►從差點被墮胎的孩子，到美國眾議院議長: 12歲扛起一個家, 他感人的信仰人生◄(中英對照-即時新聞)

So your childhood back in Shreveport, Louisiana, you had teenage parents and tell us about that because your mother was, they were still at high school, your mother was advised to abort you. Yeah, this was exactly a year before Roe v. Wade. January of 72, Roe was 73 in January, but abortion was still available. And you know, they were teenagers and people said you should go take care of that problem. But my parents were both raised in Catholic families and they heard somewhere that life was sacred and created by God and maybe they shouldn't do that. And so they didn't. Thankfully, my mom's been eternally grateful that they gave me the chance of life. And they dropped out of high school. They were juniors in high school. So my dad had to go to work. They started a family. He became a firefighter and I'm the oldest of four children. And you know, it's just always been, people say, why are you so pro-life? Well, you know, it's, it's my life story. And were you always aware of that? Yeah, I was. And I knew that my parents were very young. You know, my mom looks like my older sister. She's 17 years older than me. But we were so blessed by that and the recognition that life is sacred. And when I was 12 years old, I'm the oldest of four kids, my father was a firefighter, got blown up in an explosion on the job, burned 80% of his body, third degree burns, had a 5% chance to live. And again, reinforcing to me this, the sacred nature of life, the fact that our faith is very real. It's not an ethereal concept. We prayed for my dad to be miraculously saved. And he was. Because his partner died, didn't he? Yeah, he did, tragically. Explosion. Sure did. And my dad was severely disabled after that. How did it impact you? It was a huge change in the trajectory of all of our lives. But he, he was, you know, disabled after that and had, I don't know, dozens, scores of surgeries, skin graft surgeries. In a lot of pain. A lot of pain. Lived in pain the rest of his life. I lost him three days before I got elected to Congress in 2016. And he had cancer at the end and he, he wanted so badly to be there on election night. And it was just, it was just, he was so tough, but he was just eating a lot with it. I'm sure he saw you anyway. I think so. Yeah. I mean, it's been tough. You know, it's tough because on election night was so bittersweet. You want a seat in Congress, but I wanted my dad to see it so badly. I'm the first person in my family to go to college and all that. And he, you know, he would have so enjoyed this that we could, none of us could have ever imagined this, you know. But I do feel like he's experiencing it on the other side, you know. And what impact did his injuries have on you? You were 12 years old. Yeah. Did you have to step up and be sort of man of the house? Yeah. And we lived on a little tiny little kind of like family farm out in the country, outside of my hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. I grew up with the Fire and Police Training Academy because my dad was also a training officer. And I aspired to be the chief of the Shreveport Fire Department. I mean, that was, to me, that was the end all be all of everything. And when he was injured, they just kind of discouraged that a little bit. Why don't you guys go to school? And so I did. But yeah, when I was 12, I had, there was a lot of responsibilities at home and on this little farm operation we had. And, you know, my dad was incapacitated, so I had to pick it up. We had a great community of support in our hometown. And, you know, the firefighter, fire service is a fraternity, unlike any other, and the police and the local community and all that. But I mean, I had to, I had to step up and have a, I had to grow up pretty fast. You would have had a felt of responsibility to your mom, to your younger siblings. Yeah. Because my mom, my dad was, I mean, he was in the hospital for months and we couldn't see him for a long time because he was burned and, you know, for the infection concerns and all that. And so we were kind of shuffled around between family members and friends in our community. And I just had to kind of shepherd my little group of younger siblings and then take over the roles of the family later. In hindsight, there's all sorts of deep psychology about all this, you know, but, but it, it built in me a kind of certain sense of responsibility and maturity that would not have been... Do you think it helps you now? Oh, for sure. Yeah. I prepare us for what he has to do later. And there's a passage of scripture I think about often suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character and character produces hope. And so we go through these things, the valleys, but it makes you appreciate the mountains a lot more. And it makes you keenly aware of other people's struggles and tragedy. And, and it allows you to have more empathy for more people. And all those are critical skills right now. Yes. Your wife and your children have moved to Washington with you. Tell, tell me about your wife and how you met her. Yeah, I met her at a wedding two weeks before I graduated law school. So she missed that whole misery of that, that season of life. But we've been married 26 years. We have four amazing kids and my oldest daughter just graduated law school in May. She takes the bar in about a week. In Louisiana. Louisiana. She's going to move to Capitol Hill and work here. My second daughter already works on Capitol Hill. She deferred law school. She's working on judiciary committee, doing some really neat stuff. My oldest son, Jack just finished his first year at the Naval Academy. And then our youngest son, Will is the last one at home starting ninth grade. And as speaker, I don't get to be home enough with him and a 14 year old boy needs his dad. So he's, he and Kelly, my wife, for the first time since I've been in Congress, they moved here and we'll could be going back and forth to the district, but we'll kind of, this will kind of be the main operation here. Cause it's a 24 seven job. 24 seven. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's, it's hard to describe what this job requires. And your oldest son, you adopted him. He was a black teenager. Yeah. Just talked to him yesterday. His birthday was last week and he's now 42. But when he was 14, we took him out and we were newlyweds at the time. And, and I think all that math is right. I met him doing the young life ministry, which I was doing kind of as a hobby in law school. And he had a really, really tough home life situation. It was basically on the streets. So we took him in as our own. And so many years now he has four kids of his own. He lives in California. He's successful and he's doing great. Yeah. And was that something difficult to make that decision for the two of you? At the time we really didn't have a choice. It's a long story, but he was at the age where he kind of fell through the cracks in the social system in Louisiana and he wasn't yet an adult. So there wasn't a place for that. And then he had kind of aged out a little bit of the juveniles kind of situation. And there really was no option, but we, we took him in and but grateful, so grateful we did. And that changed our family's lives and, you know, and, and, and, and very positive ways. And he often says if we had not been there to intervene in his life, he would have, he would certainly be in prison or might be dead somewhere. He would have joined the gangs and all that stuff. He's now six foot seven. He looks like my bodyguard, you know? But at the time he was just a little pipsqueak. He's about my size. Wonderful. Sorry. And now lastly, the secret of success. You meet a lot of successful people, a lot of successful politicians. You yourself have done pretty well. What is it? Well, for me, I mean, this is probably defies conventional wisdom, but it's a matter of faith. You just be faithful and humble and be faithful in the little thing that God puts before you today. And then you trust him with the rest. I've, I've quote often John Quincy Adams. He famously said, duty is ours. Results are God's. It's a very liberating way to live. You know, you just try to be, you just try to do your best every day, do your responsibility, do your duty. And then the, you know, the, I let the chips fall where they may. I'm not the sovereign and I'm so delighted that I'm not. And does that help you, you know, when, when you've got these recalcitrant people that you have to manage, does that give you patience, your faith? Oh yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm not sure. I'm not sure anyone could navigate the modern speakership, the way it's evolved to today. You manage pretty well. Well, I mean, but without, but without that faith component, I'm not sure. Right. I mean, because you have to be able to just, I mean, scripture says, you know, you love your enemy, of course, is yourself. I mean, you love your neighbors, yourself, love your enemy as well. We don't have enemies in the building. They're all colleagues. But it also says that you bless those who persecute you. You know, you don't keep a record of wrongs. The software turns away wrath. There's so much wisdom in the scripture. And if you apply all that, it allows you to navigate very tricky waters and not take things personally, not return fire when it's shot at you. If I ever did that, I would have had enemies and we would not have delivered the big, beautiful bill or gotten any of this done. Right. So it doesn't matter how many, you know, you can, you learn to take a lot of arrows and keep, keep your eye on the prize and keep moving forward and keep the team moving forward. And, you know, there's just, I don't know how I could do that if I had not been through what I've been through in my life and learned to really internalize those principles and practice them. And even Nancy Pelosi has nice things to say about you. So that's a lot. She's very kind. I don't, I try not to make enemies around here. We have bitter policy disputes and disagreements, but it's not personal. It shouldn't be. I always admired Ronald Reagan as a happy warrior, you know, and his kind of ethos was Reagan's 11th commandment. You don't speak evil of another Republican, certainly. But he even was friendly with his political foes, right? And when he was, when he was, his assassination attempt, when he got shot, famously, the first person to meet him, you know, go visit him in the hospital was Tip O'Neill, who was the Democrat speaker at the time. And they didn't agree on hardly anything in policy and they would have bitter disputes and debates about policy, but it wasn't personal and they were still friends. And we would have a beer together after that, you know? Man, I wish we could get back to that around here because it's really important in a republic like ours to have a government up by and for the people. You kind of need the people to get along, you know, even when they disagree. So that's what I'm trying to forge here. Can you see yourself as president one day? I don't think about that. I mean, look, I think this job, there's probably a reason. I think there may be only one speaker, James K. Polk, who became president after that, because the job is so all-consuming and encompassing that it wears everybody out. I mean, look, I'll serve in any capacity I want, but I don't think about that. Never aspired to it. For that matter, I didn't aspire to this job. No, exactly. I'm just trying to be faithful in it. Yeah. All right. Thank you so much. I know you have to go out to the house now, but to the floor, but thank you. Great to have you here. Thanks very much. If you enjoy this content, please consider subscribing to my channel to stay up to date with future videos. Thank you for watching.