Dr. Ben carson is tonights david l guy lecturer. In his list of accomplishments which keep me up here all night. If i mention them all. So i will just hit a few highlights and then let him tell you his American Dream. For nearly 30 years, dr. Carson served as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins childrens center, a position the youngest person when he was 33 years old, the youngest person in the hospitals history to do so. In 1987, he successfully performed the first separation of cranial pages twins conjoined at the back of the head. His honors include the president ial medal of freedom, the highest award granted to a civilian. He holds 70 honorary degrees. Dr. Carson and his wife, candi carson, are cofounders of the carson scholars fund, which recognizes young people of all backgrounds for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments. To date, theyve awarded 10,000 scholars and more than 8 million in scholarships. Roanoke college has a special connection with dr. Carson that was forged long ago. Dr. Carson helped our own elizabeth cohen, an undergraduate here at roanoke college, when she was just a baby, her parents brought her to see dr. Carson after a diagnosis involving her brain. Her parents wanted another opinion before getting a risky surgery on such a young child. They brought her to dr. Ben carson. Dr. Carson believed she did not need the surgery and that the symptoms would eventually pass. He was right. He helped her avoid a risky surgery. She continued to see him until she was seven years old and now she is here with us tonight to listen to his wise words. Once again, but enough for me. Lets give a warm but loud maroon welcome to dr. Ben carson. Thank you. Thank you very much. Im delighted to be here. Roanoke college. Its such a beautiful setting. So serene. I hope you all are really enjoying it. You know, most of the times these days, people have a little disclaimer. They say, im on this board, im with this group, so i have to take everything with a grain of salt. Well, i have a disclaimer. The make, and that is i am not politically correct and. Now that certainly doesnt mean that i intentionally offend people, but ive discovered these days that its almost impossible to talk without offending somebody. Over something. So i dont twist myself into a pretzel trying to make sure that i dont offend anybody. But you know, the freedom of speech is such an important component of who we are as a nation. And its an important part of the American Dream. Have you ever noticed that were the only country with a dream . Theres no french dream. Theres no portuguese chambers, no nigerian dream. Theres no canadian dream. Canadians thought they had one until recently, but were the only ones who actually have a dream. And this is a destination for so many people throughout the world. And its interesting, you know, we have so many people trying to denigrate our country saying that its a horrible place and its caused so many problems for everybody that is systemically racist country. Its unfair to people. If it was so bad, why are all these people trying to get in here . Think about it. And once they got here, wouldnt they call all their friends and say, dont come here, its all over the place . Obviously, that was propaganda, but our founders went through a lot of trouble to create the atmosphere that we have in this country. And at the last continent, congress, for the fact the fasting of the constitution, the whole thing was about to break apart because there were so many divergent opinions and they were almost to fisticuffs. And then the senior statesman, 81 year old Benjamin Franklin, stood up in front of the assembly and he said, gentlemen, lets get down on our knees and lets seek wisdom from the lord. And they knelt down and they prayed. And they got up and resolve their differences. And thats how we got the constitution. But the constitution was so important because they studied every single governmental system that ever existed in the world. And they were eclectic. They extracted the good things and got rid of the bad things as they tried to put together the right environment for our nation. And when Benjamin Franklin walked out of that constitution hall, he was asked, sir, what do we have, a monarchy or a republic . And he said, a republic, if you can keep it. If you can keep it. Weve kept it for over 240 years. Were closer to losing it right now than we ever have. And its up to all of us to preserve the American Dream. You know, my American Dream was to be a doctor. I love medicine as a little kid. Anything about medicine, dr. Kildare, dr. Casey. Man, i was all over that stuff overnight. Going to the doctors office. I mean, i would gladly get a shot just so i could smell the alcohol swabs. Maybe not a covid shot, but prep. But, you know, there was there was one problem. And that is, if youre going to become a doctor, you have to get good grades and i was a terrible student. I was one of the worst and should ever see. I admire the smart kids. I remember there was one kid. His name was steve. He was the smartest kid in the class. He was the kind of kid who would always come up to you after test and show you his. And hed say, let me see yours, let me see yours. And you wouldnt let him see it. All right. But youd get in trouble. But i actually did admire steve. I said, how can this kid, whos the same age as i am, know so much . How is that possible . But the only person who really believed in me was my mother. And she was always saying, benjamin, youre much too smart to be bringing home grades like this. I brought them home anyway, but she was always saying that she was always being encouraging. She didnt know what to do, and she prayed for wisdom and god gave her the wisdom, at least in her opinion. My brother and i didnt think it was that wise turning off the tv. What kind of wisdom is that making us read books . I mean, in todays world we would have called social services on it, but. But we had to read the books and she didnt dictate what kind of books we had to read. So we could read anything we wanted. And i love nature. I read all the animal books in the detroit public library, and then i read all the plant books. Then i read all the books about rocks because we lived in right next to the Railroad Tracks. And what is there along the Railroad Tracks . Lots of rocks. I would collect boxes of rocks, bring them home, study them. Still in the fifth grade, still the dummy in the class. But pretty soon i could identify almost any rock. Tell you how it was formed. And one day, mr. Jake, the science teacher, walked in. He held up a big, black, shiny, rocky section. Anybody tell me what the size. Well, i never, ever raised my hand. I never answered any questions. So i waited for one of the smart kids there. I saw him and none of them did. So i waited for one of the dumb kids to raise a hand, and none of them did. And i said this is my big chance and put my hand. And everybody turned around. They said, carsons got his hand up. This is going to be good. And the teacher was shocked. He said, benjamin. I said, mr. Jake, thats obsidian. And there was silence in the room because it sounded good and nobody knew if it was right or wrong. I didnt know if they should be laughing or should they be impressed. And finally, after he recovered from his shock, mr. Jake said, thats right, it is obsidian. I said, obsidian is formed that volcanic eruption and a lava flows down and hits the walls of the supercool lung process. The air force out the glass. So everybody was staring at me. They couldnt believe all this Geology School information spewing forth from the mouth of the dummy. But i was perhaps the most amazing person because it dawned on me at that moment that i wasnt dumb. I said, the reason you knew the answers because you were reading the books. I said, arent you tired of being cast stupid . I said, what if you read books about all your subjects . Can you imagine . Imagine what the impact would be from that point on. I was always reading if i had 5 minutes, i was reading a book within the space of a year and a half. I went from the bottom of the class at the top of the class, much to the consternation of a lot of the students who laughed and called me names. I remember going up to steve after a test. I said, steve, had you doing the exam, you poked out his chest. He says, oh, i got a 91. And i said, well, gee, thats too bad. I got a hundred. And i said, next time you need help, let me know. That was probably a little obnoxious, but it sure felt good to say that to that. Turkey. But but think about this. I had the same brain when i was at the bottom of the class that i had at the top of the class. What does it tell you about the importance of education and what that does for a person . And its an area of severe concern in our nation right now. You know, in 1831, when alexis de tocqueville came to america to study our country, because europeans were fascinated, how could this fledgling nation, barely 50 years old, already be competing with them on virtually every level . De tocqueville was going to find out, and he studied our government, our business atmosphere, our religion. But he also looked at our education, and he was blown away. He could sign a mountain man in the middle of the forest and the guy could read. The guy could tell him about the declaration of independence and if you really want to be impressed, look up a sixth grade exit exam from 150 years ago. See what you had to know to get a sixth grade certificate. I dont think most americans today could pass that test. You see, were in the process right now of being dumbed down. It happens a lot when a nations become communist. They dumbed down the population. Because people who are not well versed, who are ignorant, are much easier to control. Youve probably noticed some of those man on the street interviews. They ask people the simplest questions like what countries boarded the United States . And theyre like china or cuba. I mean, they have no idea. And you need people to be that ignorant if youre going to say stupid stuff and expect them to accept that you. You know, i was watching a report today and. Kirby, the spokesman for the defense department, was talking about the iranian swap deal and how we gave them access to 6 billion. In addition to swapping prisoners. And he said it was not a ransom. So you give this money because they said if you give us this money, well let your people go. Thats not a ransom. You got to be pretty stupid to believe that or you say the southern border is completely controlled. We have under control. Millions of people are coming across, including some very dangerous terrorists. You got to be really stupid to accept that thats a situation thats under control. But you need people to be dumbed down in order to be able to control them. And lead them where you want them to go. And thats why its so vitally important that we begin to cancel trade in education. Now, some people say, oh, youre overblow in this situation. Its not its not that serious. And a lot of the stuff that is going on in our country right now, just a coincidence. Nobodys trying to do anything. Well, i want to read you something here. This is from the congressional record appendix page, a 34 and a 35 january 810, 1963. Its called current communist goals in america, and there are 45 of them that kind of read off 45, but just a few to give you a flavor. 17 get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current communist propaganda to soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers, associate. Put the party line in textbooks. Gain control of all student newspapers. Number 20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments. Editorial writing, policy making positions. Gain control of key positions in radio, tv and motion pictures. 24 and eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them censorship and a violation of free speech and free press. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and tv. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as normal, natural, healthy. Infiltrated churches. And replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the bible and emphasized the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a religious crutch. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in schools on the grounds that it violates the principles of separation of church and state. Number three, to support any socialist movement, to give centralized control over any part of the culture, education, social agencies, welfare programs, Mental Health clinics, etc. Number 40 discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce. Emphasized the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influences of parents. 60 years ago. So those people who think all of this stuff is of recent origin recognize that this has been in the planning stage and the execution stage for a long period of time, and that we, the American People, are being manipulated as the reason that khrushchev said to eisenhower 60 years ago. Your grandchildrens children will live under communism and we wont have to fire one shot. All of these things are going on and its imperative that we help the American People to see whats happening and how theyre being played and how it is them who have actually won the cold war and not us with long term planning. And thats the reason that we form the american cornerstone institute. You know, after the previous administration, my plan was to retire because i had a failed retirement. The first time. So i said, im going to get it right this time and play golf and do all the things that i never got a chance to do. But it wasnt too many weeks after the 2020 election that i realized that we were heading for a cliff, that we were heading for that place, that ben franklin was talking about when he said if you can keep it. And so some very talented people from hud joined me informing american cornerstone institute, which is a think tank, slash, do tank, because we dont just think we do stuff and cancel trade on the cornerstone pillars that were fundamental to the rapid rise of this country. Our faith. Our faith which taught us how to relate to each other, our judeochristian values say, love your neighbor, not cancel your neighbor, not hate the person next door. If theyd have a different yard sign than you do. And then the concept of liberty or freedom of being able to live the life that you want to live without a bunch of mandates, without a bunch of bureaucrats telling you what you have to do. And when you have to do it. Community. That was such an important part of what made us into iraq with a growing and strong nation. There were communities all over the country, people from Different Countries who could barely communicate with each other because they spoke different languages, but they understood the concept of community of the common good, what is good for the whole group, not just for you and for your people. And that made such a big difference in the growth of our nation. And, you know, the last one, the last cornerstone life from the womb to the tomb. And as weve lost that respect for a life, we become more cautious in our relationships with each other. Thats very important that we respect all life and that we care for all the people, not just some babies in the womb, but those Homeless People that we see on the street. Most of them are suffering either from addiction or Mental Health, illness. If you just take them off the street and put them in an apartment, as we do in housing first, that doesnt solve the problem. 90 plus percent of those people end up back on the street, have to do housing. Second, and no housing third houses second diagnosed. The reason theyre on the street, housing third. Try to fix it. Thats where real compassion comes in. And its economically more efficient because a lot of those people can be functional, contribute to individuals with the right kind of care. So then we added the Little Patriots Program looking at the children. So important. And you think about what the bible says. Proverbs 26, train up the child in the way to go when he is older, not depart from it. Well, the marks is understood that to. And one of their chief proponent proponents lenin said give me your children to teach for four years. And the seed that i so will never be uprooted. And thats why theyre so anxious to get into our schools and to get to our young people. Early on and think about it, children. Theyre very curious and theyre very suggestible. Thats why they have parents to protect them from people who would take advantage of that curiosity and that suggestibility. And now were in a situation where we have people who try to say, parents should be left out of that decision. They dont need to be told about it. Only the child who has an immature brain, by the way, the brain does not fully mature until your and your twenties. Some people it seems is and longer than that. But you know why would you take advantage of somebody whose brain is not fully mature suggesting things to them . You know, think about this. Most little girls, you know, given the opportunity theyll try on their fathers to build. What does that mean . They want to be a boy. Most of the boys, nobody is looking. Theyll slip on their mothers high heels. They want to see what it feels like. Does that mean they want to be a girl . Of course not. And at some point, we have to regress intellectually. So some minds and not let ourselves be swayed by these people. And unfortunately, we have a media that has lost con contact with its mission. The press, the only Business Protected by the United States constitution. Why . Because they were supposed to disseminate unbiased information to the people so that the will of the people could be used to control the direction of the country. But the press has forgotten that. And now theyve become advocates of their position, taking advantage of the people, not informing them, hiding things from them, using propaganda tools and influencing people who dont read for themselves, who dont learn from themselves. And thats how weve gotten into a very difficult situation. And then also a part of the american cornerstone is the executive branch for america. And this is specifically designed for young people, college age students, so they can learn how our Government Works when a new president goes into washington, d. C. ,