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Sunday, July 13, 2025

Opinion | Columns

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Students should consider working for the federal government

It’s just about that time of year again. If you are an underclassman like me, the economy is still looking down and you could use a well-paying internship or job to get you through the summer. For those UF seniors about to enter the real world, the job market is looking especially rough.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Students should take stand

I was standing on Turlington Plaza Monday with some members of the Coalition for Justice Against Police Brutality, telling students walking by about the shooting of Kofi Adu-Brempong by the University Police Department. As we were handing out fliers for today’s protest, a girl stopped me and asked me about the incident. To no fault of her own, she said she hadn’t heard anything about it and wanted to know how UPD could possibly shoot an international student on campus.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

In love, actions speak louder than words

I think it’s fair to say there are few phrases in the English language that are more emotionally loaded than “I love you.” For that matter, it’s probably fair to say there are few phrases that are more regularly abused and misused than those three words.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Religion debate won’t make progress

On Tuesday, Gainesville will get a glimpse of the increasingly popular God-concentrated argumentative cavalcade appearing in many of the auditoriums across the country and the world, the local showcase the Accent speaker’s bureau has dubbed The Great Religion Debate. These loosely related, independently organized events have made celebrities out of their dialectical pugilists, among them Richard Dawkins, William Lane Craig and Shmuley Boteach, although I must admit it seems the notoriety gained from these debates is severely biased toward the atheistic side of the podium. Is it infamy more than fame, the relative lameness of their theist counterparts or simply their writing of more entertaining books? I’m sure we’ll find out.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Catholic Church targeted by media

There’s been yet another scandal in the Catholic Church. It seems that every few years, there’s something else that comes out about a number of priests involved in pedophilic relations and a subsequent Church cover-up. Of course, the national media eats this up and has something to talk about for another week.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Protestors should move on

Amidst all the discussion about health care reform, infamous Bush-bashing organization Answer (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) held its annual war protest recently in Washington, D.C., to mark the seventh anniversary of the United States’ congress-approved invasion of Iraq.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Columnist starts anti-Google cult

As Google and China continue their convoluted Mexican standoff across the South China Sea and our country slogs through divisive political struggles and rampant joblessness, I decided to do something proactive and start a cult.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Current wars challenge our generation

No matter your politics, as a citizen of the world and a product of history, you must recognize that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are pivotal moments in our age that will have repercussions for decades to come.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Current events bring sense of deja vu

Rarely is this question posed: Have I unknowingly been in the hot tub time machine or has the past week or so been a really wicked case of déjà vu? I have recently been asking myself this as a series of seemingly long-exhausted events came to an incredibly startling — OK, slightly entertaining — temporal intersection.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Band’s evolution reflects columnist’s

Music is a very important tool to measure what kind of mood you are in over an extended period of time. It can be difficult when your favorite band seems to betray all of its previous values in pursuit of a more mainstream sound, making it more aesthetically pleasing to the masses.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Health care bill targets tattoos with tax

One of the best parts of the latest fad in American federal legislating is how the actual content of our billion-dollar bills remain completely secret until after they are signed into law. It’s like a scratch-off lottery ticket, and who doesn’t love the excitement and anticipation of scratch-offs?


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Conservatives: Move On

In response to the health care bill passing in the House of Representatives Sunday night, I noticed a friend’s Facebook status that was something like this: “Here comes the downfall of America.” I expanded the comments to join in on the sarcastic follow-ups. “The health care bill is going to kill us all!” was my best candidate for something to add. Then I saw that they were all serious. America really was doomed in their eyes. Welcome to the end of the world, I guess.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

We should appreciate ephemerality

I dug out my high school yearbook from senior year during the end of Spring Break. It was a combination of impending graduation wistfulness coupled with a “what’s past is prologue!”-induced search for anything that can assuage just how freaked out I am about that impending graduation. And then I discovered something: I was really, really terrible at predicting with whom I’d still be friends after high school.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Lawyers in 9/11 case embody America

The class-action lawsuit against the city of New York concerning the ground zero response and cleanup effort suffered another setback last week. U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein handed down a decision stating the lawsuit’s roughly $600 million settlement, filed on behalf of about more than 10,000 ailing first responders and workers who searched for survivors and cleared the wreckage after the Sept. 11 attacks, would be inadequate. He went further to delineate the settlement’s convoluted compensation allotment system and grossly excessive attorney fees as reasons for his recommendation to restructure the settlement. Hellerstein maintained the compensation paled in comparison to the effort displayed, hazardous conditions endured and compensation truly deserved by the plaintiffs, whom he made a point to refer to as heroes.


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