Monday Newsbreak: 2/18

--This past Thursday, another tragic school shooting rampage took place when a former Northern Illinois University student shot several people, killing five students and then killing himself. Because this phenomenon seems to be random in nature, it makes people scratch their heads in puzzlement and do little more. But it’s obvious that there is something terribly wrong within our society when some young adult males seem to feel such utter hopelessness about their future and such bitter anger about their past that they would feel compelled to commit such evil acts against completely innocent people who had never done them any harm. Immersing these people in a culture glorifying violence and then equipping them with the means to commit it is a formula for repeated disaster. But I have a feeling that the seeds of these tragedies are sown earlier in life, by abusive relationships (both with adults and peers) and a lack of truly loving, affirming, and nurturing relationships.

--As the tight struggle for the Democratic nomination continues between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, more attention is focusing on the 795 deliberately uncommitted superdelegates who will ultimately decide who the winner will be. The hope is that these people will be responsive to the voting trends and support whichever candidate has garnered the most delegates through the primary and caucus process. Real trouble will occur if one candidate comes away at the close of the primary season with a plurality of committed delegates but loses the nomination because the superdelegates support the other. If this happens, you might as well not even bother with the general election, because John McCain would then definitely win over a bitterly divided Democratic Party.

--Gainesville’s own Nancy Yi, 13 year-old ninth-grader, was signing copies of her second book Sword Quest for customers at a local Barnes and Nobles Saturday. Her first book, Swordbird, was a New York Times bestseller. What an inspiration she is!

--Kosovo is declaring its independence from Serbia. Populated chiefly by ethnic Albanian Muslims, this province of Serbia was the sight of a brutal conflict in 1998 that saw the intervention of the United States to end reported ethnic cleansing in the area. After independence, how long will Kosovo last before its opts to unite with the neighboring nation of Albania? It’s a shame that the extreme nationalism in this part of Europe has rent apart such a promising nation as Yugoslavia. It seems to go completely against the general European trend of integration.

--The University of Florida men’s basketball team lost the fourth out their last five games with a close, hard-fought defeat at the hands of Vanderbilt in Nashville, 61-58. In spite of the slump, the Gators are still 19-7 overall and 6-5 in the Southeastern Conference. Let’s see if they can shake themselves out of this mid-season slump. They were able to two years ago when they won their first of two national championships. I’ll just be happy to see them make the NCAA Tournament this year!