You’ll never forget your first sighting of Turlington preachers dooming unsaved souls to the fiery pits of hell, or the herds of college students stumbling down University Avenue at 2am on a Saturday night.

But during your stay here, you are also prone to have an experience of a different sort. Whether it’s getting pulled over for speeding on campus (yes, 20 mph speed limit campus-wide means 20 mph speed limit campus-wide), hearing that dreaded knock on the door of a wild house party or dealing with the depressing task of having to report your bike stolen, the chances of facing law enforcement in the form of the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) or the University of Florida Police Department (UPD) are very likely.

You never expect to see those red and blue lights flashing in your rear-view mirror, let alone feel the sting of cold metal around your wrists, but the chances of a night of dollar High Lifes at Mothers turning sour is always present.

So how can you prepare yourself for an encounter with the police? Know your rights.

After the jump, you’ll find some basic guidelines on what to do when facing a police officer. The information is based on the video “Busted” from Flexyourrights.com and from the American Civil Liberties Union’s “Know Your Rights When Encountering Law Enforcement.” Of course, this is not meant to substitute the legal advice you should seek if entangled in a legal dilemma, but a little education might just help you avoid ending up on gainesvillemugs.com.

When Being Questioned

When Being Stopped

When Being Arrested

If You’ve Been Abused

Dear Undergrads of UF,

In all likelihood, you will have a class this fall taught by a graduate assistant—a graduate student employed by UF while completing his or her degrees. Graduate assistants may be either teaching assistants (TAs) or research assistants (RAs). TAs and RAs work hard as both students and as employees of UF. They perform a significant amount of the teaching and research at UF. Since 2002, 40 percent of the sections taught at UF have had TAs as the primary instructors.

There is no doubt you will have a lot of face time with your TA this semester, but his or her exuberance in the classroom will not show the struggles he or she may encounter. All graduate assistants have bills to pay: rent, utilities, groceries, and many have partners and children whom they must provide for as well. Some TAs earn as little as $5,000 during the nine-month academic year, which is well below the poverty line.

Fortunately, the hardworking graduate assistants have an advocate. Since 1980, Graduate Assistants United has been the labor union representing graduate assistants employed by UF. Every year, GAU sits down with UF to negotiate the contract that sets the terms of employment for every graduate assistant working at the university, and every year, GAU seeks to improve the benefits and working conditions established in the contract. In the 30 years of GAU’s bargaining with UF, it has secured for graduate employees guaranteed tuition waivers (which pay their tuition but not their fees), five days of personal time per semester for illness or family emergency, protection of academic freedom, the elimination of a discriminatory international student fee, fully subsidized and comprehensive health care (known as GatorGradCare) and the deferred payment of fees. GAU’s current goal is to bargain for a complete waiver of fees for graduate assistants.

Any graduate assistant can become a member of GAU. Perhaps even your TA is a member (you can tell if your TA wears the members-only T-shirt that says “With Love, Graduate Assistants United” to class). Even though every graduate assistant at UF reaps the benefits of the GAU-negotiated contract, whether he or she is a member of the union or not, becoming a member is vital to the success of GAU. As members, graduate assistants can vote in officer elections, help set the priorities for contract negotiations, and get local and national discounts. Most importantly, there is strength in numbers, and the larger GAU’s membership becomes, the more clout it has when it negotiates with UF. If ever there are no more members, there will be no more GAU, nor anything it has won for graduate assistants.

As the official, recognized voice representing the hardworking graduate assistants at UF for the last three decades, GAU understands that TAs and RAs deserve decent wages, good working conditions and respect for their work. So when your classes begin this fall, show your TA that you care: complete all your assignments on time, don’t text in class and ask your TA if he or she is a member of GAU.

Jordan Dominy

Since my decision to become a vegan in fall 2006, I have been bombarded with questions like: “What can you possibly eat?” and “Can vegans eat animal crackers?”

I’m here to clear up the misconceptions associated with veganism.

As a vegan, I have eaten more delicious food than ever before. Even on a college budget, vegans can not only eat well but also have a variety of options to choose from.

By definition, a vegan diet is a vegetarian who consumes no animal products, including dairy. Before I made the transition, the thought of giving up cheese, Funfetti cupcakes and meat seemed like it would be too difficult.

But once I officially made the switch, not only did the cravings subside, but I felt the healthiest I had in years. That being said, you can still indulge: Oreos and French fries are both vegan.

From Andre 3000 to Zooey Deschanel, more people are making the transition. The negative connotation associated with a vegan diet is simply outdated.

And, yes, vegans can eat animal crackers – when they are made without milk or eggs.

Hidden Vegan Treasures to show how easy it is to find good, vegan food in Gainesville (and, to be completely honest, it was difficult for me to narrow the list down to 10 options):

Gator Dawgs and Karma Cream
Those that know me know that these are paired for a reason, seeing as how I can’t go to one and not the other. They are next door to each other and are a vegan’s dream. Gator Dawgs offers a wide variety of faux meat that taste so real I literally had to ask Otis, the owner, if the Veggie Chili was truly veggie. He also offers a variety of options that you can convert easily into a vegetarian or vegan option. My favorite is a derivation of the “Tater Dawg,” namely the “Ashton Dawg” topped with Tater Tots, (veggie) chili, and the optional cheese for non-vegans. The perfect post-dawg treat is next door at Karma Cream with a daily selection of always-vegan cupcakes that Betty Crocker would envy.

Chopstix
If you are a fan of Asian cuisine, this is the place for you. There’s an entire page of vegetarian dishes to choose from. Do not fear tofu. When done right, tofu, seitan or tempeh can be the best dishes you’ve ever eaten. My younger brother, the world’s biggest carnivore, chooses General Tso’s tofu every time he is in town.

The Top
The eclectic decor and delicious food options are the perfect Gainesville dinner combination. You can start off with Buffalo Tempeh appetizer that my non-vegan roommate craves on a weekly basis and try out a vegan special or the Vegan Seitan Philly for an entree. Once you’ve had your meal, you have to save room for the Vegan Chocolate cake.

The New Deal
Typically, I prefer tofu when prepared well or seitan, except at the New Deal. This is the perfect restaurant to taste tempeh if you are tentative about trying it out. The Sloppy Tempeh Joe would make the lunch lady from Billy Madison ashamed to ever serve anything else.

Book Lover’s Café
Another local favorite, Book Lover’s is a vegetarian restaurant and has a wide variety of vegan options. While the daily themed specials, ranging from Greek to Ethiopian to Southern dishes are truly phenomenal, I order the Vegan Quiche every time I go. After your dish you should enjoy a dessert, especially on Vegan Cupcake Monday.

43rd Street Deli
Longing for a homemade breakfast for this Kentucky girl ends here. Vegan biscuits and gravy or a weekend pancake or French toast special will knock your socks off. While the specials are out of this world, you have to make sure to get a side of tofu.

Leonardo’s By the Slice and Bistro 1234
Located in the same building and equally vegan friendly, this is the perfect stop for vegans near campus. Not only do they provide a daily vegan pizza that is truly delicious, but their salads and rolls will keep you coming back for more. If you have more time, Bistro 1234 has a Spicy Tofu Melt that satisfies all hunger needs.

Green Mango
A newly discovered hidden treasure, the Green Mango is worth the drive. Just past the mall, the Green Mango has the best authentic Indian food in town. The samosas, chana marsala, and naan will transport you to India.

Farrah’s
Vegans and vegetarians alike: If you have yet to venture into the realm of Mediterranean cuisine, you need to drop existing dinner plans and get to your nearest hummus source.

La Tienda
A hidden treasure worth finding, La Tienda is an authentic Meixcan restaurant off of 13th Street with unbelievable guacamole and vegetarian options. Although the guacamole is worth the trip, the burrito de arroz y frijoles (rice and beans) with a side of guacamole has me coming back for more.

All of the food officially sold on campus, from Arredondo Café to Starbucks, is controlled by Aramark, a private corporation with a shady history at UF.

These are the people who decide what food businesses are allowed to operate on campus and what meal plans are offered.

The only place that non-Aramark food can be bought is through the daily Krishna Lunch program, and this is only achieved by not charging for their food but through the use of “mandatory donations.”

The administration fell under heavy criticism in 2007 and 2008 for the rewarding of a non-competitive 10-year contract to Aramark without student input. The placement of a registered lobbyist for Aramark sitting on the Board of Trustees, the highest governing body of UF and the conveyor of the contract, has brought its partiality under suspicion.

Aramark mainly generates their revenue from food sales through the use of captive audiences–people who cannot choose another food option.Their target market includes prisoners, oil rig workers, concert-goers and the meal plans sold to freshmen at the University of Florida.

From 2007-2008 students did not eat 38.6 percent of meals on their plan but were still charged for them. With the cheapest meal plan costing $1,600, many students found themselves out of much-needed cash. According to the UF administration, this has improved recently because now 85 percent of meals plans bought are unlimited. Nonetheless, these contracts are expensive and are notoriously difficult to cancel.

The system designed by Aramark makes it next to impossible to get out of a meal plan. The three ways to change a meal plan are:

1. Join a fraternity or sorority with a mandatory meal plan. Students are still required to pay the difference in costs between the two.
2. Transfer to a declining balance account during the grace period (until Aug. 27 and Jan. 3 -Jan. 7). These credits roll over to each consecutive semester and can be refunded when you leave UF.
3. Graduate, withdraw or transfer from UF.

The majority of students, faculty and staff surveyed in spring 2009 believed that eating on campus was more expensive than eating off campus.

Aramark decided to advertise specials more heavily instead of reducing their prices in an attempt to obscure the problem. A similar survey conducted in Fall of 2009 found an over all satisfaction rate of 5.38 out of 7, mostly due to the high costs, lack of food variety and limited hours of operation.

Aramark has recently started taking students’ opinions into consideration more. When Pollo Tropical and Cheeburger Cheeburger opened with more expensive menus, the students noticed and brought it to their attention. The menus where quickly changed to reflect their contemporaries on other universities inside the state.

Aramark has recently agreed to extend their hours of operations at residential dining facilities, introduce healthier options, expand vegetarian/vegan food, and open gluten-free stations at the behest of the students. Aramark also agreed to increase the pay 1.5 cents per pound for tomatoes purchased from Immokolee that goes directly to the farm workers in part due to the urging by the student body.

A better dining experience is possible but only through continued student involvement in decision making.

The unfair meal plans, marginal input from students, and their questionable contractual dealings leave few redeeming qualities of on-campus dining.

If students are inclined to question why UF continues to do business with Aramark they need to look no further than the bottom line. In 2007 UF made $2.5 million off the contract with an expected increase each year. With these high stakes, there is little hope that on-campus dining will have any meaningful change without strong student pressure.

An example of good journalism? Maybe, if it had been reported about five years ago, before other independent journalists, like Tim Shorrock, starting covering the issue extensively. Jeremy Scahill summed these sentiments up nicely in an article he wrote for The Nation this week:

“[The series'] greatest accomplishment is forcing a discussion onto corporate TV years after it would have had an actual impact.

“The misplaced hype surrounding the Post series speaks volumes to the ahistorical nature of US media culture. Next week, if the New York Times published a story on how there were no WMDs in Iraq, there would no doubt be cable news shows that would act like it was an earth-moving revelation delivered by Moses on the stone tablet of exclusive, groundbreaking journalism.”

We’re glad you caught on, WaPo, but the fact is this is too little, too late. Remember your primary duty when acting (posing?) as the fourth estate: seek the truth as a watchdog for American citizens. Yes, you sought the truth and found it (even if you left out key details, like contractors’ roles in assassinations and torture), but couldn’t you have done this years earlier, when we had more of a chance to pull ourselves out of this contractor addiction? Other journalists did…

Flyer for the upcoming Fine Print Benefit Show, A Night of Sensuous Sounds.

Hey all. We’re pretty excited.

The Fine Print is hosting A Night of Sensuous Sounds, A Benefit Show on Friday, July 23 at 9pm.

Spend a night with us under the summer stars to the seductive sounds of wonderfully talented and generous local musical talents: rapper 2 Piece, Kiiks (http://www.myspace.com/kiiksmusic), James Austin of Eight Ghosts and Anchor Arms (http://www.myspace.com/theanchorarms) and Sir Claude (http://www.myspace.com/sirclaude).

All proceeds benefit The Fine Print’s continued efforts to serve the Gainesville community by filling the void in local, alternative media. You can find a copy of The Fine Print in our boxes on campus and around town as well as in local businesses.

We hope to see you there for a night of good music, good people and good times for a good cause.

Also, we’ll make some of the featured artists’ music available for streaming on the website in the coming week.

Facebook event link: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=139079809444516#!/event.php?eid=139079809444516&ref=ts

Neighborhood Contamination

When Mary Ann Jones bought her house in Northwest Gainesville, the real estate agent said there might be noise every now and then, due to the nearby industrial facility. She was okay with that. She was not warned that her grandchildren could be exposed to a dangerous concentration of dioxins, which are known to cause cancer and a wide range of health problems, especially in small children.

“I felt like this man signed me a death sentence,” she said.

For slightly over a year, Jones has lived at 3118 NW 4th St. with her extended family, which includes three grandchildren. The top of her fence is wrapped in barbed wire, which separates her backyard from the 90-acre Superfund site previously owned by Koppers, Inc. She wants to move away but doesn’t have the financial means.

For 93 years, Koppers, Inc. operated a wood-treatment facility at 200 NW 23rd Ave, releasing industrial toxins — including arsenic, hexavalent chromium, creosote and dioxins — into Gainesville’s air, water and soil. The area is now ranked as one of the nation’s top-100 polluted sites. It has been designated a Superfund site — a place so heavily polluted with toxic waste that it poses a threat to human health and the environment — for 27 years.

“I’m scared to death,” she said. “I like to garden, but now my plants are dead because I’m scared to touch them. We’re pretty much stuck here.”

Her two youngest grandchildren – Carlos, 6, and Aaron, 3 – play outside every day without understanding the situation.

“We’re always telling them – if you drop anything on the ground, don’t pick it up and definitely don’t put it in your mouth. And always wash your hands when you come inside.”

Jones said she feels like no one has been there for her – not the local or state government, and certainly not the EPA. Her front yard is peppered with signs, which say things like, “Governor Crist – Where Are You?” and “Gainesville’s Dirty Little Secret is Out!”

The site is currently managed by Beazer East, the company responsible for cleaning up the site. According to disclosure forms filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Beazer was previously known as Koppers Company, Inc., and has an agreement to absorb environmental liabilities from the current incarnation of Koppers.

Legal battles over contamination have followed the companies around the country. Koppers currently faces lawsuits in Texas and Mississippi, though many of the claims have been dismissed. In its latest annual report, Koppers warned investors that, “Litigation against us could be costly and time-consuming to defend, and due to the nature of our business and products, we may be liable for damages arising out of our acts or omissions.”

Years of Uncertainty

Chris Bird of the Alachua County Department of Environmental Protection said the fact that Koppers was allowed to operate its facility for so long, despite the property’s Superfund status, has hindered the clean-up process.

“You can’t make a bed while someone is still sleeping in it,” he said.

Mitchell Brourman, a representative from Beazer East, said there are many reasons the process has taken so long, from Gainesville’s unique geology to discrepancies between state and federal regulations. He acknowledged, however, that the continued operation of the Koppers facility was one of them, “to some degree.”

Local activist groups, including Protect Gainesville Citizens, Ban CCA, and the Stephen Foster Neighborhood Protection Group, have documented a variety of health complications among people who live near the site, from cancer to skin problems. They also contend that an unusually high number of dogs and cats near the site have malignant tumors.

Tests performed by the city and state health departments indicate hazardous dioxin levels in an easement between NW 26 St and NW 30 Ave, which serves as a buffer between Koppers and nearby neighborhoods. In 2009, the Alachua County Health department issued a press release warning parents not to let their children play in the easement.

The press release also states, “Incidental ingestion (swallowing) of very small amounts of surface soil in the neighborhood north and west of Koppers is not likely to cause harm.”

Scott Miller, the EPA’s regional project manager, said evidence of cancer in the neighborhood residents has been “anecdotal” and that the EPA “has not observed that effect.”

“The Florida Department of Health is doing a study of cancers in the area,” Miller said. “They will probably be making a response to that specific question with respect to folks living there as well as animals.”

Local resdents say they have waited too long for answers. Protect Gainesville Citizens has received an EPA grant to hire technical advisers, but the grants cannot be used to pay for additional testing. Advisers can only help community groups make sense of existing reports.

“We need more data,” said Cheryll Krauth, one of the group’s officers. “There are reports of health problems, and we don’t know if they’re worse than the average neighborhood or not. The problem is that the entities responsible for testing aren’t telling us.”

For decades, the Stephen Foster Neighborhood Protection Group has not trusted the state, Beazer or the EPA. Last year, they sought help from the Law Offices of Robert H. Weiss, a firm that specializes in environmental justice.

In January, Xenobiotic Laboratories, Inc., an environmental consulting firm hired by the legal team, tested fine dust particles from inside nine randomly selected houses within a two-mile radius of the Superfund site.

“This is unique,” said Stephen Murakami, a Weiss attorney. “Indoor tests are rarely performed [by government agencies]. Outdoor soil testing is their standard, as opposed to indoor tests where it counts – where people live, breathe, and make their beds.”

The state has determined that the maximum dioxin concentration for soil outside to be safe is seven parts per trillion. Inside the nine houses tested, the average dioxin concentration was 400 parts per trillion. In one house, they were as high as 1.2 parts per billion.

While toxins can dissipate in the environment, they can accumulate indoors. Murakami said that while outdoor levels may take this into consideration, he believes the results reveal a substantial risk to human health, and called for additional testing. The test results have not yet been made public.

According to the World Health Organization, long-term dioxin exposure is linked to impairment of the immune system, the nervous system, the endocrine system, and reproductive functions. Chronic exposure may lead to several types of cancer. Small children face the greatest risks.

Mary Ann Jones was recently informed of the tests by Stephen Foster residents. She’s left to wonder whether her family’s ailments, from skin rashes to nosebleeds, are mere coincidences, or signs of toxic contamination. The uncertainty fuels her fears.

“The more I think about it, the angrier I get,” Jones said. “You can’t put no price on my life or my family. Why would you try to cover up something that you know is so deadly? Why do you think money is more important than the lives of my grandkids?”

Water Contamination

The Superfund site is dotted with retention lagoons – unprotected pits where toxic waste is stored, a legacy of lax environmental regulations before the 1970s.

Local agencies had warned that creosote and other compounds could reach the Floridan Aqufer, 200 feet below the surface. The EPA contended until 2001 that the underground Hawthorne clay layer would provide a protective seal (see illustration).

“We and some citizens had been telling them we didn’t believe that – you haven’t done the right investigations to know what’s happening that deep under the site,” said Rick Hutton, an engineer from Gainesville Regional Utilities.

After further investigations, experts from the EPA, Beazer, and Gainesville Regional Utilities all agree that the Floridan Aquifer is already contaminated. Now, chemicals are slowly moving towards the Murphree Wellfield, where Gainesville Regional Utilities draws the city’s drinking water supply.

“We have wells in between our site and the Murphree Well Field,” said Mitchell Brourman of Beazer East. “Those monitoring wells are consistently clean. The protection of Gainesville’s water supply is one of the premises of our work.”

Hutton said Beazer will probably need to dig more wells to contain “hot spots” of underground pollution, and pump groundwater out of the aquifer at a faster rate to ensure it can be treated at the surface before contaminants reach the water supply.

“We don’t think the low-rate pumping will work,” said Hutton. “The EPA wants to give it a chance. If it doesn’t work, we expect them to take further steps.”

What can we do?

Groups of concerned citizens, including the Stephen Foster Neighborhood Association, Ban CCA, Protect Gainesville Citizens and the Stephen Foster Neighborhood Protection Group, have been working for decades to spread awareness of the issue and encourage community activism.

“Over 158 other sites have been closed since ours was declared a Superfund Site,” said Maria Parsons of the Gainesville Neighborhood Protection Group. “We’re still not cleaned up. Why? People coming together matters. You need to get active. Dig your heels in. Protest. Write letters. Make phone calls.”

Tia Ma, an officer of Protect Gainesville Citizens, has proposed the idea of using the property previously owned by Koppers to build an environmental research center, which would commemorate decades of anxiety and suffering, transforming them into a learning experience.

Brourman said Beazer East has “no problem” with that idea.

“There are going to be some public meetings where people can talk,” he said. “We’re all ears to those sorts of things.”

Want to get involved, or find out more about Gainesville’s local Superfund site and what different agencies and activist groups are doing to clean it up? Visit Protect Gainesville Citizens.

Jessica Newman: What is Grow Radio, and where did you get the idea?

Bill Bryson: Well, going way back, I was involved in college radio in North Carolina and got my taste in radio from that. Music has always been my passion, so it was just a natural outlet for me. Then I moved to Gainesville to open up a live music club. Then over the years, being in concert promotion and publishing a magazine, I kind of evolved into radio as the next wave of what I’m doing here. I moved here in ‘92, and between ‘92 and 2008 or 2009, there wasn’t a lot of success with alternative radio in town. There had been pirate radio even long before I was here, coming and going. You kind of had to be in the know to get them. Then I helped the Civic Media Center get their low-power FM license, which has its limitations, as well. Then Kiss 105 let Wayne Erwin run their AM signal as an alternative community radio in the mid-’90s, as well. It was successful enough to indicate to me that there was demand for it in the community. Over the years, there have been a few attempts to get a student-run station going, but it’s never really gone anywhere. Then Classic 89 has always been an option, I thought, that could have really taken advantage of community resources to create more locally generated programming because they had a couple of shows like that. But it was limited in terms of the air time they were getting. They could have dedicated a lot more energy and effort to that for minimal input expense-wise and probably maximum output.
Grow Radio has evolved out of a combination of all those things. I want to make it into a hybrid in terms of the model of the station between community radio and student-run college radio. I’m going to try and fill the daytime shifts with college kids and give them as much of an educational, as well as an enjoyable, experience with it. We’ve also gotten started just by me tapping some of my immediate resources as far as people in the music community. We’ll have a good balance of community members who aren’t necessarily affiliated with the university and students that are affiliated with the university. Commercial radio now is very automated; program selection is very much determined from the top down. There’s very little DJ input in terms of what you’re hearing on the air, if there’s any DJ at all. Sometimes it’s all just computer-generated. So my point with this is to get human beings back behind the media. With that in mind, even though we’re using the Internet as our medium, we are operating as a local radio station. I think we can have a small but relatively significant impact as a local station, just in a different medium as opposed to FM. I believe in the power of radio; I believe radio can really reach people, even without visuals. Having a real person talking to you, especially someone that’s from Gainesville, presenting a very Gainesville perspective on what they’re broadcasting, creates the locality of it and creates the uniqueness of it that hopefully people will embrace here.

JN: Why did you decide to do Grow Radio online?

BB: Over time, the benefits of being on the web are just going to expand in terms of: if people are listening to this radio station while they’re living in Gainesville, and they move someone else in the world, they can still tune into their Gainesville station. And you talk about the Gator Nation; it’s all over the world. So eventually Grow Radio could have an expansive audience all over the world. It’s not our primary focus, but I think that’s just, down the road, what’s probably going to happen. The technology of podcasting just creates lots of options for the listener in terms of how they want to receive their radio, as well. So I think all those things combined are kind of what is creating Grow Radio. It’s still very much embryonic right now, and it’s going to evolve based on who gets involved, what kind of community support comes forward and so on.

JN: What kind of a business model are you using?

BB: We’re setting it up as a 501(c)3, so we’ll operate on the same model as public radio. We’ll be reliant upon listener donations for support, as well as grants and any other kind of sponsorship money we can get.

JN: When did Grow Radio go live online?

BB: We went live about a year ago. This past year has been kind of an experiment to see with very little promotion whether this idea would get legs or not, and it seems like it has.

JN: What kind of success have you guys had so far?

BB: I’m very encouraged. We’ve noticed a lot of people listening from work. And I think, once students become more aware and interested, that we’ll see a lot more listeners coming from UF.

JN: What kind of programming is there on Grow Radio, and what kind of people are on the air?

BB: Right now it’s mostly music, but we’ve got a couple of monthly shows that are not musical right now. I think they’re kind of figuring out what they’re doing as they go along, and that’s great. That’s sort of what this is about — teaching people who have an interest in creating something within the community. They can learn something from it, as well as get some reward by contributing something to the community. A few people have been on the radio before. But for the most part, it’s starting from scratch. So our production side of things is a little bit clunky and pretty loose. But personally, I find that charming. It keeps it fairly organic and grassroots because we’re letting people do this regardless of their experience. If they have the passion and the interest to do something like this, then here’s the platform for it.

JN: Why does Grow Radio need to exist, and why is it important to Gainesville?

BB: It’s real personal for me. Music has always been a really important part of my life, through both my personal and my business life. I think through both of those avenues I’ve learned that I’m not the only one. It can help a community flourish, not just by adding to the musical culture, but also creating a platform like I’ve been describing where the community can actually get involved with this and give people the opportunity to create a creative culture within their own community without having to be a performer or a filmmaker or a writer.

Gainesville, you’ve been a real son-of-a-bitch. But I love you. We’ve had good times and bad times. You’ve been a dependable friend and a reliable crutch. You’ve been a jealous lover and a vicious monster. You’ve been a sage advisor and a snotty brat. You always wear black shirts and blue jeans. You always have a bike messenger bag full of tallboys. You always invite me to vegetarian potlucks even though I hate the food you make. You always want to ride your bike. You’re always awake. You’re always down for a beer on a Tuesday night.

Gainesville, do you remember that night when we stayed up till dawn listening to zydeco and drinking buckets of iced beer on my front porch, raging all night and planning our lives? Do you remember the spontaneous trips to the beach at five in the morning? Do you remember vandalizing that fraternity house? Do you remember that night on the roof of the Thomas Center? Do you remember when we occupied the Alumni Hall for justice? Do you remember that fist fight on New Year’s Eve? Do you remember when we made love in the middle of the afternoon and slept the rest of the day? Do you remember when you’d give me free coffee or pizza or beer in exchange for groceries? Do you remember strong-arming that Danish guy into leaving my brother’s girlfriend alone? Do you remember the insane poetry jams? Do you remember the Shamrock? Gainesville, Deja Brew lives on in our hearts.

So here’s to the road trips and the house parties. Here’s to arguing about Marx at Cuban restaurants. Here’s to Pabst Blue Ribbon (I still have the letter they sent me). Here’s to swimming in the pool in our underwear. Here’s to the CMC. Here’s to Crazy Greg. Here’s to sweaty summer nights and the drunken perfume of gardenias in the moonlight. Here’s to 3 a.m. booty calls. Here’s to nighttime union house visits. Here’s to the National Labor Relations Board. Here’s to Red Seder dinners. Here’s to the Suwannee River. Here’s to cold fried chicken (doused in hot sauce) with beer at the springs. Here’s to singing around backyard bonfires until late in the night. Here’s to the night they burned a couch in the middle of Third Ave. Here’s to the workers.

There are a few things you should always remember Gainesville. We’ve spent enough time together that I know some of your bad habits. Stay away from hard drugs. No one ever seriously expanded their consciousness through controlled substances. Don’t smoke weed every day. Biking will not bring down capitalism. Neither will dumpstering food or shopping at thrift stores. Don’t let your righteous anger and thirst for action blind you to reality on the ground. Study. Theorize. Fight. Study again. Fight again. Fight hard. Direct your struggle against those who have the power to change things. Go to meetings. Speak up in meetings. Join a movement. I don’t buy for a minute your bullshit about “not being a joiner.” Have no illusions about voting. Or the Democratic Party. Build a power base. Don’t be afraid to argue about politics. But don’t think you have all the answers. Have fun. Lots of it. Throw parties on weeknights. Never let school interfere with your education. If you graduate with a 4.0 GPA, you didn’t do enough activism. Leave the drama at the door. Sneak into apartment complex pools in the middle of the night. Have sex. Lots of it. But wear a fucking condom. Put yourself out there. Don’t take yourself too seriously. Learn how to cook. Read Neruda. Read Galeano. Read Marx. Read Lenin. Don’t be exclusive. Don’t be insulated. Create meaning wherever you go. Go to the beach. Go to protests. Learn public speaking. Get a job. But never work too hard for $8 an hour. Stand up for yourself. Stand up for your friends.

Always remember that a better world is possible. A world that is not scarred by hunger or fear or poverty or prejudice or the most horrific attacks on the dignity of human life. If you’ll stand with the immense majority of humankind in this fight for a better world, I’ll meet you farther on up the road. History is ours.

At least that’s how I imagine it. Like every other night here. Seamless, sticky hours of loose tongues and rowdy sidewalks. Christmas lights in the banyan trees. Long legs, bleached hair and teeth, and the collared boys who love them. This island is a hideout. The beginning and the end. Mile 0. Time passes only as a series of classic rock covers and vague impressions.

Duval is just like any other Spring Break street, with the doors flung open and the tanned shoulders spilling from their halter tops. The girl on the bar is too young to know the songs she’s dancing to. Hungry faces slouch at her feet, suck down pints and slide dollar bills beneath her garter. Outside, the pedicabs and taxis hustle by. The cops grope their belt buckles and lean in the alleys to spit.

Everyone is on vacation, even the locals. They carry their drinks from corner to corner, scream and lust and vomit, and no one notices. The spiky-haired hippy chicks with the homemade tattoos and the banjos on their backs, the Navy boys on their scooters, the bikers and sailors and fishermen all struggling to hold their liquor and let everything else go. They’re escaping something, searching for a way to lose themselves in this tropic limbo and linger like another grain of sand, another buoy tangled in the mangroves.

No one wants the story to end. They drink enough to forget what they have read or tear out the pages and tuck them away. Paradise, after all, is a matter of perspective. It lasts only so long as there is ice for the rum.