Here’s why this is so important to me: contrary to the dystopian vision promoted by the radical mob, I know from experience that every day that we wake up under the beautiful 50 stars and 13 red and white stripes we have an opportunity to make that day better than yesterday and that week better than last week...
In September 2010, I was serving as part of the Joint Special Operations Command in Afghanistan. We had just acquired the location of a high-value target and were moving in under the cover of darkness.
Suddenly, there was a loud bang and a bright flash. I was thrown up into the air. I landed with a thud—the wind knocked out of me. I couldn’t see much with the soot and dirt covering my eyes, but as I went to wipe the mud away, I immediately knew my fingers were bent in ways they were not meant to bend.
I woke up several days later in Walter Reed Army Medical Center. By then my legs had been amputated. For my entire adult life, I had defined myself through my work as a soldier in service to our country. Waking up without legs, I felt I had lost that meaning.
Then, my dad gave me advice that I will never forget:
“Brian, you can’t let this keep you down,” he said. “You have to find a way to pull yourself up and get back to work. You can’t let your kid see you sitting on your butt.”
From that moment, I knew I needed to find a new battlefield to serve on. Jumping out of planes, roping out of helicopters and kicking in doors in Afghanistan may not be in the cards for somebody who doesn’t have any legs, but I knew that wasn’t going to hold me back from continuing to serve our country.
From there, I learned to walk again, graduated from Harvard and won my election to Congress as a Republican in Florida’s 18th Congressional District. I hope that the lesson my children get from my experience is that in the United States of America anything is possible if you set your mind to it.
Unfortunately, there are those in our country right now who see things very differently. Speaker Pelosi and her allies have shown again and again that they are not proud of America. They push constantly for policies that denigrate our country, pit Americans against each other and prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens.
We must not allow our patriotism to become the next victim of the PC mob’s cancel culture!
That’s why I need your help. We are up against a major fundraising deadline at the end of the day tomorrow, and we need to raise another $7,452 before the end of the day to ensure we will have the resources we need to fight back against the radical left.
I know this may seem like a lot, but if we all work together, I am confident we can overcome this latest adversity.
