“Where does it say you have to hurt the guy? He’s just put in a billion in the pot. We don’t need to hurt him. It’s that kind of thinking — it’s that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman Islands. That money needs to be back here, building our infrastructure and creating jobs — we’re smart enough to figure out how to do that.”
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND EXPRESSION
One of the founding principles [of this country] was freedom of thought and freedom of expression. [Political correctness] muffles people. It puts a muzzle on them. And at the same time, keeps people from discussing important issues while the fabric of this society is being changed. And we cannot fall for that trick. And what we need to do is start talking about things, talking about things that are important. Things that were important in the development of our nation.
EDUCATION
One of those things was education. I’m very passionate about education because it’s made such a big difference in my life. But here we are at a time in the world, the information age, the age of technology, and yet 30% of people who enter high school in this country do not graduate. 44% of people who start a four-year college program do not finish it in four years. What is that about?
Think back to a darker time in this our history. Two hundred years ago when slavery was going on it was illegal to educate a slave, particularly to teach them to read. Why do you think that was? Because when you educate a man, you liberate a man. And there I was as a youngster placing myself in the same situation that a horrible institution did because I wasn’t taking advantage of the education. I was a horrible student. Most of my classmates thought I was the stupidest person in the world. They called me dummy. I was the butt of all the jokes. Now, admittedly, it was a bad environment. Single-parent home, you know, my mother and father had gotten divorced early on.
THINKING
My mother got married when she was 13. She was one of 24 children. Had a horrible life. Discovered that her husband was a bigamist, had another family. And she only had a third grade education. She had to take care of us. Dire poverty. I had a horrible temper, poor self-esteem. All the things that you think would preclude success. But I had something very important, I had a mother who believed in me, and I had a mother who would never allow herself to be a victim no matter what happened. Never made excuses, and she never accepted an excuse from us. And if we ever came up with an excuse, she always said, “Do you have a brain?” And if the answer was yes, then she said, “Then you could have thought your way out of it.” It doesn’t matter what John or Susan or Mary or anybody else did or said. And it was the most important thing she did for my brother and myself.
EXCUSES
Because if you don’t accept excuses, pretty soon people stop giving them, and they start looking for solutions. And that is a critical issue when it comes to success.
POVERTY AND BOOK REPORTS
Well, you know, we did live in dire poverty, and one of the things that I hated was poverty. You know, some people hate spiders, some people hate snakes, I hated poverty. I couldn’t stand it. [laughter] But, you know, my mother couldn’t stand the fact that we were doing poorly in school, and she prayed and asked god to give her wisdom, what could she do to make her sons understand the importance of wisdom? God gave her wisdom. At least in her opinion. It was to turn off the TV, let us watch only two or three programs during the week, and read two books apiece and submit to her written book reports — which she couldn’t read, but we didn’t know that. [laughter] She put check marks and highlights and stuff — [laughter]. But, you know, I just hated this. And my friends were out having a good time. Her friends would criticize her. They would say you can’t make boys stay in the house reading books, they’ll grow up and hate you. I would overhear them and say, “You know, mother, they’re right.” But she didn’t care. [laughter]
CONTROL OF ONE’S OWN DESTINY
You know, after a while, I actually began to enjoy reading those books because we were very poor. But between the covers of those books I could go anywhere, I could be anybody, I could do anything. I began to read about people of great accomplishment, and as I read those stories, I began to see a connecting thread. I began to see that the person who has the most to do with you and what happens to you in life is you. You make decisions. You decide how much energy you want to put behind that decision. And I came to understand that I had control of my own destiny. And at that point I didn’t hate poverty anymore, because I knew it was only temporary. I knew I could change that. It was incredibly liberating for me; made all the difference.
DE TOCQUEVILLE
To continue on that theme of education, in 1831 Alexis de Tocqueville came to study America. The Europeans were fascinated. How could a fledgling Nation, barely 50 years old already be competing with them on virtually every level. This was impossible. de Tocqueville was going to sort it out and he looked at our government and he was duly impressed by the three branches of government — four now because now we have special interest groups [looking at President Obama], but it was only three back in those days. He said, wow, this is really something. But then he said, let me look at their educational system and he was blown away. See, anybody who had finished the second grade was completely literate. He could find a mountain man on the outskirts of society who could read the newspaper and have a political discussion, could tell him how the government worked.
BOOK: AMERICA THE BEAUTIFUL
If you really want to be impressed, take a look at the chapter on education in my latest book, America the Beautiful, which I wrote with my wife — it came out last year, and in that education chapter you will see questions extracted from a sixth grade exit exam from the 1800′s — a test you had to pass to get your sixth grade certificate. I doubt most college graduates today could pass that test. We have dumbed things down to that level. And the reason that is so dangerous is because the people who founded this Nation said that our system of government was designed for a well-informed and educated populace, and when they become less informed, they become vulnerable. Think about that. That is why education is so vitally important.
NOT JUST LAWYERS
Now some people say, “Ahhh, you’re over blowing it, things aren’t that bad, and you’re a doctor, a neurosurgeon. Why are you concerned about these things?” Got news for you. Five doctors signed the Declaration of Independence. Doctors were involved in the framing of the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, in a whole bunch of things. It’s only been since recent decades that we’ve extracted ourselves, which I think is a big mistake.
We need doctors, we needs scientists, engineers. We need all those people involved in government, not just lawyers. I don’t have anything against lawyers, but you know, here’s the thing about lawyers… I’m sorry, but I got to be truthful… got to be truthful — what do lawyers learn in law school? To win, by hook or by crook. You gotta win, so you got all these Democrat lawyers, and you got all these Republican lawyers and their sides want to win. We need to get rid of that. What we need to start thinking about is, how do we solve problems?
SCHOLARS FUND
Now, before I get shot, let me finish. I don’t like to bring up problems without coming up with solutions. My wife and I started the Carson Scholars Fund sixteen years ago after we heard about an international survey looking at the ability of eight graders in 22 countries to solve math and science problems, and we came out number 21 out of 22. We only barely beat out Number 22 — very concerning.
We went to these schools and we’d see all these trophies: State Basketball, State Wrestling, this, that and the other. The Quarterback was the Big Man on Campus. What about the intellectual Superstar? What did they get? A National Honor Society pin? A pat on the head, there, there little nerd? Nobody cared about them. And is it any wonder that sometimes the smart kids try to hide? They don’t want anybody to know they are smart? This is not helping us or our Nation. So we started giving out scholarships [to people] from all backgrounds for superior academic performance and demonstration of humanitarian qualities. Unless you cared about other people, it didn’t matter how smart you were. We’ve got plenty of people like that. We don’t need smart people who don’t care about other people.
SCHOLARS BANQUET
We would give them money. The money would go into a Trust. They would get interest on it. When they would go to college they would get the money, but also the school gets a trophy, every bit as impressive as a sports trophy — right out there with the others. They get a medal. They get to go to a banquet. We try to put them on a pedestal as impressive as we do the All-State athletes. I have nothing against athletics or entertainment. I’m from Baltimore. The Ravens won. This is great — okay. But, but, what will maintain our position in the world? The ability to shoot a 25-foot jump shot or the ability to solve a quadratic equation? We need to put the things into proper perspective.
Many teachers have told us that when we put a Carson Scholar in their classroom, the GPA of the whole classroom goes up over the next year. It’s been very gratifying. We started 16 years ago with 25 scholarships in Maryland, now we’ve given out more than 5,000 and we are in all 50 states. We’ve also put in Reading Rooms. These are fascinating places that no little kid could possibly pass up. And they get points for the amount of time they spend reading, and the number of books they read. They can trade the points for prizes. In the beginning they do it for the prizes, but it doesn’t take long before their academic performance begins to improve.
ONE LESS PERSON IN THE PENAL OR WELFARE SYSTEM
And we particularly target Title One schools where the kids come from homes with no books and they go to schools with no libraries. Those are the ones who drop out. We need to truncate that process early on because we can’t afford to waste any of those young people. You know, for every one of those people we keep from going down that path — that path of self-destruction and mediocrity — that’s one less person you have to protect yourself and your family from. One less person you have to pay for in the penal or welfare system. One more taxpaying productive member of society who may invent a new energy source or come up with a cure for cancer. They are all important to us and we need every single one of them it makes a difference. And when you go home tonight read about it, Carson Scholars [at] carsonscholars.org
ANCIENT ROME, DESTROYED FROM WITHIN
Why is it so important that we educate our people? Because we don’t want to go down the pathway as so many pinnacle nations that have preceded us. I think particularly about ancient Rome. Very powerful. Nobody could even challenge them militarily, but what happened to them? They destroyed themselves from within. Moral decay, fiscal irresponsibility. They destroyed themselves. If you don’t think that can happen to America, you get out your books and you start reading. But you know, we can fix it.
NATIONAL DEBT
Why can we fix it because we’re smart. We have some of the most intellectually gifted people leading our Nation. All we need to do is remember what our real responsibilities are so that we can solve the problems. I think about these problems all the time, and my role. You know, [my role] model was Jesus. He used parables to help people understand things. And one of our big problems right now, and like I said, I’m not politically correct — so I’m sorry, but you know — our deficit is a big problem. Think about it. And our National Debt — $16.5 Trillion dollars — you think that’s not a lot of money? I’ll tell you what! Count one number per second, which you can’t even do because once you get to a thousand it will take you longer than a second, but… one number per second. You know how long it would take you to count to 16 Trillion? 507,000 years – more than a half a million years to get there. We have to deal with this.
PARABLE ABOUT DAD’S PREFERENTIAL ALLOWANCE
Here’s a parable: A family falls on hard times. Dad loses his job or is demoted to part time work. He has 5 children. He comes to the 5 children, he says we’re going to have to reduce your allowance. Well, they’re not happy about it — but he says, except for John and Susan. They’re, they’re special. They get to keep their allowance. In fact, we’ll give them more. How do you think that’s going to go down? Not too well. Same thing happens. Enough said.
PROPORTIONALITY IN TAX SYSTEM
What about our taxation system? So complex there is no one who can possibly comply with every jot and tittle of our tax system. If I wanted to get you, I could get you on a tax issue. That doesn’t make any sense. What we need to do is come up with something that is simple. When I pick up my Bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the Universe, God, and he’s given us a system. It’s called tithe. Now we don’t necessarily have to do it 10% but it’s principle. He didn’t say, if your crops fail, don’t give me any tithes. He didn’t say, if you have a bumper crop, give me triple tithes. So there must be something inherently fair about proportionality. You make $10 Billion dollars you put in a Billion. You make $10 you put in $1 — of course, you gotta get rid of the loopholes. But now some people say, “That’s not fair because it doesn’t hurt the guy who made $10 Billion dollars as much as the guy who made $10.” Where does it say you have to hurt the guy? He’s just put in a billion in the pot. We don’t need to hurt him.
It’s that kind of thinking — it’s that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Cayman Islands. That money needs to be back here, building our infrastructure and creating jobs — and we’re smart enough — we’re smart enough to figure out how to do that.
HEALTHCARE, INCENTIVES
We’ve already started down the path to solving one of the other big problems, healthcare. We need to have good healthcare for everybody. It’s the most important thing that a person can have. Money means nothing, titles mean nothing when you don’t have your health. But we’ve got to figure out efficient ways to do it. We spend a lot of money on health care, twice as much per capita as anybody in else in the world, and yet not very efficient. What can we do?
Here’s my solution. When a person is born, give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record and a health savings account [HSA], to which money can be contributed, pre-tax from the time you are born, to the time you die. When you die, you can pass it on to your family members so that when you’re 85 years old and you’ve got 6 diseases, you’re not trying to spend up everything. You’re happy to pass it on and nobody is talking about death panels. That’s number one.
Also, for the people who are indigent, who don’t have any money, we can make contributions to their HSA each month because we already have this huge pot of money; instead of sending it to bureaucracy, let’s put it into HSAs. Now they have some control over their own health care. And what do you think they’re going to do? They’re going to learn very quickly how to be responsible. When Mr. Jones gets that diabetic foot ulcer, he’s not going to the Emergency Room and blowing a big chunk of it. He’s going to go to the Clinic. He learns that very quickly — gets the same treatment. In the Emergency Room they send him out. In the Clinic they say, now let’s get your diabetes under control so that you’re not back here in three weeks with another problem. That’s how we begin to solve these kinds of problems. It’s much more complex than that, and I don’t have time to go into it all, but we can do all these things because we are smart people.
PARABLE ABOUT LIGHTHOUSE
And let me begin to close here — another parable. [There’s a] Sea Captain, and he’s out on the sea near the area where the Titanic went down. And they look ahead and there’s a bright light right there — another ship he figures. He tells his signaler to signal that ship: “Deviate 10 degrees to the South.” Back comes the message, “No you deviate 10 degrees to the North.” Well, he’s a little bit incensed you know. He says, send a message, “This is Captain Johnson, deviate 10 degrees to the South.” Back comes the message, “This is Ensign 4th Class Reilly. Deviate 10 degrees to the North.” Now Captain Johnson is really upset. He says send him a message, “This is a Naval Destroyer.” Back comes the message, “This is a Lighthouse.” Enough said.
EAGLE, TWO WINGS
Now, what about the symbol of our Nation? The Eagle. The Bald Eagle. It’s an interesting story how we chose that but a lot of people think we call it the bald eagle because it looks like it has a bald head. That’s not the reason It comes from the Old English word Piebald, which means crowned with white. And we just shortened it to bald. Now, use that the next time you see somebody who thinks they know everything. You’ll get ’em on that one.
But, why is that eagle able to fly, high, forward? Because it has two wings: a left wing and a right wing. Enough said.
UPHOLDING THE STAR SPANGLED BANNER
And I wanna close with this story: Two hundred years ago this Nation was involved in a war, the war of 1812. The British — who are now our good friends — thought that we were young whippersnappers. It was time for us to become a colony again. They were winning that war and marching up the Eastern Seaboard, destroying city after city, destroying Washington D.C., burned down the White House. Next stop Baltimore. As they came into the Chesapeake Bay, there were armadas of war ships as far as the eye could see. It was looking grim. Fort McHenry standing right there. General Armistead, who was in charge of Fort McHenry, had a large American flag commissioned to fly in front of the Fort. The Admiral in charge of the British Fleet was offended, said, “Take that flag down. You have until dusk to take that flag down. If you don’t take it down, we will reduce you to ashes.”
There was a young amateur poet on board by the name of Francis Scott Key, sent by President Madison to try to obtain the release of an American physician who was being held captive. He overheard the British plans. They were not going to let him off the ship. He mourned. As dusk approached he mourned for his fledgling young Nation. And as the sun fell, the bombardment started. Bombs bursting in air. Missiles, so much debris. He strained, trying to see, was the flag still there? Couldn’t see a thing. All night long it continued. At the crack of dawn he ran out to the banister. He looked straining his eyes all he could only see dust and debris.
Then there was a clearing and he beheld the most beautiful sight he had ever seen — the torn and tattered Stars and Stripes still waving. And many historians say that was the turning point in the war of 1812. We went on to win that war and to retain our freedom and if you had gone onto the grounds of Fort McHenry that day, you would have seen at the base of that flag, the bodies of soldiers who took turns propping up that flag. They would not let that flag go down because they believed in what that flag symbolized. And what did it symbolize? One Nation, under God, [applause] indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
~
Dr. Benjamin Solomon “Ben” Carson, Sr. is a neurosurgeon and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital.