Lubee Bat Conservancy is excited to welcome everyone to their 13th Annual Florida Bat Festival to be held Saturday, Oct. 21 from 10am to 5pm. Our Flying Giants are ready to dispel the myths and superstitions surrounding these gentle animals.
Admission is $5 for children ages 5-12 (kids 4 and under free) and $8 per adult. The beer garden at Bat Fest is $25 online/$28 at gate (includes festival entry).
Posted in Articles, October 2017
by Ronnie Lovler
Editor’s note: There is a grassroots effort to get more people signed up for Obamacare, stimulated by the cruel efforts of the Trump administration to undercut it. They have shortened the sign-up period by over 50 percent, from three months to six weeks. They have slashed the budget for publicizing the sign up period by 90 percent. They eliminated sign-up on Sundays from midnight to noon, and as they are threatening to cut subsidies for low income subscribers, insurance companies are raising rates to cover their bottom line.
Here’s a link for more background: <http://wusfnews.wusf.usf.edu/post/obamacare-rates-increase-45-percent-2018#stream/0>
Posted in Articles, October 2017
The Matheson History Museum is bringing two new exhibits to Gainesville: “Finding the Fountain of Youth” and “Liberating Learning?” Both will be located in the main museum building at 513 East University Avenue.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
Alachua County Library District welcomes New York Times investigative reporter and author Mike McIntire on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 2:30 p.m. to Headquarters Library, 401 E. University Avenue. McIntire will talk about his book, Champions Way: Football, Florida and the Lost Soul of College Sports.
In his book, McIntire painstakingly lays out a damning case that Florida State University (FSU) and its sports program permitted sexual assaults and academic fraud as the price for producing championship football teams.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
Hey all you old Gainesville hands. Who remembers Chambergate and the fight against the Cement Plant?
Well former Gainesville Sun and Florida Times Union reporter Larry Schnell does, and he put them and other juicy memories into an entertaining novel, The Year of the Gator.
The novel reads like Carl Hiassen, but set in Gainesville and with many characters who strikingly resemble actual people we all know who played roles in that period. UF plays an important part in the book, and it opens with a scene in the Alachua County Jail. It is a “satiric tale as the author unmasks the forces in the game of economic development.”
The book is new and available at Wild Iris Books, which is open Fridays from 1-5pm and Saturdays from 1-6pm. See their Facebook page for upcoming expanded hours.
One more reason to go support Erica and Wild Iris Books.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
Wild Iris Books will be closing its doors Dec. 23. For 25 years, we have been your local feminist bookstore and we have loved being a part of your lives. Keeping the store going has taken love and sacrifice but it has also been a source of profound joy and goodness. Being a part of Wild Iris has been one of the most loving and sacred undertakings of our lives. The owners and volunteers have given their hearts and their labor to make sure feminist book-selling had a voice in Florida, but the time has come and we can no longer keep the store afloat.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
By Richard O’Brien
Directed by Jessica Arnold & Shay Smith
Brad and Janet are a simple, engaged couple whose lives get turned upside down by the “sweet transvestite” Frank ‘n Furter, his beautiful creation Rocky, and a household of strange Transylvanians on a stormy night.
This isn’t the shadowcast of the movie (which you can see over at High Dive); this is the in-your-face rock musical that started it all.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
By Sue Legg
Education Advocacy Chair
Florida League of Women Voter
There’s a war going on, and the ammunition is fake news. Take for example, the charge that educators resist change. Recent history tells a different story. After WWII, everyone was expected to go to high school; most did not before. When I was in high school, the space race put pressure on schools to teach more mathematics. My grandchildren are now taking math courses in middle school that I took in high school. Schools are changing, but not all of it is good.
In Florida, most people believe that public schools do the best job of preparing students for the diverse and complicated world in which they will live. School reform policy, however, assumes that consumer based competition with charter and private schools will make schools even better. In fact, competition in the private consumer sector does make many choices e.g. there are 13 types of cheerios and 189 TV channels most of which none of us has eaten or watched.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
By Brielle Elise, Transformative Coach of Rewild Soul.
As some of us spend our 9-to-5’s sitting and typing our souls (and butts) away, there is, for some, a little voice inside that quietly whispers, “There’s more to this life, isn’t there?” While there are some who feel truly satisfied with how they’re spending their days, there are a few souls out there who, consciously or not, feel a sense of painful complacency accentuated by at least a tiny spark of curiosity or longing for what more there could be.
We feel this as we endlessly dance our thumbs down our phone screens, scrolling through facebook and Instagram feeds, searching for … What exactly? Maybe inspiration, hope, joy, something to laugh at. But what are we really searching for? Honestly, probably distraction from the pain of the mundane life.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
by Carol Mosley
Four families with vast tracts of land are intent on mining phosphate on more than 10,000 acres in Bradford and Union counties. This could be the most important decision these two small counties will make in a generation and may have consequences many generations forward.
The proposed acreage straddles the New River, which runs between the two counties and feeds into the Santa Fe river, bringing the interests of Alachua county directly into the fold. Thousands of acres in the proposed area consist of wetlands, the filters that assure the water quality and tamper the flow of our rivers and streams, and recharge our fragile aquifer.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
Friday, Oct. 13, 6pm
Community Awards Dinner
The Annual Spirit of Pride Community Awards Dinner will officially kick off the Pride Days festivities at 6pm at the Sweetwater Branch Inn, 625 E University Ave. The featured speaker will be Diana Moreno, Assistant Director of UF Multicultural and Diversity Affairs and the Emcee will be Pegeen Hanrahan. Tickets are $50 and may be purchased at the Pride Community Center. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to find out who will receive the 2017 Spirit of Pride Awards and participate in the return of our fabulous silent auction featuring an all-inclusive trip to Cuba for two.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
by Joe Courter
Freaking out a little bit? Yeah, me too.
World events, local events, it seems to be a blur of crises, of things that seem to be so important and dominate our news, only to be displaced by another. From jaw-droppingly bizarre to downright frightening, it is like a psychological whack-a-mole, only instead of being able to whack the little heads, they are everything from snarling beasts to yapping dogs, seizing our attention then popping out of sight, magically obscured by the next creature, the next crisis of the day.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
ACLC: UF made poor decision to pay some employees and not others
By an anonymous OPS employee at UF
Following the turmoil of Hurricane Irma, I returned to my position as an OPS (temporary or “other personnel services”) employee at the University of Florida to discover that I would not be compensated for the three days of work missed due to the school’s closure.
According to UF’s Human Resources website, OPS employees would not be granted administrative leave due to a natural disaster, while employees classified as TEAMS (technical, executive, administrative and managerial support) or USPS (university support personnel system) would be granted the benefit.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
The Civic Media Center will mark the start of its 24th year with an anniversary dinner at the Matheson Museum on Friday evening, Oct. 20. It is a happy return to the Matheson where the CMC has held a number of successful “SpringBoard” fundraisers in years past.
The dinner features varied food from area restaurants, and great raffle and silent auction items. As an incentive to expand CMC’s collection, donations of current (within the last 5 years) and relevant books will be given a free raffle ticket per book.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
by Gainesville Anti-Fascist Committee
What do you mean by “anti-fascism”?
Political opposition to the violent, nationalistic ideology known as fascism. Fascism, which first appeared in Italy during WWI, emerges during times of economic and political crisis within capitalist economies. Fascist ideology and practice concentrates the worst aspects of society: sexism, racism, obedience to authority, worship of leader figures, violent scapegoating of “others” labelled “outside” of the dominant culture or national identity (immigrants, ethnic minorities, queer and trans folks, people with disabilities).
Posted in Articles, October 2017
The October 2017 issue of the Iguana is now available! If you want to get your hands on a hard copy, check out our distro locations here.
Posted in Articles, October 2017
Famous Florida folklorist, human rights organizer, and environmentalist Stetson Kennedy would have turned 101 years old on Oct. 5. One day before his birthday, on Oct. 4, the Civic Media Center will host a celebration of his life featuring music, cake, a sale of his books and, most importantly, a Powerpoint presentation by Sandra Parks, the woman he shared the last years of his busy life with and the director of the Stetson Kennedy Foundation.
“Living a Life of Purpose” covers 80 years of activism, from organizing against anti-Semitism as a 14-year-old to marching with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers in their fight for higher wages as a 94-year-old. In between those years he saw seven of his books published, many articles, speaking engagements, friendships with Woody Guthrie, Studs Terkel, Jean-Paul Sartre and countless others.
Posted in Articles, September 2017
Leroy Bell [B], military veteran and Apopka activist, was interviewed by Clayton Robinson [R] in July, 2013.
This is the 42nd in a series of transcript excerpts from the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program collection at the University of Florida.
Transcript edited by Pierce Butler.
B: I was born September the 4th, 1959 in a little place they call Gallion, Alabama. My father was more like a migrant worker. I grew up all over. Place like North Carolina, New York, Alabama, Florida. I really started doing farmwork in 1968. Once my father and mother moved us down here to Florida, most of us would pick oranges and grapefruits, go out to Sanford and pick up cucumbers out of the field.
Posted in Articles, September 2017
by Graduate Assistants United
Graduate Assistants United (GAU) is the labor union that represents approximately 4,000 graduate assistants (GAs) at the University of Florida. This includes all of the graduate students who may teach up to half of all classes at UF any given semester and also perform valuable research for the university.
Since ratifying our first contract in 1983, GAU has made significant progress in improving workplace conditions for GAs at UF. GAU has fought for and won healthcare, yearly pay raises, and many important employee protections.
Posted in Articles, September 2017
by Sheila Payne, ACLC Board Member
Members of Alachua County civil rights activist groups and faith community members are in the midst of helping to collect the almost 800,000 valid signatures to place a constitutional amendment on the 2018 Florida ballot to restore voting rights to the 1.7 million citizens who are no longer able to vote because of a past felony conviction. We are pushing to collect all the signatures by Dec. 31, 2017 for verification by February 2018. Sixty percent of 2018 voters would have to vote yes to the amendment for it to become law.
Florida’s Voting Restoration Amendment would allow people who did not commit a violent felony and have paid their debt to society, including completing probation, to again be voting citizens and full members of their community.
Posted in Articles, September 2017