Perhaps one of our favorite American traditions is the National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation. At this ceremony, the president of the U.S. is presented a live Broad Breasted White turkey. Here, the POTUS pardons the turkey from his death sentence, otherwise to be served scrumptiously next to some mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.
Just because the election is over doesn’t mean we should just sit back and allow the next four years to pass us by. Republicans won not only the presidency, but the House and Senate as well, meaning they could wield a massive influence — including the appointment of Supreme Court justices and presidential appointments. Despite the number of Republicans who seemed to oppose Donald Trump, like Paul Ryan, it looks like opposition to Trump from within the Republican Party has just melted away.
A week ago, I spectated the anti-Donald Trump rally that was hosted by the Radical Student Association (RSA), and what I witnessed was disturbing. I heard the foolish spewing from both sides: the RSA’s representative speaker declaring, “I hate America,” and the Trump supporter in a U.S. hat shouting, “Leave our country.” However, what I saw was even more horrifying. I saw the convulsions of my fellow students’ faces, spit flying from their mouths as they attempted to scream all they could, and the little twitches in each of them when you could tell they’ve had enough – it was the tangible manifestation of how we have all felt during this grueling election year. It was fear, anger and confusion.
It’s almost time for a break! This is exciting. Time to eat your body weight in stuffing, watch some football and then fall asleep on the floor at 6 p.m. Thanksgiving is also a time for family, which excites most people I talk to. However, this year more than any other, I’ve heard people sigh with dread when I bring up Thanksgiving. I ask why they feel this way, and it has been the same answer every time.
It’s a quiet November afternoon. The air is crisp, the sun is going down, and you’re sitting on your porch drinking some iced tea while reading The Independent Florida Alligator. You’re about to flip the page and make it to the Opinions Section when Lassie, the neighbor’s son’s dog, comes running up and starts barking at you. “What’s that, Lassie?” you ask while standing up, clutching the paper. Lassie continues to bark. “Timmy fell down the well?!” you exclaim, “that’s the third time this month, right?” Lassie barks quickly, confirming your suspicion of Timmy’s predictable recklessness. Hurriedly, you run over to the well, paper in hand. “Help, Mister! I can’t swim!” you hear him gurgle while he splashes about within a manageable arms reach. “Yeah, sucks to suck, Lassie. I’m about to hit page six of The Alligator, and not even your bloodcurdling cries for help can stop me from reading my favorite Alligator feature…
Ever since the advent of national news outlets in America, the country’s mass media has almost universally been more liberal. Those who are more Republican have accepted this as fact, using this as a go-to line whenever debating someone of the opposite party. This election season, however, has revealed the true severity of the media’s political leaning, and Republicans have finally, after decades of tolerating this as an unwavering feature of the culture, begun to say “no more.”
I feel like, on a national level, a lot of us have been moving through the stages of grief during this past week and a half. It started with us being in absolute denial that a candidate who many of us saw to be unfit had been elected. Once the initial shock subsided we were angry, outraged at the hateful reactions of extreme supporters. Some of us tried bargaining with the Electoral College as a last resort, with the hopes that maybe, just this one time, history could be rewritten and things would work out in our favor. When we realized that wasn’t possible, you could say a depression hit. It has taken a while to start moving on, but a lot of us are starting to accept the things we cannot change.
Election Day came as a shock for many of us, and very few succeeded in predicting the outcome — not the academics, intellectuals or media, and certainly not the Hillary Clinton campaign.
Instead of doing the predictable thing and giving my hot take on the election results, which will undoubtedly echo that of people in my similar demographic, I’m going to talk about memes.
It began even before either candidate had hit the magic threshold of 270 projected electoral votes.
On Oct. 10, we ran an editorial titled “Is Trump a modern-day Hitler?” We concluded at the end of the piece that the answer was “not really” but that Trump and his cronies are “blurring that line more and more every day.”
The night before my birthday, Nov. 3, I received the gift I was hoping for but didn’t expect: The Chicago Cubs won the World Series.
Be warned, dear reader. This editorial contains many spoilers for Marvel’s latest movie, “Dr. Strange.”
Since the election, we have seen some mixed responses to the results. From protest to social confrontation, the U.S. has been facing an important transitional stage. As a Latina, I have had the opportunity to experience both sides of the coin these days, from friends approaching me to offer their support and tell me they will always have my back to acquaintances stereotyping me and joking about my immigration status.
The summer after sixth grade I was 12 years old, and I was attending camp on weekdays while my parents were at work. This was the first time in my life I noticed the sexual features of the female body. Every day I would go to the pool, and I’d see girls wearing skimpy bikinis, outlining their breasts and showing off large patches of skin on their stomachs, legs and backs. It was during this summer that I French-kissed a girl for the first time. She was one year older than me, she had curly blond hair and her cheeks were peppered with acne. We made out by the vending machines at a bowling alley the camp took us to.
The “Unleash your Creativity Through Technology” tour brought a multitude of women from diverse fields of study to discuss their issues with current gender inequity and how to progress toward higher education for women.
As an educational institution, UF pursues justified, true beliefs. We strive to get as close to the truth as possible. To do this, we employ a healthy dose of rational skepticism; we critically analyze all claims, and every theory must contain an element of falsifiability.
Like many others, I had to take a break from social media in the days following the election. While I understood some prefer to sort through their emotions on a public platform, I also realized I was soaking up these feelings like an overly empathetic sponge. In the past year, social media became synonymous with the election, as each day brought new stories, poll numbers and voices to my various feeds.
I really like the comedy band Ninja Sex Party. It’s a good band. Members Dan Avidan and Brian Wecht portray the characters Danny Sexbang and Ninja Brian, respectively, and the band’s songs chronicle their adventures. These chronicles, per the name, are usually about ninjas, sex or parties, but every chronicle serves to flesh out the two characters. I’m going to rapid-fire some opinions about Ninja Sex Party and character-driven comedy, so strap in. Are you strapped in? You are? Are you in a car? You shouldn’t be reading the paper while driving. You’re in the passenger’s seat? You shouldn’t be reading the paper while denying your driving friend the very same pleasure. Feel free to read this column aloud to the driver so they may too revel in my coolness.
With the election slowly fading back into our national collective memory, we feel it necessary to spur a discussion about our democracy. We wish to remind our readers that democracy is more complex than formal electoral processes. It is a complex and informal grid of unwritten, collective ideologies smashing together, breaking apart and reforming anew. When Donald Trump won, it really symbolized a total breakdown of a political machine — similar to the Brexit vote. We now have the opportunity to rebuild it. We can rebuild it as a total fascist movement or we can rebuild it with a fresh start.
Solutions by The State News
