Commentary

SPOKANE–Ben Carson, M.D., former Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary and renowned neurosurgeon was the keynote speaker at the Washington Policy Center Annual Dinner in here last Friday. Some of his remarks were enlightening and we share some of them here:

"I actually very much dislike political correctness, and WOKEness, because it's antithetical to some of the founding principles of this nation, like freedom of speech. We should be able to talk the way we want to, we should be able to have the ideals that we really believe in. It's one of the reasons that people came to this nation from all over the world so they could live the lives they wanted to live; they could pursue the things that make them happy, and they wouldn't have the heavy foot of some government body on their neck all the time.

"And I think that we talk about freedom of speech. Some people say 'But we still have freedom of speech, as long as the government doesn't restrict our speech.' But, you know what? If Big Tech and media can cancel you, and create all kinds of problems for you, and the government is complicit, it is exactly the same thing as the government imposing restrictions on your speech.

"There's really no place like America, and we are really fortunate.

"That's one of the reasons that it's so vitally important that we preserve this nation. When you think about all the others who have come before us, and the things that they had to do in order that we could have the freedoms that we have, we should not take it lightly.

"I think about World War II, and D-Day, and all those young men invading the beach at Normandy. Some of them 16, 17 or 18 years old, stepping over the bodies of their comrades, hundreds and thousands lying there in the sand.

"Were they afraid? Did they turn back?

"Yes, they were afraid but they did not turn back.

"They overwhelmed the Axis forces knowing, in many cases, that they would never see their homeland or their loved ones again

"Why did they do it? They didn't do it for themselves. They did it so that we could be free, and there's no way that we could ever neglect and denigrate the service of those great young men, and also the great young women who went into the factories and built more airplanes and tanks and mortars than anybody could imagine.

"And you go back through war after war, effort after effort, and there have been brave and courageous Americans who have stuck to the forefront in order to preserve our freedoms.

"And now, it's our turn. It's our turn to step up to the forefront.

"I think about some of the kids today, and what they have to go through.

"Can you imagine what it must be like to be a little kid today?

"First of all, you've got to wear a mask. Go to school with a mask on. You don't get to correlate facial expressions with what people are saying. It's a very important part of the sociological development process.

"We don't even know what the ramifications of that will end up being.

"And then you're told you may be carrying some horrible, deadly disease. And even though you may not feel sick, you may give it to your grandmother.

"Well, unfortunately, grandmothers do get older and they do die.

"Now you've got somebody feeling guilty about that.

"And then if they're white, they're told that they're an oppressor.

"They, and their ancestors are responsible for all the ills in the world.

"If they're black, or some other minority, they're a victim. They can't possibly succeed because of the systemically racist society that we live in.

"All of this is happening while they're trying to develop their self image.

"Think about that.

"And then, if that's not bad enough, they may not be a girl or a boy.

"Can you imagine doing that to our children?

"I actually think it's child abuse. [Applause]

"It makes me think back to Nikita Kruschev in the late Fifties and early Sixties, in a conversation with Dwight David Eisenhower, who was the president.

"He said 'Your grandchildren's children will live under Communism. And we won't have to fire a shot.'

"What do you think he was talking about?

"He knew that in order to convert this nation, you would never do it on the battlefields; that he knew there was another way to do it.

"All you had to do was gain control of the educational system and indoctrinate the kids.

"It was Vladimir Lenin who said 'Give me your children to teach for four year and the seed that I plant will never be uprooted.'

"That's a part of the plan.

"The other thing you have to do it gain control of the media, so that you could spoon feed the populace only what you want them to hear...don't give them what you don't want them to hear. Manipulate them.

"And you know, the media's kind of stupid, and I'll tell you why. What they cannot realize is that the first thing that the Communist regiments do is control the media. They're slitting their own throats and they don't even know it.

"And then the other thing you have to do is you have to have to replace faith in God with faith in government.

"And the last thing you have to do is you have to raise the national debt to extreme levels so that you can justify massive taxation, redistribution of wealth and total dependency on the government.

"Does any of that sound familiar?"