John — I’m going to be honest, it’s been a long day, month and year (okay, few years).

At times like this, I think back to two giants in the Congress, who stood taller than any of us could ever hope to, and who fought for what was right, no matter what.

One of them you know well. When I first came to Congress, John Lewis exhorted us all to create "good trouble... necessary trouble.” I’d like to hope that in my limited time walking the Halls of Congress, I’ve done that in my own, much more limited, way.

But there’s another person I want to share a memory of with you today. His name was Elijah Cummings. And he was a giant too. He was our moral North Star, and a tremendous orator. I served with him on the Benghazi Select Committee (and my friendship with him was the only good thing to come out of that GOP political exercise). We lost Elijah much too soon, but when I close my eyes I can still hear his booming voice.

I learned so much from Elijah. Not just how to be a leader in Congress. But how to focus on what really matters. Not the partisan fight of the day in DC, but that higher cause.

Our democracy. Our values. Our nation’s very soul.

Elijah — who my son shares a name with — liked to remind us that we aren’t powerless, even in the face of great difficulty. That we could overcome. That our country was worth it.

Because as he always said, America is better than this. We are better than this. We are.

Let’s prove him right. Because we do have the power to determine our own destiny.

— Adam