As you patiently wait for your order, you can’t help but feel a bit uncomfortable.
You see large spiderwebs overtaking certain areas of the coffee shop, as if they’ve been there for a long time. Looking closer, you can see a thick layer of dust collecting on the tables and chairs as well.
The shop’s cracked beams don’t ease your worries — the building looks like it could collapse at any moment.
The waitress finally comes back with a large tray of pastries and drinks. Her expression doesn’t reveal much, but she seems to focus her emerald eyes on you.
You quickly look down so you don’t have to keep making eye contact. As you look up to grab your drink, you see the waitress look back at you before disappearing behind the counter.
This eye contact is occurring way too often, you decide. It’s time to drown your awkwardness in coffee.
You take a big swig of your drink, and then immediately spit it out.
Your friends all look at you in complete disbelief, and you look down in shock as well.
Splattered across the table you see...
Darts & Laurels
It’s nearly Halloween, and too many things are ruining this spooky season.
We’re supposed to be afraid of fictional monsters, not real ones.
Warren Hurst, Sevier County Commissioner of Tennessee, is one of these monsters. He’s not a scary person by any means, but his views, on the other hand, are pretty horrifying. He recently made a homophobic statement against Pete Buttigieg, an openly gay Democratic candidate for the presidency, saying that having a “queer” running for President is ugly. He also decided to attack black people and individuals with low incomes, stating that more focus goes to these groups instead of the rights of white people.
Not only are we giving him a dart for being homophobic, but he also deserves one for basically saying white male privilege doesn’t exist anymore. The fact that he can remain this ignorant clearly says otherwise.
It turns out you can also be horrible without saying anything, and the Brazilian government is doing just that.
Since September, the beaches of Brazil have been plagued with oil spills of unknown origins. Instead of properly addressing the issue, the Brazilian government decided to do nothing — except send 5,000 troops to stop people from protesting about it.
A laurel goes to the volunteers for their tireless work cleaning up the sludge that has been plaguing their beaches — preserving the habitats of the animals that depend on them.
A dart goes to the Brazilian government for ignoring this problem while also preventing people from doing more to fix it.
Lately, the protection of wildlife seems to be more of a priority, as it should be. The U.S. House has recently made animal cruelty a federal felony.
We have to give the House a laurel for advancing animal rights. Now it just needs to control the animals breaking the law within it.
Other people are breaking the law as well but in a more positive way. Protestors in Lebanon are dropping beats against the government, and they deserve the final laurel for enacting change in a creative way with their incorporation of the viral “Baby Shark” song into the protest.
The world needs more people like the ones in Lebanon and Brazil — or at least fewer people that make their actions necessary.
The Editorial Board consists of Zora Viel, Opinions Editor; Amanda Rosa, Editor-in Chief; Kelly Hayes, Digital Managing Editor; and Tranelle Maner, Engagement Managing Editor.
