Florida ruins offensive players. That’s just what it does, with a few notable exceptions.
I don’t like to start a column this way, but sometimes we do things we don’t like in order to think critically about the world. Imagine a large building in Gainesville burned down. Imagine the fire started by accident — a gas leak or a candle — but the flames raged out of control, and the entire structure came down. In the 24 hours following the fire, we learn that it rapidly escalated as a result of poor building codes, and we probably could have contained the fire if it had not spread so quickly.
We are living in a time of anger. We’re angry at the way the world looks right now. We are angry at each other for making it this way. We all have different opinions about why the world is the way it is, and we have even more opinions about how to fix it.
Funny, isn’t it? The game of football. It’s a confusing sport. One with plenty of randomness that sometimes isn't that random and plenty of measurables that you can’t really measure and plenty of certainties that turn to uncertainties.
There’s nothing quite like Homecoming week at the University of Florida — as long as you exclude all the Homecoming weeks at other colleges. But one thing UF has going for it this weekend is a premier college football matchup between the Gators, who feel like they can conquer the world after beating Vanderbilt, and a team that almost knocked off Troy last weekend. The LSU Tigers come into Gainesville looking to find the win column for the first time since beating Syracuse two weeks ago. But while LSU had little trouble taking down the Orange, we’ll find out Saturday if they can beat the Orange and Blue.
Gov. Rick Scott has made every effort to wash his hands of the Sept. 13 South Florida nursing home tragedy, which left 12 residents dead. In my opinion, he shouldn’t absolve himself so quickly.
The Renaissance is known as the “cultural bridge between the Middle Ages and modern history,” according to Wikipedia, with the genesis being in Florence, Italy, in the 14th century. It was a vibrant period of exploding artistic expression and impressive intellectual and philosophical exploration.
It’s the Homecoming football game, and you and your friends have been eagerly waiting all week to watch the Gators crush the Louisiana State University Tigers. You’re a little groggy after staying up late to watch Snoop Dogg perform at Gator Growl, but — let’s be honest — it was worth it.
Growing up, my parents instilled the idea in me that everyone should be treated equally, regardless of race, ethnicity, orientation, etc. That especially includes gender, and there’s a reason I chose to single that out.
Florida men’s basketball coach Mike White is a very honest man.
One head coach, three assistant coaches and 13 basketball players walk into a locker room. They’re fresh off of a trip to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight, but they just lost four very productive seniors, three of their top-four leading scorers from a year ago and their would-be starting center for several months due to an ACL injury.
We at the Alligator, along with everyone else in the U.S., woke up to some terrifying statistics Monday morning. The deadliest mass shooting in recent U.S. history. This tragic event occurred in Las Vegas, where one man managed to bring 17 guns into a hotel room, knock out the windows and begin indiscriminately firing into a crowd hundreds of feet away. This one man took away a record from Florida that never should have been established in the first place.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a UF student, it’s that college students are not as tolerant as they claim to be. Are you surprised? I’m not. The hypocrisy of those who claim to be tolerant is stunning, and it was on full display last week after Victoria Fortier wrote a column for the Alligator titled “It’s time to stop kneeling during the national anthem.”
You know, it’s OK if you don’t actually want to go out,” my friend told me via FaceTime while I begrudgingly highlighted my cheekbones. That night, I didn’t have to study, and I didn’t really have to catch up on sleep. I didn’t have any excuse not to go out, so I felt like I had to. I felt like I should want to. My friend is a recent graduate so I assume she must have forgotten about that inner conflict we all get when we consider going out or staying in. The former always wins. I reminded her why: College is only four years! I don’t have much longer to buy $5 triples! We’re all going to graduate and have to be adults soon!
I would like to (metaphorically, of course) pull the hair of whoever came up with the concept that waiting until your last two years of college to take on internships is a good idea. Maybe this person was hoping more people would relax during their first two years or was concerned that most college freshmen don’t have the knowledge they need to intern, but I’m here to tell you that simply isn’t true.
Motorized scooters are great for getting around campus, especially to the emergency room.
Kylan Johnson couldn’t help but flash a smile from ear to ear Saturday afternoon as he sat down to speak with reporters.
I am writing in response to Victoria Fortier’s column, verbosely titled, “It’s time to stop kneeling during the national anthem.” I’m a teaching assistant for ENC 1101 at UF, a class I really enjoy teaching. My students learn how to identify and write coherent arguments. One of the first things I teach them to do is to support claims with “receipts,” commonly known as evidence. I’m calling Fortier out because, while I respect her use of pathos, one of three rhetorical appeals (she’s really trying to rile people up), she hasn’t substantiated her claims with evidence. Dare I call unsubstantiated claims “fake news?” It’s true. More than 30 million people tune in every week to watch football games. It’s true that fans are now watching athletes kneel to protest the continued murder of black men, women and children. I disagree with Fortier’s claim that freedom has nothing to do with making a statement. I would back that claim up by providing my first receipt, the Declaration of Independence. Maybe Fortier has not had the chance to take history yet (however, I think it is a requirement), but this document is a literal statement of freedom written by our Founding Fathers. NFL protesters like Colin Kaepernick are very aware of their rhetorical situation. They understand their audience and have a specific purpose. Protest is a very specific strategy for making an argument. It’s often a dangerous and unpopular strategy in that it does not always care about being polite. While black men and women continue to die at the hands of corrupt police officers, Kaepernick and his fellow NFL players do not have time to be polite. Your plea for protesters to consider where and when they decide to make a statement isn’t needed. They have already considered where and when they protest. They have decided making you uncomfortable for a few minutes at the beginning of a football game is worth your discomfort. The Huffington Post reports that more than 250 black people were killed in 2016. These protesters want the murders to stop. If you were in my class and you turned in a paper without receipts, you’d receive an F.
“You realize you’ll make, like, no money doing that, right?”
Does taking a knee make you uncomfortable? Good. You know what’s beyond uncomfortable? Not knowing whether the police are there to help or hurt you.
Solutions by The State News
