sweet phoenix of american youth, an exaltation

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...

Being allergic to television, and even the evidence of it on the tubes, you can imagine I grudgingly endured being exposed to this yammering, hammering, offense to my nervous system... only to find myself leaping into the air with my fist pumping in solidarity. It isn't in the noise, or even in the words, so much as it is that nanosecond of realizing just what this kid is doing... how he is holding himself in front of the nation... the UTTER assurance and complete lack of the passive voice....

WOW! My heart is pumping.

He looks to me as though he is maybe sixteen. But. Jesus. What a man.

I don't know for sure if the credit is due him, but I know if I were a kid right now, Julian Assange would be my permission slip to LIVE. So I'm thinking he's rubbing off on some nascent stars. Furthermore, whether Bradley is the whistleblower or not, his refusal to implicate Assange after so much maltreatment is awesome, awesome.
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