Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ONLINEPOLL THE GAMECOCK • Wednesday, June 8,2005 J Are you concerned about USC’s “■ | "1 T T 'T__l v /^v “T~m TTT^l = IEWPOINTS www.dailygamecock.com. theHsamecock CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on third floor of the Russell House. 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 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STAFF EDITOR Steven Van Haren VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Patrick Augustine THE MIX EDITOR Shana Till SPORTS EDITOR Alex Riley COPY EDITORS Laura-Joyce Gough Brindy McNair PAGE DESIGNERS Jessica Ann Nielsen Megan Sinclair Mary Pinckney Waters ONLINE EDITOR Ryan Simmons 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 The Gamecock is the editorially independent student 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 Office of Student Media is the newspaper's parent organization. The Gamecock is supported in part by student activity fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Office of Student Media. GAMECOCK CORRECTIONS If you see an error in todays paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 EDITORIAL BOARD EDITOR SPORTS EDITOR Steven Van Haren Alex Riley NEWS EDITOR THE MIX EDITOR Jon Turner Shana Till VIEWPOINTS EDITOR Patrick Augustine IN OUR OPINION Supreme Court dodges drug legalization issue The Supreme Courts decision Monday to invalidate a California law that allowed doctors to prescribe marijuana to chronically ill patients for medical use is a perfect example of judicial overreach ing. Conservatives have long complained that federal judges annex power that is reserved to Congress, but the six-to-three decision improperly used the commerce clause, which permits Congress to regulate trade across state lines, to undermine laws in 10 states that allowed limited use of marijuana under a physicians observation. While current federal law states there is no accepted medical use for marijuana in the United States, the logic employed in the majority opinion circumvents tne issue ot marijuanas legal ity entirely. States may not have the right to write laws that countermand federal statutes, but the justices were not asked to address this issue. Instead of delineating the rights of doctors to act within the law in their patients’ best interest, the high cotfrt effectively ended the public debate over decriminalization of marijuana. Congress is the correct venue for such a discussion, and a re-examination of the United States’ stance on drug use and prevention is long past due. English-only classes deny American roots Do you remember Spike Lees “School Daze”? Released in 1988, it is actually the second feature film on his jointography list. One of my favorite films, “School Daze” was a movie about the intra-race prejudices that existed on the college campus. Whether it is or was truly a STACY problem, Lee left QREGG the viewer with a Third-year lot to think interdisciplinary , . , studies student about. At the end of the movie, me cnaracicr piaycu uy Laurence Fishburne ended the movie by running through campus screaming for everyone to “wake up!” This morning as I was catching up on some editorials in the local newspaper, I had the same urge. There was a letter to the editor from a gentleman who was upset after reading an article about recent GED recipients who were allowed to take the test in Spanish. I CARTOON COURTESY OF KRT CAMPUS gathered that his arguments were that (1) he felt Americans couldn’t go to any other country and take their tests in our native languages, (2) as citizens of South Carolina and also America, our hard-earned money shouldn’t have to fund this type of program, and (3) we are funding the program at the expense of our “our own identity as English-speaking Americans.” What? WTl '-\r\r\c 1 I r* 111 uu vvv- iiavt iu be subjected to this type of attitude? Don’t get me wrong — I know that as humans we are all entitled to our own opinions. As Americans, we are even entitled to voice our opinions publicly — but did the newspaper really have to print it? What happened to the so called “melting pot” of American society? Think — the first settlers to establish colonies didn’t speak the same language as the natives. In fact, considering the fact that the first settlements were formed by people who came from all over Europe, I am inclined to believe that the first settlers didn’t speak the same language as each other. Furthermore, 1 believe that our identity as Americans is based on the mixture of many different languages and cultures. 1 went back and found the article. I wasn’t surprised to find that the students did in fact speak English. In fact, one was even quoted in the article. It is sad to me that we still have a problem with race and ethnicity. What difference does it make that a person chooses to express him- or herself in a foreign tongue? What ever happened to America, the land of opportunity? It seems to me that we still have a lot of waking up to do.