The Gainesville Iguana

by Bret, CMC Board member

The Civic Media Center and Stetson Kennedy Library have been a beacon of independent media, grassroots activism, and community education in Gainesville since 1993. 

Home to the Travis Fristoe Zine Library, the CMC, at 433 S. Main in Gainesville,  is more than an alternative library — it’s a community hub where ideas, organizing, and action can come alive.   

This month, the Samuel Proctor Oral History Program at UF features excerpts from a 2020 interview with Dr. Christopher Busey, who at the time was a professor at the UF College of Education. Dr. Busey talks about his early life, his time as an undergrad and as a professor at UF. He was interviewed by Maria Espinoza [E] and Omar  Sanchez [S]. Excerpt edited by Beth Grobman. For the full interview go to tinyurl.com/tinyurl.com/Iguana2215

S: So, can I ask you a little about your family and your family’s history? 

B: My grandparents were born during the height of racial terror in the south. You’re talking lynchings. You’re talking racial violence, and that left an indelible mark on them and also influenced a lot of the conversations they had with us. 

by Robert “Hutch” Hutchinson

The Iguana calls us to action — and remembers those who answered that call with uncommon dedication. Jeff Shapiro was a ubiquitous leader who made things happen. Intellectually curious and guided by a firm moral compass, Jeff always chose hands-on activism over hand-offs or hand-wringing. With generous enthusiasm he pitched in on dozens of efforts to make Alachua County a better place.

by Jason Bellamy-Fults, Recording Secretary, IBEW Local 1205, proud member of the North Central Florida Central Labor Council

Particularly given the heavy-handed role that our state legislature and Governor have been choosing to take in the local affairs of our communities, it’s important to be aware of who our state legislators are and what the heck they’re up to.  Over the course of our next few columns, we’ll be discussing this year’s legislative session and what it meant for working Floridians.  Our emphasis will be on the Alachua County legislative delegation, but a similar methodology can and should be applied to other counties throughout our state.

1. Who our local legislators are.
2. What the major bills of concern were and how these legislators voted.

Caring for Community: The Women’s Giving Circle 

The Friends of Susan B. Anthony is happy to announce that they will celebrate Women’s Equality Day (Aug. 26) with their annual luncheon on Saturday, Aug. 23 at the Best Western Grand at 11:30am. The community is invited to this event, which began as an informal birthday party for Susan B. Anthony over forty years ago, and is now held in conjunction with the anniversary of the passage of the 19^th Amendment giving women the right to vote. 

My name is John K. Spitzberg, and I am 87 years old. Presently, I live in the Atrium in NW Gainesville, an independent living facility. I came to Gainesville to recover from spinal cord surgery and to live close to my granddaughter, Emily, who is studying nursing at UF.  I’ve been here for close to one and a half years with Reba III, my beloved emotional support dog. She is my constant companion and cheers up most of the residents at the Atrium.

Growing up in Washington D.C., I left to join the Army in 1958. Two years in an artillery unit in Germany, a marriage to a German national who is deceased, and a final year at Ft. Meade, Maryland was how I served my active duty in the Army during the Cold War. I was assigned to write articles for the Fifth Corps Guardian and Stars and Stripes. I also served in a Reserve Engineering Company for two years.

by Bobby Mermer, PhD, Alachua County Labor Coalition Coordinator

It hasn’t been a great year for healthcare justice in the United States or direct democracy in Florida. 

But don’t despair. We can continue making progress in the fight for affordable and equitable healthcare even in the current political climate. We can stand up to bullies in Tallahassee who want to take away your right to amend your state constitution. But we will only be successful if you join the fight to (finally) expand Medicaid to low-income adults and families under the Affordable Care Act! 

by Amy Trask

There’s a kind of heartbreak that comes not from surprise, but from recognition. We knew what the Big Beautiful Bill was. We read the fine print, saw the projections, understood the stakes. We knew this bill was not built to lift us up. It was built to break us. Still, when the final vote came down—after seven hours of procedural maneuvering and last-minute concessions—it hurt.

It hurt because this wasn’t just a policy decision. It was a values decision. It told us, in no uncertain terms, who half of this Congress is willing to fight for—and who it’s willing to leave behind. It told us that if you are poor, if you are sick, if you are working-class, if you are trying to survive in a system that was never built for you—this government will not protect you. It is a moral turning point that demands we meet it with honesty, with courage, and with resolve.

by Autumn Johnstone

The 988 National Suicide and Crisis Lifeline will no longer be providing specialized support to LGBTQ+ youth considering suicide, effective July 17, although in 2024, about 40 percent of LGBTQ+ individuals in the U.S. considered attempting suicide.  The federal government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration announced this on June 17. 

While the 988 Lifeline will continue to provide services for those who seek help, LGBTQ+ individuals are left without personalized support from those who share similar life experiences. 

by Joe Courter

As the shit-storm of the MAGAization of our country manifests in so many ways, the obvious question arises, how do we overcome this?  Social media has given us the ability to create big protests, but as with the protests in Tahrir Square in Egypt, or during Occupy in the US showed, then what? What’s the next move? How do we build a movement?

We now know there are a lot of us willing to turn out, No Kings was a great success, but back to the streets again and again can seem futile. The fantastic win by Zohran Mamdani in the NYC Mayoral race is really inspirational, with social media aiding the organization of a fantastic grassroots campaign. The idealism of working toward a better world motivated all those canvassers and voters.  

by David Arreola

It was a bright sunny February day when we came together for the first organic protest against Trump’s immediate assault on the Constitution. We let everyone speak, yell, or whisper their thoughts on what was to come. Now, in July, it is hot outside, and we couldn’t possibly let thousands of people take the microphone. But, what if we could? After all, a mic is only one form of power. We wonder what it would look like if thousands of you reading this paper picked up your form of power today after reading this? Let’s wonder.

by Damian Niolet, North Florida Veterans for Peace Vice President

It’s time we talk about military service members who join with good intentions but are forced into impossible moral situations. Too often, we expect our service members to blindly follow commands without acknowledging many of these orders are, in fact, unlawful. 

What constitutes an unlawful order is not up for debate — if not expressly forbidden in US law, then there’s always our collective moral compass to guide our actions. The real question is: how do we, as a society, support those who are caught in the middle of this mess?