by June Mathews, Tribune contributor
Katie Britt doesn’t so much walk into a room as she bursts upon the scene, and her arrival at a recent signing event for her new memoir, God Calls Us to Do Hard Things: Lessons from the Alabama Wiregrass, was no exception. One moment, a queue of signature seekers awaited her appearance; the next thing they knew, she was standing halfway down the center aisle in Trussville’s Books-A-Million store, hugging and exclaiming over a cousin who had shown up for the event.
Wife, mother, author and junior United States Senator from Alabama, Britt exudes energy from every pore, making everyone she interacts with feel noticed and heard. She signed book after book with a personal note each time and posed for a photo afterward, chatting with friends and making new ones as she worked. The ultimate multitasker and people person rolled into one, she never stops. But make no mistake, Senator Britt is laser-focused and tough as nails when it comes to the hard things facing the U.S. Anyone who has heard her speaking about the border crisis, Hamas terrorism or the country’s economic woes hears the passion behind her words and her strong hope for making the world a better place for future generations.
It’s future generations, in fact, that Britt hopes to reach with her new book.
“In this nation, I think it’s critically important that we instill the values of faith, family, and freedom, that we tell about the lessons, talk about the hard things and encourage the next generation to stand back up,” she told publisher Scott Buttram in a Tribune Live spot at the book signing event. “We need them, and we need their values rooted in the Lord and rooted in how they treat people and in working diligently to be their best. Not the best, but their best. Then other things come when they’re following God’s purpose.”
The lessons Britt shares in the book are drawn from her experiences growing up in the quintessential small southern city of Enterprise, Alabama. In addition to sharing the joys of growing up in a close-knit family and working at the family hardware store as a teen, she recalls some of the struggles she dealt with in middle school and high school.
Britt also shares a riveting account of the April 27, 2011, tornado that ravaged Tuscaloosa, destroying the home she and husband Wesley shared with their two small children. But for a last-minute decision as to what part of the house could withstand the coming storm, the family might very well have lost their lives.
“The valleys are really where you learn a lot about yourself and learn a lot about how to handle things and what you can do differently or how to help yourself prepare for the future,” she said.
Throughout the book, Britt offers commonsense advice for life, whether for current or future generations. She also gets specific on some major issues facing young people today.
“In the book I do talk about the things that this next generation is dealing with when it comes to social media and all of those kinds of things,” she said. “So hopefully we can give them the tools they need to do better and be better.”
As to what’s keeping Britt busy in the Senate, the possibility of a government shutdown once the November 17 funding deadline rolls around is currently at the top of her list. “Right now, we’re talking a lot about how we properly fund the government, how we do our job,” she said. “There are a lot of people that depend on that, obviously our servicemen and women, our capitol police, and all kinds of things… We should stay there until we get the job done.”
“And obviously we have a lot of pressing issues – Israel and what’s happening there, standing up to anti- Semitism here, and the border, how porous it’s become and the problem that creates in the interior – who’s here, where they’re going, and what their intentions are.
“We have a lot of work to do,” Britt said, “and we in the United States Senate need to do hard things.”