Scott Powers
For six years, one of the most active and personable leaders in Orlando’s Tea Party movement has appeared in public seemingly defiant to disabilities that have him walking in clear pain or writing with only partial fingers.
But Peter Lee, 46, now is conceding to his injuries, saying doctors finally have convinced him his left leg has to go, with an above-knee amputation now scheduled for early June. Facing expenses he says are far beyond what he could afford from out-of-pocket medical bills and needs for uncovered or only partially covered items such as a power chair, a programmable prosthesis leg and perhaps a van, he has opened up a GoFundMe.com campaign.
And he has opened it with his story, one that might shock anyone who knows Lee from his visibility in Central Florida politics but doesn’t already know his background:
“My story begins in 1974 when I was severely burned by an abusive mother. She boiled me in a bathtub until my skin literally fell off in sheets,” Lee wrote in opening his fund-drive.
(His mother, who now lives “somewhere in New York,” said it was an accident, he said. Police investigated her but never charged her with anything, he said.)
“My injuries resulted in the loss of most of my fingers and all of my toes on both hands and feet. My left foot has been pointed downwards ever since and I have lost my heel below the ankle. There is very little flesh remaining between my bones and the surface I walk on. I describe walking as a man who walks on his knuckles. It may be tolerable for a short time but it soon gets excruciatingly painful. Any prolonged periods of walking cause my thin grafted skin to blister and tear,” Lee wrote. “This has been my painful reality for 42 years.”
Lee is director of Orlando’s East Side Tea Party, a group well-known for its usual staunch Tea Party values but also frequently providing forums for broader (though usually Republican) political forums.
His day job is as a student counselor for Seminole County Virtual School, where he assists students at Greenwood Lakes Middle School with virtual high school classes ranging from biology to typing. He is certified as a social studies teacher.
His GoFundMe goal is to raise $60,000. He launched the page Tuesday, and late Wednesday afternoon was up to $1,820 in donations, which he said included a generous check from U.S. Rep. Ron DeSantis, the Ponte Vedra Beach Republican who is running for the U.S. Senate.
