I set out to walk from New York to Los Angeles and met America up close, but repeated surgery on a painful pyogenic granuloma stopped the physical journey; the work for Chicago’s South Side and the kids there keeps going, and I’m asking readers to join that mission to build opportunity and change lives.
I’ve been on the road nearly 200 days and every mile mattered. The walk was about meeting people, listening, and hearing stories that don’t make headlines. When that growth on my heel returned after the first surgery, doctors warned that continuing would risk serious damage.
On Sept. 1, 2025, I put one foot in front of the other in Times Square and thought about the builders, the immigrants, the grit that made that skyline real. Those thoughts weren’t abstract. They were a call to make sure kids on the South Side grow up with the same chance to succeed. Opportunity is not charity; it’s a platform for responsibility and dignity.
FROM A CHICAGO ROOFTOP TO 3,000-MILE JOURNEY, HERE’S HOW I’M FIGHTING TO RESTORE AMERICA’S SOUL
The road handed me a thousand small moments that proved what I already believed: people want to work, to pray, to raise decent kids, and to be left alone to try. An Amish woman gave a horse-and-buggy ride and opened her house. In Philly, I stood in open-air drug markets and talked with people whose lives were wrecked by addiction and desperation.
WHERE ADDICTS IN PHILADELPHIA BOW TO TRANQ, I SAW WHY GOD HASN’T GIVEN UP ON AMERICA YET
Walking the slave trail in Richmond was one of the heaviest moments of the trip. Standing where chains once marched was a spiritual break and a reminder that some paths in this country were created to crush hope. That’s why we must build alternatives—structures that give kids real options instead of trapping them in cycles of poverty and violence.
I found ordinary Americans who are anything but ordinary. Folks in roadside diners, small towns, and churches talked about their kids, their faith, and the need for jobs, not partisan slogans. A truck driver pulled over, handed me a bottle of water and said, “Pastor, I’m praying for you.” He left before I could get his name, and that moment stayed with me.
MY WALK ACROSS AMERICA IS A LESSON IN GRATITUDE AND GIVING THANKS
Every blister and every mile were real costs, but the conversations healed something deeper than skin. Out on the highway I saw that the elites make money by selling division, but neighbors trade help and common sense. The people I met want accountability, work, and the freedom to pursue a better life without being told which box to check.
By Day 191 I was in an exam room again; the growth had returned and a second surgery was scheduled. I wrote that night that I was emotionally broken because I’d emptied every reserve I had for this walk. After the second procedure, the doctors made the call: the physical walk is over. My body will not allow more miles.
I’VE SEEN THE BODIES ON MY BLOCK — AND I KNOW WHAT REALLY STOPS THE KILLING
We’ve raised just over $4 million for the Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center on Chicago’s South Side, a 90,000-square-foot facility that will house job training, counseling, and a school. Our original target was $25 million and the gap still matters because children don’t get a pause button for the zip code they’re born into. This center is about creating pathways so a young man from O-Block can find direction and value.
A BOLD MOVE TO RESCUE CHICAGO’S YOUTH FROM LEFTIST DEPENDENCY
Real movements don’t rest on one person. The Amish woman, the addict who still spoke of God, the trucker handing water—each showed how ordinary Americans help one another. That neighborhood work is the muscle that builds a stronger country, not more dependency on broken systems that reward failure.
My body can’t finish the walk, but the mission continues: build the center, give kids a chance, and demand that our communities teach work, responsibility, and faith. I’m asking you to step up however you can—give, volunteer, talk to your neighbors—because this is how we restore opportunity and keep the promise of America alive.
