Turns. Doctor ben carson is tonights lecturer. His list ofep accomplishments would keep me up here all night if i mentioned them also i will hit a few highlights and then let him tell you his American Dream. For nearly 30 years, doctor carson served as the director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins childrens center, a position the youngest person when he was 33yearsold, the youngest person in the hospitals history to do so. In 1987, he successfully performed the first separation of cranial twins conjoined at the head. His honors include the president ial medal, of freedom, the highest award granted to a civilian. He holds 70 honorary degrees. Doctor carson and his wife, kandi, are cofounders of the Carson Scholars Fund that recognizes young people of all backgrounds for exceptional academic and humanitarian accomplishments. Today theyve awarded 10,000 scholars and more than 8 million in scholarships. We have a special connection with doctor carson that was forged long ago. Doctor carson helped our own Elizabeth Cohen an undergraduate here when she was just a baby. Her parents brought her to see doctor 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 doctor ben carson. Doctor 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 7yearsold and now shes here with us tonight to listen to his words once again. Buts enough from me. Lets givebu a warm and loud mon maroon welcome to doctor ben carson. [applause] [cheering] thank you. Thank you very much. Im delighted to be here at roanoke college, such a beautiful setting, so serene. I hope you all are really enjoying it. Most of the time these days people have a little disclaimer. They say im on this board were with this group so you have to takelt everything with a grain f salt. I have a disclaimer to make and that is i am not politically correct. [laughter] [applause] that certainly doesnt mean 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 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. Some people notice that were the only country with a dream. Theres no french drain, there is no portuguese dream, noted nigerian, canadian dream. Canadians thought they had one until recently, but we are the only ones [laughter] who actually have a dream and this is a destination for so many people throughout the world and its interesting weu have o many people trying to denigrate our country saying its a horrible place, its caused so many problemser for everybody, that its systemically racist, its unfair to people. If t it was so bad, why are all these people trying to get in here . Think about it. And once they got here, wouldnt they callnd all her friends in o say dont come here. Itsce a horrible 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 Continental Congress for the fashioning of the constitution, the whole thing was about to break aparty because there were so many divergent opinions and they were almost of fisticuffs. 81yearold Benjamin Franklin stood up in front of the assembly and said gentlemen, lets get down on our knees and seek wisdom from the lord. They knelt down and prayed and they got up and resolved their differences. Thats how we got to the constitution, but the constitution was so important because they studied every single governmental system that ever existed in the world and they were eclectics. They extracted the good things and got rid of the bad things as they tried to put together the right environment for our nation. Ut when Benjamin Franklin walked out of that constitution hall, he was asked who 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. We are closer to losing it right now than we ever have been. And its up to all of us to preserve the American Dream. My American Dream was to be a doctor. I love medicine. As a little kid, anything about medicine, i was all over that stuff. I even liked going to the doctors office. [laughter] i would gladly get t a shot so i could smell the alcohol swabs. [laughter] maybe not a covid shot. [laughter] but there was one problem and that is if youre going to become a doctor, you have to get good grades. I was a terrible student. Ish was one of the worst studens youve ever seen. I admired the smart kids though. There was one 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 a test and show you his a and say lethi me see your resume to you would let him see it all right. [laughter] how can this kid was the same age as i am no so much, how is that possible . But the only person who really believed in me was my mother. She would always say benjamin, you are much too smart to be bringing home grades like this. I brought them home anyway but she was always saying that. She didnt know what to do. She prayed for wisdom and god gave her the wisdom, at least in herth 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. In todays world we would have called social services on her. [laughter] but we had to read the books. She didnt dictate what kind of books we had to read as we could read anything we wanted. I loved nature. I read all the animal books in the Detroit Public Library and then all the plant books then all the books about rocks because we lived right next to the railroad tracks. Whatra is there along the railrd tracks, lots of rocks. I would collectin boxes of rocks and 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 and tell you how it was formed. One day the Science Teacher walked in and held up a big black shiny rock and said can anybody tell me what this is. I never raised my hand. I never answered any questions. So i waited for one of the smart kids to raise their hand and none of them did. So i waited for one of the dumb kids to raise their hand and none of them did. [laughter] i said this is my big chance. I put my hand up and everybody turned around. [laughter] they said carson has his hand up. This is going to be good. The teacher was shocked and said benjamin . I said mr. Jake, thats obsidian. There was silence in the room. It sounded good. Nobody knew if it was right or wrong, if they should be laughing or in breast and finally after he recovered from his shock he said thats right, it is obsidian. I said its formed after a volcanic eruption and it hits the water in a super cooling process. T everybody was staring. They couldnt believe all of this information coming from the mouth of the dummy. But i was the most amazed person because it dawned on me at that moment that i wasnt done. He said the reason you knew the answer is because you were reading the books. Arent you tired of being called stupid. I said [inaudible] can you imagine what the impact would be and from that point on i was always reading. If i had five minutes, i was reading a book. Within a space of a year and a half i went from the bottom of the class to the top of the class much to the consternation of a lot of students that left and call me names i remember going up to steve after a test. [laughter] i said to steve, how did you do on the exam, he puffed out his chest and said i got a 91 i said i got 100. [laughter] i said next time if you need help, let me know. [laughter] it was probably a little bit obnoxious but it felt so good to see that. What that does for a person. It is an area of severe concern and our nation right now. In 1831 when alexis de tocqueville came to america to study our c country europeans we fascinated how could this fledgling nation barely 15 years old are to bem competing at evy level . He was going to find out. He studied our government, our fitness business atmosphere, abu religion but he looked at her education. When he was blown away. He could find a mountain man the middle of the forest the guy could not read he could tell about the declaration of independence. If you really want to be impressed, look up a sixth grade exiting damper butter 50 years ago you you had to know to get his sixth grade certificate. I dont think most most americans today could pass that test. You see we are in the process right now i being dumbed down. That happens a lot when nations become communist. They endowment down the population. Because people who are not wellversed, who are ignorant are much easier to control. You probably noticed some of those men on the street interviews. They ask people the simplest questions. Like what countries border the United States . They are like china. [laughter] cuba. [laughter] they have no idea. You need people to be that ignorant. Theyre going to say stupid stuff and expect them to accept it. I was watching a report today he spoke 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. I said it was not a ransom. The give this money because they said if you give us this money we will let your people go. That is not a ransom . Youve got to be pretty stupid to believe that prayer you save the southern border is completely controlled we have it under control. There. Are some very dangerous terrorists. Youve got to be really stupid to accept that is a situation that is under control. Be able to control them on get them where you want them t go. Thats why it is so vitally important that we begin to concentrate on education. Now some people say its not that serious. And theres a lot of stuff going on in the country right now im nobodys trying to do anything. Thbut im going to read you something here. This is from the congressional record appendix page 8 30 four and a 35 january 10 , 63. Its called current communist goals. In america. There are 45 im not going to read all 45 but just a few to give you a flavor. Seventeen, get control of the schools. Transition involves current communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum, get control of Teacher Association gain control of all student newspapers. Number 20 infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions, gain control of key positions in radio, tv, and motion pictures. Twentyfour, eliminate all laws. When the violation of free speech and free espresso. Break down cultural standards of morality by pornography and absent his books, magazines motion pictures, radio and tv for present homosexuality and promiscuity as normal natural, healthy. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with social religion. Discredit the bible and emphasized the need for intellectualte maturity which ds not need a religious crutch. Eliminate any thing of religious expression in schools on the ground that it violates the principle of separation of church and state. Number 30 to support any 32 supt movement to centralize control over any part of the culture. Education, social agencies welfare programs et cetera. Number 40 discredit the family as an institution and promiscuity in easy divorce. Emphasizing the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parentsts are. Attribute prejudices, mentaloc blocks and children with influence appearance. Sixty years ago. Those people who think all the s stuff is of recent origin recognize this is been in the planning stage for a long period of time and we, the American People are being manipulated. Its the reason kruschof 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. It is imperative that we help the American People to see what is happening. And how theyre being played. How they have won the cold war and not us with longterm planning. After the Previous Administration my plan was to retire. Ti i had failed retire with the first time so i said im going to get it right this time. [laughter] and play golf undo all the things i never got a chance to do. But it was not 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 ahead join me in forming the american cornerstone and situations they think tank. We dont just think we do stuff. Concentrate on the corner stone pillars that were fundamental to the rapid rise of this country. 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 that has a different yard side than you do. Concept of liberty, of freedom, of being able to live the life you want to live without a bunch of mandates without a bunch of bureaucratsve telling you what u have to do and when you have to do it. Community. That was such an important part of what made us into a rapidly growing and strong nation. There are 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 your people. That made such a big difference in the growth of our nation. And the last cornerstone from the womb to the tomb. As we have lost that respect for lifeom we have become more coure in our relationships with each other. This very important that we respect all life on that we care for all of the people. Not just the babies in thee wob eebut 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 does not solve the problem. Ninety plus percent and up on the street housing segment housing third period housing second diagnose the reason there on the street. Housing third, try to fixat it. That is where real compassion comes in and it is economically more efficient because a lot of those people can be functional contributing individuals at the right kind of care. We added the Little Patriots Program looking at the children. So important. When you think about what the bible says in proverbs 22 six train up a child when hes old enough you will not from it. The marxist understood that too. Wanted their chief proponent said give me your children to teach for four years and the seed that i so it will never be uprooted. Thats why theyre so anxious to get into our school and to get to our young people early on. And think about it, children they are very curious. They are very suggestible. That is why they have parents to protect them from people who would take advantage of that curiosity and that suggestibility. Now we are in a situation where we havee people who were trying to say parents should be left out of that decision. They dont need to be told about it. Only the child was an immature brain by the way, the brain does not fully auteur until youre in your 20s. Some people are saying longer than that. [laughter] why would you take advantage of somebody whose brain is not fully auteur suggesting things to them. And think about this. Most little girls given the opportunity they will try on their fathers to about doesey tt mean they want to be a boy . Most little boys went nobodys lookinghi they will slip on ther mothers high heels they want to see what it looks like. Does that mean they want to be a girl . Of coursee not. And at some point we have to re grasp intellectual sound minds and not let ourselves be swayed by these people. At unfortunately we have a media that has lost contact with its mission the only Business Protected by the United States constitution because they are supposed to disseminate unbiased information to the people. So the will of the people could be used to control the direction of the country. But the process forgotten that and now they have become advocates of their position. Taking advantage of the people, not reforming them. Hiding things from them. Using propaganda tools and influencing people who dont read for themselves on that is that weve gotten into a very difficult situation. And also part of the american cornerstone is a good executive branch for america. This is specifically designed for Young People College age so they can learn how our government works. When a new president goes into washington d. C. He is faced with 4 million executive branch employees. Only 3000 of them are people he can change, think about that. The vast vast majority of them are leftleaning people from the d. C. Area. Executive branch for america has curriculum for Classes Online that will familiarize people with how washington works with how the executive branch works with the things that you need to know about how a bill is passed. How regulations are disarmed. So vitally important because most people when they go in as aids or representatives are like deer caught in the headlight it takes them at least a year before they even realize what is going on. And by that time the other side is made significant progress. And the entrenched state that exists there knows how to slow down legislation that they dont like. How to speed upth legislation tt they do like and their numbers are sorc overwhelming its very difficult to overcome. We have to be thinking about how we fix that the executive branch for america is one of the ways completely free of charge. Just go to american cornerstone. Org look up a good executive branch for americad. There are some very interesting things in there like interviews of people who have run federal agencies all conducted by Sarah Huckabee standards she does a really good job. You getth a chance to really see how these agencies work on how they affect the American People. Virtually every one of the staff at american cornerstone are veterans of the executive branch they share their expertise. When we learn a lot of stuff. When i went to government i was a newbie and i had a lot to learn. And you learn particularly about how vicious the swamp is. It could not get my people certified by congress and most of the work in a federal agency is done by the assistant secretary and a deputy secretary. I did not have an assistant secretary for five months. I did not have a deputy secretary for eight months. They would not okay my people. Eventually they did but i think the thinking was if we dont willthem his people he quit. They dont know me. They think because im quite it mild mannered i will give up easily but i m dont. It just made me more determined. But we eventually got the right people in and once we did that we were able to correct a lot of the maladies you solve these stories about fiscal mismanagement and billions of dollars disappearing, it was true. They had not had an audit for eight years. There is a federal law every agency is required to have an audit once a year. You couldnt do an audit because there are so many material defects it was impossible to do one. So we were able with a lot of armtwisting to get one of the Senior Partners from ernst young to comp and put together a team that got things straightened out. Thats probably the best run agency in d. C. For now i dont know a lot how long it will take them to destroy it again. But that then allowed us to get a lot of things done. Like the opportunity all over the country they were more than 8800 Opportunity Zones of places that were economically severely depressed. At Opportunity ZoneProgram Businesses to come in and to invest in those areas. And it made a huge difference for that is how you rehabilitate places. And the envision centers work multiple agencies came together roof to help people. I discovered during that process that there were many people on capitol hill who do not want people to be independent. They do not want them to climb out of poverty. They like having dependency. We are going to have to fight that. To foster the Independence Program we discovered 20000 foster youths aged out of foster care every year. A large number and up on the streets are being trafficked or are in horrible situations. And some of the young people who are experiencing that came and explained the situation to us. Our people were so touched within four months they put together a Program Foster youth to independence so that we were able to give people not only a place toou say but Wraparound Services because can you imagine 18. Even if you have a place to stay without a support system you are not going too far in most cases. And that is just scratching the surface we were able to get so many things accomplished once we got the fiscal house in order. You did not hear about many of them because they were goods things and they worked for it if they were bad things she wouldve heard a lot about it. But i hope some of you, some of you young people will be encouraged to actually get involved in our governmental processes at the state level or at the National Level is so important if we are going to survive as a nation. And we have to recognize just from some of the goals that i read to you how we are being manipulated. Help we are being manipulated to think wewe are each others enemies. We, the American People are not each others enemies but there are people who want us to think that. They are driving wedges between us on the basis of race, age, income, and political affiliation, gender, you name it drivingan wedges. And it is destroying our society. The house divided against itself cannot stand. The families are falling apart. Its very, very difficult. 23. 1 million traditional Nuclear Families left. Divorce is so easy and people do not even want to commit to get married anymore. I hope some of you old married folk will help some of the young people to understand that marriage is not necessarily shangrila. You pick two people from different environments you put them under the same roof there with each other all the time, guess what . There is going to be friction. It is like sandpaper rubbing two pieces of sandpaper together there is a lot of friction. But, if you keep rubbing them pretty soon they get smoother. Youve got to stay in there until get smoother and then is wonderful at thatin point. But we need the help and we need people to understand about the importance of the family particularly for a child who is a growing. They are t all kind of statistis that show how children who grew up in traditional Nuclear Families have much much Better Outcomes than those who do not. But in order to do all these things was going to be required is courage. That is one of the things i noticed when i was running for president traveling all over this country to the smallest hamlets in alabama and north dakota to the largest cities. I noticed most of the people in our country have common sense. What they lack is courage. A lot of people when a conversation comes up they are uncomfortable with they stare at their shoes and hope no one calls him a nasty name. They are afraid they may be canceled. Somebody may hurt their families. Rethat does not work to preserve your freedom. Youve got to be willing to stand up for what you believe in. You cannot beat land of the free if you are not home of the brave. We must recognize there is a cost to the freedoms that we have. And where does that courage come from . I remember when i was a resident and i was on call one night it was during the time of National Meeting so other attendings were at the meetingth except for the one that was left behind to deal with emergencies. A young man was brought into the emergency room severely beaten with a baseball bat. Unconscious, his brain was rapidly swelling the cat cant scan showed hemorrhaging the only way to l save his life woud have been to do a dangerous operation we take out part of the temporal lobe and part off the frontal lobe. I had seen that operation but ive never done one for i could not do it by myself anyway i was a resident at it would be against the law cycle for the attending, could not reach him. The nurses call for the attending, cannot reach him there paging the attendant could not reach him. Now were left to the terrible dilemma should i risk my career, and take them to the operating room illegally doing operation of never done before . Or should i do the safe thing, give him steroids, intubated and put it in the icu and let nature take its course . After careful prayer i know exactly what to do. I took into the operating room. Everything came back the operation was a Great Success today that young man is a child psychologist and i never got into any trouble. In fact i was praised for being courageous and doing the right thing. That is what we must think about. What is the right thing . You think about all those who have gone before us. Who have suffered in many cases bled and died. Think about world war ii when the nazis the fascists were taking over the world and what did the American People do . Young women went into the factories and built more airplanes, tanks, and missiles than anybody could imagine in many cases they went into the munitions factories, 75000 women lost their lives from explosions. Did that stop them . No. What about the young men is 16, 17 , years old many lied about their age so that they could fight for our country. Think about that. And think about dday the passage rate going up into the shores of normandy. Being mowed down by machine gun fire. One hundred lying dead in the sand. 1000 lying dead in the sand with the others afraid . Did they turn back . Yes they were afraid. No they did not turn back. They stepped over the dead bodies and they overwhelm the forces knowing and many cases they would never seen their loved ones of their homeland again. Why did they doo it . Obviously not for themselves. They did it for you and me. So that we could live in peace andd freedom. And now ladies and gentlemen it is our turn to do for those who are coming after us. Thank you very much. [applause] [applause] thank you. [applause] thank you. Thank you. [applause] i am told. [applause]e i am told of a couple minutes for q and a. So hugh has a queue and hope i have in a . Cracks in questions over here. Cracks the first of all, thank you for coming doctor carson i just wanted to thank you. A quick question for you. You spoke of the problem we are having in this country where we are one step away from using our public. What can we as College Students are High School Students that are here do to help stop that from happening . A very good question. Each one of us has an influence and if we all use that sphere of influence it will make a tremendous difference. We need to educate ourselves about our great nation. And it is a great nation. My wife and i have traveled to 68 countries. We have liveded oversee and i cn tell youca there is no place lie america and we have to keep that and be willing to speak up for it and defend it which means we need to know our history. And we have a great history. Your history determines your identity. The identity is what you believe. Thate is why when people try to change an area they tried to history. He you noticed when isis goes into an area they destroyed the museum and the libraries and the places they do not want people to know their history because those are people who are much easier to manipulate. And, it is so important to recognize particularly when we teach our children we have to teach him all of our history the good, the bad, the ugly but the fact of the matter is theres a heck of a lot more good than there is bad and ugly. We have some people who see the badne and i was sensitive happed in our society and they tried to make that the characteristic of our whole society and that is just not true. Particularly the issue of slavery. Did wee have slavery . Yes. Was it a horrible thing . Yes. Will reveal it once you had it . No virtually every Society Since the beginning of civilization had to do a slavery. That did not make us unique. What did make us unique and what we should teach our children is the fact that of all the nations who had slavery we were the only ones you had so many people whove intimately opposed it that we fought a bloodiest civil war to rid ourselves of that evil. That is the kind of people we are we have to learn from our mistakes and move forward. Cracks doctor carson thank you coming. We are so happy you are here. My question is you talked a little bit about loving divine neighbor and having productive conversations even in the midst of disagreement. I feel like its really hard to do that these days especially with the internet too. Do you have any advice on how to have those productive conversations instead of just getting into an argument . Well, for one thing trite not to talk negatively about people. You can always find something good to say about people and the fact of the matter is you can take the most leftwing person and the most right wingg person they are going to agree on 90 of stuff. But we allow the manipulators to take that 10 and massage it and grow it and make it into the most important thing when it really is not that important. We need to learn how to compromise my way or the highway does not work in a diverse society. So for an example a nation as a bunch of people over here in the green corner is a Green Renewable Energy is the only way we got to stop the other stuff is destroyingu everything. Youve got people saying of fossilfuels he only way to go. I would say what smart people would do they would use what they have two get what they want. Two things do not have to be mutually exclusive. We have ann abundance of fossil fuels we have learned how to harvest them in a way that is very clean the cleanest air and water that has been measured. We can use that as we work toward Renewable Green Energy and do it in a way that does not hurt the poor in the middle class families and our nation. We have to be willing to advocate and push for sensible things like that. Things like at the border. Recognizing we have to be able to control our borders. Youd have to have a wall, fence, whatever we have to have it. We also have to have an open door policy that allows people to come in and to work. They have to be registered. They have to have a permit. They have to pay taxes but they can come and go as they please as long as they are lawabiding. And if they want to become american citizens they have to go through the same thing everybody else to become american citizens. That would make sense, that would be controlled or theres a whole host of things we are doing that make no sense to look at our medical system we spend an average of 13100 per capita in this country per year on healthcare. Most practices only require fiv. It tells you we can use our money much more efficiently and provide very excellent care. The list goes on and on what we need to familiarize ourselves with all of these things and begin to talk intelligently about them in our sphere of influence. And that will make the difference without being pulled into the namecalling and the things that happen so often. [applause] picks hi thank you so much for coming. I do have a question i want to clarify your position on something. He made a comment about a boy wanting tosh her shoes and mens transitioning group what is your position on gender affirming care . What age should a child able to resume gender affirming care . In my opinion is god. Mail and female and he did that for a reason. And science tellso you if you have 2x chromosomes you are a woman. Give x and the why you are a man. That is carved in stone. You cannot then say no, i think im the other one. There was a mistake made. You are talking about physical characteristics. Just like a person who was five one cannot say i feel like im 6 feet tall. And therefore i am 6 feet tall. It is just silly. As far as changing, manipulating childrens whose brains are not fully developed were not capable of making those compact complex decisionso i think if someone wants toul change they should reach m the age of majority befe that happens. Because when you look at the number of children who have undergone that who commit suicide who are very unhappy with that decision when their brains to do auteur. Its really not fair to them we have to think about what is fair to people. This whole gender thing that has come up and all of the sexuality summary so senator kennedy reading from some of the books that are available to gradeschool children and he could not even read r it because it is so descriptive and pornographic. And i have seen some of those books. The sexualization and the emphasis on these things. Remember, those were some of the very goals that i read about in the congressional record from 60 years ago. There is a reason they are doing this to our society. I talked to a lot of people in other countries they all asked me the same question they say what happened to you guys . Theres a lot of people in other countries depending on us for leadership. We have to be fair to everybody. I do a not hold anything against anybody regardless of their belief. Everybody gets equal rights. But nobody gets extra rights. [applause] [applause] [inaudible] principate will have to make this last question. Hello doctor, i just want to say i appreciate what you have to say. The world war ii and vietnam on the cold war in particular. How can we as high school and College Students use history for what happened in the future 1984. The more knowledge you have the better able you are to put things into perspective. The things that are happening for instance in our country right now these are not new things. These are things that have happened before. The way that you recognize them is by knowing your history. Knowing what has happened in other parts of the world before. One interesting phenomenon during nazi ism hitler learned in the communication guy they learned thehe importance of repetition of falsehoods. The big lie. And they put these things out and they keep saying them and they get all of the media to say these things. And then people begin to believe that is what is true. We had a lot of that going on in our country right now too. And the thing i want to emphasize most importantly is that governments do what governments do. Our founders they discovered every single one of them they grow, they infiltrate and they dominate. It does not matter how they started it does not matter what their goals were, that is what they do. That is why they treated the constitution that they did to give the people the power because they new at some point we would probably reach this stage and knew the government would not fix itself it would have to be the people that people would have to understand the process and understand what their responsibilities are. Its incredibly important critical responsibility if you want to maintainyo freedom. You have to be serious you have to know those people are most vocal in the voting booth and all they do is look for a familiar name. It could beat stay tuned and they set yes i know that one i will vote for that one and sometimes it is. We have to be more serious than that we have to be the ones of thathold peoples feet to the f. When unauthorized people come up with new rules they say for instance addresses dont have to match, people can be dead. All kinds of stuff thats going on the only reason it goes on is because the people accept it. We have to be serious. We have to take the constitution as apr document that was meant o preserve our freedom and take advantage of it. Thank you all very much. [applause] [applause] weekends on cspan2 are an intellectual feast. Every saturday American History tv documents americas story. On sunday book tv brings you the latest in nonfiction books and authors. Funding for cspan2 because of these Television Companies and more including buckeye broadband. Buckeye broadband along with these Television Companies support cspan2 as a public service. Cooks Pulitzer Prize winning journalist chris hedges covered conflicts across the globe for the New York Times discussed his thoughts on war and its victims. Here is some of what he had to save your. Before i opened the questions im going to read the last part of the book. And i call it a coda because if i called it a prayer or would frightened everyone away. I carry within me deaths. This smell of decayed and bloated corpses, the cries of the wounded, the shrieks of children. The sound of gunfire. The deafening blasts, the fear, the stench of cordite the humiliation that comes when you surrender to chair and beg for life. The long alienation, the numbness, the nightmares, the lack of sleep, the inability to connect to all living things even to those we love the most, the regrets. The absurdity. The waist. The futility. It is only the broken and the maimed that no war. We ask for forgiveness. We seek redemption. We carry out our backs this awful cross of death for the essence of war is death. And the weight of it digs into our shoulders and eats away at our souls. We drag it through life up hills and down hills. Along the roads, into the most intimate recesses of our lives. It never leaves us. Those who know us best note there is something unspeakable and evil. Many of us harbor within us. This email is intimate, it is personal. We do not speak its name. It is the evil of things done and things left undone. It is the evil of war. War is captured in the long vacant stairs and the silences and the trembling fingers and that memories most of us keep buried deep within us and the cheers. It is impossible to portray war narratives, even antiwar narratives make the irrational, rational. They make the incomprehensible, comprehensible. They make the illogical, logical. They make the despicable beautiful. All words and images, all discussions, all films, all evocations of work good or bad are an obscenity. There is nothing to say. There are only the scars and wounds those we carry within us. These we cannot articulate the horror, the horror. I wander through life with the deadness of war within me. There is no escape. There is no peace. All of us who have been toward know an awful truth ghosts, strangers in a strange land who are our brothers and sisters, who is our family . Whom have we become . We have become those whom we once despised and killed. We have become the enemy. Our mother is the mother grieving over her murdered child and we murdered this child. And a mud walled village of afghanistan sand filled cemetery in falluja or mary a pole. Our father as a father lying on a pallet in a hut paralyzed by the blast from an iron fragmentation mount bomb. Our sister lives in poverty in a refugee camp outside kabul widowed, desperately poor, raising her children alone. Our brother, yes our brother is the telephone and the iraq he insurgent and al qaeda and the russian soldiers and he has an automatic rifle and he kills and he is becoming us. War is always the same plague it imparts the same deadly virus. It teaches us to deny anothers humanity