Ramblings of an Aspiring Journalist

“Some other celebrity might sue a publication for calling her fat; Gaga’s fighting back by taking the high road, by showing the world that it’s not okay to critique her body — not because she’s a pop star, but because she is a human being, with feelings and a history of eating disorders and we can, and should, do better” -Dodai Stewart

So maybe I haven’t been the biggest Lady Gaga fan in the past. I enjoyed her music, but I wasn’t in love with it. I enjoyed watching her antics, but I wasn’t convinced by them. She sat as a benchwarmer on my iPod, occasionally getting her time in the spotlight for a good jam session in the car (obviously alone) but ultimately being passed up for another song.

But this is something I commend her for. I was never a Little Monster, but reading this article convinced me not only of her compassion, but that she really was, despite everything we’ve seen, a human being.

It takes courage to embrace yourself after others tear you down. It takes even more to be an icon of body acceptance to millions of people across the world. 

It’s the sad truth that the majority of us, myself included, fail to recognize ourselves for the strength and beauty we already have. Instead we focus on our weaknesses, our pain,  our outer appearance. We let those flaws define who we are, instead of acknowledging and owning what we already have. If Lady Gaga is the way to finally help people accept themselves, then I will down my glass of wine in support of her.

Here’s to you, Gaga.

As we’ve gotten more aggressive in partisan redistricting, one effect of this … has been the drastic diminishing of the number of swing districts. So what this means is that districts are becoming more and more red, or more and more blue. If you’re going to win in a red congressional district, then that means you have to be as right wing as possible in the primary – the guy who’s the most conservative wins. And then, really the general election doesn’t count because it’s a red district. The same with a very blue district — you have to be all the way to the left and that’s the person who wins. Those individuals who come to Washington are not individuals who are predisposed to view anything with the desire to compromise. And we saw this phenomenon take place most recently in 2011 rather dramatically with the debt ceiling debate. There have been studies that have shown that the people who were most apt to vote for the debt ceiling deal were people from the swing states and the people least apt to vote for it — the people who were keeping us on brink of default — were those who came from very, very hardcore districts, in this case, usually red districts, Republican districts. And so yeah, it’s a matter of some concern, as we see the intensifying gridlock in Washington, D.C., there’s no question that redistricting has played a role in that.

—Robert Draper on how redistricting has led to an increasingly polarized Congress (via nprfreshair)