Opinions - The Independent Florida Alligator

OPINION | EDITORIALS

95 percent of airport security fails at security

June 1, 2015

Don’t read this editorial if you enjoy the illusion of airport security being effective.

OPINION | COLUMNS

What Happens When: the Tire Pressure Light Comes On

May 29, 2015

Remember that paperback book that never leaves your glove compartment? You know, the owner’s manual? You can learn a lot by cracking it open every once in a while.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Youth need to care about American politics

May 27, 2015

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OPINION | DARTS LAURELS

Darts and Laurels: Tales of football and gun safety

May 27, 2015

Let’s start with what’s been buzzing in the news lately. Several FIFA officials and other affiliates were recently indicted on charges of racketeering, wire fraud, money laundering and general corruption.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Minorities not meant to be the butt of the joke

May 25, 2015

Many comedies thrive off pushing the boundaries into offensive content to get attention. “Pitch Perfect 2,” the sequel to the original “Pitch Perfect,” tells the story of an all-female a cappella group, marketing itself as a boundary-pushing, feminist movie. However, it still relies on unnecessary and out-of-place stereotypical jokes. The one Guatemalan character, Flo, functions as a first-world-problems joke in order to put the girls’ problems into perspective. She doesn’t really have her own story. Even though this may seem like a harmless joke at first, when we don’t know anything else about this character, and she serves no other function in the movie, she becomes a token minority.

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Memorial Day: A time for remembrance, thanks

May 25, 2015

The Alligator often represents the voice of millennials and young college-aged men and women, and sometimes it’s said that our generation forgets the sacrifices of those before us in the name of youthful narcissism and detachment from world affairs.

OPINION | COLUMNS

'Mad Max’ perfect combo of action and feminism

May 20, 2015

As I was driving home from “Mad Max: Fury Road” last week, adrenaline still permeating my every extremity, I had to remind myself central Gainesville was not post-apocalyptic Australia and there would be little to gain from ramming my 2007 Toyota Camry into fellow drivers.

OPINION | DARTS LAURELS

Darts and Laurels

May 20, 2015

OPINION | EDITORIALS

Sometimes you must teach to learn A life’s lessons

May 18, 2015

A troop of four Cub Scouts came to the Alligator office Monday looking to get a glimpse at what goes into the day-to-day production of our newspaper.

OPINION | COLUMNS

Ask me anything: I'm a one-stop shop for any and all of your car concerns

May 13, 2015

As a public relations major, I receive a lot of questions when I talk about my time as president of the UF chapter of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), an engineering society that designs and builds a small, Formula-style race car and competes in an international competition.

OPINION | COLUMNS

College summers and the zen of failing up

May 13, 2015

One of my favorite professors once told me that college isn’t just about learning the material of your respective occupation or future career; it’s about learning how to navigate through the everyday things life throws at you, like time management, self-discipline and managing your ambitions such that they actually become realized. His words, compounded by me recently taking “What is the Good Life” — which, let’s be real, isn’t that terrible and could actually be great with a few major refinements — have had me thinking a lot about how I’ve spent my time in college, and how I ought to be spending it moving forward.

OPINION | DARTS LAURELS

Darts and Laurels

May 13, 2015

Most of us know North Korea from “The Interview,” its periodic nuclear weapons tests, its threats to destroy the whole world and its completely genuine reverence for a family of paunchy men in unitards.

OPINIONS