Ben Carson - America the beautiful: rediscovering what made this nation great

Dr. Benjamin Carson prescribes a dose of tough love to cure the nations ills and restore our faith in government and ourselves. Actually, his prescription is the one written by our founding fathers who created a government based on individual liberty, honesty, hard work, and a belief in God. Rising from a childhood of poverty and racism to become a world class neurosurgeon, Dr. Carson argues that the values that created this nation are what are needed now to keep it great.

Sam Donaldson

Ben Carsons new book America the Beautiful is a tremendous resource for anyone who desires to understand what has made America great. By studying our history, we are able to take hold of our future. This is a must-read.

Jay Sekulow, Chief Counsel, American Center for Law & Justice

Dr. Ben Carson has turned a spotlight on an unstable society that seeks to destroy the foundation upon which America was built. He has peered into the microscope lens that reveals the deception of those trying to rewrite the history of our country. He stirs up our national pride with historical accounts that reveal why America has been blessed of God and how close we are to the brink of losing freedoms won long ago through sacrifice and bloodshed. The heart of this nation has been severed from the lifeline of Gods truth. As one of the worlds leading neurosurgeons, Ben Carsons gifted hands have been blessed of God in saving countless lives. From these same gifted hands comes America the Beautiful that gives a prescription that can cause the heart of our nation to beat once again with hope for the future.

Franklin Graham, President & CEO Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, Samaritans Purse

In America The Beautiful, the Carsons examine those values and principles that propelled this nation to the pinnacle of the world in record time. They also ask the thought-provoking question, Are we willing to abandon those things for the sake of political correctness? This book is educational, sobering, and inspiring.

James Brown, Sportscaster, NFL Today on CBS and Inside the NFL on Showtime

Also by Ben Carson, M.D.

One Nation (with Candy Carson)

Gifted Hands (with Cecil Murphey)

Think Big (with Cecil Murphey)

Take the Risk (with Gregg Lewis)

The Big Picture (with Gregg Lewis)

You Have a Brain (with Gregg Lewis and Rebecca Shaw Lewis)

ZONDERVAN

America the Beautiful

Copyright 2012 by Benjamin Carson and Candy Carson

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition November 2015: ISBN 978-0-310-41734-7

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Carson, Ben.

America the beautiful : rediscovering what made this nation great / Ben Carson.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-0-310-33071-4 (hardcover)

1. United States Civilization. 2. Social values United States. 3. United States Politics and government 21st century. I. Title.

E169.12.C294 2012

973 dc23

2011037506

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, NIV. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

The chart on is from The 5,000 Year Leap by W. Cleon Skousen, copyright 1981 by W. Cleon Skousen and C&J Investments. Used by permission of the National Center for Constitutional Studies.

Any Internet addresses (websites, blogs, etc.) and telephone numbers in this book are offered as a resource. They are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement by Zondervan, nor does Zondervan vouch for the content of these sites and numbers for the life of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with Yates & Yates, www.Yates2.com.

Cover design: Curt Diepenhorst

Cover photography: Peter Howard and janoid/Flickr

Interior design: Matthew Van Zomeren

First printing 2012 / Reprint Edition 2015

To those who have given
their time, resources, and even their lives
to create and preserve
One nation under God, indivisible,
with liberty and justice for all.

Also to the late Patricia Modell
and to Art Modell,
who represent true American patriotism.

CONTENTS

Dear Reader,

America is beautiful. There is none like her in terms of her amber waves of grain, her purple mountain majesties, her government, her people, and the opportunities she holds out to each and every one of us.

You can see America in her stories. Years ago a friend of mine got a scholarship to a college in New York, but it did not include room and board. He lived on the streets for a while, kept up his grade-point average, and found a new boarding place right on campusbehind one of the couches in the professors lounge. He finished his degree in engineering, went to work for the FAA and the private sector, and invented aircraft systems that saved his employers nearly $400 million. Rather than continue to invent for others, my friend decided to start his own engineering company. Since he was only twenty-two years old, the banks wouldnt offer him a loan, only credit cards; so he took ten of those cards and got his initial money to start his company. This inventive genius created a company that prospered and made a lot of money. When he sold the business at the age of forty, he retired and now works in charities advancing education in science and engineering.

Only in America.

I once met legendary entrepreneur A. G. Gaston, a multimillionaire who funded a significant portion of the Civil Rights movement in the South. When we were in Alabama, I asked him how he became so wealthy as a black man in Birmingham between 1930 and 1950. He said it was very simple: I just opened my eyes and looked around and asked myself what people needed. And then I went about filling those needs. Gaston created multiple businesses, including an insurance company and a bank. He was a compassionate capitalist who improved society for all of us.

Yes, in America.

There was a boy who hated poverty growing up. He was poor and grew up in the neighborhoods of inner-city Detroit and Boston. The run-down housing in which he lived had paper-thin walls through which arguments could be heard late into the nights. Break-ins and burglaries were common. His father left his mom and brother when the boy was only eight. In the neighborhood projects in Boston, houses were abandoned, some were burned, all were crumbling. The conditions of poverty spawned angry, aggressive attitudes among neighbors and everyone in the community. The common emotion was fear.

The boys mother believed in her son, even when the boys first efforts at school really werent much to be proud of. The boy let others call him dumb. And the anger came out. One day he nearly killed a boy with a knife. The mother kept encouraging her small family, working cleaning jobs to put food on the table, and requiring her son to read, make book reports, study, and go to school. The boy discovered he loved learning and was curious about everything. He ultimately got a scholarship to Yale, qualified for medical school, and became a surgeon at Johns Hopkins University, earning many positions of distinction.

This was in America, and this was me.

I believe in America, from George Washington to Alexis de Tocqueville to Abraham Lincoln. I believe in it because it is a land where freedom is more than just a word; it is the right of every man and woman. We are a nation that agrees to balance different beliefs and thoughts, a nation where those of little means can succeed and prosper, a nation that in the past has learned from her mistakes, and a nation that, if divided, will lose the luster of the greatness it has experienced.