot harder from a
male’s point of view because
“women have a deep emotional
connection to it.”
“No one knows what it’s like to
have to go through that,” Powell
said. “(Women) invest so much
time and energy in a relationship
that it’s hard to give it up because
you think what have you lost,” she
said.
The interview with Altman came
after the House Judiciary
Committee approved a bill
Tuesday making cockfighting a
felony but tabled one making
second-offense criminal domestic
violence a felony.
The committee office, which
receives about a dozen complaints a
day, on Wednesday received more
than 250, an aide said.
House leaders said they had
talked about reintroducing a bill
before the tidal wave of publicity
after the television report.
South Carolina law has a
separate category of domestic
violence of a high and aggravated
nature when an assault is
committed with a deadly weapon,
results in serious injury, or could
cause a person to fear death or
serious bodily injury. Those cases
are felonies and carry a maximum
sentence of 10 years.
A tape of Tuesday’s House
Judiciary Committee meeting
obtained by The (Columbia) State
newspaper has Altman asking why
the bill’s title “Protect Our Women
in Every Relationship (POWER)”
just mentioned protecting women.
Judiciary Committee Chairman
Jim Harrison, R-Columbia,
suggested calling the bill the
-- T — --
“Protecting Our People in Every
Relationship Act”, or “POPER,”
the newspaper reported.
A voice on the tape is heard
pronouncing it “Pop her.” Then
another says “Pop her again”
followed by laughter.
“And they wonder why we rank
in the bottom on women in office
and we lead in women getting
killed by men,” Rep. Gilda Cobb
Hunter, D-Orangeburg, who
sponsored the bill, said later.
Harrison said critics are
“overreacting” and the comments
weren’t to take away from the
seriousness of the problem. “If you
take it that way, you’re overly
sensitive,” he said.
Laura Hudson of the South
Carolina Victim ' Assistance
Network called Altman’s
comments “very troubling.” She
said victims many times return to
abusers because they have no other
place to go.
A group of five USC graduate
students working in the Office for
Sexual Health and Violence
Prevention has also released a
statement criticizing Altman’s
remarks that no “self-respecting
woman would go back to a man
who beats her.
“We assert-that it is not about a
person’s lack of respect for him or
herself. Rather, it is about the
power and control an abuser has
over a survivor,” they said.
Altman said later there were
problems with the bill and the outcry
was “manufactured” by groups that
have always opposed him. “I’ve
gotten some very supportive calls
from people that understand the
problems with the bill,” he said.
But none of those people were
among the 150 women marching
on the State House on Thursday to
protest Altman’s comments, some
carrying signs that said “We Never
Thought We’d Rather Be
Chickens.”
“It’s shocking that fighting with
chickens gets five years in prison,
but beating your wife almost to the
point of death just gets 30 days,”
said 22-year-old Virginia Spell.
“It’s absolutely insulting. I couldn’t
speak I was so angry.”
Comments on this story? E-mail
gamecockneTvs@gum.sc.edu
MARY ANN CHASTAIN/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
More than 100 students from Columbia College held a rally at the State House in protest of a
lawmaker’s comments on domestic violence last Thursday.
IT’S CRAMMER TIME
NICK ESARES/THE GAMECOCK
Shehryar Humayun, a fourth-year economics student, studies
for finals in the Thomas Cooper Library on Sunday.
N THIS ISSUE -
' SpORTS
>004-2005:
he year in sports
he Gamecock Sports staff
akes a look back at an
ction-packed year in USC
thletics.
Page 12
♦THE MIX
Open to
interpretation
Nicole Kidman stars in the
drama "The Interpreter."
Page 11
INDEX
Comics & crossword..13
\ Classifieds./5
| Horoscopes..13
Police report..2
*
Professor teaches life’s tough lessons
By MEREDITH LAWSON
FOR THE GAMECOCK
USC Social Wprk professor
Patty Hays brings up issues in class
some professors won’t touch with a
10-foot pole, her students say.
Hays challenges students to
discuss racism, sexism and
domestic abuse in her classes.
Katie Sigmon, a third-year
psychology student, said she plans
to attend graduate school for social
work, and that Hays had
something to do with that.
“Patty was the person that
inspired me to pursue my career in
social work. She’s very inspiring
and open-minded,” Sigmon said.
Hays, a mother of three, also
operates a private practice as a
councilor contracting with DSS.
Her youngest patient right now is 1
year old, and her oldest is 55.
“I got. into trouble when I was in
high school, and some people
helped me out,” Hays said, “I felt
like I needed to give back.”
Hays said she loves to teach.
McKenzie Harris, a fourth-year
Spanish student, said Hays has a
unique style.
“Ms. Hays is not afraid to get
down on the students level.
Whether it be through her language
or her actions, she makes the class
exciting and inspiring,” Harris said.
But Hays said she didn’t
originally want to go into social
work. She married and had
children before college. She was a
business student with plans to go to
law schqol. At the time, she was
working at a group home for girls,
and Hays said being in that kind of
environment and seeing young
girls face their problems made her
realize what she wanted to do.
Hays’ former husband was in the
military and transferred to
Columbia, where she decided to
get her master’s degree in social
work.
The best part about her job,
Hays said, is “seeing the sparkle in
a child’s eyes.”
Hays said she receives a lot of
support from her children, two
biological and one “borrowed.”
Hays said she appreciates being
able to change the lives of not only
her patients, but her students as
well.
Comments on this story ? E-mail
gamecocknews@givm.sc. edu
Bush to push energy agenda with Saudi leader
By TOM RAUM
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Running for
president five years ago, George W.
Bush pledged to jawbone energy
exporting nations to keep oil prices
low and to win passage of
legislation to spur more domestic
energy production.
Delivering on either count has
proved difficult for the Texas
oilman.
Soaring oil and gasoline prices
are beginning to take a toll on U.S.
economic growth and on Bush’j
approval ratings. To get his long
stalled energy agenda passed, the
president is putting more of his
political prestige on the line.
The House voted 249-183 last
week for White House-backed
legislation that would give tax cuts
and subsidies to energy companies
and open a wildlife refuge in Alaska
to oil exploration.
At a meeting Monday at his
Texas ranch, Bush is promising to
press Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler,
Crown Prince Abdullah, to do
more to help ease global oil prices.
Still, the president acknowledges
that there is little that he or
Congress can do to quickly lower
gasoline prices, which have climbed
past $2.20 a gallon nationwide.
Critics also claim that Bush’s
energy bill does little to promote
conservation or alternate energy
approaches, and that he has done
little of the lobbying of oil-country
leaders that he promised during in
his first presidential campaign.
Robert Ebel, an energy analyst at
♦ BUSH, page 5
PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Bush talks with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah during his
arrival at Bush’s ranch in April 2002. Sky-high oil prices and the
prickly issues of terrorism and democracy in the Middle East could
provide tense moments between old friends when Crown Prince
Abdullah visits President Bush at his Texas ranch today.
www. dailygamecock. com ■■. ?
PREACHER
RETURNS
TO CAMPUS
• Street evangelist
angers some students
with condemnations
By RYAN JAMES
FOR THE GAMECOCK
Students gathered outside the
Russell House last week to listen
to John Duncan, a street
evangelist from Athens, Ga.
Duncan is affiliated with the
World Wide Mission Movement
and has traveled to more than 90
universities and 33 states with his
evangelical message.
Duncan moved from the
Greene Street sidewalk across
from the Russell House to the
adjacent patio after being harassed
and drowned out by students with
guitars and a hand drum singing
songs such as “Yes, Jesus Loves
Me” and “Amazing Grace.”
nrst-year pnarmacy student joe
Roberts, one of three guitar
players, said he was put off by the
preaching.
“I understand the purpose of
evangelism, but he is just scaring
people into submission,” Roberts
said, “I personally think he is a
disgusting individual.”
Duncan continued preaching
while students shouted questions
and insults at him. Many
Christians in the crowd were also
insulted and viewed it as an attack
on their faith.
“I told him that I loved him,
and he said I was condemning him
for disagreeing with his message.
There is a way to go about
preaching the gospel, and he is
only turning people off,” one
student said.
Duncan told students, among
other things, that immodest
clothing is sinful, singling out a
girl with a skirt and asking how
many men lusted after her. Many
men in the crowd raised their
hands.
When asked about the negative
feedback from the students,
Duncan said “It’s typical of a
college campus” and that it was a
fulfillment of biblical prophesies
of Christian persecution. He
specifically targets universities as
“a place where a lot of people are
interested in talk and dialogue.”
“I can get my message to a great
amount of people in a short
amount of time,” Duncan said.
Several police officers were
standing by to monitor the
situation. Duncan stayed out of
the street, which he was ordered to
♦ PREACHER, page 6
Ex-S.C. official
admits helping
cockfighting ring
By JACOB JORDAN
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former South Carolina
Agriculture Commissioner
Charles Sharpe was sentenced to
two years in prison Friday after he
pleaded guilty to an extortion
charge and lying to a federal
officer in connection with a
cockfighting ring.
Sharpe, 66, admitted earlier
this year to taking $10,000 in
December 2002 from an
organization involved in breeding
and raising birds for cockfighting
in exchange for helping the group
avoid legal trouble.
His attorneys asked for a
sentence below federal guidelines,
but U.S. District Judge Cameron
Currie would not grant it.
“We are disappointed. We
think it’s a harsh sentence, but
Mr. Sharpe accepts it,” Sharpe’s
attorney Jim Griffin said. “We
highlighted the good deeds that he
had done over the years and there
were some 90 people who had
written letters or signed petitions
in support of Mr. Sharpe and
request that he receive a lenient
sentence.”
Sharpe apologized to the people
of South Carolina and his family
♦COCKFIGHTING, page 6
/