Recently in Wisconsin, two twelve-year-old girls attacked and brutally stabbed their twelve-year-old friend 19 times (CNN, June 4, 2014). A cyclist found the victim and she is now in stable condition. The two suspects apparently planned the attack since February. They have been charged as adults (ibid.).

In a recent West Point commencement speech, “President Obama said that the U.S. will remain the one indispensable nation in the century to come… ‘America must always lead on the world stage… If we don’t, no one else will’” (Washington Post, May 30, 2014).

On Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis hosted an unprecedented “prayer meeting” with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Shimon Peres (CNN, June 9, 2014).

A rapidly spreading viral disease has erupted in the sunny islands of the Caribbean. Victims of the chikungunya disease “suffer searing headaches, a burning fever and so much pain in their joints they can barely walk or use their hands. It’s like having a terrible flu combined with an abrupt case of arthritis.