The establishment wishes he would go away, disappear, said Dr. Benjamin Carson as he addressed the crowd of at least 800 at the Sunnybrook Ball Room in Pottstown Oct. 13.
Carson, who spoke at the 30th Anniversary Founders Dinner of Coventry Christian School, is an emeritus professor of neurosurgery, oncology, plastic surgery and pediatrics at the Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore. He holds more than 60 honorary doctorate degrees and has received hundreds of awards and citations. He has been named by CNN and Time Magazine as one of the nation’s 20 foremost physicians and scientists.
Yet Dr. Carson was born into poverty in Detroit. His mother was one of 24 children, had a third grade education and married at age 13. But Carson had a dream of becoming a doctor. He saw his two cousins killed. He had a violent temper. At age 14 he attempted to stab another youth, but the knife hit a belt buckle. After pondering the situation for several hours, considering that he could destroy his future, he vowed to control his wild temper.
At the dinner, Carson lightheartedly warned the audience that he is not politically correct – he instead considers himself more of a populist.
Carson said that politicians are slick and the media is libelous, and that just because people disagree with each other, they don’t have to be enemies. The media perseveres in dividing people with concepts of peace and war and class hatred, he said, adding that their goal is to keep people divided so they can be controlled. We can learn a lot from people we disagree with, he said.
These days the trend is of, by and for the government rather than of, by and for the people, he said. He criticized Obamacare, saying it gave too much control of the healthcare system to the government. But he also urged people to become more active and vocal in opposition it.
He also urged the audience to find strength in their convictions through faith.
‘We are going to change this nation around,’ he said. As a people, we will continue to deteriorate if we become more subjugated to the government, he added.
At times, he used his past to drive home his points, especially when discussing the importance of investing in and improving the nation’s education system.
He recalled his mother saying he was too smart to be bringing home his poor grades at one point.
‘You don’t need a Ph.D.,’ he remembered her saying. ‘You just need common sense.’ This became a major theme in his speech.
His mother told him to read two books from the Detroit Public Library each week and report on them. He found that his mother was right, and soon he was always reading a book. He said this took him from the bottom of the class to the top of the class.
‘We need people with common sense,’ he said.
He emphasized the need for more people to stand together to voice their issues with current policies, as well as a need for stronger faith, to fix the nation’s problems. This movement is important for our future, he said, and this country can become a light for the world.
People should not forget what it is to be ruled by a dominating tyrant, he added.
‘We have to stress values and principles and the difference between right and wrong,’ he said. ‘Freedom is not given without courage. The land of the free and the home of the brave cannot be free unless we are truly brave.’
