The world according to Ben Carson

“There were other immigrants who came here in the bottom of slave ships, worked even longer, even harder for less. But they too had a dream that one day their sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters, great grandsons, great granddaughters might pursue prosperity and happiness in this land.” – Ben Carson, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Monday addressing agency employees on Monday

Ben Carson graduated from Yale University. He is a neurosurgeon. He was the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital. Ben Carson ran for President. Now he is the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development.

I got to be honest with you, given all of Dr. Ben Carson’s accomplishments and credentials your first impression should be he is a brainiac, a freaking rocket scientist, but I am beginning to wonder if he is simply an idiot savant. The things that come out of this man’s mouth absolutely astound me. Captured human beings, in the bottom of slave ships were immigrants? Really?

I have read and reread this statement trying to give him the benefit of the doubt about the point he was trying to make. I have read the statement in context and out and I still don’t get it. Then he continues that these immigrants “worked even longer, even harder for less.” Worked even longer? Like they were given a choice? Even harder for less? Is there something less than nothing? All this from the same guy that said; “A lot of people who go into prison straight and when they come out, they’re gay, so did something happen while they were in there? Ask yourself that question.” He has also shared that he thinks the universe could be just 6,000 years old, was literally created in six days and that Joseph built the pyramids to store grain.

This is the guy our President and Senators have handed the keys to an agency with a $50 billion dollar budget, 8,000 employees and will oversee most of the nation’s affordable housing programs. He has zip, zero experience in financing or housing but God will pull him through; “We live in a nation where a lot of people are trying to get rid of God. I think that is a big mistake. Think about the fact that our founding document, the Declaration of Independence, talks about certain inalienable rights given to us by our creator, aka God.” he told his new employees.

I hope God will pull us and the American families who rely on HUD to provide much-needed affordable housing through as well. This is a business that I operate in. It is a business of compassion and need and is viewed by most conservative politicians as an entitlement, one they would like to dismiss or do away with.

I have seen the faces of the families and the children who rely on HUD for housing options. Not everyone has the same piece of the American pie as some of us do. People need help, help to get them over whatever hump is keeping them down. Are there people who abuse the system? Sure there are, but we shouldn’t punish everyone for the sins of a few. Are there millionaires and billionaires that abuse the tax-code? Yup, we have one of those in the White House but we call him a smart businessman.

“Obamacare is really I think the worst thing that has happened in this nation since slavery. And it is in a way, it is slavery in a way, because it is making all of us subservient to the government, and it was never about health care. It was about control.” – Ben Carson, Values Voter Summit remarks in October 2013