The news makes me sad.

Last week, I learned that two police officers in my hometown of St. Petersburg, Fla. had been shot and killed trying to serve an arrest warrant.

They weren’t the only officers hurt in the line of duty that week; in just five days, 13 police officers were shot around the country. Thirteen.

The news of the St. Petersberg shooting immediately transported me back to this summer, when two officers in Tampa, Florida were killed during a traffic stop. That shooting was all the more tragic when, hours later, one of the officer’s wives went into labor. I distinctly remember the shock, anger, and hurt in the Tampa Bay area during the days following that tragedy.

There have been far too many senseless killings lately.

Last Monday, a suicide bomber killed scores of people in a Moscow airport. And just weeks before that, Jared Loughner carried out the terrible attack in Tucson that left a congresswoman in critical condition, a nine-year-old girl as one of six dead and a nation reeling.

There’s something wrong with the world. These things shouldn’t be allowed to happen to innocent people. They just shouldn’t.

I’ve been very down for the last week or so.

I believe that humans are compassionate, decent and good. I do believe that. But when I see so much hate and violence, I wonder if maybe people aren’t what I believe them to be.

But when I have those doubts, I think of all that is beautiful in the world.

Last week I went to my friend Robert’s going-away party. Scores of people showed up to sing karaoke and see him off. Everyone there wished him the best.

I got to study “King Lear” and “Richard III,” two of my favorite plays. I got to read Gogol and Chekhov, each an intellectual treat.

The weather improved and everyone went outdoors. Around Dallas, I saw people welcoming a new spring.

Best of all, I spent time with friends.

Nothing does more to reaffirm my faith in humanity than seeing a group of people saying they love each other without ever having to say those exact words. I don’t know if there are answers to the big questions of terror and crime. Unfortunately, inexplicable violence may forever plague our world.

But I do know that although things sometimes seem awful beyond belief, the good in the world far outpaces the bad. Whenever something terrible happens to shake my faith, all I have to do is look at the million little things that make life so special.

It really is a wonderful world.

Nathaniel French is a senior theater major. He can be reached for comment at [email protected].