It’s the second week of school, and everyone’s first week excitement has quickly diminished. Thoughts of skipping class are quickly creeping into the minds of students and the need for a distraction is becoming apparent. Monday is a holiday, which means our first break of the semester is just around the corner. You decide it’s the perfect chance to escape Gainesville and all the stress of a new semester.

You hop into the car with your best friends because a road trip is the perfect remedy for any toxic feelings you may be developing about school. The windows are down, letting in the cool January air and early 2000s pop is blasting through the speakers. This is it. It’s the perfect time for a nap, because after all, this is a long drive. You feel yourself begin to drift to sleep as the sweet sounds of Nelly Furtado tracks lull you deeper and deeper.

You wake up to eager sounds coming from your friends in the front of the car. You look out the window expecting to see your destination, but all you see is a sign in the distance, quickly coming closer. The words are blurry, but then you see it, those words you’ve been waiting for all week. You are now entering…

Darts and Laurels

On Thursday, the New York Times reported that many more migrant families may have been separated at the border. It was reported that possibly thousands of families were separated beginning in 2017, before a formal count was sanctioned by the court. A dart goes to the Trump administration for failing to report they were separating a higher number of families than previously reported before they unveiled their “zero tolerance” policy in 2018. Harsher separation policies began in 2017, but the true number of families separated will most likely never be known after the Health and Human Services Department said it is not planning on beginning a count.

Next we look to a Gillette, a razor company that is taking some sharp criticism. In an ad that was released this week, the company combated toxic masculinity, sexism and bullying in their message to men. A laurel goes to the company for moving in the right direction by creating an ad with a powerful message. Some have said the ad unfairly attacks men, but maybe those are the people that need to hear the message the most.

In an odd change of pace for the White House, President Trump served the National Championship-winning Clemson Tigers a feast of American fast food. A dart goes out to Trump for feeding the Tigers McDonald’s and Wendy’s for their celebration dinner. Due to the government shutdown, Trump said he decided to provide the Tigers with fast food. We’re sure the food was appreciated, but we were thinking a White House dinner might not be something you could get on nearly every street corner. The spread was huge, in true Trump fashion; however, the true cost was not officially released.

Lastly, looking closer to home, we offer a laurel to Ryan Hinterleiter for becoming cancer-free. The 20-year-old UF business administration junior was diagnosed with cancer in September. The aggressive Stage 3 Burkitt’s lymphoma was combated with four cycles of chemotherapy. Hinterleiter is already back in the swing of things this semester, setting an example for us all to stay strong in the new year