We’re in the home stretch, you guys. Despite the fact Florida has made a typical 180 in terms of the non-December type weather, there are only a few more days left of classes. Now here’s the game plan: Budget yourselves more Starbucks money than usual and crush those finals!
Darts & Laurels
This past week, Americans around the country celebrated Thanksgiving, a time for appreciating everything we have to be thankful for. As an extension of the holiday spirit, many people around the country participated in “Giving Tuesday” events this week, during which they donated their time and money to meaningful and worthy causes. Unfortunately, it appears that Florida is lagging severely behind other states in both charitable giving and volunteerism. According to personal finance site WalletHub, Florida ranked No. 42 for overall charitability and just No. 47 in volunteerism. Hopefully, over the next year, Floridians will spend more time giving back to their communities with both their time and their money. For now, we’re giving a we-can-definitely-do-better DART to The Sunshine State.
Floridians could probably learn a thing or two from Altaf Chaus, the franchise owner of Burger King in San Jose, California. Last week, Chaus found a backpack containing $100,000 that had been left in his restaurant. He immediately called police to ask for help in finding the backpack’s owner. When police told him that he might be eligible to keep the money if the backpack went unclaimed for six months, Chaus said he plans to donate the $100,000 to charity if the rightful owner is not found. “God has given me a good life, and I’m happy with that,” he said in an interview. “I think you should do the right thing.” A doing-the-right-thing-isn’t-always-easy LAUREL to Altaf Chaus.
Every potential threat of a school shooting obviously deserves to be taken very seriously. Given the recent tragic events at Florida State University, a series of social media posts that appeared to threaten shootings here at UF caused significant fear and concern within the UF community. According to University Police: “The messages were received from 15 separate account holders from throughout the United States and all arrived at the same time. The threat was not specific but indicated ‘Im (sic) gonna shoot up the college tomorrow.’” Fortunately, it appears these social media posts were simply hoaxes. UPD says they are aware of at least one other similar shooting threat at another school that was ultimately found to be false. Regardless of the posts’ legitimacy, they certainly brought the fear of such a tragic event even closer to home. A not-real-doesn’t-mean-not-scary DART goes to the social media shooting threats.
In the aftermath of the events in Ferguson, Missouri, the media have been dominated by images of rioters and looters that have resulted in an unfairly negative portrayal of the protestors as a whole. In Portland, Oregon, a 12-year-old African-American child named Devonte Hart may have helped change the way those protesting the Ferguson grand jury verdict are perceived. A picture of Hart tearfully embracing a police officer at a protest was published by The Oregonian and quickly went viral. The image represents the harmony between different groups — whites and blacks, civilians and police officers — that we as a society should strive for. A changing-people’s-minds-with-love LAUREL to Devonte Hart.
[A version of this story ran on page 6 on 12/5/2014]
