Hello and Welcome

Hello Reader,

Welcome to my blog!  My name is Daniel.  I am a senior at a high school in suburban Chicago, and my greatest passions are music and public policy.  I have interned for congressmen and congressional candidates, I follow political, economic, and international relations news, and I plan to pursue these studies in college.  I'm also a member of the Academy of International Studies at my school ("the Academy" for short).  I am taking a class in world literature and one in contemporary global issues as part of the Academy, and I will be incorporating ideas from both these classes into my weekly (or more frequent) blog posts.

I will try to show you my process for understanding and analyzing political issues and discourse through my posts, and I hope to be as clear and comprehensible as possible.  I will also try to be unbiased and balanced in my discussion of the issues, although, I admit, I have been raised as a liberal and consider myself a Democrat.  But I'm always open to new ideas, new perspectives, and I enjoy the debate over what is the right answer more than the answer itself.

Please feel free to comment on any/all of my posts, whether you want to agree, disagree, or say something completely different.  As I said, I'm always open to new ideas.

I'll leave you with a preview of my next post:

Lady Gaga said on Monday at a speech in Maine supporting the bill to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" the following: "Equality is the prime rib of America, but because I'm gay, I don't get to enjoy the greatest cut of meat my country has to offer."  It's both refreshing and depressing that our pop stars are standing up for equality more boldly than are our legislators...

Mostly depressing.

Until next time,

Daniel