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As many of you know, for the past year, I've been drinking like a fish, a whole bottle of rum every day for much of the year and sometimes more. I did this because I felt depressed and stuck, unable to move, and wanted an escape. Many of you tried to help me, to which I didn't listen. However, I hit rock bottom when my liver function test was done on May 19, 2025. My ALT levels were 373, and AST was 319. Both of these are more than 6 times the acceptable levels of 50 or less. Indicating very severe liver damage. This explained why I managed to drink so much, yet not feel drunk, my liver was doing a death rattle, and I would be, soon, if I didn't stop. For the first time in a while, i felt scared to lose my life, I looked back and saw what a coward I'd been. I felt a deep sense of regret, all the people I pushed away, all the problems I avoided, and now it might be too late. I bought a bottle of rum, 1 liter. I poured out 700ml of it and drank the rest. That was 80 days ago, and I haven't had one single drop since. My doctors had given up, not even bothering to schedule an appointment as they knew my cowardly behavior would simply cancel, so I didn't have to face them. After 38 days of absolute sobriety, I messaged my doctor informing her that i took her advice to heart and have removed alcohol from my life, I wanted to come in and get bloodwork done. On July 14th, it came back. ALT levels are 64, AST is 42. My liver healed faster than I ever thought possible, crushing my foolish excuse from before that I was too far gone to heal. With this, I was able to go back on Trikafta, improving my lung function greatly. I got another liver function test done on August 13th, ALT levels are 49, AST is 25. My liver is now healthier than it was a year before I started drinking. I wasn't sure I believed in God, but I prayed for my life to be spared, and I do believe he listened. I'm not sure how I want to celebrate, but you can bet it will involve a lot of family and no alcohol

Have one election, no primaries, and the top vote-getters go to Washington as the state’s representatives. It would result in wildly more diverse delegations, more moderates representing a wider range of ages, races and political beliefs than we have in Congress.

Rural voters wouldn’t lose “their” representatives under this system any more than urban voters would. In fact, all voters would be more represented, not less. For example, each Pennsylvanian would go from having three representatives to having 19. And each member could cultivate a statewide constituency based on political orientation, social beliefs and moral reasoning rather than geography.

Electing all the representatives at large would make all the districts in each state the same size. More important, it would end the redistricting wars that bedevil us only after the census but now seem destined to become a permanent & ugly fixture of American politics.

If each state chose its representatives in a single statewide election, the result would be a House of Representatives truly representative of the people. Smaller parties would finally stand a chance of winning a seat at the table. The two major parties would be forced to enter coalitions, which would require compromise and moderation — qualities sorely lacking.

Critics will insist that the House is no place for the 17th-place finisher. Perhaps. But could the resulting Congress be any more dysfunctional than the current one?

A single-vote, winners-take-all system would remove party politics and geography from the process. Representatives would represent people with shared ideologies, not some artificially constructed “district” where half the voters feel their representative is not representative of their beliefs.

For example, there aren’t enough socialists or libertarians in any one congressional district in PA to win a seat. But maybe there are enough socialists or libertarians statewide to enable a candidate to finish in the top 17.