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  • Thank you. Thank you very much. It is a real pleasure to be here at Liberty. You know,

  • this is my first time at Liberty, although I've followed the progress over the many years

  • and I am very, very proud of what's going on at this university. And I actually have

  • some people that are very close to me who are students here, Hannah and Ben Walker.

  • Ben was actually named after me. And just the things that have been going on here represent,

  • I think, a lot to the country, and I want to talk a little bit today about how important

  • it is in your life to stand up for what you believe in.

  • You know, I've always only wanted to be a doctor. That was the only thing that really

  • interested me in life. When I was a small child I used to listen to the mission stories

  • in church and Sabbath school, they frequently featured missionary doctors, people who traveled

  • all over the world at great personal expense, sacrifice, to bring not only physical, but

  • mental and spiritual healing to people. It seemed to me like the most noble thing someone

  • could do, so when I was eight years old, I decided that I was going to be a missionary

  • doctor. And that was my dream until I was 13. At which time, having grown up in dire

  • poverty, I decided I would rather be rich, so at that point, missionary doctor was out,

  • and psychiatrist was in. Now I didn't know any psychiatrists, but on TV they seemed like

  • rich people. You know, they drove Jaguars. They lived in big fancy mansions, big plush

  • offices, and all they had to do is talk to crazy people all day. It seemed like I was

  • doing that anyways, so I said, "You know, this is going to work out extremely well!"

  • And I started reading Psychology Today, I was the local shrink in high school, everybody

  • brought me their problems. I would sit there and stroke my chin, say, "Tell me about your

  • momma." And I majored in psychology in college, did advanced psych in medical school, and

  • I was gung-ho! I was all ready to be a psychiatrist, and then I started meeting a bunch of psychiatrists.

  • Need I say more? I'm just kidding, some of my best friends are psychiatrists.

  • But what I discovered pretty quickly is what psychiatrists do in real life and what they

  • do on television are two completely different things. And they really are some of the more

  • intellectual and very important parts of the medical community but it really wasn't what

  • I wanted to do. I just said, "Lord, what is it that you really want me to do?" and I started

  • thinking about special gifts and talents. You know, God gives everybody special gifts

  • and talents. Everybody in here is better than everybody else at something. It's a matter

  • of figuring out what your gifts and talents are, and I realized that I had a lot of eye

  • hand coordination. I had the ability to think in three dimensions. I was a very careful

  • person. I never knocked things over and said "Oops," which is a good characteristic of

  • a brain surgeon by the way. I loved to dissect things, and so I said, "You would be a terrific

  • neurosurgeon." And really that's how I came up with that idea. It turned out to be obviously

  • the right choice for me but I think if you spend some time trying to get in contact with

  • those gifts that God gave you, and then think of careers that take advantage of that, as

  • opposed to just doing what your mom or you dad did or what your friends are doing, it,

  • I think, will make a tremendous difference in terms of how things turn out.

  • Now let me just take a brief moment for a disclaimer. Everybody makes disclaimers these

  • days, they says I sit on this board or that board, I'm associated with this organization

  • therefore you must take everything I say with a grain of salt. Well, what I've discovered

  • in recent years that it is very difficult to speak to a large group of people nowadays

  • without offending someone. Have you noticed that? When I was a kid growing up, "Sticks

  • and stone break my bones, but words will never hurt me." Do young people know that anymore?

  • I don't think so. Because now people walk around with their feelings on their shoulders,

  • waiting for somebody to say something. "Did you hear that?" And then they can't hear anything

  • else you say. I was talking to a group one time about the difference between a human

  • brain and a dog's brain, and a man got offended. He said, "You can't talk about dogs like that."

  • And then I was talking to a group about how the fashion industry has gotten young ladies

  • to think they are supposed to be so skinny, they look like they escaped from a concentration

  • camp. And you know, a Jewish man got offended. "You know," he said, "You can't mention concentration

  • camps!" He said, "That's way too sensitive. It would be as if I said something to you

  • about slavery." I said, "You cant talk about slavery all you want; doesn't bother me."

  • You know some people choose to get offended. So this is my disclaimer. It is not my intention

  • to offend anyone, and if anyone is offended, too bad. Because I've got to tell you, I do

  • not believe in political correctness and in fact, I believe that it is a highly destructive

  • force that is threatening to destroy our nation and you know a lot of the people who founded

  • this nation came here trying to escape from people who told them what they could say and

  • what they could think. And who are we, reintroducing it through the back door.

  • And really the emphasis should not be on unanimity of speech, or unanimity of thought, the emphasis

  • should be on learning how to be respectful of people you disagree. And if we can ever

  • learn that, I think we will be on our way to having a much stronger nation. And this

  • is something that we clearly are going to have to convey to the people who supposedly

  • run this nation who seem to have no concept of it whatsoever.

  • At any rate, there I was, you know I wanted to be a doctor but I wasn't a particularly

  • good student. My parents got divorced early on, and my mother only had a third grade education.

  • She worked very hard two or three jobs at a time as a domestic, cleaning other people's

  • houses because she didn't want to be on welfare, because she was very observant, and she noticed

  • no one she ever saw go on welfare came off of it. So she didn't want to go on it in the

  • first place. She had a very difficult life. Discovered after getting married at age 13

  • and moving to Tennessee with her husband to Detroit some years later she discovered he

  • was a bigamist and I remember telling that story at the University of Utah graduation

  • nobody thought it was that strange. See, that probably offended somebody.

  • But you know, with all the things that happened in her life, she never felt sorry for herself.

  • And I think that was a good thing. The problem was she never felt sorry for us either. There

  • was never any excuse we could give that was good enough. She would always say, "Do you

  • have a brain?" and if the answer to that was, "yes," then she would say, "Well, it doesn't

  • really mater what John, or Mary, or Susan, or Robert or anybody else did, you could've

  • thought your way out of it." And you know when people don't accept your excuses, pretty

  • soon, you stop looking for excuses and you start looking solutions, and I think it made

  • all the difference in the world.

  • At any rate, I was a terrible student, probably the worst student you can ever imagine. In

  • fact, my nickname was, "dummy." That's what everybody called me. They enjoyed the fact

  • that I was in the classroom, though. And the reason is I was what is called the, "safety

  • net." You never had to worry about getting the lowest mark on a test as long as I was

  • there. I just kind of gave up on myself. I really didn't think that I was very smart.

  • Fortunately, my mother would not give up. She prayed and she asked God to give her wisdom

  • to know what to do. How could she get her young son to understand the importance of

  • intellectual development? You know what? God gave her the wisdom. At least in her opinion,

  • my brother and I didn't think it was all that wise, because it was to turn off the TV set.

  • Now what kind of wisdom is that? As far as we were concerned, that was child abuse, but

  • she said we could only watch two or three TV programs during the week, and with all

  • that spare time we had to read two books apiece from the Detroit Public Library and submit

  • to her written book reports, which she couldn't read, but we didn't know that. She put little

  • check marks and highlights and underlines and stuff, and we thought she was reading

  • them, but she wasn't. But you know, I hated it. Everybody else was

  • outside having fun, but after a few weeks, I actually began to enjoy reading those books

  • because we were desperately poor, but it didn't cost anything to get a book out of the library.

  • And between the covers of those books, I could go anywhere, I could be anybody, I could do

  • anything. I'd begin to imagine myself in laboratories conducting experiments, looking through telescopes

  • and discovering new galaxies, and microscopes, microcosms. And I began to know things that

  • nobody else knew. And I started reading about animals and then plants and then rocks. And

  • pretty soon I could identify virtually any rock, tell you where it came from, how it

  • was formed. Still in the fifth grade, still a dummy. And one day the science teacher walked

  • in and he held up a big black shiny rock and he said, "Can anybody tell me what this is?"

  • Well now, I never raised my hand. I never answered any questions. So, I waited for one

  • of the smart kids to raise their hand. And nobody did. So, I waited for one of the dumb

  • kids to raise their hand, and nobody did. So, up went my hand. Everybody turned around.

  • They couldn't believe it. Carson's got his hand up! Oh, this is gonna be good. They were

  • ready. And the teacher was so shocked, and he said "Benjamin?" I said, "Mr. Jake, that's

  • obsidian." And there was silence in the room. Because it sounded good. Nobody knew whether

  • it was right or wrong. They didn't know whether they should be laughing or whether they should

  • be impressed, and finally Mr. Jake broke the silence and said, "That's right, that is obsidian!"

  • and I said, "You know, obsidian is formed after a volcanic eruption and the lava flows

  • down and hits the water, there's a super-cooling process, elements coalesce, air forces out,

  • the surface glazes over." They were all staring at me. They could not believe all of this

  • geological information spewing forth from the mouth of the dummy. But I was perhaps

  • the most amazed person, because it dawned on me at that moment that I was no dummy at

  • all. I said the reason you knew those answers is because you were reading the books. What

  • if you read books about all your subjects? Can you imagine the effect? And from that

  • point on, no book was safe from my grasp. I read everything I could get my hands on.

  • If I had five minutes, I was reading a book. Waiting for the bus, reading a book, on the

  • bus, reading a book, in the bathroom, reading a book. At the kitchen table, my mom would

  • say, "Benjamin, put the book down and eat your food." It didn't matter, I was always

  • reading. And you know, within the 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 all those students

  • that used to laugh and call me dummy, now the same ones were coming to me in the 7th

  • grade, and they were saying, "Benny, how do you work this problem?" and I would say, "Sit

  • at my feet, youngster, while I instruct you." I was, perhaps, a little obnoxious, but it

  • sure felt good to say that to those turkeys.

  • But you know, the fact of the matter is, I had the same brain but just a very different

  • outlook. And when you think about it, you think about the brain that God has given you.

  • We were made in His image, and He's no dummy. You know, your brain has billions and billions

  • of neurons, hundreds of billions of interconnections. It can process more than 2 million bits of

  • information in one second. It doesn't forget anything you've ever seen, or anything you've

  • ever heard, which is why it's important to make sure you don't put the wrong things in

  • there, because they will always impact upon you, subconsciously and consciously. But to

  • give you some idea of how complex your brain is, how many of you remember your birthday?

  • Let me just see your hand. I think it's unanimous.

  • Now, what did your brain have to do to respond to that question, almost instantly? Well first

  • of all, sound waves have to leave my lips, travel to the ear, enter you external auditory

  • meatus, travel down to the tympanic membrane, set up a vibratory force, which traveled across the

  • ossicles of the middle ear, to the oval and round windows, setting up a vibratory force

  • in the endolymph which mechanically distorted at the microcilia, converting mechanical energy

  • into electrical energy which traveled across the cochlear nerve to the cochlear nucleus

  • to the pontomedullary junction, from there to the superior olivary nucleus, ascending

  • bilaterally at the brainstem, through the lateral meniscus to the inferior colliculus and the nuclei,

  • across the lambic gradiation to the proceric temporal lobes to begin the alterior processes

  • to the frontal lobes coming out (unintelligible).... So you could raise your hand. Now, that, that's a

  • simplified version. Now see how many rap singers can do that.

  • If your brain can do all that, and you barely have to even think about it, what is your

  • brain capable of if you actually put your mind to something? It really is quite daunting

  • when you stop to think about it. And you know, our nation right now is in a bit of trouble

  • intellectually, because people don't think. People are not knowledgeable. The founders

  • of our nation said that our system of government could only succeed with a well-educated populous.

  • And they said once the populous becomes ignorant, they become easily lead by slick politicians

  • and our system of government will fail. It's a very interesting prediction that was going

  • on there. And you know, I want you to think about this.

  • There was a survey done some years ago looking at the ability of 8th grade equivalence in

  • 22 nations to solve so-called complex math and science problems. We were one of the 22

  • nations. We came in number 21 out of 22, and we barely beat our 22. It was neck and neck.

  • Couple that with the fact that we produce only 70,000 a year in this country, 40% of

  • whom are foreigners, China produces 400,000 engineers a year. 30% of people who enter

  • high school in this country do not graduate from high school, and this is the information

  • age. This is the age of technology, so you can see, we have a very significant problem.

  • And it wasn't always like that. You know, in 1831, when Alexis de Tocqueville came to

  • America to study our nation, because Europeans were fascinated. How could a nation barely

  • 50 years old already be competing with all the powers of Europe on virtually every level?

  • That is unheard of! He wanted to know what was going on.

  • In addition to studying the way the government worked, he said, let me look at their educational

  • system. He was flabbergasted. To recognize that anybody finishing the second grade was

  • completely literate. He could go out and find a mountain man and the guy could read the

  • newspaper and have a political discussion with him, knew how the government worked.

  • He'd never seen anything like that. You really want to be impressed, and you'll find this

  • in our new book, "America the Beautiful," 6th grade exit exam from the middle 1800's.

  • I doubt that most college graduates today could pass that exam. You look at it when

  • you read that chapter, see if you can pass those questions. We need to double down on

  • the academic standards and not allow ourselves to be lulled into a sense of false security.

  • It is extraordinarily important. But you know the other thing that Alexis de Tocqueville

  • saw that really impressed him? He said, "In their public education system in America they

  • teach values, they teach right and wrong. They have Bibles in their classroom." And

  • he felt that was really the key to America's power, and he concluded his two volume set

  • by saying, "America is great because America is good, and if America ever ceases to be

  • good, she will cease to be great." I think he was very prophetic.

  • And the reason I bring that up to you young people, is because it is so important in the

  • world in which we live, where secularism has such a loud microphone that you stand up for

  • what you believe in. You can't just let them have the microphone all the time and do things

  • the way they want. You know, we've reached the point in this nation where people hesitate

  • to say, "Merry Christmas." How did we allow ourselves to get to that point? And if we

  • continue down that pathway, the rights will be encroached upon further and further, and

  • soon our nation will not be recognized as a free nation, and it's going to require courage

  • of people to stand up and be counted. You know, people ask me all the time, "You're

  • a man of science. How can you be a man science and a man of faith at the same time?" I don't

  • think the two are incompatible at all. You know, people say "Yeah, but you actually believe

  • in God and that he created things? You know, you can't believe that as a scientist." I've

  • had public debates with Don Johansen, the guy who discovered the missing link, Richard

  • Dawkins, you probably know who he is, "The God Delusion," he wrote. And he thinks anybody

  • of faith can't possibly be a person of science. And as we were debating evolution, I concluded

  • by saying, "OK, well let's agree on one thing. I came from God, and you came from a monkey."

  • I said, "No problem." But the fact of the matter is, now people who believe that, they

  • have to believe it on faith, and I think it actually requires more faith than it takes

  • to believe in God. You know, when you stop and you think about our solar system, how

  • precise our solar system is. Now, you can predict 70 years hence when a comet is coming

  • because of the incredible order we see and yet they want to say that there was a big

  • bang and all of it just came perfectly into order. The same people believe in the second

  • law of thermodynamics, entropy, which says things move towards a state of disorganization.

  • So now, can you have both? Well, you have to integrate into that probability theory.

  • You see, if you have enough explosions over a long enough period of time, eventually one

  • of them will be the perfect explosion and you'll have a perfect universe. And I said,

  • "So you're telling me that if I blow a hurricane through a junkyard enough times, eventually

  • at the end of one of those hurricanes there will be a 747 fully loaded and ready to fly?"

  • "Well, we don't understand everything." And I said, "I don't think you understand anything,

  • but the fact of the matter is, you're perfectly welcome to that opinion. But just remember,

  • that is your religion. That is what you believe by faith, just like I choose to believe in

  • God, by faith." So don't allow anybody to denigrate your faith just because they claim

  • to be a scientist because I can guarantee you there are a lot of arguments against what

  • they believe.

  • Well at any rate, you would've thought that once I got on the track academically, life

  • was going to be great for me. Wrong! You see I had this terrible temper and I was one of

  • those people who thought they had a lot of rights. If you know anybody like that, you

  • know somebody who gets angry a lot. Once a fellow hit me with a pebble. It didn't hurt,

  • but I was incensed that he would dare hit me, I picked up a large rock, hurled it at

  • his face, broke his glasses, almost put his eye out.

  • Another time a guy was trying to close my locker. I didn't want it closed. I stuck him

  • in the forehead with my fist. Unfortunately the lock was still in my hand, put a 3-inch

  • gash in his forehead. My mother was trying to get me to wear something I didn't want

  • to wear, I picked up a hammer, went to hit her in the head with it, fortunately my brother

  • caught it from behind. Other than that, I was a pretty good kid. But you can see how

  • that temper could get you in a lot of trouble. And another youngster angered me and, how

  • many of you saw the movie, "Gifted Hands?" Anybody see that movie? OK, several of you

  • then. Well, in the scene that was depicted, another teenager angered me, and I took a

  • large camping knife, tried to stab him in the abdomen with it and fortunately under

  • his clothing he had on a large metal belt buckle and the knife blade struck it with

  • suck force that it broke. And he fled in terror but I was more terrified than he was, I ran

  • into the bathroom, locked myself in, and I started contemplating my life. And I realized

  • that if he had not had that belt buckle on, he would've been killed or seriously injured,

  • I would've been on my way to jail or reform school. And I said, "There's no way I'm going

  • to realize my dream of becoming a doctor with this kind of temper." I said, "Lord, you've

  • got to take it away from me. I can't do it myself." And there was a Bible in the bathroom

  • and I picked it up and opened it up to the book of Proverbs and there were all these

  • verses about anger. Like Proverbs 19:19 that says there's no point getting an angry man

  • out of trouble because he's just going to get right back into it. But there were encouraging

  • verses like Proverbs 16:32, "Mightier is the man who can control his temper than the man

  • who can conquer a city." And it seems like they were all written just for me.

  • And I stayed in that bathroom for three hours reading and contemplating and praying and

  • I came to an understanding that to lash out at somebody, to punch somebody in the nose,

  • is not a sign of strength; it was a sign of weakness. It meant that you could be controlled

  • by the environment and by other people. And I also understood that if you step out of

  • the center of the circle so that everything is not about you, then you're not likely to

  • be angry. You see, people who are angry all the time are selfish people. He took my thing!

  • He's in my space! He's in my lane! It's always about me and about my. And when you learn

  • to shed that, it goes away. And when I came out of that bathroom after 3 hours, that temper

  • was gone. And I've never had another problem with it since that day.

  • And some people say, "Yeah, you just learn how to cover it up." But no, I've got to tell

  • you something. When God fixes a problem, he does not do a paint job, He fixes it from

  • the inside. And it's always good to go to Him. When you have a problem, He knows how

  • to fix it and to fix it the right way.

  • And our nation has a problem. It has a big problem right now with a lot of issues. However,

  • the way to solve those problems is to equip yourself. Equip yourself with knowledge and

  • understanding about all kinds of things with values, with allies, work together with other

  • people. Because I think it can be changed. And never give up. And don't let people tell

  • you that you can't talk about God. You know, we have a slogan in the Carson Scholar's Fund,

  • called, "Think big." Each one of the letters means something special. The "G" is for "God."

  • And a few years ago some lawyers came to us and they said, "You can't put your "Think

  • Big" banners up in public schools because the "G" stands for "God" and the first amendment

  • says there can be no government sponsorship of religious expression." I reminded them

  • that the first amendment also says that there can be no government suppression of religious

  • expression. So we had a really vigorous argument, and I suggested that we would resolve it at

  • the level of the Supreme Court, which seemed like a bold and reckless statement, but it

  • really wasn't because I knew the next week I was going to the Supreme Court to receive

  • the Jefferson Award. So, I figure I would ask while I was there and I did, and just

  • as Sandra Day O'Connor said they were ... , and of course that was no violation of separation

  • of church and state, and we just have to be bold about those things and we have to be

  • persistent.

  • And I want to close with a story of persistence. The flag. Every time I see our flag, I think

  • about this. During the War of 1812 the British came back, they were marching up the Eastern

  • seaboard, destroying city after city. They burnt down Washington, D.C. , they burnt down

  • the White House, they were going to make us a colony again. They rolled into the bay with

  • their big armada. Chesapeake Bay, Fort McHenry. They were going to reduce it to ashes. General

  • Armistead had a large American flag put up. They sent a message to General Armistead,

  • "Take that flag down and we will stop the bombardment. As long as you leave that flag

  • up, we will continue to bombard you, you will be dust." There was an amateur American poet

  • on that ship by the name of Francis Scott Key, sent to do a mission by President Madison

  • to help get some captives back. And he had heard the plans, so they were not going to

  • let him off the ship. And that evening as the bombardment started, Key's heart ached

  • as he thought about this flegding... young country that he loves so much going back to

  • becoming a colony again. This fort, which was the last ... before the British overran

  • us. And through the night as the bombs were bursting in air and the rockets were glaring,

  • he just thought about how sad that was. And at the crack of dawn he looked through all

  • of that debris, looking to see if there was any chance that the fort was still there.

  • And there was a clearing in the dust and he saw the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen,

  • the torn and tattered stars and stripes were still waving. And that was the beginning of

  • the turning of the tide in the war in 1812 which we eventually won. And if you were to

  • go onto the grounds of Fort McHenry that day you would've seen at the base of that flag

  • many American soldiers dead who had died holding that flag up. They would not let that flag

  • go down. That's the kind of attitude, the kind of persistence that has created and will

  • continue to maintain one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for

  • all. Thank you and God Bless.

Thank you. Thank you very much. It is a real pleasure to be here at Liberty. You know,

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