Posted on 05/06/2015 11:13:59 AM PDT by Kaslin
Regardless of how Dr. Ben Carson chooses to try to convince Republican voters that he should be their candidate for president, Carson's personal story is particularly worthy of the attention of all Americans during these troubled times.
His story defies much of the conventional wisdom we get from both the left and the right to "explain" the grave social problems in our poor minority communities and the seemingly insurmountable obstacles to success facing poor black children.
From the left, we hear that black life in America would have no hope but for government programs to ease the burdens of an unfair hand dealt by the past and an unwelcoming and racist present.
But Carson is a poster child for the American dream. Born poor in a black ghetto in Detroit and raised by a divorced, uneducated mother, he rose to the pinnacle of the medical profession, becoming director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. The fuel for his success was not government programs, but a stern and caring mother who refused to accept excuses for failure, Christian values of right and wrong and personal responsibility, and an ethic for work, learning and achievement.
From the right, we hear that the rampant problems with young black men today stem from the collapse of the black family and the absence of fathers.
But Carson was raised without a father at home.
So what can we learn from Carson's experience that could point to what is wrong in America today?
One thing wrong is that it has become politically incorrect to talk about the importance of religion.
It is impossible to explain Carson's remarkable life and achievements without the Christian faith and values that guided his mother and have served him throughout his life.
Human life -- personal or social -- cannot exist without rules. The question is never whether we have rules, but what they are and where we get them.
As religion has weakened in America, the rules rooted in biblical tradition that enable virtue and self-governance have been increasingly displaced by government and moral relativism.
When asked in a Gallup poll in 1952 "how important would you say religion is in your own life," 75 percent said "very important." By 1976, this was down to 52 percent and has remained approximately at that level.
Over the same period, the role of government in individual lives has exploded. Government payments to individuals made up a little more than 15 percent of the federal budget in 1952. Today, it is around 70 percent.
This is not just a minority thing. Americans of all backgrounds increasingly have turned over their lives to rules created by politicians rather than the wisdom of tradition.
Black out-of-wedlock births in 2012, at 72.2 percent of all black births, were three times their 1965 rate of 24 percent. White out-of-wedlock births in 2012, at 29.4 percent of all white births, were almost 10 times their 1965 rate of 3.1 percent.
The over-criminalization of our society and the transformation of police from peace officers to law enforcers are symptoms of a nation that has lost its moral moorings and is trying in vain to invent social justice through government and political action.
It's not an accident that during the week that Baltimore was exploding, the very city in which Carson made his career at Johns Hopkins, the U.S. Supreme Court was hearing arguments to redefine marriage.
We are a free country. We are free to choose meaninglessness and secular humanism over religion and tradition. But that choice means a nation that looks more like the rioting in Baltimore than the life Dr. Ben Carson represents.
Good article. Bttt
Regardless of how Dr. Ben Carson chooses to try to convince Republican voters that he should be their candidate for VICE-president.
There Star, I fixed it for you.
Vying for the Conservative vote:
Walker, Cruz, Huckabee, Rubio, Fiorina, Carson... (and on and on)
Vying for the Moderate vote:
Jeb Bush
Hmmm, I wonder who gets the most delegates.
Love it.
I listened to his speech and I liked what he had to say. However I still think he would be perfect as Secretary of Health and Human Services
That would be a great fit for him.
Translation (for a Leftist):
HE'S NOT REALLY BLACK!!!
I had the privilege to hear the man speak live.
We was simply great. He trod the stage from side to side continuously speaking with out notes and no uhs or ans.
His style is to recount an event of adversity couple it with a current problem and then recount how he rose above the challenge
one such started out at the kitchen table in Detroit at breakfast. They had cereal, raisin bran. The problem was always that he had to be careful and observe the raisins closely to be sure they weren’t roaches. Then he said he must apologize for the story to his colleagues on the Kellogg Board of Directors because they might not like it very well.
He is smooth as silk and then he slips his dagger between the ribs and twists it. It is so smoothe the moonbat doesn’t know he has been mortally wounded.
I know that many have dismissed his candidacy but they haven’t heard him and the self induced blindness over guns prevent seeing his conservatism. There is a lot, an awful lot, there besides being just a doctor
He is for me second after Scott Walker.
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to be President but if one (the best there is in the world) volunteers, we should take him up on it.
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to be President but if one (the best there is in the world) volunteers, we should take him up on it.
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Sorry, but being a pediatric neurosurgeon prepares one for the presidency how?
If you were diligent and I know you are not, you would see that he has so many other accomplishments and resources.
His most important qualification is brilliance......... smarts out the wazoo
He is so smart that his abilities fly over the head of the ignorati
He should have run for Maryland Governor last year.
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