Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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^ VIEWPPINTS __ ,/ AMEGOGK EDITORIAL BOARD Editor : f STEVEN VAN HAREN News Editor \ JUSTIN CHAPURA Assistant News Editor \ JACKIE ALEXANDER The Mix Editor \ ALEXIS ARNONE Design Director chas McCarthy Sports Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU , . Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR Assistant Viewpoints Editor AARON BRAZIER IN OUR OPINION Health program aside, students can shape up It’s time to shape up, USC. The Greater Columbia Shrinkdown, an eight-week program designed to help Midlands residents slim down and stay informed about their personal health, began Monday at the Colonial Center. (Quick fact check — we’re all Midlands residents.) If only it were mandatory to be this smart. Having a free posse of fitness-minded people help you get healthy is pretty cool. Getting a weekly check of your blood pressure, cholesterol level anti body-mass index is even better. Getting all this right at the start of the New Year is perfect YOU dOfl t need 3 Admittedly, we’re all still citywide program sluggish, carrying around # 1 ■ 10 pounds or moms to stsy fit end cookies and 20 pounds of | awarp nf vmir unprocessed tuikey. aware ot your Theres no excuse body. to miss out, as those interested can sign up any Friday until the program ends March 9. But oh, behold the power of cheese. Danishes. The Shrinkdown is a good start to living well, but two months of check-ups won’t do you a slice of good if you slowly return to gobbling whole sides of ham. Yo-yo dieting can be harmful. _ That’s where the Strom and, on a larger scale, USC’s Office of Campus Wellness, come in. You don’t need a citywide program to stay fit and be aware of your body. Campus Wellness oners tree blood-pressure check ups every weekday, as well as helpful health hints on their Web site. Walk everywhere. Take the stairs. Put down the salted pork. Try to kick the habit. Take a yoga class. Just stay active. And most importantly — keep it up. Don’t limit your yearly physical exertion to two months. We all slip off the fitness bandwagon sometimes, but at USC, it’s easy to get back on. With such a highly accredited gym at our disposal, it’s a waste of activity fees not to run a few laps or do a few reps in the cavernous weight room. If having a highly accredited campus gym won’t get you going, maybe the Shrinkdown will. Whatever you use, stick to it. IT'S YOUR RIGHT Voice your opinion on message boards at urww.dailygamecock.com or send letters to the editor at gamecockopinions@gtvm.sc.edu _ CORRECTIONS If you see an error in today’s paper, we want to know about it. E-mail us at gamecockopinions@gwm.sc.edu ABOUT THE GAMECOCK Editor STEVEN VAN HAREN Design Director chas McCarthy News Editor JUSTIN CHAPURA Assistant News Editor JACKIE ALEXANDER Viewpoints Editor BRINDY McNAIR Assistant Viewpoints Editor AARON BRAZIER The Mix Editor ALEXIS ARNONE Assistant Mix Editor KRISTEN TRUESDALE Sports Editor STEPHEN FASTENAU Assistant Sports Editor ALEX RILEY Photo Editor NICK ESARES Assistant Photo Editor KATY BLALOCK Page Designers MIKE CONWAY, MEGAN SINCLAIR StaffWriters A.J. BEMBRY, JESS DAVIS, TIM McMANUS, MARJORIE RIDDLE, GINA VASSELLI Copy Editors KATIE THOMPSON, JAMISON TINSLEY, L{Z WHITE CONTACT INFORMATION Offices located on the third floor ofthe Russell House Editor’s office hours are from 2-3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Vtursdays Editor: gamecockeditortggwm.sc.edu News: gamecocknewstggwm.sc.edu Viewpoints: gamecockopinionstggwm.sc.edu The Mix: gamecockfeaturestggwm.sc.edu Sports: gamecocksportstggwm.sc.edu Public Affairs: gamecockPRtgyahoo.com Online: www.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 ; Sports: 777-7182 Editor s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Director scon UNDENBERG Faculty Adviser ERIK COLLINS Creative Director SUSAN KING Business Manager CAROLYN GRIFFIN Advertising Manager SARAH SCARBOROUGH Classifieds Manager SHERRY F. HOLMES Production Manager C. NEIL scon THE GAMECOCK'* 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 autltor and • not those of the University of i South Carolina. The Board of Student Publications and Communications is the publisher ofrV\ IE GAMECOCK. The Department of Student i Media is the newspapers parent organization. THE GAMECOCK is supported in part by student-activity i fees. One free copy per reader. Additional copies may be purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. QWafflSS&SL Courtesy KRT Campus Help! Airport stole luggage, holiday spirit Travel mishaps make holidays wearisome, nightmares come true Hello my dear friends, and welcome back to USC for a new semester. A semester so beautiful that even a bowl loss can’t sour it. One might wonder why this columnist is in such a fine mood. It’s because I’m not bloody traveling anywhere, that’s why. Christmastime is one of peace and joy on Earth, unless you’re an English student in America. One flight of mine was cancelled. They lost my luggage. Another was a 24-hour delay in Philadelphia. Philadelphia! The nightmares that traveling makes real are the scariest indeed. Personally, being chased by a rampant lioness in heat would bring me more brotherly love than Philly could possibly hope to do. But still, I managed to get back home OK. No thanks to my dearest Mother, who managed to put my passport and 1-20, my documentation proving I’m a student, through the wash. Lo and behold, my brother appeared before me to bring welcoming news, with a smirk. Did I tell you that travellingmakesnightmares come true? Spending seven (count them) days without any clean clothes and all AARon y°ur winter BRAZIER clothes -n. , away on a Ihtra-year .1 philosophy holiday, in student Columbus or Philadelphia, is not nice. I felt sorry for my friends who saw me in three year-old track pants. The back-up clothing was put on immediate alert. That means tight clothing. And old clothing. For New Year’s Eve. To really put the icing on this nightmarish cake from hell — or worse, Philadelphia — my keys fell out of my bag on the way to the airport in sunny England. They obviously decided that if my luggage was on holiday, they had every right to spend longer at home. So I arrived back in America without them as well. Wonderful. Absolutely perfect. Not only did I lack clean clothes, I lacked the transportation to acquire clean clothes. Oh, how I danced with Mistress Annoyance and supped a fine ale with Mistress What the Bloody Hell Is Going On? The three of us spent a great night together when I first arrived back. Well, I think it was them, and not a particularly dodgy Chinese meal I ate. But there’s good news too. Somewhere. Racking my brains, the conclusion was something about the joys of luggage and keys. Or being thankful that we can travel quickly and efficiently. Maybe it’s that representatives from some airlines are actually human. There’s a moral here, and finding it is the new goal. Nightmares are nightmares though, and the ordeal is over. My clothes returned, my keys have been posted, I have a new job and new classes to struggle with. Living in the past and using these events as an excuse for misdemeanor is wrong. One very good friend helped me out with lifts and company during those stressful times. Others still helped me enjoy a wonderful New Year’s Eve. One friend looked after my apartment and, fortunately, had my apartment key. I’m a very lucky man, with many good friends. Yep, maybe Philadelphia is trying it’s hardest to upset me, but traveling through life and through college has been a good thing. Nightmares do come true, but Columbia and its residents are the perfect cure to them. IN YOUR OPINION Open-mind needed for travelers, writers The article by Jess Davis on David Burch’s trip to Iraq (“Skipping graduation, student heads to Iraq,” Monday) left my mouth hanging open in shocked disbelief. I cannot believe that Burch, Davis and The Gamecock would promote such a narrow minded and ethnocentric perspective. From the beginning of the article, Burch revealed an arrogant and cavalier attitude, choosing to embrace ignorance about the people with whom he would work and remaining so throughout his stay in Iraq. Granted, Burch’s comments might have been taken out of context, but it is still the responsibility of Davis, along with the editorial staff at The Gamecock, to present a story which does not defame another culture. In particular, Burch’s categorization of everyday greetings as “homoerotic” and women as “there for making babies” totally misses the mark and shows just how little Burch bothered to learn about life in Kurdistan. In addition, in a region which is home to some of the oldest practices of Christianity, how dare Burch claim that the celebration of Christmas was “slightly wrong.” And that Santa Claus was misapplied to New Year’s. Please delve into the history of American customs associated with Christmas and you’ll learn that “Santa Claus” is a fairly recent addition to the celebration and is used to promote consumerism. I was most interested in how Burch got this job, but that part was missing. Instead we learned Burch and journalist David Axe “lied” to get into the country! Do you think that’s something Axe would like to share with the State Department? In the future, it would bode both Burch and the staff at The Gamecock well to research and learn more about other people with an open mind, instead of furthering the stereotype that Americans are arrogant and ignorant travelers. I’m happy Burch got such a great opportunity and hope this would encourage other students toward such endeavors, but please, do your research before you go, take a class on cultures in the Middle East (USC is starting up a great Islamic Studies program), and travel with an open mind. Bridget McDonnell Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences MA candidate Online Poll V. * / k j,, 4*' MW' ''4$$ ^SNB Mike Conway / THE GAMECOCK You don’t need new resolutions: Just hang out with loved ones Spending holiday time with those close to you cements connections I’ve always been a big believer in the idea that young people learn a lot more about themselves an'' the world around then!'1 outside the classroom than they do inside. For example, spending an entire month at home with the family can remind you of several quirks and Second-year characteristics history student that we forget about in their absence. One of my cousins tore the paper off a mediuir sized box revealing nothing other than a Jeff Foxworthy doll which tells a “You Might Be A Redneck If’ joke when you press his hand. I have a suggestion for what the next doll should say, “You might be a redneck if a member of your family gives someone or receives a talking Jeff Foxworthy doll for Christmas.” I don’t think anyone can blame me for spending most of Christmas Eve in front of the TV Twenty-four hours of “A Christmas Story! ” NI | football! Blatant political incorrectness! Most major networks “track Santa’s progress” throughout the night for all the kids and newspaper columnists watching. According to CBS, Santa starts out somewhere over the Pacific Ocean and flies west, completely ignoring all of Asia and the Middle East before stopping in the first major Western European country in his path. So there I find myself in. a beautiful vacation hoRds# south of Charleston the night before News Year’s Eve, sitting down with three of my best friends from High school. We all go to different colleges and don’t talk nearly enough. But that night, after months apart, we could all just sit down, have a beer (sorry, Mom) and talk. It was definitely one of those moments where you’re reminded that school, work and all the other things we spend most of our time doing are just buffer materials filling in the gaps between the great moments we share with the people we love. I looked around the room and saw the faces of people who were there at my first day of middle school, my senior prom and everything in between. I decided that I didn’t really need to make any resolutions. I may not be perfect, but if I’ve somehow managed to hang on to those people I shared those nights with, then I must be doing something right. I couldn’t ask for more than the opportunity to stay on course and do it again next year. jf Submission policy Letters to the editor should be less than 300 words and include name, phone number, profes sional title or year and major, if a student. E-mail letters to game cockopinions@gwm.sc.edu. Let ters will be edited. Anonymous letters will not be published. Call the newsroom at 777-7726 for more'Information. i