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„_ VIEWPOINTS AMECOCK « EDITORIAL BOARD Editor 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 One mans jersey joke went way out of bounds Too bad the NFL didn’t send a few referees to one Pennsylvania classroom Friday; instead of a lineman roughing the kicker, it was a teacher roughing the student. „ A 17-year-old high school student was made to sit on the floor during a mid-term in an ethnicity class because he was wearing a Denver Broncos jersey, according to Chicago Tribune news services. The kid said he was humiliated. Hard to imagine, as the teacher simply called him a “stinking Denver fan” and encouraged other students to throw paper There are better ways to prove bigotry exists — museum visits, movies, etc. iirh rv’c cimnncp^ tn Kp tn at him. The teacher later said making students uncomfortable is “what (the class) is designed to do.” We feel sorry for this kid. It’s hard not to wonder why he didn’t refuse to sit on the floor, but he was blindsided — by someone icfprl onrl frpof nt-Kprc \iri respect, no less. Growing up is hard enough without being ridiculed by a self-righteous administrator with delusions of grandeur somewhere between Mr. Holland and Terry Bradshaw. There are better ways to prove bigotry exists — museum.visits, movies, guest speakers who have seen the damaging effects of discrimination firsthand, etc. Ruining some kid’s mid-term and making him look like a schmuck aren’t on the list. And while we don’t think that the teacher — who was recently seen wearing a Ben Roethlisberger jersey — was acting as an amped-up Steelers fan two days before the Pittsburgh-Denver matchup, it certainly reeks of that brand of sports hysteria. The teacher probably identifies with people who attacked Steve Bartman, the Cubs fan who caught a potential outin the 2003 National League Championship Series against the Florida Marlins. Sports fanaticism is a wonderful thing, unless someone uses it to humiliate a kid with hair growing in weird places. This teacher needs better ways to prove his points, or the next kid he chooses to embarrass might object — with fists. IT’S YOUR RIGHT Voice your opinion on message boards at urww.dailygamecock.com or send letters to the editor at gamecockopinions@gwm.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 Copy Desk Chief AARON KIDD 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, KATE FENWICK, MEGAN SINCLAIR StaJfWriters AJ. BEMBRY, JESS DAVIS, tim mcmanus, marjorie RI0DLE, GINA VASSELLI Copy Editors MELISSA MAULDIN, KATIE THOMPSON, JAMISON, TINSLEY, LIZ WHITE CONTACT INFORMATION Offices located on the thirdfloor of the Russell House Editor’s office hours are from 2-3 pm. on Tuesdays and Thursdays 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.deulygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 ; Sports: 777-7182 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 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 I MU UnjIIMVJUVJll M wc 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 $1 each from the Department of Student Media. co»— MM YOU CM HAVE THE HANGER BACK JUST AS SOON AS I PUT ON THE ROBE. | l— V i Courtesy KRT Campus Osamas new bookclub rivals Oprah, \Idol’ Despite mass media neglect, bin Laden’s threats still important According to Amazon, com, William Blum’s recent novel, “Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower” has risen from being listed as seller No. 209,000 all the way up to seller No. 30. Did Oprah suddenly endorse a book detailing the mishaps of American foreign policy? No, but there was a recent mention of the book in an audiotape released by Osama bin Laden last Thursday. According to sources, bin Laden outlines that it would be useful for Americans to read the book. My concern with this, though, is not that people are actually using his suggestion, even I am curious as to the points made in Blum’s novel, my concern is that I never heard about this audiotape until now. Apparently, these tapes have become so common that they’re barely newsworthy unless it affects the book market. I can’t remember ever hearing about the new bin n Laden tape. Isn’t this a problem? Granted, someone must have heard BRRRDT about these nmnii tapes because fib-year of elementary PeoPle went education Zlld bought student this book. But that doesn’t change the fact that I, an everyday American citizen who keeps himself moderately informed, never heard about a new threat to our nation. And it wasn’t just any threat — it was one from a man we have seen carry them out. I’m worried more Americans wouldn’t care if they did hear these threats. They would carelessly flip to Oprah and forget they heard it. Personally, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with some mild concern; complacency is what brought us here in the first place. If we’re going to argue about the Iraq war and our troops in Afghanistan, then it seems logical to keep ourselves informed of the threats. If we’re going to vote consciously, then it seems intelligent to know what the hell is going on. If we’re going to question whether the president’s doing a good job, we should at least hear about messages from the man he’s told us time and time again that he would find. If we are going to find out about any more of these tapes and threats, I don’t want to have to wait until Amazon book sales rise. I’d like to see a nation deeply concerned about its safety and future. • Let’s begin to force these stories to the forefront of our concern, not with panic, but with a motivation for knowledge on the matter. Let’s get back to intelligence, putourworries about the next American Idol behind us and bring the next American attack into our thoughts. Not good thoughts, perhaps, but certainly more important ones. You can trust me when I say that when the next American Idol is crowned nothing in your life will be changed. But when the next attack occurs, and officials have said it absolutely will, something will most definitely be affected. ■ Don't let my outfit fool you — I'm a big kid No matter what age, EdVenture’s exhibits entertain adults, too Last week, The Gamecock sent photographer Juan Bias and me to EdVenture, Columbia’s finest children’s museum, to meet the ringmaster of Ringling Bros, and Barnum & Bailey Circus. We got there about an hour before the ringmaster, so we filled the time by wandering around the museum and checking out various children’s exhibits. I saw that the museum offers a great deal of fun for children of all ages, even college students. One thing that kept me from enjoying it to full extent, however, was my desire to look professional and respectable while on assignment. I decided that the best way to do this would be to adopt a “look but don’t touch” policy. One exhibit could be best described as a “toddler supermarket.” It’s a grocery store with everything about one-fourth the usual size. It had tiny grocery shelves, tiny cash registers and even tiny _ shopping Tim carts. mcmnnus I wanted to Fifth- play with the year print shoppingcarts journalism but Came to student the conclusion that even entering the tiny supermarket would wreck The Gamecock’s reputation. So, the extent of my fun in the supermarket was looking on in envy while the five-year-olds were living it up. Eventually, my desire to have fun started to outweigh my desire for The Gamecock to look respectable, and as soon as Juan was out of sight, I tried out a trivia video game that tested my knowledge of gross facts about the human body. When I finished, I noticed Juan also loosened his professionalism and was trying to figure out this video game about a robot playing volleyball. He couldn’t get the robot to hit the volleyball and came to the conclusion that the machine was broken. I tried it out and came to the same conclusion. We ignored our paper’s reputation a little more and tried out a few more exhibits, but then came the true test of how unprofessional I was willing to appear. In the EdVenture museum, there is a 40-foot structure of a young boy sitting down and playing with a bug. This boy, Eddie, is also a large educational play set. Visitors can climb through various parts of his nervous, circulatory and digestive systems. Eddie even appears to have a slide that could allow visitors to exit Eddie via the end of his large intestine. I looked at Eddie, then looked at my the nice shirt I wore (also an attempt to look respectable) and walked away, saying to myself that some day I’d go to EdVenture, completely free of any obligation to look professional. And I would have the educational time of my life. Winners & Sinners Kobe Bryant sets the record for the second most points scored in an NBA game after dropping 81 agaihst the Raptors. Pennsylvania teacher John Kelly forced one of his students to sit on the floor during a midterm for wearing a Denver Broncos jersey. (Tis far better to have loved, lost than not to have tried t Hearts can easily snap, but relationships worth weeks of potential pain Boy meets girl. Girl likes boy, and boy likes girl. Girl falls in love, and boy falls out of love. Then it all starts over again. Boy meets girl. It’s the circle of life. We’ve all been burned by love. It is a side effect of loving someone. Someday, LIZ somehow for WHITE some unworthy Second- reason, your year print heart is bound journalism (-0 be broken. student »T Not every relationship is like Corey and Topanga of “Boy Meets World.” Love is more like ... water skiing. You strap on the skis and brace yourself to be pulled behind an out-of-control boat. Maybe you stand for the first few seconds, or maybe you’ve got enough talent to stay up for a while, but eventually your legs, your arms or both will give out. And before you know it, you’re being pulled facedown through the oncoming tide. Bruises and scars are all hazards of love. We know this going in. Unfortunately, if you’re like me, you are most likely to quit skiing as soon as possible. And then one day, boy meets girl again. (As in my previous column, male pronouns will represent the unisex). Maybe he’s that mysterious guy in your class with the beautiful eyes. Maybe he’s your best friend from work. Whoever he is, however you know him, those past transgressions, healing scars and hurt feelings hold you back. You never say hello to Mr. Mystery. You pull away from that great guy at work. And every day you walk past Mr. Could-have-been. Letting go of fears is hard. After all, getting back into the water after falling on _ r_ _ 1_Airr yuui iucc can uc uiincui c. Sure, you never really know when that crush will turn into another broken heart or end up being the guy who makes you laugh, not cry. But you don’t want to be like Rusty the narcoleptic dog and let the world pass you by , while you keep waiting. Part of love is pain. It wouldn’t be worth it if there weren’t a little bit of uncertainty and thrill. Take that old saying, “It’s better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.” Most of us have fallen on our faces or let go of the rope at some point in our tumultuous love lives. If you keep running away or waiting for love, you’ll miss what’s right in front of you. Alas, a cornucopia of love could be right there at the { other end of the rope. Let go of the dock and jump in, the water is fine. 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 777-7.726 for more information;