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Wednesday, July 09, 2025

Opinion

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Letter to the Editor: The fight to restore online voting

Today at 5 p.m. in room 285C of the Levin College of Law, Tyler Richards and I will argue before Student Government’s Supreme Court and make the case to restore the remote-online-voting amendment the Student Body passed last Spring. During Summer, the court recalled this amendment and three others after re-interpreting the vote-tallying language in the Student Body constitution, arguing those who voted in the elections for president or Student Senate but abstained from voting on the amendment should be counted against the 60-percent approval required to pass.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Our fragile America needs repair, truth

The human being is a fragile specimen, subject to the prying hands of time. Our bodies endure much wear and tear: weather, injuries, inopportune falls. Bruises lay over the fine canvas of our skin, fading one day and returning the next. In enough time, should you allow such bruises to fester, they consume your existence.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

For collegiate Floridians, hurricane parties are dangerous yet necessary

To this day, I’m still amazed by the colorful range of responses that an approaching hurricane will bring forth from Floridians. Non-native residents frantically plan for the looming apocalypse by stocking up on nonperishables, flashlights and bottled water. Concerned parents beg their college kids to stay indoors, avoid power lines and charge their cellphones.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Darts & Laurels: September 2, 2016

Not even two weeks into classes, and we get hit with Hermine, the first hurricane to hit Florida in 11 years. Maybe this is a sign we shouldn’t have come back to school to begin with? Or maybe Mother Nature is just sick of all the “Florida Man” stories and finally decided to pull the plug on our state altogether. Well, Florida, it was fun while it lasted. So as you curl up by the fireplace app on your smartphone and avoid the apocalypse going on outside today, please enjoy our roast of the week, our lighthearted musings, our stormy-day edition of…


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Hermine, Louisiana, rising sea levels: a ticking time bomb

Did any of you Gators go surfing over the summer? Well, bust those boards back out and buy an extra pair of swimming trunks, because we’re about to get some serious rain over the next couple of days. Tropical Storm Hermine is set to hit the Big Bend area (aka armpit) of our not-so-Sunshine State today at about 1 p.m.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

The letdown of next time: not dwelling on the past

When I was very young, my father’s family (and by that I mean my immediate family, my grandparents, my aunt’s family and my father’s uncles’ families — a good chunk of my paternal side) would spend a few weeks in Montenegro, in the house where my grandfather and his brothers grew up. The house was built on a hill, and the lower level no longer belonged to our family. The other two levels and the guest house were divided among my grandfather and his two brothers.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Oh, say can you see the nonsense

It’s time we have the talk: not the momma-bird, poppa-bird talk you were warned about in elementary school (hopefully), but rather, the Colin Kaepernick talk. For those of you who don’t know, the San Francisco 49ers quarterback sparked some serious outrage when he unapologetically refused to stand up during the playing of the national anthem during Friday’s game between the 49ers and the Green Bay Packers.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

How we are becoming ‘drunken peasants’ with extreme behaviors

As a college student, I have to say, one of the most intriguing behaviors I have noticed among my comrades is their rather libertarian philosophy. By libertarian, I mean specifically the social ethos that preaches, “If it feels good, do it.” I am curious: Where did this philosophy come from? I think past generations bullied people who lived by the creed we hold dear; in fact, they created a name for them: hippies. And what were the hippies but a group of cultural rebels, openly revolting against the conservative Christian traditions and norms of their parents with a jovial hedonism? It seems, then, our most cherished philosophy blossomed from the seeds of rebellion. What can account for this pattern?


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Sex with an ex: reflections and lessons from going back to that special person

Last Spring, I was crushing on a bespectacled girl with green hair in my European literature class. I asked her out on a Wednesday, and she told me she had a boyfriend. I felt terribly sorry for myself the rest of the day. I got home and furiously moped to The Smiths in my bedroom for several hours. Then I moved to scribbling short stanzas of melodramatic verse, like: “Your hair is greener than the grass I want to lie in with you while we f---.”


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Myths Un-Mythed: old age

We live in a world full of myths. Never mind the tales of Japanese-born mutant animals that enticed millions of us to actually leave our homes over the Summer and systematically enslave them within our smartphones or the tales of food items having wild sex orgy parties in supermarkets. (Don’t make the same mistake as our opinions editor and watch “Sausage Party” with your parents, thinking it’s only a comedy flick.).


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Saying goodbye to Gawker and mainstream anarchist journalism

For the last week, the scandal that plagued Gawker.com has remained silent, its front page littered with parting words from editors and writers alike. Their headlines include, “How Guilty Should I Feel?” “Gawker Was Murdered by Gaslight,” and “What Was Gawker?” These final articles read like obituaries, mourning the impending shutdown of a site that, according to Gawker.com writer Hamilton Nolan, was, “anarchist journalism at it’s finest.”


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: A conch shell of its former self, SpongeBob

You’ve seen “SpongeBob SquarePants,” right? There’s, like, no way you haven’t. I’m pretty confident in saying it defined a generation — that’s not too far-fetched. “SpongeBob SquarePants” was a show filled with wit, character and charm. The comedy was smart despite its status as a children’s show, so we look back on it with warm regard rather than just with nostalgia goggles. But, its quality has declined in past years; the show is really a conch shell of its former self, and it’s something I’d like to analyze.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: In tennis, ‘Love’ means… absolutely nothing

For those of you who are not acquainted with how we philosophy majors behave, let me familiarize you: Have you ever met someone who argues simply because they can? This weekend I was sitting with some fellow philosophy undergraduates in our natural habitat, a sanitarily adequate dive bar, talking about "college relationships." Are they superficial? Do they contribute to the development of maturity? As Hillary Clinton’s social-media intern would ask, “WTF is up wit dat lol #ImWitHurrrr.”


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Column: Are presidential polls legitimate?

Let’s face it: People are impatient. And as the future’s chances of significantly changing people’s lives increases, the more impatient people become. Election results in November could push, or violently shove, America in the wrong direction for the next four years, which is why Americans look to presidential polls for a glimpse into what the future holds. The problem is that presidential polls are becoming as legitimate as the candidates themselves.


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