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Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Opinion | Columns

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Manners matter: a common courtesy guide

I always get pegged as nice. When I hold the door for a stranger: nice. When I tell someone his backpack is unzipped: nice. When I inform the barista at Starbucks someone left $20 unattended on the counter: nice.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

BuzzFeed, sponsored content trending

Thousands of years from now, historians and archeologists will be scouring Internet archives, and they’re going to find BuzzFeed. And it’s going to be really embarrassing.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

UF has beef, but we want bamboo

Many students and faculty are outraged with UF’s harsh decision to remove the popular campus landmark Bambooville. But the university’s behavior on this matter is far from shocking.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Anti-LGBT laws show intolerance

Last week, I wrote about how the reaction of prominent Republicans to Coca-Cola’s “America the Beautiful” commercial reflects conservative intolerance toward nonwhite and non-English speaking Americans.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Minimum-wage raise would be ineffective, increase layoffs

To say that Democrats will have a difficult election cycle this year would be an understatement. Forget the fact that the majority of senators up for reelection are Democrats who represent red states and that House seats are pretty secure. Forget the fact that the president is losing favorability each month while the economy struggles to grow.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Protect Earth and her scarce resources

Our sun is amazing. It keeps us warm and keeps things lit. It’s pretty much the best thing to happen to this solar system since sliced bread — well, before sliced bread, to be exact. I guess you could say we’re the sun’s Goldilocks child because to date, we are the only planet with observable life in our solar system.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Ellen Page’s coming out sparks debate

The best Valentine’s Day surprise for some may have come in a small package in the shape of actress Ellen Page. The 26-year-old “tiny Canadian,” as she describes herself on Twitter, known for “Juno,” officially announced she’s gay at a Las Vegas event sponsored by the Human Rights Campaign on Friday.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Anti-intellectualism threatens the US

The UF Student Senate has again proven to be poorly imitating the anti-democratic actions of the U.S. Congress. Is it a coincidence that just weeks after the Student Senate tried to pass its own oppressive resolution concerning Israel, the U.S. Congress is now attempting to do the same?


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Bondi’s talk shows Republican disconnect

I attended the talk on campus with Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday, one of a series of events hosted by the Bob Graham Center here at UF. If you haven’t looked into it, the center has a video archive on its site, and it has brought in a number of interesting and important Florida political figures.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

SG barely resembles a working democracy

Someone once told me universities were microcosms of our society as a whole. A large group of individuals with varying interests work, live and play under the same banner — in this case UF — and even get the opportunity to govern themselves. However, at UF it raises a fascinating question. If our little society is representative of society as a whole, why is it that we have such a difficult time with the concept of democracy?


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

SG write-in campaign must succeed to challenge system

Last week, I wrote about the Taco Libre Party, an offshoot of the Students Party whose goal is to bring a Taco Bell to UF’s campus. Upon closer inspection, though, it was clear that the Taco Libre party is the creation of frustrated opposition members trying to generate interest in Student Government in the shadow of the domineering Swamp Party.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

TED Talks shift social responsibility

The motto of the informative and highly addictive TED Talks is “ideas worth spreading.” Gainesville’s independent offshoot — TEDxUF — had plenty of ideas worth writing home about. Some of the area’s best and brightest took to the stage Saturday and shared their experiences, concerns and hopes for the future.


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