Dr. Ben Carson Saying What Few Others Have the Courage To On #BlackLivesMatter

Aimee Herd-Opinion : Aug 26, 2015
USA Today

"We should go to Washington. For decades they have fought the 'War on Poverty.' Poverty won. We lost. Over 19 trillion dollars has been wasted, but can anyone identify a single battle won as a result? We certainly have not helped the poor 'lift themselves out of the ruts of poverty' as Lyndon Johnson promised—far from it. These programs have been a great American failure."

While "The Donald" Trump has been loudly declaring his views on the nation's border situation, another presidential candidate has been no less vocal about important national matters, however, his trademark calm and soft-spoken tone doesn't seem to garner as much media spotlight. (Photo: Ross D. Franklin, AP)

I'm speaking of course, about Dr. Ben Carson. The renowned former Johns Hopkins neurosurgeon, who grew up in Detroit's inner-city, has much to say about the #BlackLivesMatter movement, and he effectively laid it out in a recent op-ed in USA Today.

Dr. Carson says, "I grew up in neighborhoods most Americans were told to never drive through. I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. Both of my older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny.

"But my mother didn't. She changed all of that. She saved my brother and me from being killed on those streets with nothing but a library card."

If you hadn't heard about this piece, or had a chance to read it, I recommend taking a few minutes to do so because it just makes good sense. (click here to read)

Here are a few more excerpts:

My mother knew what the problems were and she shielded me and my brother from them. I can tell you she wasn't worried about Socialist senators from tiny rural states. "BlackLivesmatter" could learn from her to focus on the real sources of our hopelessness.

This is where we should march:

Let’s head down to the board of education. Teaching is a tough job and thank God there was a teacher who convinced me that I was not dumb, but our schools are failing and we have no power to abandon them. The actions of rogue police officers take black lives one at a time. Our public school system has destroyed black lives not in the ones and twos, but in whole generations.

The schools don’t teach and our children don’t learn. Too many public schools are controlled by teachers unions focused more on the convenience and compensation of adults rather than the education of children who started out far behind. Their failures don't kill as quickly, but they do kill as surely as a bullet...

...We don't want a plan to give us public housing in nice neighborhoods. We want an end to excuses for schools that leave us without the means to buy our own houses where we choose to live. We want the skills needed to compete, not a consolation prize of Section 8, Food Stamps and a lifetime of government paperwork...

Read this entire article by Dr. Ben Carson by clicking here.