In our modest four-room office, there is a smooth wooden table where Gainesville Sun publishers from the golden days once sat. It is long and official-looking. It seats eight, but normally there’s 12 chairs tucked in close, shoulder to shoulder, familiar with sweaters and sports bras and T-shirts leaned against their backs rather than suit jackets.
Election day, Nov. 5, will be the central event that will forecast American policy for the next four years. In the past month, Donald Trump's and Kamala Harris' campaigns have gone full throttle in convincing the American public why they should stay with the status quo or go back to old policies through Trump's executive hand. Before you go out and cast your ballot, please consider these points.
In 2022, Gov. Ron DeSantis made national headlines when he created the Office of Election Crimes and Security, a so-called “election police” force designed to investigate and prosecute alleged voter fraud. The timing was no coincidence. As DeSantis cemented his political ambitions and positioned himself for a presidential run, he needed to appeal to a specific base. In creating this office, DeSantis wasn't protecting democracy — he was pandering to conspiracy theorists and sowing doubt in the electoral process, all while laying the groundwork for voter intimidation and going after petitions and amendments to please his voters. And now, in 2024, we are seeing the full, dangerous impact of this move.
However, DeSantis’s brand of climate change denial is not merely about rejecting science but perpetuating cruelty.
So why are so many young white men attracted to the conservative ideology? It’s because they have been lied to over and over again. Young men were told growing up to suppress their masculinity in a world that hates men. They were promised a future like their fathers and grandfathers had. But that future does not exist anymore.
While I’ve long since recovered from the realization of my involvement in our country's ensuing downfall, I realize that if we look at the current situation of men in our country and the rise of young male conservatism, we begin to see a pattern.
This political season, like many before it, has no shortage of acrimony and division. Some prominent candidates inspire equally passionate devotion from their supporters and loathing from their critics – here among our UF community just as across the rest of our nation.
Among Peace Corps volunteers, we often say our service is “the toughest job you’ll ever love.”
My time in the senate chamber has been nothing short of disappointing. I hate politics. I am someone who prioritizes communication above all, and yet every time I worked on a piece of legislation, or went to a senate meeting, I saw nothing productive being done for the students.
Political machinery has a long history in UF SG, dating all the way back to its beginning. SG began in the summer of 1915 but in only a few years, a group of students conspired to monopolize its levers of power.
Here at UF, Gov. Ron DeSantis made multiple attempts to suppress pro-Palestinian students.
Instead of feeling anger for the people who were brave enough to call for the destruction of my country, I felt sad for them and UF. Sadly, students who were smart enough to get into UF could not understand fundamental human rights or even know why it was wrong to protest on Holocaust Remembrance Day. It's embarrassing that UF and the city of Gainesville allowed it to happen.
For over 40 years, the solution to improving education has been clear. It’s not a secret teaching method or an innovative curriculum, but something much simpler: one-on-one tutoring.
We all remember the black screens in 2016 that symbolized solidarity for the Black lives lost at the hands of abusive police officers. In a way, it allowed large groups of people to sympathize with their Black counterparts and show solidarity without ever having to leave the comfort of their own homes. It was the height of performative activism. While Black communities and allies alike banded together to sign petitions, share their stories and protest in spite of massive retaliation, the rest of passive white activists were posting black screens with the BLM slogans followed by useless hashtags and emojis.
Two new politicians came to the debate stage Tuesday night, and unlike the previous presidential debates, this one felt weirdly refreshing.
Solutions by The State News
