Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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Friday, Dec. 2, 2005 Page 7 TH#^AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD editor MICHAEL LaFORGIA News Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Asst. News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE bports editor JONATHAN HILLYARD Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR Copy Desk Chief STEVEN VAN HAREN Design Director chas McCarthy IN OUR OPINION Risky face transplants not yet safe for masses This gives new meaning to the phrase “face value.” Doctors in France said Wednesday they had performed the first ever partial face transplant by grafting the nose, lips and chin of a brain-dead woman onto the victim of a dog bite. While ethicists cry foul at the operation’s psychological implica tions, we feel the greatest danger lies in the procedure itself. The high risk of organ rejection could cause the face to turn black and slough off, requiring further operations, according to The Associated Press. And that’s not including the required lifetime of drugs that could raise the risk of kidney damage and cancer. Forget any ultra-cool notions of John Travolta swapping mugs with Nicolas Cage in a breezy five minutes. “Face/Off” director John Woo had his facts all wrong (but his action all right). Burn victims and people with severe disfigurements have the ... . . . , . choice to participate in such a We should know the ., , . . # . . risky procedure — given that doc dangers of doing . , 6, even more damage , r , to such a defining options such 35 Prosthenc rePlace part of our bodies. ment h’s their choice ~ ^a risky one — and the 38-year-old woman who agreed to the transplant might be the first in a series of necessary medical guinea pigs to perfect the procedure. But while we commend Dr. Jean-Michel Dubernard, the trail blazing transplant surgeon involved in the operation, getting pieces of face grafted onto your own is still too dangerous. The risks far outweigh the possible benefits. U.S. facilities attempting face trans plants, such as the Cleveland Clinic, must realize the risks and pro ceed with caution. Some Americans aren’t afraid of a risky operation, but while dis figurements are generally not life-threatening, they should know the dangers of possibly doing even more damage to such a defining part of our bodies. And the idea that a brain-dead woman is sitting around some where without a nose, lips or chin is undeniably freaky, even though her family gave permission. Let us hope that the operation will one day be as smooth as Woo’s Hollywood treatment. It will give hope to those whose possi bly harmful disfigurements can’t be treated with existing methods. IT’S VOUR RIGHT Exercise your right to voice your opinion. Create message boards at wurw.dailygamecock.com ^ or send letters to the editor to « gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu ^ 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 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 Edison CHELSEA HADAWAY, KRISTY LAUBE, KATIE THOMPSON, JAMISON TINSLEY LIZ WHITE Online Editor RYAN SIMMONS Creative Services JOSEPH DANNELLY, LAURA-JOYCE GOUGH, MARGARET LAW, MEGHAN WHITMAN TO PLACE AN AD The Gamecock 1400 Greene St. Columbia. S C. 29208 \ Advertising: 777-3888 Classified: 777-1184 Fax: 777-6482 ♦ * CONTACT INFORMATION Offices on thirdfloor of the Russell House. The Editor’s office hours are Monday and Wednesday from 1-3 p.m. Editor: gamecockeditorQgwm.se. edu News: gamecocknewsQgwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinionsQgwm.se. edu The Mix: gamecockfeaturesQgwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksportsQgwm.se. edu Public Affairs: gamecockPRQyahoo.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 C. NEIL SCOTT 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 purchasedfor Si each from the Department of Student Media. Christmas full of crummy commercialism American advertisers miss point of drawing consumers to products Hello there friends all, and a yuletide greeting for all you lovable folks. ‘Tis the season to be jolly or merry, take your pick. And we all know what Christmas is these days — it’s presents. Lots of them. Pink ones, green ones — you name it and I want it boxed in assorted paper styles. But how do we know what presents to buy one another? Barring a 10-by-30-foot banner hanging from Bates proclaiming you want a matador outfit, we need to drop subtle hints. My favorite type of hint is to exclaim, “I want money.” It’s hauntingly sorrowful with overtones of autumn, yet full of hope like a fresh spring morning. However, my beef is with the advertising angle. We’ve seen the commercials. Those funny, middle-aged white men who can’t function in modern society. Funny, middle-aged black men incapable of talking on the phone. Funky urban youths doing urbany, youthy type stuff while eating hamburgers from a red- and yellow-themed Satanic restaurant. My quandary is where the bugger do these commercials get off patronizing the college RAROR student. I’m BRAZIER probably too . smart for this 1 hira-year , T philosophy nonsense, and I student hope you, my festively engorged readership, are equally ashamed by the stunts they pull. Could someone tell me the correlation between throwing things around a neighborhood and a multi-media video game system? Crikes. Commercialism is killing off the nicer themes of Christmas such as the representation of shrunken heads and intestines (the baubles and tinsel) being hung on the tree. Hey, you in the back, were celebrating St. Nicholas throwing stuff down the socks of girls, not glitter covered cards. Hopefully, we’re also enjoying our Christmas magazines and TV. Well, you commercial makers, you’re not making it easy for me. A chick wearing a necklace is not going to make me buy perfume. Beer is not something you sell involving horses. Beer is universally represented by sexy girls and sport. Walking through a street makes me want to buy candy. Wasting money on shoes or having a paranoid male doesn’t make me want cable. Seriously, I’m wondering how stupid they thinkwe are. It isn’t a fact of life that hard-rock music makes me enjoy products. You know, a really funny commercial works. One company featuring a reptilian mascot succeeds in my meager opinion. But they sell car insurance, and that’s not fair. I want funny to be related to beer or video games. This Christmas, I’ve got the luck to be visiting my beautiful Britain and avoiding the yuletide nightmare of continuing commercial garbage thrown at me. No more ridiculously adorable little girl trying to sell juice, no more burger commercials telling me I can’t make breakfast, but instead a nice pint of cider and a pasty. Sure we can all giggle at football referees, but I want to see the good stuff. Anyways, everybody have a good Christmas (except for the Kansas Board of Education) and come back to USC refreshed, because I’ll be ranting just as much next semester. When did ‘the kids’ turn into grown-ups? Students need to savor holidays as adulthood slinks closer to reality Last week was Thanksgiving. Christmas is only a couple of weeks away. It’s a good thing that hunting season and family holiday season don’t overlap. If they did, we might see a sharp increase in “accidents.” If there’s anything I discovered over Thanksgiving break, it’s that the kids’ table doesn’t really have any kids left. All but one of us is out of the house. Some are married. Some have full-time jobs. I spent a good bit of time wondering how this suddenly happened. I came up with a couple of answers, one of which seems entirely appropriate for a Chase Stoudenmire column. When did we suddenly grow up? Easy. This summer, when I went to my first wedding, courtesy of my cousin Victoria. Thankfully, by my first wedding, I’m referring to the first wedding that I attended, not the first wedding in which I make a lifetime commitment to a woman who may or may not get along with my mother. I have reason to believe that one is still several years and awkward dating columns away. Considering every wedding I had ever witnessed before this one was a Hollywood creation, I was rather surprised to see a simple, small-town church set up with sparse candles and flowers. Even more surprising was the lack of a devastated ex www.dailygamecock.com lover crashing at the last M moment and declaring their undying love and devotion to the soon-to be bride or puncp Sroom sTounciiiniRe hi|Jligl,thofth' Second-year low-key history ceremony came Student • 1 r r in the form or the preacher providing a list of reasons why these two people were meant to be together. I swear on everything that is sacred, I am not making this up. First, they love traveling. Apparently the weekend road trip to,Pennsylvania they took is a sure indicator of marital suitability. Second, they love ballroom dancing. If the logic proposed here is universally applicable, I need to start hanging out around girls who can’t dance. Finally (and allow me to reinforce the fact that I am not making this up) they are destined to be married because their names start with the letter “V.” xr youve ever riaaen in my car, you can’t dance and your name starts with “C,” you better watch out. Did I forget to mention my cousin’s groom was Lithuanian? He’s living proof that foreigners are much more interesting when you’ve heard of their country but have no clue where it is. Much to my pleasure, it was as if I got to go to two weddings j in the same night. In addition } to the traditional American | ceremony and milestones, we got to see an authentic [ Lithuanian ceremony. Google it. They’re neat. The preacher wasn’t the only one who made me laugh. Let’s take a moment to discuss my sister. The one who all of my j friends just love to talk about ! because she’s rather attractive. I simply say rather attractive because my friends have more colorful terms that don’t belong in this paper. Having remained silent throughout the entire ceremony, when the bouquet of flowers was presented in the wedding, my sister simply leaned over to me and declared j in the most authoritative whisper I have ever heard, “Those are MINE.” And yes, she eventually managed to get them into her hands. These are fun memories. True, a rather significant change from the ones where my cousins and I go crazy running around at Chuck E. Cheese’s and playing in sprinklers. But fun in a new, more subtle kind of way. nave run over tne nouaays with your family. Enjoy our last few years as “the kids.” Pretty soon we’ll be the yuppies showing up with our own little ones. Every year we’re one step closer to being the grown-ups. Luckily, for now, we still have hair. Happy chrismahanukwanziyear. f Everybody loves drama except inside dorm rooms Guys, girls really must learn to not get bugged by pesky arguments Drama. The world thrives on drama. I’m not talking , about sitting in a dimmed theater watching actors and actresses bring a story to life . JERRIFER fron‘ ,,of SILUERIRRR First-year catfight, hair tjouLlism Pulling> flsts-in' student the-face drama. Why do you think reality TV is the next big thing? Drama. “The Real World” has been popular for more than 10 years now because seven people crammed intp one house equals mucho, mucho drama. And why not •give the people what they want? Apparently, the drama that occurs in our everyday lives isn’t enough for the world’s mass, audience. Drama is just as unavoidable as the common cold, and just as annoying. Drama, like a cold, can either slowly creep — into your life, or one day you will just wake up with a stuffed nose and some girl saying you said or did something about/to someone at sometime. I live in a dorm, the black hole of drama. No matter how hard you try to avoid it, in the end you will just get sucked deeper and deeper into this black pit of despair. I thought living in a co-ed dorm would decrease the amount of drama in my life; I was stupid enough to believe that by avoiding an all-girls dorm I could possibly live a semi drama-free life. Wow, I can be a moron sometimes. Every girl on the earth likes to claim they try to avoid drama and say they would rather solve problems face to face instead of dealing with whispers behind their backs. What a crock of BS that is. Please don’t misunderstand me — there are girls who actually do solve problems face to face and actually do avoid drama, but the vast majority of women out there just can’t help it. They thrive off drama, feed off drama; need it to survive their everyday lives. Guys, don’t think you are getting off so easy; you thrive on drama just as much as females, but in a different way. One major difference, when it comes to drama, between guys and girls — men attack with their fists, women attack psychologically. Another difference between men and women (let’s face it ladies): We can hold a grudge like no other. But that’s the problem; grudges don’t belong in small situations. The petty stuff isn’t worth your time. It isn’t worth anyone’s time. Don’t sweat the small stuff, and in the end it’s all small stuff. Don’t spend your life angry with someone because one time they called you a female dog — the anger you harbor will block happy times that lie ahead. Let’s create a more peaceful world for all of us, leave the drama for the reality TV stars. 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.