Good morning, Gators, and happy Friday. If you’re reading this, congratulations! You’ve survived Thursday’s unnaturally frigid weather and lived to fight another day. Presumably, you made it through syllabus week as well. For that, give yourself a pat on the back and take a gander at this last-day-of-the-first-week-of-school edition of...
Darts & Laurels
An explosion rocked an office building belonging to the NAACP in Colorado Springs on Tuesday. No culprit has been found, and no one was injured, partially because a can of gasoline left with the bomb didn’t catch flame. Still, this attack against a civil rights organization is deeply unsettling, especially given the context of last year’s re-ignition of racial tensions.
That night, #NAACPbombing became the No. 1 trending hashtag on Twitter. But the 24-hour news networks emitted hardly a peep about the bombing. At a time when social media can break stories almost immediately, the fact that an overwhelming number of news networks haven’t reported on a terrorist attack against the nation’s oldest civil rights organization is shameful. That’s why we’re giving a this-really-should’ve-been-covered DART to our country’s major news outlets.
A lighter story: Same-sex marriage became legal in Florida this week. The state’s ban on same-sex marriage was actually struck down in August, but a hold was placed on the court decision. This hold expired Monday, allowing same-sex couples in Florida to receive marriage licenses and benefits starting Tuesday morning. Florida is the 35th state to enact marriage equality, and though we’re sorry it took this long, it’s hard to stay upset. So here’s a we-would-give-you-a-dart-but-we’re-too-darn-happy-about-this LAUREL to the state of Florida.
On a related note, Publix has decided to extend health benefits to married same-sex couples. The supermarket giant and peddler of delicious sandwiches probably did this in anticipation of Tuesday’s historic event. What this means is the spouses of Publix employees will receive benefits and health care plans, no matter their genders.
Said benefits will even extend to couples living in states where same-sex marriage isn’t legal so long as they got married in a state where it is. This is a pretty big deal, because Publix employs thousands of people in Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and South Carolina, as well as North Carolina and Florida, states where same-sex marriage is legal.
Publix is making a bold move by showing it cares about its employees and their loved ones, even if the states they live in don’t. For its forward-thinking and generous stance, we’d like to extend a making-us-feel-good-about-ourselves-for-eating-so-many-chicken-finger-subs LAUREL to Publix.
That’s all for this week. We hope you have fun this weekend, and stay warm. We mean that.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 1/9/2015 under the headline “Darts & Laurels"]
