Jane Doe (Jane Doe is not the actual name of the victim, but is used in place of it to ensure her safety) draws her third cigarette from the box of Marlboro cigarettes on the table between us. The box looks light.
This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything.”
I read an article the other day on several interesting cases that could make their way to the Supreme Court in the coming months. One in particular caught my eye: Garza v. Hargan. This case involves a 17-year-old illegal immigrant, referred to as Jane Doe in court documents, who is currently detained in Texas. She arrived in the U.S. pregnant, and has since demanded an abortion.
This semester I’ve found myself running. Running, not in the “late for class” kind of way, but more so running through this semester and through these next two months to graduation. Some of you, regardless of whether you’re graduating or not, might also feel this way.
It’s like clockwork. Every year around this time, the pumpkin spice lattes come out, Hallmark movies start to play on television and the temperature in this majestic city drops into the high-sixties. And just as I start to put on my light jacket to protect me from the less-than-sweltering temperatures, my phone starts vibrating uncontrollably. I roll my eyes as I see text after text from guy after guy professing their love for me. They all want to be exclusive. Don’t get me wrong — it’s flattering. But more so, it’s exhausting.
Here’s a quick hypothetical for you. You’ve been tasked with appointing the new leader of the National Fire Prevention Association (this is not real, so just go with it). Your options range from veteran firefighters to expert industrial engineers to dedicated safety officials and everyone in between. With all of these choices in mind, would you pick an arsonist?
Mental health is not merely a personal struggle. It is not something a person should be left to deal with alone. It is not something that can be swept aside. Mental health issues come from within. They stem from the mind — what makes a person who they are. In the past few decades, there have been major strides in mental health advocacy, and the negative stigma associated with mental health struggles have certainly decreased. However, we are far from finished.
As I write this at nearly 11 p.m. Thursday, it’s been only a few hours since racist Richard Spencer spoke on UF’s campus and failed miserably to divide our community.
It seems established in our common knowledge that comedy is tragedy plus time. This applies to what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, as well as what is to come of Richard Spencer’s visit to UF on Thursday. The initial cancellation of Spencer’s event is not an attack on freedom of speech,but actually championing the matter.
By now, everyone has read about the accusations surrounding Hollywood film mogul Harvey Weinstein. His list of accusers has grown significantly over the last week, as dozens of women have now come out and accused him of sexual assault or rape.
Nobody wants to see their city at the end of a “pray for” hashtag. Nobody wants to see their home in a hurricane’s projected path. (Almost) nobody wants to see their university become a meeting point for a white supremacist and his supporters — but Thursday, UF will see exactly that.
We don’t want to be sad. I mean, you can’t really blame us. Why would we want to be sad? Being sad, anxious or upset means being uncomfortable. We fight to avoid discomfort and to find that place where we feel comfortable. We want everything to be just so: nothing out of place, nothing left unaccounted for. We make lists and check them off. We fulfill obligations and settle into a routine that is safe. We pursue happiness. After all, is that not the ultimate goal?
This week, I’m taking a brief breather from the flurry of politics to discuss a different topic near and dear to my heart: my all-time favorite books and movies that I have fondly deemed my “desert island necessities.” In other words, if you stuck me on a deserted island and said, “Hey, Mia, here’s enough food and water to last you a week on your own, but you can only take three books and three movies along,” this is what I would bring. Yeah, I know it’s not realistic, but this is my column, OK?
No part of America has been untouched by President Donald Trump’s already disastrous presidency. In less than 10 months, Trump and his supporters have resurrected and instrumentalized racism and xenophobia, undermining the dignity of America and Americans.
For almost 20 years, SparkNotes has been providing students with easily understood summaries and analyses of works commonly found in high school and college classrooms. Before that, CliffsNotes was offering student study guides since 1958, serving as a lifesaver for students struggling to wade through and extract some sort of meaning out of their assigned Shakespeare readings. When you’re in 11th grade and you’re having an exam on “The Catcher in the Rye” in your next class, these guides can be invaluable tools in garnering enough knowledge to throw together a slipshod analysis of Holden’s hunting cap, but are they anything more than this?
In a few months Facebook groups will be jam-packed with seniors saying they need to rehome their pets. It’s about time we have a discussion about how this is one of the worst things you can do to an animal.
I’m sure you’ve heard the old saying, “If you have nothing nice to say, don’t say anything at all.” But I think this mantra needs to be updated to reflect the feelings of our generation. Maybe something like, “If you have anything nice to say, please don’t say it because I won’t know how to react.”
The Florida Gators have accepted mediocrity. Saturday’s 17-to-16 loss against LSU was a wake-up call to some fans, but in reality this has been a long time coming.
I don’t like to start a column this way, but sometimes we do things we don’t like in order to think critically about the world. Imagine a large building in Gainesville burned down. Imagine the fire started by accident — a gas leak or a candle — but the flames raged out of control, and the entire structure came down. In the 24 hours following the fire, we learn that it rapidly escalated as a result of poor building codes, and we probably could have contained the fire if it had not spread so quickly.
We are living in a time of anger. We’re angry at the way the world looks right now. We are angry at each other for making it this way. We all have different opinions about why the world is the way it is, and we have even more opinions about how to fix it.
Solutions by The State News
