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Thursday, April 18, 2024

Opinion | Letters To The Editor

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Recycling more than a financial matter

By Brian McNab | Feb. 17, 2011

In response to Tuesday’s column by Laura Ellermeyer, a student of finance, I think she missed the potential of a further means of reducing the cost of waste management. She — as  is appropriate for finance majors and the students of economics — is preoccupied with the ebb and flow of money, not with the conditions of the planet on which we live. She recommends not recycling because it will save money. Unfortunately, she did not go far enough. To further the reduction in cost, she should have advocated that we could save more money by just dumping our garbage into the streets, where the recycling will be done by dogs, raccoons, opossums and the poor. That way we could fire all of the people who cart away our garbage and sell the trucks that are used to other cities that are stupid enough to insist on recycling.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Reusing items a good alternative to recycling

By Ashley Pennington | Feb. 16, 2011

Laura Ellermeyer’s editorial in Tuesday’s paper highlights an important topic: the cost of waste. Perhaps a more appropriate title and discussion could have been “Reduce and Reuse First; Recycling Still Uses Resources.” It is true there are costs associated with recycling — fiscal and environmental. That is why the best action one can take is trying to consume less. This helps reduce the amount of resources used to mine and create the products in the first place, as well as avoids the added resource use associated with the process of recycling.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Affirmative Action bake sale ignores history

By Diana Moreno | Feb. 16, 2011

The UF College Republicans, the same people who brought you the People Eating Tasty Animals barbecue in 2009 “to raise awareness of the extreme stances of the animal rights organization PETA,” have taken their political activism to the next level with their Affirmative Action bake sale. By charging different prices based on race and gender, they plan to, as their Facebook event page puts it, “denounce the bias of Affirmative Action.”

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Alligator unfairly favors Progess Party

By Aschelle Morgan | Feb. 9, 2011

As an outgoing College of Journalism and Communications student and Unite Party student senator, I am accustomed to the clash of campus politics and the biannual debate over its campus media portrayal. However, the Alligator’s recent lack of journalistic integrity has morphed the publication’s role as an information medium into that of a politically charged message.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

America faces an education crisis

By Gelin Looi | Feb. 9, 2011

During the 2010 winter break, I went home to my hometown, Johor Bahru, after four years. Johor Bahru is a major city in Malaysia, separated from Singapore by a thin strait. Singapore is also a rich, prosperous, technologically advanced and cosmopolitan first-world island country of no more than five million souls and less than 300 square miles of land. Comparatively, Malaysia, which is blessed with natural resources of tin, copper, rich soil and oil, languished in second place as a second-world country. Singapore also boosts one of the most highly educated populations, with a vibrant research and development sphere and highly regarded universities. My parents are such fervent believers in the power of education that all their children were educated there despite the costs and long transit time. Singapore students routinely take medals in Math and Science Olympiads and ace the British GCE systems. In contrast, Malaysia had been engaging in such a systematic educational regression that the University of Malaya, which once was regarded as the best college in Southeast Asia, is not even ranked in the top 100 today. The National University of Singapore, on the other hand, stands at 31, just four places behind UC Berkeley. My uncle told me that a Singaporean minister, while speaking at a top Malaysian high school, declared that any high-scoring students willing to study at a Singaporean university would be given green cards immediately, with all tuition, room and board paid for along with a monthly stipend. Needless to say, many stepped forward to take the offer.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Gun law information readily available

By J.T. HELM | Feb. 8, 2011

I have been reading up on Florida Senate Bill 234. I suggest all of the people who have been debating this recently do the same. I am an avid and licensed hunter in the state of Florida and part of that privilege is learning the law. Because I am pursuing a concealed carry license, I have done just that. The law states that you must have a concealed carry license to open carry. Anyone visibly carrying will most assuredly be checked by police. So the idea that any student can carry is a ludicrous idea. You will be required to have a concealed permit, and you must be finger printed to have this license, so not everyone will be carrying these weapons. How many of the 50,000 are under 21, which is the legal age for concealed carry?

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Second Amendment is here to stay

By Nelson Anderson | Feb. 3, 2011

In response to Wednesday’s letter, “Second Amendment needs another look,” I feel like re-examining the Second Amendment is old hat. Grundy stated the age-old anti-gun activists argument of the “conditional clause.” Sir, the Second Amendment has had another look. In fact, the Supreme Court has directly ruled “no” on it fewer than five times, plus four indirect rulings. Each word has been broken down and clearly defined. I’m happy to say that the Supreme Court has not taken the same view as you. I think the issue was settled a long time ago.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Federal funding should be steered away from Planned Parenthood

By Caroline Pilgrim | Feb. 3, 2011

In response to Wednesday’s “Two to Tango,” I wanted to address your levity in what should be a grave issue: Abortion and prostitution should never be joking matters. First, your semantics are deceptive because after watching Live Action’s 11-minute “conversation, ” it is clear Live Action’s intent is not as “anti-abortion” as it is “pro-life” and pro-law (unlike Planned Parenthood’s foul employee who dropped the f-bomb at least six times). The behavior of this worker is morally reprehensible by both our federal government and the state of New Jersey. Certainly, the ex-employee in the video “went against company policy,” but if you dig a little deeper into Live Action’s work throughout the past three years, you realize that this is not an isolated incident in the company, which the video pointed out received more than $300 million per year in federal funding. It seems that if an organization is unable to monitor employees who are consistently breaking federal and state statutes, perhaps tax dollars should be steered away from supporting potential company hazards. It seems Planned Parenthood has gotten itself in a tight spot, and Lila Rose’s incredible initiative to utilize social media is finally forcing them to reconsider their inability to smooth out what is rightfully the most controversial issue on our nation’s conscience.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Players don’t deserve special treatment

By Daniel E. Colley | Feb. 1, 2011

Janoris Jenkins has again been arrested. On this occasion, he is charged with possession of marijuana. During 2009, he was arrested and charged with affray and resisting arrest without violence. Affray, in case you are wondering, translates to fighting and is a charge used by law enforcement officials reserved for UF football players and other celebrities that they don’t want to charge with assault or battery.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Students aren’t obligated to take fliers

By Victoria Shelley | Feb. 1, 2011

I’d like to address the UF Student Body in response to Laura Ellermeyer’s column on fliers yesterday. If you don’t want a flier, don’t take one. Period. As someone who’s passed out fliers before, I can tell you that I will not be offended by a “No, thank you” if you don’t want my flier. In fact, if you’re just going to throw it away, please don’t take one. We don’t want paper wasted any more than you do because it’s costing us money, and we might not have enough for the people who are actually interested.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Stubborn politicians self-serving

By Charles Dahan | Jan. 31, 2011

Zack Smith makes a fundamental mistake in his Jan. 31 column, “Compromise DeLay-ing the Inevitable.” In it, Smith argues that Tom DeLay demonstrated ideological consistency by refusing to compromise with Democrats. Yet partisanship, as Smith writes, is not a “philosophy [that] may have intellectual teeth.” Instead, it is a methodology for attaining one’s political — or ideological — goals.

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Corporate model a detriment to academia

By Joseph Dillon Ford | Jan. 27, 2011

I read with dismay the article “Students band together to save professor’s job” in your Jan. 25 issue. I do not know lecturer David Small, who, after 11 years, is being unaccountably dismissed from his post in UF’s department of computer and information science and engineering. Evidence suggests he is an excellent educator who is much appreciated by his students.

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