Most of us are aware of an event that happened at a race when a driver named Brandon won and the crowd was chanting something. The announcer mistook what the crowd was saying. This resulted in "Let's go Brandon" being born from something far different. It was then grabbed by one political party and used to convey "F*** Joe Biden" - the President of the United States. We have sunk so low that a major political party is openly ridiculing our President. In the past, this would have been seen as dishonoring the nation, treason, and just bad manners.
This editorial isn't about continuing the negative. It's about rising above it. I was moved by a recent news story on CNN. This story is about a mother, her autistic son, a race car driver and a book. The boy is named Brandon, as is the race car driver. Yes, he is THAT race car driver. The mother and author of this special book is named Sheletta.
Sheletta, had noticed that her son was feeling happy and actually interacting with people (you can read more about that in the linked story). This is not normal for many autistic people. My own daughter is autistic and, as I've learned, social interaction is difficult for autistic individuals.
For Brandon, there was a reason for his new found happiness. Encouragement. Everywhere he looked he saw it. Billboards, benches, t-shirts, and more, all saying, "Let's go Brandon." To him, they were speaking to him. Showing him that everyone was on his side and rooting for him. This boosted his self confidence and made him happy.
From there, Brandon Brown, heard of how this negative thing which had impacted him as well - in a bad way - had helped an autistic boy. He reached out to Brandon and they connected. Please read the story I linked above as it's a wonderful story. Even our President reached out to the little boy.
All this to say - you can make a difference too. One children's book is turning a very negative event into one with a more positive impact. We should do that. We should all do that. Find a way to turn around the vitriol and take away its negative power. By doing that, we can restore our humanity.
We can stop hating. We can restore our country's reputation, our soul. Our America. With that, we can restore hope throughout the world. One book, one word, one voice at a time. So... Lets go... Brandon! Let's go...
Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we've been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. ~ Barack Obama
