Mother has been fascinated by politics for her entire life. She watches the news every day and reads the newspaper [online now] and is much better informed than probably 90% of the people in the world.
So yesterday, she sent me an email about a speech given at the National Prayer Breakfast and I just thought to myself, I will ask her about it later.I have now listened to the entire speech and she is right, this guy is amazing. We all need to pay attention to his words.
Conservative Ben Carson speech upstages Obama at prayer breakfast is an article everyone should read.I am sorry they used the word "conservative" because I think most non-conservatives would agree with most of his speech, if not all of it.
Dr. Ben Carson was born in poverty, to an illiterate 13 year old mother, and has risen in life to become a world-famous pediatric neurosurgeon. He is a VERY bright guy.
His mother was one of 24 children and married at 13. She had a third grade education and had to work as a maid. However, she wanted better for her children. "I had a mother who would never allow herself to be a victim," he explained.
He says in his speech [you can watch it here] so many things that are SO true and right.
"If you don't accept excuses pretty soon people stop giving them and start looking for solutions." Wise words from his mom. She made her kids turn off the TV and read books, and give her book reports every week. She took a lot of criticism for it but she didn't care.
He hates political correctness and he calls it "a horrible thing." Amen! This country was founded on freedom of thought and freedom of expression, and the PC police try to squelch that. He said "We need to start TALKING about things."
"Here's the thing about lawyers. What do lawyers learn in law school? To win. By hook or crook... We need to start thinking about how do we solve problems?!"
He is very passionate about education. 30% of people who enter high school do not graduate. 44% of people do not finish college.
Our system of government is designed for an informed populace, and education is so important.
He and his wife started a scholarship fund 16 years ago. "We need smart people who care about other people." His scholarships are about service, not just grades. He argues we place too much emphasis on rewarding sports and not enough emphasis on education.
Here is some General Information on Carson Scholars Fund. If you have children in high school, I urge you to read it very carefully.
Moral decay and fiscal irresponsibility destroyed ancient Rome. We are on the same path. "All we need to do is remember what our real responsibilities are so we can solve the problems. My role model was Jesus and he used parables to help people understand things."
He talked about how we need to fix the national debt of 16 trillion dollars.
He criticizes our ridiculously complex tax system. "God came up with the best system, called tithe." I SO agree with this! He said, people hide money in the Cayman's and that money needs to be here, building infrastructure. [At that point Obama started really looking uncomfortable.]
"We need to have good healthcare for everybody. Money means nothing when you don't have your health."
His solution: "When a person is born give them a birth certificate, an electronic medical record, and a health savings account to which money can be contributed, pre-tax from the time you are born to the time you die, and it can be passed on."
He says indigent people should have Health Savings Account with money they can control. Of course, it's a bit more complicated than that, but his basic ideas make a lot of sense. He is saying we need a better system than what we have now, but it's clearly not Obamacare.
This man is SO brilliant. I wish he had run for president last fall. I would've voted for him with enthusiasm.
