13-year-old Brayden Harrington, who suffers from a stuttering disorder (just like Joe Biden has at a child) delivered the most effective and affective speech of the night.
Can you imagine the bravery it took for this young man to speak to America with a stutter?
Even Kellyanne Conway, Trump's "special counsel" tweeted praise.
(Trump, of course, did not. He was too busy thinking about himself and attacking Bloomberg.)
Joe Biden inspired Brayden, considering Joe Biden suffered from the same disorder as a child - and has worked with him personally to help overcome it.
Joe says the experience made him more empathetic - as any kind of suffering in life will. Suffering sanctifies us, it makes us better people :)
Transcript ...
Hi, my name is Brayden Harrington and I am 13 years old. And without Joe Biden I wouldn't be talking to you today.
About a few months ago I met him in New Hampshire. He told me that we were members of the same club: we stutter. It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became Vice President.
He told me about a book of poems by Yeats he would read out loud to practice. He showed me how he marks his addresses to make them easier to say out loud. So I did the same thing today.
And now I'm here talking to you today about the future, about our future. My family often says, “When the world feels better,” before talking about something normal, like going to the movies.
We all want the world to feel better. We need the world to feel better. I'm just a regular kid, and in a short amount of time Joe Biden made me more confident about something that's bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared.
Imagine what he could do for all of us. Kids like me are counting on you to elect someone we can all look up to, someone who cares, someone who will make our country and the world feel better. We're counting on you to elect Joe Biden.
Bravo, Brayden, you were GREAT!
Can you see Trump ever taking the time to mentor and encourage anyone?
In fact, there are no stories of Trump ever mentoring encouraging our young people or we would've heard them by now.
Trump is a bully - he's proven that over and over again, including making fun of a disabled reporter. He's the type that makes fun of people like Brayden. He proved that when he made fun of a reporter with cerebral palsy during his 2016 campaign.
Over the past four years, all he has done is use Twitter as a bully pulpit to cruelly to make fun of/condemn people.
Is that what Christ would do?
Or would he take time out of his day, every day, to mentor and encourage our troops and our young people, like Joe does. (For the record, Joe is a devout Catholic.)
Like I said in the post below, America needs a reassuring, encouraging father right now, who can still get tough and protective when he needs to be - Joe Biden has already proven he's that father.
I also need to give an honorable mention to Senator (Iowa) Tammy Duckworth's speech.
There's something about an Iraq War Lieutenant Colonel Veteran, who sacrificed both legs for this country, calling Trump "The Coward in Chief" that was extra effective.
Today via Twitter, she's reminding us that she voted by mail from Iraq, many times, and it can be done safely - and if it's good enough for our troops, it's good enough for America.
If you were a Republican and/or Trump supporter that watched these four nights and felt shame that your president and candidate doesn't have these kind of stories - that he can't behave as bravely, empathetically, and with as much integrity as most of the Americans, famous or not, who spoke during these last four days - good.
It wasn't an intentional guilt trip on you, just the current president - but if these last four days made you think about true leadership, compassion, empathy for other people - military or not, famous or not - that's a good thing.
I hope you continue to think about those things, and who YOU want to be and who you want to be a REAL father to America over the next 74 days.
We know another young man whom Biden inspired after meeting him personally, also named Braeden, whom we're hoping America will be be hearing more about in the next 10 years or so, because he's done some pretty fantastic things already, to the point that Biden and Warren took notice.
He's got a great mom and dad already, but Mark and I have pretty much co-claimed him as our honorary son or nephew, too, whether he likes that or not, or would claim us as honorary coparents or uncle and aunt lol : (However, I'm pretty sure he digs us, too ;)
He met all of the candidates at the first debate, by special invite, and said that Biden and Warren were the most personable candidates and stayed until they shut the lights off, talking to everyone there about what they thought/wanted.
What you saw at the convention this week? Biden really does that, everywhere he goes - he listens.
A good American father cares about, and listens to, ALL of his children equally - he doesn't pick favorites based on how much they can benefit him. He loves them all, with all their colors, equally.
That good American father is Joe Biden :)
Is he perfect?
Of course not - but he listens and learns, even at age 78.
IMO, the best definition of a good parent is not one who is perfect, but who questions themselves every day "Am I a good parent?" rather than just assuming they are.
Though I made my share of mistakes, as a parent, the one thing that I did right was ask myself - literally every day - "Did I handle that the way I wanted to? Am I a good mom?"
Probably TOO much, being plagued with self doubt.
I also let other people, who either weren't good parents, or who had no children, tell me what I should do, whose approval I would've never gotten even if I was Mother Theresa.
They are the sort of people, like Trump, who never question themselves or their decisions, as parents or in anything else - they just assume they know what they're doing and right.
But it isn't parental perfection that makes good parents - it's the continuous self-evaluation, learning-from-our mistakes process that makes good parents - and Joe Biden's got that in spades.
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