Opinion | Editorials - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Strongly held opinions are fine, but chill with reactionary ones

Nov. 2, 2015

From the first time the written word was translated to celluloid and up to the present, the phrase, "The book(s) was/is/are better" has long been a rallying cry for disgruntled literary fans. While there are many instances where an adaptation did justice to the source material — or in the cases of films such as "Blade Runner," "Fight Club" or "Jaws," surpassed it — there are just as many that not only failed to render the material in a compelling manner but managed to actively disrespect the original text. Films with this distinction include "Watchmen," the most recent adaptation of "The Great Gatsby" and "The Scarlet Letter."

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Mutual respect ought to trump differences

Nov. 1, 2015

Last week, The Atlantic published a video titled, "What Will This Era Be Remembered For?" as one part of a series of videos covering last month’s Washington Ideas Forum 2015. In the video, policy leaders such as U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Julián Castro responded to the question by expressing hope that their respective areas of political interest would undergo meaningful progress.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Lecture halls in the time of smart phones

Oct. 28, 2015

It is a familiar sight to anyone who has ever stepped foot in a lecture hall: a sea of faces looking anywhere but the center of the room. Sure, you might have 10 or so students who actually pay heed to the knowledge being imparted by their lecturer, but we’d bet dollars to doughnuts those same students are the kinds of dweebs who still take notes with pen and paper (Just kidding. For those of you that do, we have no doubt you have a bright and financially lucrative future ahead of you — please give us jobs).

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: As far as ethics and morals go, we need to reflect

Oct. 27, 2015

Following national outcry, the FBI and the Department of Justice announced Tuesday that they have opened up an investigation into the violent arrest of a black high-school student by a white sheriff’s deputy in Columbia, South Carolina. Officer Ben Fields arrested the student after forcefully yanking her out of her desk by wrapping his arm around her neck. Having flipped the student and her desk, Fields then dragged her to the front of the classroom. This came after she refused to leave her seat and had already ignored requests from her teacher and other school administrators to do so. A second student, Niya Kenny, 18, was arrested soon after for taping the encounter. Her arrest was justified under the premise that she was “disturbing school.”

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: It’s not the end of meat as we know it and we feel fine

Oct. 26, 2015

The World Health Organization announced Monday it had classified processed meats as a cancer hazard. The WHO reached this conclusion after the International Agency for Research on Cancer conducted an exhaustive study of pre-existing literature on the subject. Processed meats — which include bacon (sorry, America), sausage and ham — have been labeled under the "Group 1" classification by the IARC, meaning they are established carcinogens. Under these standards, processed meats occupy a comfortable position alongside cigarettes, alcohol and, most tantalizingly, asbestos.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Even on the dance floor, we’re all wallflowers now

Oct. 25, 2015

In 2006’s "Whoo! Alright – Yeah… Uh Huh," Luke Jenner, singer of the now-defunct dance-punk band The Rapture, bemoaned the state of club culture: "People don’t dance no more (what!)/They just stand there like this (uh huh)/They cross their arms and stare you down and drink and moan and diss (that’s right!)." If Mr. Jenner were to write this song today, we can’t help but think the refrain would be a little less cheeky and a lot more critical.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: The Wild West of the Internet is slowly but surely getting settled

Oct. 21, 2015

On Wednesday, YouTube — or Google; let’s just call it like it is — announced a new ad-free subscription service, Red. Red offers YouTube users the same convenience they experienced in the halcyon days of 2005, before content creators and public relations personnel caught on to how profitable the service really could be.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Suicide and the stigmatization of struggle

Oct. 20, 2015

Last Wednesday, a freshman residing in North Hall decided to take his own life. As of writing, this is the only information that has been released publicly.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: As we extend our stay in Afghanistan, the ghosts of Bush and Cheney linger

Oct. 19, 2015

Following the Sept. 11 attacks, the U.S. firmly and confidently planted itself in the Middle East beginning with Afghanistan in late 2001. At the time, there were few who would have publicly disagreed with this course of action, but then again, how could they? The nation had just been attacked on a scale that had never been seen before and has yet to be matched. We were hurt, and, perhaps more than anything else, we were scared. Not to go after the men who had hurt us so deeply would have been a decision rooted in fear and cowardice.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: A living legend came to UF, but where were the students?

Oct. 18, 2015

Last Friday, civil rights activist and living legend Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) spoke at the University Auditorium to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the landmark Voting Rights Act in 1965, as well as raise awareness about its uncertain future. The act, which was passed by President Lyndon B. Johnson following several unprovoked attacks and deaths of civil rights activists, abolished literacy tests and similar tactics aimed at keeping black Americans from voting. The act’s very existence can be traced to the efforts of Lewis and his colleagues, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and A. Philip Randolph; to have Lewis in UF’s halls is to have a giant in our midst.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: The reality of Israel is more complex than many realize

Oct. 14, 2015

Tuesday afternoon, Israeli officials deployed soldiers and military checkpoints around its cities in a preventative measure aimed at reducing the number of attacks — mostly stabbings — that have ravaged Israeli civilians in the last few weeks. According to the Red Crescent, 30 Palestinians have been killed and 4,200 wounded in the violence of the last few weeks. In contrast, seven Israelis have been killed and 99 wounded, according to the Red Cross.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Empathy and social media don’t mix

Oct. 13, 2015

So, Will Grier. Following the announcement that Monday’s press conference would be pushed back in order to acknowledge Grier’s suspension for violating the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s substance-abuse policy, social media was alight with memes and missives expressing disappointment and anger. While UF students worked through their grief, Florida State University students tried to spin the moment as a justification for their own former star quarterback Jameis Winston’s immoral behavior — it didn’t stick.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Gun laws, restroom rhetoric and the cowardice of anonymity

Oct. 12, 2015

On the door of the middle stall in the first floor men’s restroom at Weimer Hall, there hangs a piece of paper. Normally we wouldn’t pay much attention to bathroom scripture, for, after all, it’s usually only good for poop jokes and hastily scrawled phone numbers that promise a "good time." Bathroom graffiti and musings are eminently disposable, an artistic outlet for those who couldn’t cut it tagging overpasses on I-95. But sometimes you see something so — if you will — shitty, so awful, you can’t help but be compelled to write about it in your college newspaper.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

The flu ought to bring UF to a grinding halt

Oct. 11, 2015

The Fall Flu: Even if you’ve never had it, you’ve certainly come into close contact with it. For those of you who are new to UF — or just have really strong immune systems — the Fall Flu is the annual time of year when cold- and flu-like symptoms ravage the Student Body. Some call it Gator Flu or, even more charmingly, the UF Plague. GPAs are crippled, dates are ruined, everything becomes miserable for a solid week or so and Netflix (note the absence of "chill") becomes one’s top weekend priority.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: The right to die is a testament to effective legislation

Oct. 7, 2015

This past Monday, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed landmark legislation that marked California as the fifth state to permit physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. Under the new law — which has been coined the "End of Life Option Act" — patients who have been diagnosed as having six months or less to live by two doctors can purchase lethal medication to end their lives if and when they please.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: SG, we do our jobs — now you do yours

Oct. 6, 2015

Late last night, outgoing Student Government Senate President Davis Bean gave his goodbye speech. Bean had the opportunity to speak at length about UF: what the university has taught him, what he’s gained from his time working for it and the wonderful Student Body he’s ostensibly worked to provide for would have all been suitable, substantive and daresay inspirational subjects. Instead, Bean delivered a speech that would have made Donald Trump blush. Flushed with self-congratulatory musings and utter contempt for anyone who dared disagree with him, Bean took his farewell speech, something normally seen as an opportunity for grace and class, and instead chose to run through his personal hit list, with the Alligator among his targets.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Clinging to the past is dangerous, self-defeating

Oct. 5, 2015

When our generation signed up for Facebook many moons ago, it was hard to conceive of a social life past our K-12 upbringings. Surely every kid who came to our bar and bat mitzvahs would still be our dawgs, right? Those dudes you took selfies with in the Apple Store for your MySpace profile picture? Best friends for life. That girl you met at the food court that one time after you and your boys stocked up on Panda Express? If only you had gone to the same school and seen more of each other, there really could have been something special there!

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Deaths in Kunduz speak for modern war re-adjustment

Oct. 4, 2015

In light of the U.S.-led airstrike that bombed a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan, on Saturday, it is time to reconsider the role the U.S. plays abroad. The airstrike, which killed 22 people — 10 patients and 12 staff members — and left 37 wounded, resulted in the departure of Doctors Without Borders in the area. "No medical activities are possible now in the M.S.F. (Médecins Sans Frontières, Doctors Without Borders’ international name) hospital in Kunduz, at a time when the medical needs are immense," said Tim Shenk, a spokesman for the organization, to The New York Times.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Pope Francis, gay marriage and actualizing change

Sep. 30, 2015

It was reported Wednesday that Kim Davis, current conservative darling and avowed hatemonger, had a private meeting with Pope Francis during his visit to the U.S. last week. Per the Washington Post and NPR, the meeting occurred last Thursday at the Vatican Embassy in D.C. Apparently the meeting had been arranged at the behest of the Vatican weeks in advance. Through her legal team, Davis expressed that the meeting, although brief, was profound for both her and Pope Francis, with both clasping each other’s hands and vowing to pray for one another. Francis also sent Davis off with a nice pair of rosaries.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Editorial: Time management is a leviathan to be worked around, not slain

Sep. 29, 2015

Time-management skills: Some of us got ‘em, some of us don’t. In high school and the preceding years, time-management skills essentially boiled down to doing your menial homework assignments as soon as you got home (unless you had a job, in which case your life was made exponentially harder), and saving the hard studying and projects for the wee hours. If you were of a particularly anxious sort or prone to procrastination, the wee hours could mean as early (or late) as 5 a.m. As far as the weekend went, school was essentially a non-entity, at least until Sunday evening rolled around.