Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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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 Cartoons must be wry, not heedlessly offensive Woe to editorial cartoonists who can’t find the fine line between smart satire and incendiary farce. When a Danish newspaper in September printed editorial cartoons featuring, among other things, the Prophet Muhammad wearing a turban shaped like a bomb, many Muslims rioted after other newspapers reprinted the cartoons. While many middle-road Muslims didn’t turn to violence, the newspaper, its editors and those who reprinted the cartoons should have used common sense and axed the cartoon before it ever saw the light of day. A_ micsL wdiiauia wuc issued Saturday for the editors-in-chief of the Jordanian newspapers that reprinted the cartoons, according to Jordan’s Petra News Agency; the cartoonists themselves are in hiding for their safety. Some Muslims on Sunday burned down the Danish mission in Lebanon, according to The Associated Press. At least one person has died in riots in a Christian neighborhood. Editorial cartoonists are the court jesters of newsprint. It’s their job to take shots at front-page fodder with a healthy dose of clever insight. The cartoonists were within their rights, but were nowhere near clever. Newspapers have the right to print what they want, but responsibility should come first. Portraying Muhammad’s face is blasphemous to Muslims — especially when he’s drawn in the caricature style of many cartoonists. Even the standard stereotype of a bearded Muslim would have been far less offensive than a humorous sketch of a person who means so much to so many. Most Christian Americans, if they saw a cartoon portraying Jesus doing something blasphemous, wouldn’t go nuts and burn down the newspaper office that ran the cartoon. Muslims are in the same boat, but moral relativity hasn’t caught on in many Eastern countries. Newspaper editors must remember that editorial cartoons should be scrutinized just as much as a front page news story. Let artists be artists, but draw the line when the subject matter stretches into unwarranted blasphemy. Newspapers have the right to print what they want, but responsibility should come first. IT’S YOUR RIGHT Voice your opinion on message boards at tvww.dailygamecock.com or send letters to the editor at gamecockopinionsQVgxvm.se. 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 I?7r. _ I---1 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, TOM BENNING, JESS DAVIS, TIM MCMANUS, MARJORIE RIDDLE, GINA VASSELLI Copy Editors PATRICK MASTERSON, BETHANY NICHOLS, ELIZABETH PARHAM, KATIE THOMPSON, JAMISON TINSLEY, KRYSTAL WEBBER, LIZ WHITE * $ .> CONTACT INFORMATION Offices located on the third floor of the Russell Howe Editors office hours are from 2-3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays Editor: gamecockeditor@gwm.sc.edu New: gamecocknew@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.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 : Sports: 777-7182 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 STUDENT MEDIA Director SCOn LINDENBERG 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 'Of) THE GAMECOCK is the i 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 j 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 j 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 $I each from the Department of Student Media. • ■ --1 Courtesy KRT Campus Put your right foot in, stay outside Strom track Like Hokey Pokey, walkers should make room for fast runners Stop. Put down your paper, but put it somewhere you can still read it — duh. You’re going to need both of your hands for this. Now hold out your hands, palms down. Point your index fingers out in front of you, and stick out your thumbs. Good. Now we’ve got that straight. You know your left hand from your right hand. You’ll need that knowledge for the next part. Now I need you to join me in a well-known dance. I’m sure you did it as a child. I’m talking about a little dance, rivaled in stupidity only by Ashlee Simpson’s lip-sync jig on “Saturday Night Live,” called the Hokey Pokey. Take a few moments and review the meanings of “inside” and “outside” with me. Put various body parts inside and outside — right hand (now that we know left from right), left foot, whole self, backside (the song’s word, not mine). You can even shake it all about if you feel the need. Left, right, inside and outside. I want to make sure that everyone knows the difference between inside and outside so they wouldn’t have an excuse. An excuse for what, you ask? An excuse for walking on the inside of the track at the Strom Thurmond Wellness and JL 1U1CJJ It gets dark in Columbia around 6 p.m. these days, and sometimes by that time I haven’t had time to get my daily run yet. So, as a girl, one who’s not willing to risk getting mugged runningthrough downtown Columbia alone, the pre darkness freedom of the open road is stolen from me and I’m banished to the indoor track at The Strom. Without fail, I end up there during “rush hour” when every treadmill is occupied. So, I take to the track. I won’t claim to be one of the fastest runners there, and anyone who has seen me can attest to this fact, but I generally do run. It frustrates me to no end when I come up behind a large group walking painfully slow, talking and stretched out across the width of the track while a group of other runners and I jog, virtually in place, iinosev DcnncRicm First-year print journalism student t?:._ waiting for one of them to stop to tie her shoe so we can leap over her head and pass the group of chatters. But moving fast isn’t the issue here. The issue is that you should walk on the outside, so that runners, or even people walking faster, can get by and continue with their workout. One day I tried yelling “track” at the girls in front of me who were walking and talking on their cell phones. “Track” is the universal word that, when yelled angrily by a runner, translates into “get the heck to the outside.” But the girls didn’t know this, obviously. They just stopped and looked around in a state of confusion. I don’t mind having to run around someone who is running slower than me — let me say, this rarely happens, sadly — but I think walkers have their place on the outside of the track. Come on chatting ladies, the view of the weight room is much better from the outside anyway. In the end, though, if you’re up on that track, be it to walk or to run, I salute you. All I ask is that you Hokey Pokey your way to the outside if you’re going to walk. That’s what it’s all about. Acknowledging oil dependency is step No. 1 Fossil fuel protection paramount for war, American addiction GAINESVILLE, Fla. — In Tuesday’s State of the Union address, President Bush spoke about a number of standard issues. In addition to mentioning the usual hot button political topics, the president stated a problem that has rarely been put in terms so bluntly: “America is addicted to oil.” There is no disputing this fact. Oil is the blood that runs through this country’s veins, allowing it to function. So why then is the importance of oil forgotten when legitimizing the behavior of the United States both domestically and abroad? During his speech, the president pointed out that a significant proportion of our oil is imported from unstable regions of the world. But he discussed America’s international involvements as if they were isolated from that fact. Iraq’s current state doubtlessly requires our presence to prevent the cpnTT region from collapsing GILTOn into anarchy. Independent But it is Florida obvious that, 1!l!gT a , to many (U. Florida) ,. . . J politicians, the most distressing result of this anarchy would not be an increase in terrorism, but the loss of oil resources. It would be far too callous to admit something like this publicly, so national leaders hide behind rationalizations. These include “joining the fight against terror” and “acting boldly in freedom’s cause.” Tuesday night, the president acknowledged our oil addiction. That is a good first step, but there are many tasks that still need to be completed. First, we must search for an alternative power source for both transportation industries and infrastructure. The second step is less obvious. It is time we become truthful about how important oil is to us. We should stop downplayingthe legitimacy of our needs. Declaring the protection of U.S. oil interests in the Middle East as an explicit goal of our international policy is by no means out of order. It would not be the first time a country got involved in an international conflict to protect a much-needed resource. As the war in Iraq drags on, Americans become less enamored with the moral superiority associated with “protecting national security” and helping to “raise up democracies.” We should admit the third major factor: the protection of a crucial national resource. Otherwise, continued protection of oil-rich Middle Eastern nations will seem odd in the face of the calamities that constantly go unnoticed throughout the rest of the world. ^ Do you think the Rolling Stones Online . . . . -p. werea good choice for the Super Bowl Hafiime Show? b > Coughy cough! Your smoking pollutes others beautiful day Cigarettes contaminate campus’ atmosphere, students’ lungs, lives Our campus is most beautiful in the spring. So, I know it’s not technically spring yet, but it feels and looks enough like it. Either way, when the sun is shining and the day is fresh, it is beautiful. I love walking to class when it’s nice outside, breathine in uoiene SIDS Third year print journalism student the fresh air. But then it hits me — a sudden slam of cigarette smoke. •All of the great air I was taking in disappears and I “can’t breathe at all. It feels like I’ve walked into a brick wall. I know you’ve heard it all before, or may have heard my exaggerated coughs behind you while you were smoking. But smoking kills you. It’s bad for you. It makes your lungs black. But I’m not here to tell you that. I’m here to tell you that you are polluting my air! My lungs are turning black from walking behind you on the way to class. And not only that, but you make me smell bad, too. It sticks to my hair and my clothes. When I sit down next to someone in class they must be thinking, “Ugh, she’s a smoker.” It’s disgusting. Oh, and it makes you smell bad when you sit next to me in class. It’s worse than sitting next to someone who doesn’t bathe. And I really hate it when I have to run through a gantlet of smoke to get inside a building. To get into Gambrell Hall and the Humanities building, I have to walk past all of the smokers. I just hold my breath and make a run for it, hoping the smell doesn’t -stick to me. Yuck. my aaa is a smoker. He smokes in the house, so when I go home I come back smelling like an ashtray. I feel like I die a little, every time I go home. And when I come back to school, my boyfriend tells me that I stink. Not only does smoking bug the crap out of me, but it’s ruining my love life. So, what’s my point? Stop smoking; it smells bad. It will really help you out in the long run because not only will I breathe easier, but maybe someone will want to kiss you since you won’t taste like an ashtray. Ok, that’s unrealistic. Just be considerate of the people around you. Most students on this campus probably don’t want to be around your cigarette smoke. We all enjoy breathing. I mean come on, we need it to live! I personally want to enjoy my walks outside. So, if you are smoking, try to keep the smoke to yourself. Or sit in an unpopulated area if you need to get your fix. 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 jpr more information.