OPINION
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
An open letter from some members of UF IFAS departments
Oct. 12, 2017For the most up-to-date letter, visit goo.gl/7t3zeC.
Opinion
OPINION
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COLUMNS
A column for UF President Kent Fuchs: Make UF great, for once
Oct. 12, 2017No 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.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
A summary can never compare to a real book
Oct. 12, 2017For 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?
OPINION
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DARTS LAURELS
Darts & Laurels
Oct. 12, 2017It’s Friday the 13th — the spookiest day of the year. You decide to take advantage of the eerie end of the week and break out your old Ouija board with some of your friends.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Don’t commit to an animal you can’t keep just to rehome it upon graduation
Oct. 10, 2017In 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.
OPINION
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EDITORIALS
We’re all scared about the future
Oct. 10, 2017If you’re anything like us, your heart probably skipped a beat when you received an email last week informing you that it’s already time to start thinking about registering for Spring classes. And when we say that your heart skipped a beat, we don’t mean it did so in the cute and jovial “school girl in love” sort of way. We mean you probably felt like your heart was going to leap out of your chest from beating so hard because you have yet another thing to stress about.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Mediocrity is now part of Gator football culture
Oct. 10, 2017The 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.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
You're not conceited; don’t be afraid to accept compliments and believe them
Oct. 10, 2017I’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.”
OPINION
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COLUMNS
We need to stop saying it’s too soon to talk about gun control
Oct. 8, 2017I 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.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
We need to learn to disagree with others effectively
Oct. 8, 2017We 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.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Gov. Scott has blame in nursing home tragedy
Oct. 6, 2017Gov. Rick Scott has made every effort to wash his hands of the Sept. 13 South Florida nursing home tragedy, which left 12 residents dead. In my opinion, he shouldn’t absolve himself so quickly.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Patreon is a nod to the past and a jump into the future of expression
Oct. 6, 2017The Renaissance is known as the “cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history,” according to Wikipedia, with the genesis being in Florence, Italy, in the 14th century. It was a vibrant period of exploding artistic expression and impressive intellectual and philosophical exploration.
OPINION
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DARTS LAURELS
Darts & Laurels
Oct. 6, 2017It’s the Homecoming football game, and you and your friends have been eagerly waiting all week to watch the Gators crush the Louisiana State University Tigers. You’re a little groggy after staying up late to watch Snoop Dogg perform at Gator Growl, but — let’s be honest — it was worth it.
OPINION
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EDITORIALS
When tragedies hit close to home
Oct. 3, 2017We at the Alligator, along with everyone else in the U.S., woke up to some terrifying statistics Monday morning. The deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history. This tragic event occurred in Las Vegas, where one man managed to bring 17 guns into a hotel room, knock out the windows and begin indiscriminately firing into a crowd hundreds of feet away. This one man took away a record from Florida that never should have been established in the first place.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
'Tolerant' college students aren't as tolerant as they might think
Oct. 3, 2017If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a UF student, it’s that college students are not as tolerant as they claim to be. Are you surprised? I’m not. The hypocrisy of those who claim to be tolerant is stunning, and it was on full display last week after Victoria Fortier wrote a column for the Alligator titled “It’s time to stop kneeling during the national anthem.”
OPINION
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COLUMNS
'Fear of missing out' is a fact of life, so let's learn to accept it
Oct. 3, 2017You know, it’s OK if you don’t actually want to go out,” my friend told me via FaceTime while I begrudgingly highlighted my cheekbones. That night, I didn’t have to study, and I didn’t really have to catch up on sleep. I didn’t have any excuse not to go out, so I felt like I had to. I felt like I should want to. My friend is a recent graduate so I assume she must have forgotten about that inner conflict we all get when we consider going out or staying in. The former always wins. I reminded her why: College is only four years! I don’t have much longer to buy $5 triples! We’re all going to graduate and have to be adults soon!
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Stop putting off applying for internships
Oct. 3, 2017I would like to (metaphorically, of course) pull the hair of whoever came up with the concept that waiting until your last two years of college to take on internships is a good idea. Maybe this person was hoping more people would relax during their first two years or was concerned that most college freshmen don’t have the knowledge they need to intern, but I’m here to tell you that simply isn’t true.
OPINION
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A response to 'It’s time to stop kneeling during the national anthem'
Oct. 1, 2017I am writing in response to Victoria Fortier’s column, verbosely titled, “It’s time to stop kneeling during the national anthem.” I’m a teaching assistant for ENC 1101 at UF, a class I really enjoy teaching. My students learn how to identify and write coherent arguments. One of the first things I teach them to do is to support claims with “receipts,” commonly known as evidence. I’m calling Fortier out because, while I respect her use of pathos, one of three rhetorical appeals (she’s really trying to rile people up), she hasn’t substantiated her claims with evidence. Dare I call unsubstantiated claims “fake news?” It’s true. More than 30 million people tune in every week to watch football games. It’s true that fans are now watching athletes kneel to protest the continued murder of black men, women and children. I disagree with Fortier’s claim that freedom has nothing to do with making a statement. I would back that claim up by providing my first receipt, the Declaration of Independence. Maybe Fortier has not had the chance to take history yet (however, I think it is a requirement), but this document is a literal statement of freedom written by our Founding Fathers. NFL protesters like Colin Kaepernick are very aware of their rhetorical situation. They understand their audience and have a specific purpose. Protest is a very specific strategy for making an argument. It’s often a dangerous and unpopular strategy in that it does not always care about being polite. While black men and women continue to die at the hands of corrupt police officers, Kaepernick and his fellow NFL players do not have time to be polite. Your plea for protesters to consider where and when they decide to make a statement isn’t needed. They have already considered where and when they protest. They have decided making you uncomfortable for a few minutes at the beginning of a football game is worth your discomfort. The Huffington Post reports that more than 250 black people were killed in 2016. These protesters want the murders to stop. If you were in my class and you turned in a paper without receipts, you’d receive an F.
OPINION
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COLUMNS
At the end of the day, a fulfilling job is worth a lot more than money
Oct. 1, 2017“You realize you’ll make, like, no money doing that, right?”
OPINION
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COLUMNS
Protests are meant to make you uncomfortable; that's the point
Oct. 1, 2017Does taking a knee make you uncomfortable? Good. You know what’s beyond uncomfortable? Not knowing whether the police are there to help or hurt you.
