Is this Rainesville or Gainesville? We hope that your midterms went — or are going — well. We’re glad that you’ve chosen to spend some time with us despite the summer humidity and the rain. Now, before the page smudges, we’d like to deliver this week’s edition of...
Darts & Laurels
We’d like to start off with an apology. OK, maybe a concession. Tuesday’s editorial about the new “Cosmos” series took a jab at Fox viewers in its closing line. As one online commenter rightly pointed out, we shouldn’t be creating walls when discussing “Cosmos.” This isn’t reflective of the spirit imparted by such a masterpiece. Carl Sagan said, “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another.”
Now that that’s out of the way, our first handout this week goes to an anonymous someone. In August of 1990, Danny Rolling killed and mutilated five students. These grotesque murders earned him the nickname of the “Gainesville Ripper.” For many years, a memorial for the deceased has been maintained on the 34th Street Wall. Every now and then, some person or group of people paints over the wall without knowing any better.
That doesn’t mean it’s OK. The memorial, which once bore the names of the victims, is now splotched with white paint and bears something that looks like “MYA’O I LOVE.” For painting over the 34th Street memorial, we give anon a for-wall-and-country DART.
Next, we would like to introduce you to a true champion. Enter Nada al-Ahdal, an 11-year-old girl with a passion that spread like wildfire on the Internet. In a YouTube video that recently went viral, al-Ahdal delivers the powerful story of her flight from her parents to avoid entering an arranged marriage. Her parents later threatened her with death, after which she reported them to the authorities.
“I’m better off dead. I’d rather die,” she said. For having the courage to pursue her dreams no matter what and setting an example for perhaps thousands of young girls like her who feel similarly oppressed, we give Nada al-Ahdal a you-know-to-fight-for-your-right LAUREL.
Back to Dartsville, a woman in Dubai was recently jailed after being raped. Norwegian interior designer Marte Deborah Dalelv recounted her story to the 10 or 12 police officers — all male — who responded. After police took both her testimony and the alleged rapist’s testimony, she said they asked her, “Are you sure you called the police because you just didn’t like it?” “That is when I knew, ‘I don’t think they are going to believe me at all,’” she said. The 24-year-old was facing charges of having unlawful sex, making a false statement and illegal consumption of alcohol. She was pardoned three days ago, but this should never have happened in the first place. We give the United Arab Emirates a DART, because women are human too.
For police injustice, we turn to Officer Sean Christian of the New York City Police Department who seems to have forwarded explicit photographs of 27-year-old Pamela Held from her phone to his own after Held’s possessions were confiscated. “It makes me sick,” said Held. “I don’t even want to think about what he’s done with them. The NYPD gets a DART for not bringing a pervert to justice.
Our last LAUREL of the week goes to Geraldo Rivera, who released some selfies of his own. The 70-year-old blames tequila for the semi-nude photos. If tequila is to blame for the body, then sign us up!
