Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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VIEWPOINTS -1-----^- ' ' AMECOCK EDITORIAL BOARD Editor ; STEVEN VAN HAREN News Editor j JUSTIN CHAPURA I 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 Let Parking Services foot bill for callboxes One Student Government senator is leading the charge to make campus safer for USC students, but it’s a shame that Parking Services didn’t step up to this plate a long time ago. Kim Ballard, senator for the journalism school, is proposing a bill that would put callboxes in parking garages — a smart move considering the amount of break-ins that still occur even with security cameras in place. Callboxes would not replace the cameras’ effectiveness but rather supplement it, and as anyone who has walked to their car in Pendleton Street Garage at i a.m. Knows, an extra deterrent goes a long way toward peace-of-mind. But SG shouldn’t have to draw up a bill to lead the charge for funding. If, according to Deputy Director Derrick Huggins, Parking Services’ goal is to provide students sate and reliable access to our campus, Muggins organization needs to set it up and pay the tab. Granted, SG representatives are the ones who usually have to ask for more callboxes, but parking garages are clearly under the “parking” umbrella. Without unleashing the standard Parking Services diatribe, students do pay a hefty fee to park in those garages. Extra protection is not a ridiculous request, and the weight of the Student Senate should not be required for a basic security measure found in every other nook and cranny of campus. Expenses will be considerable, but even one more callbox can make a difference, and you have to start somewhere. Callboxes are a good way to alert campus police quickly — but not only when it’s you on the receiving end of an auto break-in or personal assault. Tapping the red button when you see someone’s CD player getting ripped out yields quicker results than waiting for officials to wade through security camera footage. Thankfully, Ballard and SG are looking out for us. If only the higher-ups would foot the bill. Parking Services’ goal is to provide students ‘safe and reliable access to our campus.’ IT’S YOUR RIGHT Voice your opinion on message boards at www.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 NIUK tbAKtd Assistant Photo Editor KATY BLALOCK Public Relations Director ROSE GREENE Page Designers MIKE CONWAY, KATE FENWICK, MEGAN SINCLAIR StaffWriters AJ. BEMBRY, TOM BENNING, JESS DAVIS, TIM McMANUS, MARJORIE RIDDLE, GINA VASSELLI Copy Editors CAROLINE OESANCTIS, BETHANY NICHOLS, ELIZABETH PARHAM, KATIE THOMPSON, JAMISON TINSLEY, KRYSTAL U/COPCP I IT IlfUITC 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 Advertising APRYL ALEXANDER, KATIE CUPPIA, BREANNA EVANS, MARY RACHEL FREEMAN, DEI ORE MERRICK, MCKENZIE WELSH * CONTACT INFORMATION ' Offices located on the third floor of the Russell House Editor’s office hours are from 2-3 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays Editor, gamecockeditor@pvm.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: wtvw.dailygamecock.com Newsroom: 777-7726 ; Sports: 777-7182 Editor’s Office: 777-3914 Fax: 777-6482__ 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 purchased for $1 each from the Department of Student Media. G*>t> newTw A&ojt the new Fuel Jffr STftN&AREsfv^ ff /"they'll hein I ( SLoW GlP&L THEY Won't AFFexT ouR Hummer. * $ »*■» 4 Courtesy KRT Campus Continuous change cant quell chauvinism Unintelligent, aged generalizations still concern modern age So I try to take this space I get in the newspaper and have fun with it. To me, the world needs a bit more absurdity every once in a while. Then I remember that there’s still more than enough absurdity to go around, just not the type that leads to smiles or a slightly confused look. When I get smacked in the face with that type of absurdity, it makes it hard to keep this column on its short-lived goofy streak. Springing forward also had an ertect on what i wanted to say. Besides losing another hour that could’ve been well spent on avoiding schoolwork, spring also presents a very real, physical reminder of change’s prominent place in life. The only thing that never changes is that there will always be change; beyond the triteness of that last statement, there is no way . a person can deny the power of change. The truly sad part is that some things don’t seem to change. Actually, it’s even worse than that. Sometimes it seems like people and circumstances seek to reverse change and eradicate any positive effects it has led to. This morning I woke up confused about what [hour it was because of spring and daylight saving time. I had a similar FIELD moment canxcv °? Fr.idl>I _. , when I got political confused science about what student year it was. See, I thought it was 2006. I thought it was a year where we had evolved, as halfway intelligent and civilized people, into a time when it was unacceptable to use terms like “we” and “them” when discussing race. i tnougnt: we naa movea past ascribing actions and sweeping generalizations to entire groups of people, moved past the slippery slope of throwing out invalidated “facts” involving crime rates or passing judgment without ever considering that every issue is complex and not easily pigeon-holed. I thought most importantly that we had moved into a time when complex political issues and difficult long-standing social issues could be debated through clear thoughts, questions and understanding with a clear aim to work through our problems together, with a positive goal in sight. Now I see that this is where I was the most naive. It would’ve been so easy to turn this column into an attack. The words were there. The thoughts were there. That’s the thing, though, it wouldn’t have just been so easy, it would have been too easy. It would have cheapened the issues that are obviously still a concern in* this seemingly modern age. More than anything, I finally realized that my feelings on all of this were coming from many places, but anger wasn’t the primary source. Sadness was. It dawned on me that as angry or upset as I got, I would always be sad hrst. 1 here are many issues out there that are complex and multifaceted, worthy of continued debate by people on both sides; I guess I just thought that something as straightforwardly simple, natural and unquestionable as equality was well beyond this. I wish I could have sat down today to write something silly, light, even bordering on ridiculous, but it just wasn’t in me. I wish we weren’t screwing up a matter that, though it involves a difficult past, simply shouldn’t be an issue anymore, but apparently it just isn’t in us. And it won’t be as long as there are those among us who can’t see the power of change. IN YOUR OPINION Dargan’s racist spiel holds society back At first glance Randy Dargan’s ignorantly myopic view of black Americans should be shocking to me; however it is not. Rather, I believe that he is simply reflecting the views of many whites who incessantly and vehemently believe that racism no longer exists in our society. I do not expect Dargan to understand the effects of racism on our society, and its more personal effects on minorities. Moreover he would not view the watchdog of American society (i.e. the media) in the same way that I would. I will venture to say that as someone who has probably lived a sheltered existence his entire life, he will probably never know or be empathetic to the struggles of those who are of a different racial and gender makeup than himself. To call his elementary and grossly incorrect rationalization of affirmative action and crime, as it pertains to black Americans, archaic and nescient would be dismissive and would not correct the problem that truly afflicts him and those like him. Then again, I am sure that Dargan is an expert in the history and lasting effects of the social policy that is affirmative action, and is more than qualified to engage in an educated and enlightening discourse on the subject than his March 31 column, “Classifications truly necessary for identifying perpetrators,” reflects. While I am sure that he would consider himself to be an expert in criminal demography, I doubt that I would find his views on the subject refreshing or even mildly entertaining. However it could be that I, as an educated black man, am simply too dimwitted to understand the finely articulated points of his rather sparse and trite criticism of black Americans. BRENTON BROWN Juris Doctoral Candidate 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. Online Poll Do you think adding callboxes to campus garages will help make them safer for studentsf i - Unparalleled self-indulgence considered hip amongyouth College students base coolness on cheating, unrestrained drinking Welcome to the next century. Up is down, in is out and right is wrong. The times are a changing, [and it seems that we are changing right along with them. Think back to when our parents jerrifer were in high SILUERR1RR school; the First-year kids who were print considered the journalism “outcasts” or student “losers” were the ones who thought about alcohol and smoked. iNow tmnk Dack two, three, four or however many years ago you were in high school. Who were the outsiders? It was the kids who never had a drop of alcohol in their life. Way back in the olden days, conformity was the thing to do. Nobody was different or acted out. The 90s hit and all that changed. Throw out the poodle skirt and grab the neon-pink tube top that will catch anyone’s eye. That’s probably the best part of our new century — no one’s the same and everyone, or almost everyone, has a bright sparkling personality all their own. Yay for the 2000s. We have found individual identities. Now here comes the negative — morals are out. Wait, morals may not be the best word, because people aren’t running naked through the streets with orgies at every comer. But in a larger sense, what’s wrong is right. Drinking under age = you are one cool cat; smoking = woo-hoo for lung cancer. Telling stories about being so drunk that you not only puked up everything you ate, but you don’t even remember what happened makes you the coolest kid on the block. Congratulations. It saddens me that college kids value such things as being “the thing to do.” Such tarnished ideas like cheating on your girlfriend/ boyfriend have become something some shrug off. Come on, have we no respect for ourselves as well those we hold in high regard to commit to them even for a short while? We, as a species, are better than that. I once read somewhere that what you criticize about others can be things you may criticize about yourself. I am not going to sit here and preach that alcohol is bad and that we should revert back to times where conformity was the way to go. I can’t do that because then I would be a hypocrite. I can’t say that I have never touched a drop of alcohol or never thought about the “everything else” because that would be a lie. The same things I questioned, I have questioned about myself " and have come up with no answer. My only question is, if these truly are the greatest years of our lives, shouldn’t we drink to have fun and not to pass out and not remember a single thing? How can these memories be —