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Hello Team,
My heart is with the families of the victims and all the people who survived the shooting at Robb Elementary school this week. I saw the news right before a protest against book bans here in Florida. The devastating news left me barely able to get through my remarks.
It was a devastatingly familiar experience. When I was 15 years old, grabbing a bite to eat before my school jazz band concert, I saw news of the Sandy Hook tragedy. I was shaken, unable to play well at the concert or sleep that night.
I pooled enough money together from various neighborhood chores to make the journey to Washington D.C. and join the lobbying effort in the nation’s capital. And while the pain and grief of Sandy Hook families will live with them forever, it was there that I vowed I would fight for a future where no family has to feel like they did.
10 years ago, I became an Organizer because of Sandy Hook. 3 years later, I’d become a survivor myself. That same year, Pulse. Now I’m running for Congress and 22 lives were taken at another Elementary school. Children are on the frontlines of the ongoing epidemic of gun violence in this country and yet nothing is done. Leaders here in Florida rather ban books, history, and queer people before they do anything to stop this senseless violence.
I know that in these moments, it is easy to become hopeless. It is easy to believe that this is just a fact of life in our country. I am writing to you today to let you know that: THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
Never forget that behind every statistic, behind every number, there is a human being. There’s a Trayvon Martin. There’s a Peter Wang. There’s a Eva Mireles. All who had hopes, dreams, stories, and loved ones.
Gun Violence Prevention is one of America’s largest failures as a country. Each death is a policy failure.
Yet, even with fighting for a decade, I still have hope. I have hope that we can and will create a world where we can go to school, the store, church, and anywhere without the fear of being gunned down. That’s why I’m running for Congress. I won’t stop fighting until the senseless shootings do and I hope we can continue this struggle side-by-side.
At this moment, families are suffering because of what we have failed to do as a country. Please consider donating to one of these victim funds to help ease their financial burdens at this tragic time:
In Solidarity,
Maxwell Alejandro Frost
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