You pop your head out of your apartment door. It’s Monday, Sept. 11, 2017 — the day after Hurricane Irma hit. You and your roommates decide now that the storm has passed, it would be fun to navigate the great outdoors and investigate the damage Irma left behind.
You’ve been watching Snapchat stories all morning posted by your more daring friends who rose along with the sun and ventured out to explore. You have already heard the devastating news of the tree outside the Physics Building and plan to pay your respects. Now, it was time for you to experience the effects of Irma firsthand.
After crossing through puddles that look more like lakes and trees that no longer stand tall and erect, you come across a rather unique pile of debris on the ground.
As you and your roommates come closer to the pile, you realize the collection of debris spells out a body of text. The debris reads:
Darts & Laurels
Well, dear reader, it would appear after several cases of bottled water and a superfluous amount of canned foods, we made it through Irma. Our city stands tall and with minimal damage, and for that we are forever thankful. Our luck during the storm was both surprising and appreciated.
Unfortunately, we are still weathering some of the damage Irma left behind. Many are still without power and Gainesville residents are still navigating around the new pools of water and clumps of debris Irma left behind. The wrath of Irma that still remains is our first dart of the week.
Despite Irma’s impact however, it can also be seen as a laurel for the Gainesville area. Our community had no casualties, and our city did not face any irreparable damage. Those who did lose power or face other difficulties had a wealth of support surrounding them. Club and organization leaders offered to lend a hand, and UF itself made sure every student was prepared during and before the storm.
Sure, Irma was bad, but a lot of people had it much worse than we did. For our luck, we should be thankful.
Now, enough about the weather, we’ve got bigger things to worry about. Namely, the impending visit of a certain Nazi/white supremacist. Although the news got somewhat overshadowed by the storm, it would appear that Richard Spencer still plans on visiting our beloved Swamp.
Now, dear readers, we at the Alligator are big fans of free speech and don’t wish to impede Spencer’s right to speak freely. However, we are even bigger fans of keeping our Student Body safe. Although Spencer himself is not leading riots or harming innocent people, it would appear that these types of things tend to follow him wherever he goes. Spencer’s looming visit rightfully deserves a dart.
A final dart goes to a Gainesville “hot cop” who got his 15 minutes of fame this week. His beard may be attractive, but his vile anti-Semitic Facebook posts are definitely not. Just goes to show that beauty is only skin deep. Now can we move onto the next internet fad?
As usual, we want to leave you with a positive note to kick off your weekend. After years of tireless work by UF President Kent Fuchs and the rest of the UF community, we finally did it. UF is officially a top 10 public university. We recently jumped five spots up from our previous No. 14 spot, and we are now ranked No. 9 in the nation for public schools and No. 42 for all universities. Not too bad of a laurel with which to end the week.
