Opinions - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | COLUMNS

Whitewashing of Texas’ textbooks, the latest in conservative attempts to rewrite history

Sep. 3, 2015

The topic of public schools has always laid heavily on the hearts and minds of this country’s politically active, conservative, evangelical Christians. Conservative ire over public schools has revolved mostly around our science curriculum. But in the last year or so, these activists have fought for control over how American history is taught, with the disturbing aim of controlling the narrative of American history itself.

OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letter to the Editor 09/04/2015

Sep. 3, 2015

Fellow Gators,

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: McDonald’s 24/7 breakfast menu brings about exciting changes

Sep. 2, 2015

McDonald’s: glorious American institution or Exhibit A in capitalism run amok? Regardless of one’s personal views on the fast-food giant, it is impossible to deny it does two things exceptionally well: tasty, grease-filled breakfast foods and late-night drunken snacks. Since the company’s announcement of a 24/7 breakfast menu Tuesday, those two beautiful things no longer have to be mutually exclusive.

OPINION | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letter to the Editor 09/03/2015

Sep. 2, 2015

In response to Tuesday's column, "Greek life is more than just its stereotypes"

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Gator Growl has a talent problem

Sep. 1, 2015

“The year is 2007. After debuting at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 with his album “T.I. vs. T.I.P.,” southern hip-hop star T.I. performs a triumphant set as the headlining artist at UF’s annual Gator Growl event. Backed by a strong setlist consisting of Atlanta trap classics such as “Big Things Poppin’ (Do It),” “Rubber Band Man” and “Bring Em Out,” the overwhelmingly positive response to the show not only cements T.I.’s self-proclaimed status as the “King of the South” but reaffirms Gator Growl as a top-notch event that brings consistently exciting, relevant artists to The Swamp.”

OPINION | COLUMNS

The Perils of the Corporatization of Education

Sep. 1, 2015

Last week I discovered that my alma mater, Florida State University, had blocked me from commenting on any of its social media websites. This meant anything posted by its official Facebook page, writing on its wall or commenting on photos posted by the school’s official Instagram account. As far as I understand it, this occurred because I had exercised my rights and been critical of the school and the image it attempts to maintain in social media.

OPINION | COLUMNS

The MTV Video Music Awards: Do they even really matter?

Sep. 1, 2015

So, the MTV Video Music Awards happened.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Guest Column: Access Party calls on students to join party in Fall 2015 Student Government elections

Sep. 1, 2015

My name is Kalyani Hawaldar, and I am your Access Party President. The beginning of September means the start of football season, but it also means the beginning of another Student Government election cycle.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: College classrooms are no place for clowning around

Aug. 31, 2015

In K-12 education, the trope of the class clown was an all-too-real one. Students, whether due to crippling insecurity or a genuine need to have their (misguided) voice heard, would interrupt the teacher and shove their sense of humor down the throats of the rest of the class. Everyone has done it at one point or another, but it was the egregious offenders who were dubbed the "class clown."

OPINION | COLUMNS

Greek life is more than just its stereotypes

Aug. 31, 2015

With the beginning of the Fall semester comes a myriad of UF activities, but perhaps the most discussed is rush. Whether it’s news coverage, Snapchat stories or traffic halting hordes of impeccably dressed girls, you simply can’t escape it. Consequently, the criticisms of Greek life seem to reach a fever pitch this time of the year.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Mediocre Advice: Balling on the court and in bed

Aug. 31, 2015

Happy Tuesday, gang! What a week it’s been. After last week’s column, some of you may have wondered: "Why mediocre advice? Why would anybody listen to you?" Well, in a world where people still religiously eat Olive Garden, listen to Fall Out Boy, watch MTV and read Buzzfeed to find out if their boyfriend is cheating on them, it seems as though mediocrity is still in.

OPINION | COLUMNS

The ideals of the Confederacy remain lost cause

Aug. 31, 2015

Common wisdom holds for one to be true to thy self. If you’re a self-described Southerner, odds are good you might still be licking your wounds from the flogging the north dished out 150 years ago.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

No winners in the aftermath of Ashley Madison leaks

Aug. 30, 2015

Last Friday, Noel Biderman, CEO of Avid Life Media Inc. — the parent company of Ashley Madison — stepped down from his position. Biderman’s resignation arrived in the wake of the third wave of leaks from the extramarital-affairs website.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Online privacy needs to become top priority

Aug. 30, 2015

Every once in a while, a website or service finds a new creepy way of gathering data online, and it seems earth-shattering until the next stalkerish way of data collection emerges. In an ideal world, none of this would come as a surprise, as everyone would actually read the terms and conditions when they agree to things — or at least those pesky updates sent out ahead of major changes to a site.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Reflecting on the Iran nuclear deal as a young Marine veteran

Aug. 30, 2015

In the summer of 2015, following my first year of law school at IU-Bloomington, I was fortunate enough to be selected for an internship in Israel with Shurat HaDin, Israel Law Center. As a Marine Corps veteran, my unit confronted terrorists in Afghanistan, and when I returned home, I learned about groups that fight terrorism in different ways. Shurat HaDin is a nongovernmental Israeli organization with the stated mission of bankrupting terror — one lawsuit at a time.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Don’t reduce tragedy to a Facebook post

Aug. 27, 2015

Last week, I logged onto Facebook after a summer of neglect. I was greeted with a familiar but troubling sight: Someone had posted an article about a scorned boyfriend throwing acid in his girlfriend’s face. While that was the first I had heard of that particular story, I have seen similar stories posted on Facebook many times before. The Texas mother who drowned her children in a pool; the Massachusetts teacher who was murdered by a student; the Tennessee couple who were raped and beaten; all were equally tragic stories that had found their way into my life because of a shared Facebook post.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Educational entitlement: dumb, lazy and problematic

Aug. 27, 2015

College can be a pretty weird place. Jam any number of young adults with raging libidos into a high-stress environment, and all kinds of crazy stuff will go down. But hand those same high-strung and impassioned people a whopping sense of entitlement and unshakable certainty in their own morals? Things will get surreal.

OPINION | COLUMNS

College: Time to discover your sexual identity

Aug. 27, 2015

Welcome back for the Fall semester, Gators! I hope that everyone had a good first week back and is re-acclimating to the humidity, the homework and The Gator Nation.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Yet another shooting leaves more questions than answers

Aug. 26, 2015

When we began brainstorming today’s editorial, there was every intention of writing a pleasant little column on the inability of Florida lawmakers to rectify the blatant gerrymandering that plagues Florida. But, as with so many American mornings, tragedy made it all but impossible to write anything that even remotely resembled a "pleasant" demeanor.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Get a good night’s sleep and put your phones down

Aug. 25, 2015

A professor once told me that young men and women are biologically inclined to stay awake late into the night because we’re young, fertile and it’s our biological imperative to attempt to reproduce. It only makes sense that we would stay awake into the wee hours for reasons we can’t fully comprehend.