Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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^_VIEWPOINTS _ AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD Editor MICHAEL LaFORGIA News Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Asst. News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Sports Editor JONATHAN HILLYARD Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR Copy Desk Chief STEVEN VAN HAREN Design Director chas McCarthy IN OUR OPINION PETA’s insensitivity butchers own cause You animal-loving morons. In a bold — and decisively stupid — move, the People for the Ethical Treatment of the Animals have resumed an advertising cam paign comparing animal cruelty to slavery. One oft-cited panel illus tration juxtaposes pictures of a lynched black man with pictures of a butchered cow hanging on a meat hook. Look. We realize you folks at PETA might have trouble recognizing the subtle differences between humans and farm animals. You did the right thing when you decided to pull the racially charged advertise ments, along with ads comparing meat and poultry processing cen ters to the Holocaust. But now you’ve brought those ads back. Why? What’s wrong with you? This campaign only highlights far nobler endeavor. Oh, and one more thing: Cooked animals taste delicious. Get over it. The problem is, none of this is funny. Likening a disgraceful chapter of American history — during which an entire people were demeaned and ruthlessly oppressed — only further demeans those people. Animal-rights activists shouldn’t rob black Americans of their dignity just to push their wacky agendas. PETA, go do something substantive with your time, energy and money. Throw your support behind some legitimate organization such as the World Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Club or other conserva tionist efforts. We’re not going to run out of cows or chickens any time soon. In the meantime, shut up, put your clothes on, shelve the offen sive advertising and go save some condors. IT’S YOUR RIGHT Exercise your right to voice your Create message boards at wwtv. dailygamecock. com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopinions@gwm.sc. edu CORRECTIONS If you see an error in todays paper, we want to know. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. ABOUT THE GAMECOCK MICHAEL LaFORGIA Design Director chas McCarthy Copy Desk Chief STEVEN VAN HAREN News Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Asst. News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Sports Editor JONATHAN HILLYARD Asst. Sports Editor ALEX RILEY Photo Editor NICK ESARES Sports Photo Editor KATIE KIRKLAND Pare Designers MIKE CONWAY, JESSICA ANN NIELSEN, MEGAN SINCLAIR Graphic Designer LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH Copy Editors CHELSEA HADAWAY, KRISTY LAU8E, MELISSA MAULDIN, KATIE THOMPSON, LIZ WHITE Online Editor RYAN SIMMONS Creative Services JOSEPH DANNELLY, LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH, MARGARET LAW, MEGHAN WHITMAN TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Columbia, S.C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 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: gamecockeditor9gwm. sc. edu News: gamecocknews9gwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinions9gwm.sc. edu The Mix: gamecockfeatures9gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports9gwm.sc.edu Public Affairs: gamecockPR9yahoo. 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 Advertising Staff BREANNA EVANS, RYAN GORMAN, KATIE CUPPIA, APRYL ALEXANDER, MARY RACHEL FREEMAN, MCKENZIE WELSH, DEIDRE MERRICK 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 o/THE GAMECOCK. The Department 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 Department of Student Media. \ ^^artoorMOurtesyj)£(KrjOamj>u^^^. Sheehans tour has no effect on war in Iraq Bring Them Home Now rallies for local support for anti-war agenda On Wednesday, Cindy Sheehan was in town for an anti-war rally. The words of John Lennon’s “Imagine” drifted through the air, while long-haired men mouthed the words and women in tie-dyed skirts held American flags. The “Bring Them Home Now” tour originated in Crawford, Texas, and will end in Washington, D.C. The ultimate goal is to convince President Bush that American troops in Iraq must come home. While the tour obviously won’t succeed, it is important to talk about the three reasons why it won’t. 1) Sheehan and her supporters idealistically call for the immediate withdrawal of troops but neglect the Iraqi people. Honestly, who wouldn’t want our troops home? It would keep American sons and daughters from losing their lives. But America cannot only worry about herself and her children anymore. She now has to worry about millions of Iraqis. “The war was wrong and it still is,” said Matthew Trew, a second-year religious studies and anthropology student. Maybe the war was wrong, but America went to war; right or wrong doesn’t matter anymore. America has made a commitment to the Iraqi people, and she must stay in nlraq until independence is achieved. I asked multiple people for a way that HIIUIH.UI America could Bcmz leave without Third-year endangering international the Iraqis, but studies and n0 one seemec[ music student , to have thought that far ahead. Going to war might have been wrong, but two wrongs don’t make a right. 2) Jacob Levin, a first-year undecided student, said the movement “supports the troops but not the war.” But Amy Proctor, the wife of a soldier in Iraq, said “you can’t say you support the troops but not the war.” While holding a sign that said “Cindy doesn’t speak for me,” she told me she was there “to make sure that the troops don’t just see the anti-war people, that they see they do have support.” How can you possibly support the troops yet actively oppose everything they do? You’re right, Mrs. Proctor; it simply is not possible. 3) Last and certainly not least is Sheehan’s position. I can’t imagine her grief and won’t pretend to. Only parents who have lost a child can begin to understand the anguish and bitterness that runs through her heart. But, being a son, I understand Casey Sheehan. I understand why he wanted to fight for his country. I understand why he reenlisted in the Army, bravely asking for a fighting position. I understand why he was willing to die for the freedom of other people. Why is Sheehan using the honorable death of her son to further an anti-war agenda? When I asked her if she thought she is being used by interest groups each proselytizing on her behalf, she became noticeably indignant. She said she made the decision for herself and to think she is being used is “simply sexist.” She said that those who think she is being used only think so because she is a woman. Is she angry because people accuse her of being used or because she is being used? I asked her why she thought she deserved a second meeting with the president when other families had not received one at all. Sheehan told me her first meeting “wasn’t a meeting.” George Bush offered condolences “but wasn’t sincere.” She said that “so much has changed in 14 months.” You’re right — a lot has changed. Instead of being remembered as a hero who fought for what he believed, Casey will now be remembered as a kid whose mother used his death to attack the very ideals for which he fought. Whatever happened to rest in peace? Despite Katrina, we sweat the small stuff Politicians’ bad habits of burying controversy wear off on students Here’s a rhetorical question for you: What do you do if you’re being accused of having slept with an intern? The answer is, obviously, bomb parts of Kosovo. Likewise, what happens if you’re being hounded for a tremendously unsuccessful establishment of a constitution in, say, an occupied Middle Eastern state? Politicize a natural disaster. This is the new not bothering-to-deal-with-current problems, a vogue established in modern political states. But the problem is that it’s sinking down into universities. Every problem is countered with a bigger problem. Every issue is countered with a “resolution” of another issue. The politicizing of the modern problems of Katrina and the Gulf of Mexico, strangely, are now being hurled into the media to ignore other issues. From politicians to college students, we’re asked to forget everything around us. But you know what? -Getting to classes on time still sucks. Parking is still a big issue. The food problems haven’t BRAZIER disappeared Third-year into thin air. philosophy Katrina is student horrific, and USC has been encouraged to help — and so we should — but that’s not the end of it. Christ, if you want to be pedantic, the problems of those getting aid and rescued in New Orleans are quite irrelevant compared to' the enslaved, tortured and butchered in the Sudan. Wow! Thanks, Sudan! Katrina has disappeared now! Students need to stay aware that real-life problems exist and affect us all. Parking is a bigger issue for the vast majority of USC students than Katrina. That doesn’t devalue the problems in New Orleans whatsoever. I’ve yet to meet somebody who denies people in the Gulf are suffering, but having snarky people worry that our “issues” are not relevant is, quite frankly, absurd. Keep giving your money to help with Katrina, I implore you. The massive failures of state and federal governments in the richest country of the world upset me, but the people of America, if not the world, have not. However, don’t be deceived into imagining everything else is just perfect. It’s a trick by the weak-minded to keep you off the issues they don’t care about. You should care about it. We are USC students, and the campus and faculty are answerable to us, as we pay our fees. If the food sucks, stand up and say it. If you re an upperclassman from off campus and can’t find parking, imagine owning a hovercraft that can be used to crush a freshman’s car. Don’t think problems are irrelevant because others suffer. Otherwise, we’d all be donating money and aid to the Sudan and ignoring the millions who suffer within our borders. www.dailygamecock.com USC library rejects dollar; puts this guy in tight spot Thomas Cooper denies all but Carolina Card, creates inconvenience At the beginning of the semester, I found myself an alien in a strange new land, an exotic place that sent my mind reeling at its paradoxical nature. After all, I heard the - sounds of my ■*' native tongue all nUZUH) around me, and Fifth-year sights that were education eerjly familiar. I student •. * > i i didnt know how to proceed — I needed to trade, but how should I go about it? Was this some kind of market? Did I need something to barter? Should I haggle? I approached a kind of stall, again eerily familiar. I pointed to what I wanted and held out some cash to the man behind the table. But thfe stranger simply shook his head and would not accept my currency, so I shuffled my crinkled and sunburnt American dollars back into my pockets sheepishly, backing out of the place and wondering if I would ever return, wondering how I would survive with only my accustomed currency in such an unknown and lonely place. I backed through the electric doors, the doorman giving me a strange look, and I recall reflecting on how similar our cultures were — the technology, the speech down even to the dialect — and yet how infinite the gap was between us. Imagine my surprise when I studied the worn and hopelessly retro facade of the building I had just entered, and found it to be none other than the Thomas Cooper Library! Surely that was impossible, because the Thomas Cooper Library, like every other even remotely upstanding commercial or public institution in this country, accepts our national currency. Good old Thomas Cooper doesn’t operate under the barter system or the serf system, isn’t some kind of socialist commune, and doesn’t — heaven forbid — operate solely on the basis of nebulous, electronic “funds” flitting around in cyberspace in ones and zeroes. I reached the only conclusion that a rational being can: Thomas Cooper Library has been stolen. Aliens or extremists or union workers must have crept in during the night and disassembled it brick by brick, replacing it with this evil clone library and carting our beloved Thomas Cooper off to some South American jungle, or the casde of a deposed Scottish king. Scratching my head, I went off in search of a place to make copies and print off spam e mails, some place that would take my dollar — someplace that still thought the United States of America meant something. I found it down the street, at patriotic FedEX/Kinkos. God bless America. 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.