The following are quotes from Dr. Carson’s speech, which can be seen in its entirety above.
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS
“It’s not my intention to offend anyone. I have discovered however, in recent years, that it’s very difficult to speak to a large group of people these days and not offend someone.”
“The PC Police are out in force at all times.”
“We’ve reached a point where people are afraid to actually talk about what they want to say because somebody might be offended.”
He tells a story about a man who sends exotic birds to his mother for Mother’s Day. When the man calls to ask her if she liked them, she says that they tasted good. The man is surprised and informs her that those birds were very expensive, “they could dance, they could sing, they could talk”. Her response is, “they should have said something”. This story sets up the following quote…
“That’s where we end up too, if we don’t speak up for what we believe.”
“What we need to do in this PC world, is forget about unanimity of speech and unanimity of thought; and we need to concentrate on being respectful of those people with whom we disagree.”
“One last thing about political correctness, which I think is a horrible thing by the way. I’m very very compassionate and I’m not ever out to offend anyone; but PC is dangerous because you see, this country, one of our founding principles was freedom of thought and freedom of expression… and it muffles people, it puts a muzzle on them and at the same time keeps people from discussing important issues while the fabric of this society is being changed. We cannot fall for that trick and what we need to do is start talking about things that are important, things that were important in the development of our nation.”
EDUCATION
“Two hundred years ago when slavery was going on it was illegal to educate a slave, particularly to teach him to read. Why do you think that was? Because when you educate a man, you liberate a man.”
“The people who founded this nation said that our system of government was designed for a well informed and educated populous and when they become less informed they become vulnerable.”
“Five doctors signed The Declaration of Independence. Doctors were involved in the framing of The Constitution and the Bill of Rights, a whole bunch of things. It’s only been in recent decades that we’ve extracted ourselves, which I think is a big mistake. We need doctors and we need scientists, engineers. We need all those people involved in the government, not just lawyers.”
Carson Scholars Fund
Dr. Carson talks about awards for athletic ability and the need to recognize the “intellectual superstar” in a similar way. Explaining why his fund targets title one students, Dr. Carson says the following…
“We can’t afford to waste any of those young people. You know for every one of those people that we keep from going down that path, that path of self destruction and mediocrity, that’s one less person you have to protect yourself and your family from; one less person you have to pay for in the penal and welfare system, one more taxpaying productive member of society who may invent a new energy source or come up with a cure for cancer. They’re all important to us and we need every single one of them.”
“Why is it so important that we educate our people? Because we don’t want to go down the same pathway as many other pinnacle nations who have preceded us. I think particularly about ancient Rome, very powerful. Nobody could even challenge them militarily, but what happened to them? They destroyed themselves from within, moral decay, fiscal irresponsibility. They destroyed themselves and if you don’t think that can happen to America, you get out your books and you start reading; but you know we can fix it.”
TAXATION
“What about our taxation System? So complex, there is no one who can possibly comply with every jot and tittle of our tax… (inaudible word). If I wanted to get you or you (pointing into the crowd), I could get you on a tax issue. That doesn’t make sense.”
“What we need to do is come up with something that’s simple and when I pick up my bible, you know what I see? I see the fairest individual in the universe, God, and he has given us a system. It’s called tithe. Now we don’t necessarily have to do it ten percent, but it’s principle. He didn’t say if your crops fail, don’t give me any tithe. He didn’t say if you have a bumper crop, give me triple tithes; so there must be something inherently fair about proportionality. You make ten billion dollars, you put in a billion. You make ten dollars, you put in one.”
“Some people say, they say well that’s not fair because it doesn’t hurt the guy who made ten billion dollars as much as the guy who made ten. Where does it say you have to hurt the guy? He just put a billion dollars in the pot. You know we don’t need to hurt him. It’s that kind of thinking that has resulted in 602 banks in the Caymon Islands.”
HEALTH CARE
“We need to have good health care for everybody. It’s the most important thing that a person can have. Money means nothing, titles mean nothing when you don’t have your health; but we’ve got to figure out efficient ways to do it.”
“When a person is born give him a birth certificate, an electronic medical record and a health savings account to which money can be contributed pretax, from the time you’re born to the time you die. When you die you can pass it on to your family members so that when you’re 85 years old, you’ve got six diseases, you’re not trying to spend up everything and you’re happy to pass it on; and there’s nobody talking about death panels.”
“For the people who are indigent, who don’t have any money, we can make contributions to their HSA each month because we already have this huge pot of money. Instead of sending it to some bureaucracy, let’s put it in their HSAs. Now they have some control over their own health care and what do you think they’re going to do? They’re going to learn very quickly how to be responsible. When Mr. Jones gets that diabetic foot ulcer, he’s not going to the emergency room and blowing a big chunk of it. He’s going to go to the clinic. He learns that very quickly.”
IN CLOSING
“Why is that eagle (bald eagle) able to fly high, forward? Because it has two wings, a left wing and a right wing. Enough said.”
