Author Archives: Jessica

April 4 will mark the re-opening of Rad Press Cafe, formally Radical Press Coffee Collective.

The worker-run collective located inside the Civic Media Center has taken several months off to regroup and is now set to re-open, paying a set hourly wage to collective members for the first time.

Offering espresso drinks, drip coffee, shop-made lemonade and sodas, pre-made sandwiches, Strongtree’s fair trade organic coffee and Zapatista grown beans, you can expect the top quality product now with faster service.

In addition, Rad Press Cafe will now be carrying local dairy. Check the Radical Press Facebook page for more updates including hours.

by Ameena Khan

To the stranger who stopped me today while I was out with my friend and our kids at the museum:

Before asking me what I think about ISIS, and then implying oh-so-politely that I am not American, please know the following: my first breath was of the air in Gainesville FL, my first steps were on the ground in Gainesville FL, my first solid foods were tasted in Gainesville FL, I was educated in Gainesville FL from preschool through grad school, I spent my summers swimming in the FL springs and floating down the Ichetucknee, I spent my springtimes playing in the warm FL rain, I spent my free time at my friends’ houses eating popsicles and watching Nickelodeon. I have no connection to the violent political ideology that is terrorizing so many people (Muslims, more than any other group of people), and I have no answer when asked what you “as an American” can do.

Perhaps today I was not in the best of form when we spoke, and so I apologize if I seemed upset or was unable to respond eloquently. I didn’t expect you to ask the questions that you did when you wandered over to us, and I wasn’t prepared. On top of that, I am tired. I am tired of being expected to apologize every single day for something horrific and unimaginable that someone else does, I am tired of being expected to be a walking political science lecturer, I am tired of being held to a standard that I usually fall short of. I am just tired.

So, I am sorry that I could not give you the answers you were seeking, but next time may I suggest that you save your questions for an appropriate venue, rather than asking a random stranger who is with her friend and their children playing in a museum.

Sincerely, Ameena

Editor’s Note:  It should be noted that the person who asked about ISIS was a polite older woman. Inappropriate questions need not be aggressive to be offensive. A lesson  for us all. 

by Physicians for a National Health Program

On Feb. 14, a national physicians group hailed the reintroduction of a federal bill that would upgrade the Medicare program and swiftly expand it to cover the entire population. The “Expanded and Improved Medicare for All Act,” H.R. 676, introduced on Feb. 13 by Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., with 44 other House members, would replace today’s welter of private health insurance companies with a single, streamlined public agency that would pay all medical claims, much like Medicare works for seniors today.

Proponents say a Medicare-for-all system, also known as a single-payer system, would vastly simplify how the nation pays for care, improve patient health, restore free choice of physician, eliminate copays and deductibles, and yield substantial savings for individuals, families and the national economy.

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The Hippodrome Cinema will be showing “She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry” for the March Cinema Lounge on Tuesday, March 10, at 7:30 pm and 10 pm, for one night only!

“She’s Beautiful When She’s Angry” resurrects the buried history of the outrageous, often brilliant women who founded the modern women’s movement from 1966 to 1971. The film takes us from the founding of NOW, with ladies in hats and gloves, to the emergence of more radical factions of women’s liberation, from intellectuals like Kate Millett to the street theatrics of WITCH (Women’s International Conspiracy from Hell!).

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by joe courter

As we humans live our lives, we all determine, consciously or not, some values and principles to live by. Within that is the balance we pick for doing things that benefit our selves and doing things that benefit others.

In reading about and watching “Selma,” it got me thinking about the level of self-sacrifice shown during the Civil Rights Movement. Not just the risks and pressures put on the leadership, but the dedication of so many who marched, whether in their own town, or to pick up and travel to another place, such as the students who went south and joined SNCC (Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee), or the people from all over the country who went to Selma for that second march after the first had been so brutally repressed.

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