Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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«_VIEWPOINTS AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD Editor Sports Editor MICHAEL LaFORGIA JONATHAN HILLYARD • News Editor Viewpoints Editor I STEPHEN FASTENAU BRINDY McNAIR Asst. News Editor Copy Desk Chief JUSTIN CHAPURA STEVEN VAN HAREN The Mix Editor Design Director , . ALEXIS ARNONE CHAS MCCARTHY IN OUR OPINION Despite relief efforts, real work begins now We applaud USC students for their willingness to give up their fall breaks to travel to the storm-ravaged Mississippi Gulf Coast and help with relief efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. Carolina will send 106 students on buses to aid the Salvation Army in hard-hit Biloxi, Miss., from Oct. 12 to Oct. 16. It’s a testament to our school’s integrity and selflessness how many students, faculty and staff members have already volun teered time to work at the hurricane evacuee processing center in the Naval Reserve building on the corner-of Blossom and Pickens streets. Volunteers should be proud of thetr contribution to the mas sive relief efforts under way nationwide. But they can’t let up now that the immediate need for help Lfit USC be among seems to Posing* at least here those institutions in Columbia. that continue Rebuilding areas affected by to contribute to the Category 4 storm in August storm relief efforts. will prove a months-long, if not years-long, process, and it will require sustained efforts from dedicated volunteers. Let USC be among those institutions that continue to con tribute time, money and energy to the cause. Students shouldn’t feel satisfied after pitching in at the Naval Reserve building for a weekend or two. Sign up for the fall-break trip to Biloxi. When that fills up, visit the Web sites of organizations such as the American Red Cross — www.redcross.org — and the Salvation Army — www.salvationarmyusa.org — to find out how else you can help. As Category 2 Hurricane Rita gains strength in the Gulf of Mexico, trackers say its winds might reach Category 4 speeds by the time it makes landfall somewhere between northern Mexico and Louisiana. If Rita strikes anywhere near areas still reeling from Katrina, the need will become greater than ever in coming days. irs YOUR RIGHT Exercise your right to voice your opinion. Create message boards at wunv. daily gamecock, com or send letters to the editor to gamecockopiniotis@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 CONTACT information . Offices on third floor of the Russell House. CHifs MCCARTHY T'Ar ^,t0rs °ffice hours are Monday and Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. Copy Desk Chief Editor: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu STEVEN VAN HAREN News: gamecocknews@gwm.sc. edu News Editor Viewpoints: gamecockopinions@gwm. sc. edu STEPHEN PASTENAU UAr Mix:gamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksports@gwm.sc. edu Asst. News Editor Public Affairs: gamecockPR@yahoo.com JUSTIN CHAPURA Online: www. dailygamecock. com Viewpoints Editor Newsroom: 777-7726: Spans: 777-7182 BRINDY McNAIR Ediurs777-3914 ALEXIS ARNONE STUDENT MEDIA THE GAMECOCK it the e r, editorially independent Sports Editor Director ' r , JONATHAN HILLYARD SCOTT LINDENBERG ***** newspaper of the . c -,. University of South H&Se?~ wikcolu^ *****“ .. CJ. ERIK COLLINS Monday, Wednesday and Photo Editor _ . ^ i. NICKESARES fncl'u wSc Fr,day during the fall and c nL 5USAN MNb spring semesters and nine Sports Photo Editor r * KATIE KIRKLAND Business Manager times during the summer. Pi e Desi ners CAROLYN GRIFFIN with the exception of mTkE CONWAY, JESSICA Advertising Manager university holidays and ANN NIELSEN, MEGAN SARAH exam periods. Opinions SINCLAIR SCARBOROUGH expressed in THE Graphic Designer Classified Manager GAMECOCK are those of,he LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH SHERRY F. HOLMES editors or author and not Copy Editors d*ose °fUniversity of CHELSEA HADAWAY, rABeu'rluKi’ri" South Carolina. The Board KRISTY LAUBE, bAKLN UANSLEK of Student Publications and MELISSA MAULOIN, Advertising Staff Communications is the KATIE THOMPSON, BREANNA EVANS, vuhlisher 0fYHE LIZ WH|TE RYANGORMAN, RYAN SIMMONS APRYL ALEXANDER, Department of Student MARY RACHEL Media is the newspaper’s ■nerou nfluucnv FREEMAN, MCKENZIE parent organization. THE JOSEPH DANNELLY, va/ci cu npinpr . LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH, MERRICK GAMECOCK u supported in MARGARET LAW, part by student-activity fees. MEGHAN WHITMAN One free copy per reader. . I Additional copies may be TO PLACE AN AD ^ purchased for $1 each from The Gamecock Advertising: 777-3888 the Department of Student 1400 Greene St. Classified: 777-1184 Media. Columbia, S. C. 29208 Fax: 777-6482 5nevi ResidekTs BRApE IWW -s -I Fop, THExR second Floop... [- Ncy ^ Cartoon courtesy of KRT Campus Registry offers no solution to sex offenders It’s not hard to believe reports of rampant sex abuse in storm shelters The other day I happened to be flipping through TV stations when I found myself pause on CNN. Nancy Grace | was on with her primetime show, and her topic of the week, believe it or not, was Hurricane Katrina. But this was not just any news item; this week’s program was focused on the issue of the 3,500 registered sex offenders in the New Orleans area. Now I agree no one wants a sex offender hanging around — we all know how annoying a sex offender can be — but Nancy Grace, in her ever-so graceful ways, suggested they implement background checks at New Orleans shelters. Is it me, or is this absolutely ridiculous? Now we have to go install an entire computer system into a disaster relief shelter? What are these people working at the shelters supposed to say to a registered sex offender when they come for help — “Sorry, we have you in the registry, so you have to go die in the disease ridden swamps of New Orleans?” I can’t think this is the most humane situation. I also loved how Nancy Grace was in a fit over the □ terrible thought of a city with sex offenders just “running around free.” UHHIII1I Maybe it>s BOIDV me, but don’t n , they pretty bourth-year , . r . . elementary mucb do thls education already? student Nancy did, however, offer another solution to the problem by suggesting an increase in police protection at shelters. This is where it all boils for me. Here we are in a very large American crisis where every cop we can find is out in the city finding and saving peoples’ lives, and good of Nancy wants to start pulling them for shelter duty? I don’t think so. What ever happened to the days where if somebody gets out of line, registered or not, you beat the crap out of them? If some sleazy guy starts acting weird with a kid, you get some guy in the shelter to beat his ass. That’s how we do it in Baltimore; you don’t need a cop for everything. Sex offenders, if you ask me, have it good here in the new millennium. While they’re publicly displayed on the Internet, most people are too lazy to look at the registry anyways. Not to mention they can still hide under the lawsuit driven society in which they live, where basically they have to be caught breaking a law to receive any kind of punishment, a minor punishment at that. There was a time when if you looked out your front door and some creepy person was talking to your kid, you had the right to kick his ass, without the worry of lawsuit or a battery charge, but that has long passed. I realize I sound harsh, but the registry is not a very good means to an end. Americans applauded its creation yet very few use it, and little do they know it’s now another notch in the plea-bargaining system of justice. Instead of a child molester getting 15-20, they get five with parole and have to be registered as a sex offender. Big damn deal — suddenly being a registered sex offender reduces jail time, and America is worse off than it started. If America is going to keep applauding this wonderful little registry, don’t be surprised, Nancy, when they move in next door, or pass you in the grocery store, or hand out communion Sunday. In 2005 America, registered sex offenders get all the rights we do, including that cot next to your kids in the shelter. IN YOUR OPINION Broom’s brag-fest nothing but not air This letter is more to Jake Broom than anyone else, and while I’m sure you’ve gotten about 1,000 of these since Saturday (and I’m sure about 999 of them were completely classless and rude), I’m going to try to express my thoughts while keeping an open mind and maintaining my dignity. I’m sure going back and reading his last column (“Alabama fans still living in denial,” Friday) has been torturous for Mr. Broom, and I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and bet he wishes he could take back some of the things he said about Alabama, but eating crow is part of the business. It’s an embarrassment for South Carolina and for Jake Broom, and I’m sure he learned his lesson and wants to just move on. He wasn’t the first to make the mistake of saying a little too much in a newspaper, and he won’t be the last. But the truth remains that journalistic (and personal) integrity should coincide with every sport, and even beyond sport. Speaking your mind at a frat party is one thing; putting it in a newspaper and on the Internet is another. But if South Carolina had won the game, would it be any different? Probably not. Mr. Broom would have been proved right, but at what cost? Where do the lines of pushing the envelope and maintaining integrity cross? On behalf of the University of Alabama, thank you to the majority of students and fans for your hospitality. If any of us were rude, I apologize. And to Mr. Broom, maybe you should do a little more research and check one more source before you write another column: your brain. SCOTT LATTA University of Alabama student ‘Cute’ chant change drags USC’s spirits I’ve never had a big problem with the band. But one thing in the past few years has bothered me. Why would you change the words from “Hey! Hey! Hey! We’re gonna beat the hell outta ■MNNMNMMMMMHMMMHMNMNHMMMMM you!” to “U! S! C! Go Cocks!”? I am sure someone thought it was cute, and then obviously the band jumped all over it. Because y’all are the only people in America who change the words, it totally backfired on y’all Saturday. You played the song with us down by a lot, and Bama fans screamed “Hey Cocks! Hey Cocks! Hey Cocks! We just beat the hell outta you!!” Had y’all not changed the words, you would not have given them the opportunity to embarrass us because you never would’ve played it at that time. Just stick with the real words — it will help you not look like a bunch of morons when you help the other team’s fans rub in an embarrassing loss. JEB BENSON Third-year exercise science 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. 9 Should Katrina victims nline be given shelter if they are oil registered sex offenders? www.dailygamecock.com Pedestrians should unite to maximize street safety Accidents on campus prove dangerous, fatal to some USC students We’re all pedestrians, and a danger exists that we all tangle with but rarely consider. Dylan Mitchell, a USC student and fellow' 2002 Fort Mill High School ITFIIFn &raduate’ was linn iinnnn ^ed Sept. 2 Uflll HflREII whiie rising his Fourth-year bike. mechanical j wanted to engineering • ■. < * student bel,eve he wasnt playing by the rules, that he wasn’t wearing his helmet, that a fairly competent rider was safe. 1 remembered talking to him at the bike store where he worked and soon found out he was a member of USC’s cycling club. According to The Herald, he was wearing a helmet. Bikers really are pedestrians. We’re nothing but soft flesh and blood, and a bike does little to protect against a car’s momentum. I was hit by a car while riding my bike once. I was riding down Greene Street, and Barnwell Street’s steep hill loomed on my left. A car was slowing for what I thought was me, but instead came to a California stop and nailed me. I got knocked flat onto the pavement. It hurt. Even worse, a few months later, the same thing at the same location happened to my roommate. Even more worse, just last week my roommate had to get stitches after splitting open his chin trying to pop over a curb on Blossom Street. But that’s all small potatoes. Dylan — and Travis Cook, who in 2003 was killed trying to crawl under a stopped train in Five Points — paid the worst price for being pedestrians. ^uia tnose inciaents shouldn’t deter anyone from walking or biking. Allowing for freak accidents and better judgment, being a pedestrian at USC is like being a swimmer in the Pacific: It’s necessary. A couple weeks ago, I said in a column we should ax freshman parking and that people need to walk on campus. I remember a letter to the editor: “Well, Mr. Van Haren, someone just died riding his bike! How can you POSSIBLY advocate walking?!?! (insert Fran Drescher whining).” You’re right. I’m sure the cycling club has hung up its short-shorts by now. Dammit, I still stand by that “walk everywhere” policy — if we follow certain rules. We should watch out for jackasses who come screaming up to crosswalks and inch their Hummers into rush-hour traffic. I’m going to start carrying a metal shank in my boot, and whosoever tries to run me down will find slashed ures aont get you very tar. If we carried golf clubs or spike strips, there’d be fewer accidents. Safety starts with you — you being pissed-off college kids who think dying sucks. You can’t account for idiots, freak accidents or bike-theft sprees. My last bike was stolen in 2003, and I’m still defiantly pissed enough to ride. Bwahaha. Being on foot is dangerous, but as long as we stay cautious, accidents shouldn’t deter us.