We must teach Americans to hope again, not to be victims

This week, a Wall Street Journal poll found that people are turning away from traditional values ​​like religion, patriotism and having children. Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) says the main problem is that young people are being fed a false narrative — and are desperate for hope.

One cannot say enough about the power of hope.

As I look around America today, I see a people who long for it, but are instead being sold a drug of victimhood and the narcotic of despair by the far left.

Something has changed. It’s not the people that have changed.

No, the American people still have their defining desire and passion for greatness.

What has changed is the message being conveyed to them every day by leaders who cannot see beyond the past.

Hope is not gone, it just needs to be nurtured and shared.

The hope in the American people is still alive and well, we just need to bring it out into the open.

Burying hope and optimism is suffocating the American Dream.

However, caring for that hope and helping it grow heralds a new American dawn.

Brighter days are ahead, I promise you.

I understand the power of hope and optimism because I grew up in a world where it was all we had.

As a poor child growing up in a one-parent household mired in poverty, I could have given up hope.

Like many poor families, we have moved a lot.

I went to four different elementary schools until fourth grade, and later I almost flunked out of high school.

But I never lost hope.

My family taught me that my future is not determined by my circumstances.

Instead of victimhood, they chose victory.

They taught me the power of prayer and the dignity of hard work.

My grandfather was born in Salley, South Carolina in 1921.

He dropped out of school in the third grade because there was no use for an educated black kid.

Instead, he began picking cotton.

Although he lived south of Jim Crow, although he had to leave the sidewalk when a white man walked by, he believed then what some doubt today – in the goodness of America.

It was this stubborn hope that allowed my cotton-picking grandfather to live long enough to see his grandson choose his seat in Congress.

My mom worked 16 hour days as a nurse, changing bedpans and rolling patients.

Now she holds the Bible in hand when her son takes the oath of office in the United States Senate.

You are living proof that America’s history is not its original sin.

It’s a story of redemption that we’ve all experienced in some way.

They are proof that there is no upper limit in life.

You can go as high as your character, your education and your stamina will allow. I testify.

I testify.

A mother’s faith and a mentor’s lessons have taught me that because we’re Americans, anything is possible, and I’ve never been more optimistic about the future of this country.

In the freest and fairest country this world has ever seen, the possibilities keep expanding, even if our politicians don’t see it.

Our leadership today wants you to believe that America is irredeemable, that the best is behind us.

They have spread the message that our present is defined by our past, and have eroded our nation’s very patriotic foundation.

But I see a different future.

Because I went a different way.

Hard-working Americans — Democrats, Republicans, and Independents — all agree that the American Dream shouldn’t be viewed through political lenses.

Yet poll after poll claims to paint a bleak picture of how Americans view their country’s future.

What polls can’t measure is the strength of a single mother who has nothing but hope, faith and love for her children.

A mother whose daily challenge is to reject victimhood while hoping and praying that somehow her child is better off than her.

However, she knows it’s possible because she lives in America.

Let me be clear: the painful parts of America’s past cannot be ignored, but they must underscore why we need new leaders to build us up, not tear us down.

We need leaders who believe that purpose can grow out of our pain.

We need a leader who understands that our nation’s future is rooted in two fundamental principles: freedom and responsibility.

When individuals take responsibility for their future, we, the people, are stronger together.

These simple truths have taken our nation to incredible heights.

Millions and millions of Americans can tell you about the pain of their past that brought forth the promise of their future.

Millions of Americans can tell you that the obstacles came first and the opportunities came second.

But it’s those opportunities that give us a reason to face those obstacles rather than throw in the towel before the fight even begins.

But today there’s a cycle where people want you to believe what they say, despite what you see.

Your words are no match for our evidence.

Their pessimism is no match for our progress. The truth of our lives refutes their lies.

I believe in it because I’ve lived it.

I’m living the American dream.

I have held fast to the truth, the inalienable truth, that all men and women are created equal and endowed by our Creator with the right to freedom.

I not only believe in the principle of America; I am an eyewitness.

We will always fight to form a more perfect union, to make sure we are better off, our children are wealthier, and our nation continues to be the shining city on the hill, a beacon of hope in the darkest storms, and an unrelenting one Light for all the world to see.

We do this not by tearing apart the very fabric of our nation, but by embracing it.

America can do for so many what it has done for me.

When some choose grudges and strife, choose greatness.

When others choose fear, choose trust.

America’s future will not be decided in spite of its people, but by them.