A little more than 10 years ago my son Brian Mast was blown up by terrorists in Afghanistan.
I’m deeply proud of my son, and I love him very much. But we’ve always had a tough love kind of relationship, so that’s not something I’ve said nearly enough.
That’s why when Brian’s sister told me Brian had been blown up in Afghanistan, my heart sank. I was worried I’d never be able to tell him those three words ever again.
Thankfully, though he lost two legs and a finger, he survived. The first words out of my mouth when I saw him in the hospital: I love you.
Then our conversation immediately turned back to tough love. I told him: you can’t let your greatest service to our nation be behind you and you can’t let your kids see you sitting on your butt.
Brian took this lesson to heart, like I always knew he would. He learned to walk again, he graduated from Harvard and he won an election to become a Republican representative for the 18th Congressional District of Florida.
Like I said, I’m a proud father.
Now, more than 10 years after he was blown up on the battlefield overseas, Brian is again in a fight on a new battlefield here at home to ensure our amazing country doesn’t turn into a socialist wasteland.
I talked to Brian yesterday, and he told me that Republicans are being outspent in this war of words and ideas. Nancy Pelosi and her allies have spent billions of dollars in Florida to turn the state from red to blue, and there is more liberal money on the way. He needs our help.
