Tag Archives: Iguana

From the publisher — Iguana hits 30: Origins and purpose

joe-WEBby joe courter

If you noticed on the upper right corner of the cover of this Iguana, this is “Vol. 30, Issue 1/2.” That means that this year will mark the 30th year that the Iguana has been publishing. (Okay, we did take time off between Jan. 2010 and March 2011.) The math tells you that 1986 marks when we started, and since then a lot has taken place. Like a good percentage of you readers were actually born, a fact which kinda boggles my mind.

1986, and that general time period, was a major time for events which are still playing out in major ways. It was in the Reagan era that a lot of banking and finance laws changed which allowed massive mergers and creative financial practices which set the wheels in motion for the financial crash of 2008. See the documentary “Inside Job” which lays this out really well.

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March 2015 Gainesville Iguana

march 15 iguana coverThe March 2015 issue of the Gainesville Iguana is now available online, and it’s got lots of good stuff (city election endorsements, Chomsky on ISIS, oral history interview with Medea Benjamin, and more!). You can also pick the issue up at any of our distribution spots, which you can find here.

October 2014 Gainesville Iguana

october 2014 iguana coverHello Gainesville and Gainesville ExPats!

The October 2014 issue of the Gainesville Iguana is now available online, and it’s got lots of good stuff (election recommendations, Hunter S. Thompson, The Fest, and more!). You can also pick the issue up at any of our distribution spots, which you can find here.

April 2014 Gainesville Iguana

april iguana coverCan’t get into town for the print Iguana? Or did you make it to the box a little late this month?

Well, don’t worry! We have the whole April 2014 issue here for your perusal.

January/February 2014 Gainesville Iguana

january-february-coverCan’t get into town for the print Iguana? Or did you make it to the box a little late this month?

Well, don’t worry! We have the whole January/February 2014 issue here for your perusal.

October 2013 Gainesville Iguana

october coverCan’t get into town for the print Iguana? Or did you make it to the box a little late this month?

Well, don’t worry! We have the whole October 2013  issue here for your perusal.

July/August 2013 Gainesville Iguana

july-augustcoverCan’t get into town for the print Iguana? Or did you make it to the box a little late this month?

Well, don’t worry! We have the whole July/August 2013  issue here for your perusal.

If You Don’t Know, You Don’t Care – Note from the Publisher

by joe courter

I’m an admitted media junkie and probably wouldn’t be in the position of writing this if I wasn’t. But for me it goes beyond just trying to keep myself informed; I strongly believe in giving other people the tools to be more informed, too.

Back in 1977, UF Anthropology professor Dr. MJ Hardman drafted me into writing the monthly meeting announcement for the Humanist Society of Gainesville. That grew into a newsletter of sorts and was then rolled into the founding of this publication in 1986.

The early ‘90s saw the initial meetings that led to the founding of the Civic Media Center in 1993, and I was there, too, serving as its first coordinator, and still today am heavily involved as an active volunteer and Board member.

I jotted a quote from a speaker I heard on NPR last month on a piece of scrap paper I keep handy in my vehicle, which I found a couple days ago. I did not note who said it, as I was driving at the time, but I thought it captured something very basic to me and my efforts with both the Iguana and the CMC (two separate entities that share me, I remind you all). It was just seven words but it captured the heart of my motivation: “If you don’t know, you can’t care.”

We live in an information revolution of astounding proportions, and the responsibility is on each of us to pick from that vast menu the stuff we choose to put in our heads, the stuff that will shape our worldview and our interactions with the world. We still only have a limited amount of time to take in what we do, and the temptation to choose, shall we say, empty calories is great. Our mainstream culture spews a frightening array of crap at us that we internalize, as a number of surveys amply demonstrate.

This severely affects our role as informed citizens in the process of our participatory democracy. Especially now, with our political process so corrupted by corporate power, more and more people are looking to escape the bad news, and get sucked into all kinds of readily proffered distractions.

Folksinger Roy Zimmerman has a new song out which really resonated with me (find him on YouTube). Called “Hope, Struggle and Change,” in its very clever Roy way, it addresses how in 2008 we left out that middle word which is at the heart of how the process of making the world a better place happens. We need to know our history, recognize our rights and responsibilities as citizens, and do our bit.

The powers-that-be are happy to have us distracted, to not pay attention or know what’s going on, because there are a lot of us, and if we all started to care, they might not be able to just roll us over.

P.S. – Subscriptions or donations are necessary for the Iguana to continue; please show your support if you possibly can. We all really appreciate your support. Mail checks payable to the Iguana to P.O. Box 14712,
Gainesville, Fla., 32604, or visit the “About” page on our website at gainesvilleiguana.org for more information.

May/June 2012 Gainesville Iguana

Can’t get into town for the print Iguana? Or did you make it to the box a little late this month?

Well, don’t worry! We have the whole May/June 2012 issue here for your perusal.

April 2012 Gainesville Iguana

Can’t get into town for the print Iguana? Or did you make it to the box a little late this month?

 

Well, don’t worry! We have the whole April 2012 issue here for your perusal.

April 2012 Iguana Calendar

Want to know what’s going on in Gainesville this month? Check out the Iguana’s April 2012 Calendar. Print it out and put it in your wallet, on your refrigerator, or pass it on to a friend.

Have an event you’d like to see on the Iguana Community Calendar? Email it to us at gainesvilleiguana@cox.net.