Patriotism used to be something that Americans celebrated. Now, kids are taught to sneer at their own country, to see only its sins and not its staggering achievements. America deserves better than that. As our nation approaches its 250th birthday, three prominent conservative voices are stepping up to change the story being told to the next generation.
Dr. Ben Carson, Kirk Cameron, and Riley Gaines are joining forces in 2026 around a single, urgent mission: making sure American children grow up knowing the truth about the country they call home. They come from wildly different backgrounds — an operating room, a Hollywood set, and a swimming pool — but they’re aligned on one point. What is happening to America’s kids is deliberate. And it will not fix itself.
The numbers are hard to argue with. A June 2025 Gallup poll found that only 41% of Gen Z adults say they are proud to be American — the lowest of any generation, compared with 83% of the Silent Generation. It won’t surprise you to learn that Democrats are driving that decline in patriotism. Meanwhile, the federal government’s own National Report Card shows just 13% of eighth graders are proficient in U.S. history.
It doesn’t have to be this way. We can make Americans proud again.
Carson, who grew up in deep poverty in Detroit and was raised by a mother with only a third-grade education, who could not read. He credits the true story of America with saving his own life. He became one of the world’s most celebrated neurosurgeons, received the Medal of Freedom, and served as a member of Donald Trump’s Cabinet during his first term. His life is the embodiment of the American Dream. Naturally, he is furious that this story is being systematically hidden from the children who need it most.
“Every movement that has sought to destroy a nation has followed the same playbook: before you can transform a country, you have to erase its memory,” Carson told PJ Media. “You strip the children of their history, you teach them to despise their own country, and then you offer them your replacement. Such a movement is taking root in America today. It is not an accident. It is a strategy. Our kids are being taught that America is stolen land, that our founders were villains, and that there is nothing here worth protecting. That is not education. That is demolition. I grew up in poverty in Detroit, and the true story of this country saved my life. I wrote Built on Faith because every child in America deserves that same opportunity before it’s erased for good.”
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Cameron brings a Hollywood insider’s eye to the fight. After spending decades inside the entertainment machine and walking away to build something different, he knows exactly how cultural narratives get manufactured, and who they’re targeting. “I have traveled this country from coast to coast, and I can tell you, the American people are not what they are being told they are,” Cameron told PJ Media. “They are generous, faithful, hardworking, and they love this country. The problem is nobody is telling that story to their kids. We are.”
And then there’s Gaines. She first stepped into the public arena when she was forced to compete against biological male swimmer Will “Lia” Thomas, managed to tie with him, and was denied a trophy.
“A generation that does not know its own history cannot defend its own freedom,” she told PJ Media. “I have seen it firsthand on college campuses across this country. Kids who have been fed nothing but shame about America since before they could think for themselves. By the time they get to college it is already too late. We have to reach them young and we have to reach them with the truth.”
The vehicle for that truth is BRAVE Books, a Texas-based, faith-focused children’s publisher trusted by more than 275,000 families nationwide. The three new titles — Carson’s Built on Faith, Cameron’s Built by the Brave, and Gaines’ 1, 2, 3 We Are Free — are included in the “America Wins Bundle,” a limited-edition collection marking the nation’s 250th birthday.
“What we have built with Dr. Ben Carson, Kirk Cameron, and Riley Gaines for America’s 250th birthday is the most ambitious and important project we have ever undertaken,” said BRAVE Books founder and CEO Trent Talbot. “These are not just books. This is a movement. And these three voices represent exactly the kind of courage, faith, and conviction that built this country in the first place.”
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