This weekend, America turns 250 years old.
I've been thinking about what that means. I've been thinking about what this country actually meant to one family — my family — and what it means that the things that made our story possible are being systematically torn apart.
My parents came to this country with virtually nothing. They came because they believed that America would be there for them. That if they worked hard enough, sacrificed enough, held on long enough, this country would meet them halfway.
And it did.
We moved into public housing and relied on food stamps when times got tough. I went to public schools in Peoria, Illinois — District 150 — where teachers showed up every day for kids like me, kids who looked different and spoke differently and came from families that didn't have a safety net beyond what this country provided.
With the help of those schools and programs, plus loans, scholarships, and the money I saved working at McDonald's, I went to college and law school. Then Congress.
That is the American Dream. It’s more than a campaign slogan or simple talking point. It’s a real thing that happened to a real family because this country had built something — a floor beneath working people, a ladder out of poverty, a set of institutions that said: we see you, and we will not let you fall through.
I am standing here today because of that floor. Because of that ladder. Because of those institutions.
And Donald Trump and his MAGA allies are dismantling them piece by piece.
The Department of Education — gutted. The same public schools that gave me a fighting chance are being starved of resources while billionaires get tax cuts and vouchers to send their kids to private academies. I went to those public schools. I know what they meant. And I know what it means to take that away from the next kid who needs them.
SNAP — cut. The food stamps that kept my family fed are being ripped away from millions of Americans who are doing exactly what my parents did: working hard, holding on, and trusting that this country wouldn't let their children go hungry. That trust is being betrayed.
Public housing — on the chopping block. The roof over our heads when we had nothing else. Gone, for families who have nothing else today.
And the immigration system — the pathway that brought my parents here, that brought millions of families here, that made America the place people dreamed of reaching — is being actively, deliberately, cruelly dismantled. Not reformed. Not improved. Weaponized against the very people who come here with the same faith my parents had fifty years ago.
I want to be clear about what this means:
It means that if my family arrived in America today, our story ends differently. It means the floor isn't there. The ladder isn't there. The kid with the hard-to-pronounce name doesn't get to go to college. Doesn't get to Congress. Doesn't get to fight for the next family that needs it.
The America that saved my family is not the America of today. And on its 250th birthday, I think we owe it the honesty of saying that out loud.
This is why I started Equal Opportunity Now. Not because I want to relitigate the past. But because I refuse to accept that this is inevitable. Because there are leaders out there right now who are ready to fight to restore what's being taken. Because the American Dream is not a relic. It is a living thing that must be defended by every generation that benefited from it.
My father made me promise to make sure this country was there for the next families who needed it.
I intend to keep that promise.
Will you chip in $25, $50, or whatever you can to Equal Opportunity Now today to help us elect the leaders who will fight to restore the America that made our stories possible?
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