Over the past decade Americans have been fixated on terrorism. It seems terrorism is around just about every corner, or, in the case of the TSA, hidden in every senior citizen's walker.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines terrorism as the unofficial or unauthorized use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims… Terrorism can take many forms, as the good folks at the University of South Florida discovered this week. You may have noticed that a certain Florida State Senator named J.D. Alexander is terrorizing USF. This week Senator Alexander did the political equivalent of threatening to detonate an economic atomic bomb that would possibly suck out nearly 60 percent of the entire USF budget if his personal demands were not met.
Oh sure… “technically,” Alexander’s not “terrorizing” USF, since his position as the Florida Senate Budget Chair allows him the ability to "officially" have a big say in the public financing of USF. Still, I think it’s safe to assume that President Judy Genshaft and Team USF feel somewhat threatened and intimidated by Senator Alexander, and would debate his apparent inclination to turn USF’s main campus into the college equivalent of Flint, Michigan.
So what are Alexander’s personal demands?
Simple. He wants a new, taxpayer-funded university in Lakeland that he can take credit for and potentially lead when his stint in the Florida Senate ends this year.
This article appears in Feb 16-22, 2012.