Opinion | Columns - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | COLUMNS

Prioritize, capitalize and enjoy: It's your time, so make it what you want.

Oct. 9, 2016

Time. What a word. Loved and hated, used as an excuse and seen as a vice. Time is difficult to fully understand. How often do we say we wish we could alter time? We make mistakes, and we wish we could go back and stop ourselves from doing so. We have something exciting coming up, and we wish we could skip everything from now until then. Why do we do this? Why can’t we just enjoy the present? Well, dear readers, probably because the present is not all that pleasant most of the time.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Why people should trust the use of antidepressants

Oct. 6, 2016

I recently saw an argument unfold on one of my friend’s Facebook statuses. The post was a combination of two images: one of a forest with writing that said, “This is an antidepressant.” The second image was of several pill packages that implied prescribed antidepressants, with writing stating the vulgar equivalent of, “This is garbage.”

OPINION | COLUMNS

A look at the music-festival craze

Oct. 6, 2016

Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Coachella: The names sound like exotic, tribal get-togethers deep in a rainforest and, frankly, that description is not far off.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Pressure on Saudi Arabia long overdue

Oct. 6, 2016

Last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia for its alleged complicity in the terrorist attacks. President Barack Obama vetoed the bill, arguing it would not only undermine strong diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia, but it would also weaken the long-standing tradition of sovereign immunity: the legal doctrine that no foreign nation can be held responsible from civil suit of prosecution. However, the veto was overridden by an overwhelming margin — 97-1 in the Senate and 348-77 in the House.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Seeking a friend in the digital world

Oct. 5, 2016

I’m going to come out and admit something I usually only share with close friends: I role-play online. Now before you start thinking I spend time on Neopets forums, let me briefly explain the type of role-playing I do. I role-play through Tumblr. Each character I play has a different blog, and I’m part of a larger group in which each person has a handful of characters with their own blogs. When it comes to actually role-playing, it goes like this: I write a scene through my character’s perspective, then whoever I am role-playing with writes the same scene through their character’s point of view and advances it. This keeps on going until the thread finishes.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Quit clownin’ around, America: Draw a line between clown fun and clown harm

Oct. 5, 2016

Late Monday night, an angry mob assembled on the streets of Pennsylvania State University.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Comedy in a vacuum: What makes for timeless comedic entertainment?

Oct. 5, 2016

Popular culture shapes a lot of the comedy around us, obviously. Plenty of TV shows make references to current events, and plenty more harken to other decades to appeal to an older crowd. Weekly shows like “Saturday Night Live” thrive off of popular culture; it’s a show that’s stayed relevant for more than 40 years by doing so. Period pieces take the culture of a past era and convey that era to a modern audience.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Overdoing it your freshman year: reflections on casual substance abuse

Oct. 4, 2016

I was a freshman and walking to my first-ever college party. It was 9 p.m., and I approached the apartment complex slowly. I stuck my hand into the pocket of my dark-green army jacket and fiddled with the half-filled pack of Marlboro Lights with two joints pushed to the corners. I figured I should bring something to be polite, but I had no way of obtaining a bottle of wine or a six-pack of beer.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Society needs to be open and honest, not afraid

Oct. 4, 2016

This past week I had some free time and enjoyed watching TV. I have been paying more attention to the new commercials and publicity displayed in the media.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Building academic and professional careers through conferences

Oct. 4, 2016

As students, learning is not only done in the classroom through courses by professors, but also in extracurricular activities. A conference, for instance, might give students new insights, too. In a typical class, achieving the best academic performance is the largest goal for every student, accomplished by completing assignments, class participation, discussion and exams.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Political smugness on both ends of the spectrum

Oct. 3, 2016

The political climate we find ourselves in today is radically binary; for this, we must give thanks to the luminary influence of this presidential election. There seems to be much class, racial and ideological resentment, all of which are rising to the surface of the American conscience. Sadly, all it took for such contempt to become public and commonplace was an election. The vitriol with which both sides of the aisle — both sides — hate the other candidate, party and platform simply boggles my mind.

OPINION | COLUMNS

The best credit cards to help you save money when you travel this Fall

Oct. 3, 2016

If you are like most students heading back to school this Fall, you have a lot going on. For many people, that includes studying for classes, extracurricular activities, hanging out with friends and Fall football games. But as Fall starts to wind down, you will start looking forward to visiting friends and family back home for the holidays. The problem with traveling is that it can be quite expensive. But, there are ways to save on your travel expenses, and your credit card (or future credit card) is a great place to start.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Five simple ways to be an animal rights advocate and make a difference

Oct. 3, 2016

Animal rights advocacy can be for everyone.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Read the Health Affairs newletter: a message from SG health secretary

Oct. 3, 2016

Hey, Gators!

OPINION | COLUMNS

To my nephew: There will be choices to make

Oct. 2, 2016

Nephew, I don’t want you to know a world made up in shades of one color. Blue like sadness, like masculinity, like rigid gender norms and small minds. Really, I do not want you to grow up to be an a------.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Positivity: People receive what they project

Oct. 2, 2016

How many times have we been told, “You get out what you put in”? This applies to so many aspects of life, from friendships and romantic relationships to academics and physical fitness. The validity of this statement is widely accepted; it is honestly difficult to dispute. It’s logical, and it continues to prove itself right, time after time.

OPINION | COLUMNS

As a listener and a performer, give your local music scene a chance

Sep. 29, 2016

Since I was 13 or so, I’ve done my best to be as involved as I could with music wherever I am. It started when my two friends and I were contacted via Myspace by a local guitarist’s girlfriend to see if we’d want to come see him play. We became good friends after that, and my friends and I sold his CDs at his gigs at the Daytona Beach Bandshell all summer. Through that, we met a lot of musicians and bands. We took every chance we got to see them play at the Bandshell, at the mall or any of the other venues my hometown had to offer to minors when its music scene was still thriving for the younger crowd. I lost connections with most of the musicians I met because I was so young when I started to get involved. But now that I’m a more appropriate age, I’m pretty immersed in the local music scenes of both Gainesville and the Daytona area, and I’ve never been happier.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Remembering Shimon Peres, a great leader

Sep. 29, 2016

On Wednesday morning, the world lost a great man; a man bigger than politics, whose name alone is synonymous with the state of Israel.

OPINION | COLUMNS

What makes books successful? The ability to relate to different cultures

Sep. 29, 2016

Considering how many people in our society experience college, I find it interesting just how few novels are written with collegiate settings. I recently finished the book “Loner” by Teddy Wayne, which offers quite a frightening perspective on certain people and places around us. This novel is not a cute 200-page story that takes place at an elite university, but is instead a disturbing portrait of a notable chunk of our culture. What makes this book successful is its dynamic main character, a Harvard University freshman named David Federman. To call Federman a first-class narcissist, entitled braggart, unreliable narrator and know-it-all would be putting it lightly.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Keep an open mind when someone tells you about different countries

Sep. 28, 2016

As someone who was raised by immigrant parents and has traveled abroad multiple times in her life, I am acutely aware of the average American’s geographic and cultural ignorance. This shouldn’t be a surprise to most people; after all, it is a subject of self-deprecating humor on late-night talk shows. We seem to be aware that the Average Joe can’t differentiate Iraq from Iran and thinks all Asian food comes from the same place. We laugh at him and take comfort in the fact that we know our Pad Thai isn’t Chinese, thank you very much. But are we really much better?