I hope this message finds you and your loved
ones
well and happy. I always wish you all the very
best.

Over the past few months I've received
literally
hundreds of emails, letters and phone calls from
friends
and supporters asking how my mom and dad are
doing, how
I'm holding up, and encouraging me to please
consider
mounting a second campaign for U.S. Congress now
that our
seat is finally opening up.

That's why I've decided to share one more
update on
my family, to thank everyone for keeping us in
your
thoughts and prayers, and to explain my decision
whether
to throw my hat in the ring for 2008 (more on
that below).

First, as you may remember, we came
dangerously close
to losing my mom last summer. Fortunately, she's
much
better now and her cancer is under control. I'm
thankful,
of course, for mom's recovery, but I've seen
firsthand the
urgent need to make real progress on finding a
cure and
developing better treatments.

Second, my dad's Alzheimer's is progressing
much more
rapidly than any of us was prepared for: One day
he did
not recognize me, another day he greeted me at
the door
and told his friend standing next to him that he
hadn't
seen me in years (we had been together just the
day
before). Like most fathers and sons, dad and I
have
certainly had our differences over the years, but
it
grieves me beyond words to see him deteriorating
so
quickly.

To put dad's specific condition into
perspective:
Many people have heard those stories of kind
little old
ladies who begin collecting stray cats and before
anyone
realizes what's happening, they've collected 100
or more.
My dad too has a very kind heart and last year
he began
inviting home just about every homeless person he
came
across -- by the time I arrived back in Missouri
last
August his house and his guest house were
completely
overrun (the smell alone was enough to knock you
over).

Fortunately, a member of my adopted church
in Kansas
City put me in contact with a local minister
whose
congregation's sole mission is providing for the
homeless
and helping them to reenter society, so we've
just about
succeeded in emptying my dad's house.

The last thing our family wants to see
happen is for
my dad to wind up penniless in some under-funded
veterans'
hospital (my parents are divorced, but still care
about
each other), so we've worked hard trying to set
up a
conservancy to help protect his finances. It
hasn't been
easy, though, and I've seen firsthand the urgent
need for
legal reforms and increased funding for veterans
programs.

Third, my last surviving grandparent,
Grandma
Blanche, has begun failing at age 93. She's
finally
resigned herself to the need to use a walker and
that
she'll never again descend her basement steps.

Grandma has very serious heart problems (not
to
mention hearing loss and matricular
degeneration). When
her heart begins to race at 200+ beats per minute
and her
blood pressure goes through the roof, it's
usually the
middle of the night and one of us must accompany
her to
the emergency room. I can't tell you how many
nights
we've arrived there around midnight, only to have
to wait
4 or 5 hours before anyone could even see her.
And I
can't tell you how many other people with similar
stories
we've met during those long hours in the
emergency waiting
room.

Every month Grandma worries that this will
be the
month Medicare begins refusing to pay for these
visits --
leaving her exposed to crushing debt and unable
to
continue seeking the care she so obviously needs.
Once
again, I've witnessed firsthand the urgent need
for
reforms.

Last but not least, my childhood best
friend, my
exact same age, is now entering the latter stages
of
Parkinson's Disease and can no longer walk
without
assistance. I love Teddy more than words can say
and I
visited him at least once a week while I was back
in
Missouri. Those who followed my weekly column
"Candidate's Diary" may remember that during our
2004
congressional campaign Teddy changed his party
affiliation
to Democrat saying, "It's my last best hope for a
cure."

In the midst of all these personal
tragedies,
watching as my loved ones were suffering, dying
or
deteriorating, something very unexpected and
troubling
began happening inside of me: I began
spontaneously
remembering previously lost memories of the
events
surrounding my brother Billy's suicide more than
25 years
ago (a desperate act to avoid returning to jail
for
misdemeanor drug possession). I'm not sure why
these
memories started resurfacing, except maybe
because I was
sleeping in his old bedroom (my old bedroom
having been
converted for other uses).

Suffice it to say, all this has profoundly
changed
me. I am no longer the same person I was just 6
months
ago. My spiritual faith has grown much deeper,
but only
after the deepest crisis in faith I've ever
experienced.

The first three weeks of December I spent
countless
hours alone in prayer (mostly in the middle of
the night)
where I must admit I had more than a few angry
words for
my Maker.

But after a long string of sleepless nights
which I
can only describe as very dark, I finally began
to receive
some of the answers I had been pleading for.
This may
sound silly to some, but the exact turning point
for me
came late one night around 2AM while I sat alone
in my
bedroom listening to a deeply moving song written
by one
of my favorite supporters, Johnny Rzeznick, lead
singer of
the Goo Goo Dolls.

The chorus of that song -- "Better Days" --
brought
me to tears:

"Take these words and sing out loud,
everyone is forgiven now,
'cause tonight's the night the world begins
again."

Those words touched me deeper than any song
since I
was 13 years old and first heard Cat Stevens'
"Peace
Train." In that moment, with God's help... I was
transformed. The world -- for me -- began again.

Today I am a more real person than I've been
in many,
many years: lighter, happier, stronger, more
centered,
more loving, more humble (this life can be a very
humbling
experience), and more forgiving. For example,
I've
learned it's futile to seek forgiveness before
you
yourself are ready to forgive.

I've also come to terms, for the first time,
with my
brother's suicide. I still miss Billy -- in
fact, now
more than ever -- but I've finally been able to
forgive
myself for the ways I feel I let him down and I
can now
remember my big brother with a smile.

As I've shared these feelings and
experiences with
others, I've learned how many other people have
had
similar feelings and experiences.

And I've been pleasantly surprised to learn
how many
other people have experienced (or are currently
experiencing) a similar "mid-life"
transformation.

In short, as a result of my personal
transformation,
I have regained my passion for politics, for
helping to
build a better world -- but never again will it
begin for
me at the "macro" level and filter down to the
"micro"
level. I now see almost everything from the
PERSONAL
level.

For example:

* I've witnessed firsthand (up close and
personal) how
incredibly broken our nation's healthcare system
has
become and how it is hurting real people and real
families.

* I've witnessed firsthand the urgent need for
new cures
and new treatments for diseases such as cancer
and
Parkinson's.

* I've witnessed firsthand the shortcomings of
our
veterans programs and how they're failing to meet
the
needs of our nation's heroes.

* I've witnessed firsthand the overwhelming
personal
tragedies of our nation's homeless.

* I've witnessed firsthand how the drug war is
hurting
real people and tearing apart real families.

All of these problems and many others can
only be
truly solved at the national level.

That is why it's my great pleasure to
announce that,
after much prayer and personal reflection, I have
decided
to launch a second campaign for U.S. Congress.
(A more
formal announcement will likely be scheduled for
April or
May.)

Unsurprisingly, universal healthcare will be
my #1
domestic issue throughout this campaign. I'm
encouraged
that our party's current two leading presidential
contenders have also chosen to make universal
healthcare a
centerpiece in their campaigns.

Those who followed my first bid for Congress
will
remember the climactic lines that ended most of
my stump
speeches:

"It's time to dream again, America -- it's
time to
dream again."

Well, now that we Democrats have regained
control of
the U.S. Senate and the House of Representative,
it's time
not only to dream again -- it's time to begin
making our
dreams come true. For example:

* It's time to create a nationwide universal
healthcare
system, including prescription drugs, hospice and
prenatal
care.

* It's time to fully fund medical research in
order to
find cures and develop better treatments for
diseases such
as cancer, Parkinson's, Multiple Sclerosis and
diabetes --
not to mention the Human Immunodeficiency Virus
(HIV).

* It's time to put an end to homelessness in
America. We
should adopt a 10-year plan to cut homelessness
to 50%,
and during those ten years, using what we learn
along the
way, devise a plan to end it once and for all.

* It's time to put an end to poverty in America.
There's
no reason why the richest country in history
should not be
able to solve this problem. The process of
lifting up the
lower class and growing the middle class will
more than
pay for itself in the long run by growing our tax
base and
empowering our young people to achieve their full
potential.

* It's time to fully fund all the programs that
ensure
that our military veterans are well taken care of
and
provided for.

* It's time to call a truce in the conservatives'
failed
"Drug War" and begin building a more
compassionate program
to begin truly solving our nation's substance
abuse
crisis.

And finally:

* It's time to put our foreign policy back on the
right
track, bring our troops home from Iraq, and once
again
become a positive force for change on the world
stage.

Our Campaign Webmaster is already hard at
work on our
new web site where we will go into much greater
detail on
these and many other vital issues:

www.BrettWagner.com

We expect to launch our web site in the next week
or so.

As always our campaign team will welcome
your
comments and suggestions -- our campaign is,
after all, a
"work in progress."

In closing, I'd like to thank everyone again
for all
those encouraging letters, emails and phone calls
during
my time of family emergencies and personal
transformation.
You'll never know how much you mean to me. If
there's
ever anything I can do for you, just let me know.

Your friend always,