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Sunday, November 24, 2024

Opinion

Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Under the fig tree: Not knowing what you want in life is normal

I’m going to sound like a very stereotypical college-age young woman (college-age English major specifically) and talk about the scene in  Sylvia Plath's “The Bell Jar” where Esther is lying beneath a fig tree. Here, she imagines that each fig represents an imagined future — she sees a famous editor, a poet, a housewife — and she cannot make up her mind as to which fig to pluck, since choosing one means losing the rest, and then they all begin to shrivel up, and it is simply too late.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

It's time to stop kneeling during the national anthem

Baseball may be the American pastime, but it is no secret our football players are the ones who are treated like the real heroes. Seriously, more than 30 million viewers tune in every week to worship by screen and watch their favorite teams play on Sundays.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

The 80/20 rule is a fact of life

In the late 19th century, economist Vilfredo Pareto demonstrated in his first academic paper that, in his native country of Italy, 20 percent of the population owned about 80 percent of all the land. Pareto then noticed the same pattern of distribution in his garden, where he found that 20 percent of the pods contained 80 percent of the total peas. Named after Vilfredo himself, the Pareto principle, also known as the 80/20 rule or the law of the vital few, is one of the most widely seen statistical phenomena in the world, seemingly evident on both the largest of macro levels (entire country wealth distributions) to the smallest of micro levels (amount of peas in a peapod).


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels

You finally make it back to your apartment after what feels like the longest day of your life. Between classes, meetings and your third Study Edge review of the week, you want nothing more than to plop down on the couch with a glass of wine and the fuzziest of fuzzy blankets.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Privilege is a blindfold

For those victim to it, the grotesque fact of racism is difficult to overstate. In furtive glances, tightened chests and cracked bones, it asserts itself with lethal, overwhelming force.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Convenience friendships don’t cut it; you need quality friends

Remember those nights in your dorm common area? All of the usual suspects from the guys’ side and the girls’ side crept out of their crowded rooms, walked down the hall and swiped their fobs. Someone ordered pizza that everyone ate. Something someone wanted to watch was playing softly on the TV. Everyone somehow fit on one couch and five chairs.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Leave your comfort zone and don’t be afraid to join a club if it’s not related to your major

This semester, I promised myself I’d get out of my comfort zone for the better. Too often we find ourselves in this Monday through Friday lull where we’ve gotten used to the schedule we’ve set for ourselves, and all we do is blindly follow it. Dear readers, I hope you add some spice into your lives every once in a while, especially if that spice is adding an interesting club to your lineup.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Alligator endorsement: Inspire Party

Student Government elections are here again, and the drama has come with it. So far, this election cycle has been defined by the emergence of a new minority party to go up against Impact Party — and memes. Don’t forget the memes.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

Respect is earned, not given

One of the first things you are taught in kindergarten is to treat others how you would like to be treated. Apparently, no one ever let our president in on the secret.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  DARTS LAURELS

Darts & Laurels

You’re sitting at a table in your favorite local coffee shop, sipping on an oh-so-delicious vanilla latte you’ve been craving all day. You sit there and somewhat pretentiously scribble away in your journal, pretending as though you have some sort of dark, mysterious thing going on. You hope maybe you’ll catch someone’s eye, and they’ll be enamoured by how deep you appear to be.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  EDITORIALS

In times of distress, comedy is key

To put it lightly, America is going through a bit of a rough patch right now. So much so that a lot of Americans can hardly bare to watch the evening news or peruse their local paper as they sip their morning coffee.


Florida Alligator
OPINION  |  COLUMNS

Trump’s complacency with racism is concerning

Another day, another tweet from President Donald Trump. It doesn’t quite come as a surprise to anyone anymore, does it? Our president has desensitized many of us to his cruelty and ignorance by exposing us to his repulsive words on a daily, or sometimes hourly, basis.



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