Ben Carson, M.D. - America the Beautiful - 4

In retrospect, I realize that all these teachers and some of the students were simply products of their environment, but they triggered in me a strong desire to start my own personal civil rights movement to show everyone that I was just as good as they were by doing better than they did in school...
In April of 1968, on the day after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a major riot broke out at my high school in inner-city Detroit. Most of the black students were so outraged that they were trying physically harm anyone who was white. Some very serious beatings took place, and I saw many of my white friends being harassed.... So during the riot, I used that key [to the greenhouse] to open the greenhouse and hid several white students during the melee.... It mattered not what color your skin was on the outside, but rather what condition was of your heart and mind inside....

While many nations lean on their past to give them a sense of accomplishment, the United States has a history of redefining itself and moving forward to ensure that there is indeed liberty and justice for all.

A New World Springs Forth:

The question is whether we have lost our capacity to endure hardship and sacrifice for future generations. We face a national budgetary crisis that threatens to rip our country apart and destroy our way of life.... America has always had a rich and diverse ethnic background. Our nation began that way and we continue to expand that way. All kinds of people are responsible for our nation's rapid development, and great accomplishments, and at the same token, we share blame for many of the atrocities that have occurred on American soil....

 It was Amerigo Vespucci, an acquaintance of Columbus, who is credited with America's discovery in 1497, five years after Columbus landed in the Caribbean Islands while searching for a new route to the spice-rich Far East....

 The final nail in the coffin of Spanish domination of the oceans took place in 1588, when the Spanish Armada was sunk in a battle with the English and, more importantly, by a ferocious storm, which decimated their mighty fleet. Because the English dominated the seas in the early 1600s, they decided that it was their right to begin colonizing America, and the first of the permanent

English colonies, Jamestown, was established in 1607.... Many of the settlers were English gentlemen who had no idea how to work in wild environment. They quickly ran out of food while battling the Algonquin and enduring very harsh winter conditions. You don't have to have much of an imagination to visualize how desperate those early settlers must have been. The vast majority of early settlers succumbed to starvation and violence, and there even credible reports of cannibalism. They suffered extreme hardship and personal sacrifice, all to create a more stable and prosperous future for subsequent generations....

 Although many movies portray the Europeans as vastly superior to the Native Americans in warfare, their most effective weapons were the diseases they brought, against which the Native Americans had no immunological resistance.... In an attempt at self-rule, they constructed an agreement of behavior known as the Mayflower Compact, the first formal constitution in North

America. In this contact they agreed to the fair and equal treatment of everyone for the good of the colony. Unfortunately, "everyone" did not include women, those who were not land owners, slaves and indentured servants, or the region's natives..... These were immature baby steps toward a more noble goal, but they were steps in the right direction....

Many in Europe saw an opportunity to escape the repressive and overbearing governmental system under which they languished, and these people emigrated in droves. bringing with them a strong determination to make a better life for themselves and their offsprings, unfettered by oppressive overseers disguised as government.

 Throughout the mid- and late seventeenth century, immigrants flooded in not only from England, but also from France, Germany, and other parts of Europe. Migrating into the area that was to become Pennsylvania, a large influx of Quakers provided for the abolitionist movement that was to come.... During the rapid expansion of colonial life in America, England jealously guarded it sovereignty over America... the king felt that the massive expenditures to protect American colonies during the

French and Indian War should be repaid in part by those who benefited - namely the colonies.

 Growing Resentment Over Out-Of-Control Taxation:

The British Parliament had imposed many taxes on the colonists under the revenue acts, but still were not satisfied with the amount of money collected. So in 1765, the Stamp Act was passed, which imposed a levy on just about every type of legal document imaginable, including marriage licenses, college degrees - even such ordinary items as newspapers and playing cards.... Needless to say the colonist were not pleased about this, even though British citizens in England were already paying not only this tax, but many other exorbitant taxes.... Finally, in 1766, the British Parliament repealed many of the taxes, including the Stamp Act. The colonists celebrated the repeal, even erecting a statue of King George in New York.

GEORGE H. KUBECK, IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - CINOPS BE GONE - FRIDAY, JUNE 7, 2013