America CELEBRATING BLACK HISTORY MONTH
Author, Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, and neurosurgeon Ben Carson on what’s af licting America.
A Clarion Call To Make the U.S. Great Again
A BY DAVID A. PATTEN
s a world-class surgeon specializing in pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Ben Carson
has seen the symptoms before: grow- ing listlessness and disorientation as a patient’s vital signs spiral downward. But this time it’s not some sick person on a gurney Carson is worried about. It’s the United States of America. “I would say our society is in critical condition,” says Carson, author of the new book America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great. He adds: “If you look
ment. But even worse than the self- infl icted wounds sustained at the fum- bling hands of the Obama administra- tion, he says, is the scourge of political correctness now sweeping the nation. A lack of free speech is precisely
what drove colonists to make their perilous journey to the New World in the fi rst place, he says. “And for us to re-impose it through the back door would make the Founding Fathers turn over in their graves,” he says. Carson believes young
at our educational sys- tem, we are now in the age of information, the technological age, and yet we have 30 percent of the people entering high school not fi nishing. That is a disaster.’’ Newsmax caught up with Carson
one morning after he had already per- formed three operations. As a pioneer of daring new surgical techniques that routinely cheat the grim reaper, “criti- cal condition” isn’t a phrase Carson uses lightly. Carson is a staunch oppo- nent of Obamacare and big govern-
18 NEWSMAX | FEBRUARY 2012
“I would say our society is in critical condition.” — Dr. Ben Carson
people are laying down their critical reasoning at the altar of socially acceptable thought. As an example he cites the view that all lifestyles are of equal value. Car- son debunks the gospel of relativistic moral-
ity, saying diff erent lifestyles lead to diff erent outcomes. “And that’s one reason I am so
against this political correctness stuff , because it is absolutely destructive,” he says. “And it’s the same thing that happened to ancient Rome.” Whether America is destined to fol-
low the rise-and-fall pattern of other great civilizations is a favorite Carson theme. Despite his origins as the son
MILESTONES Clockwise from top: Carson receives the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Bush in 2008. Cuba Gooding Jr. played Carson in Gifted Hands, based on Carson’s life. His book, America the Beautiful.
of a single mother living in Detroit, Carson considers the big entitlement state a clear and present danger to what makes America special. Gifted Hands, the life story of his
rise from humble means to become a world-famous neurosurgeon, was made into a TV movie starring Cuba Gooding Jr. In 2008, former President George W. Bush honored Carson with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. His new book takes on excessive government spending, highlights the nation’s Judeo-Christian roots, deliv- ers a blunt critique of the nation’s
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