President Barack Obama greets Daniel Hernandez, a intern for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords who helped her after she was shot, at a memorial service in Tucson, Ariz., on the University of Arizona campus, Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2011. [AP Photo]This is a really nice piece on Daniel Hernandez, the intern without whose immediate care and attention Rep. Giffords would not be alive. He seems like a very neat guy.
It seems almost cruel to wish a fate of public office on someone, given the state of US politics, but I hope he continues to be involved in public service and, if he considers running himself someday, I wish for him two things: 1. Success. 2. A staff as dedicated as he is to Congresswoman Giffords.
One observation about the article: The fact that Hernandez is "a large man" is stuck in there so awkwardly, and without purpose. And it's interesting how differently the fact that he is fat is treated from the fact that he is gay and Latino. It's not treated as central to his identity, nor a qualifying attribute of a marginalized population, and there is certainly no effort to note that his courage and quick-thinking and decency and ethics contradict many stereotypes about fat people, even though the article includes this:
Hernandez, who is gay and Hispanic, has become a particular hero for those groups in recent days.Hernandez is a hero to this fat activist, too. For lots of reasons.
... In a time when both of those minorities have been at the center of heated, emotional debates about immigration and bullying, he has served as a model of reason and strength.
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