CHICAGO – Dr. Ben Carson accepted an invitation from Pastor Corey Brooks to come to Chicago’s south side Sunday to talk about the issues facing the inner city and the people who live there.
After touring one of the worst neighborhoods in Chicago with Pastor Brooks, former congressman Joe Walsh, and state Sen. Jim Oberweis, Dr. Carson told more than 200 people who came out on a hot Father’s Day afternoon about his growing up in poverty and being forced by his mother to read and to get a good education.
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He explained how that opened doors to him, including being a Republican presidential candidate, and at this point the only African-American in either party running to succeed President Obama.
Those in attendance were very welcoming to Dr. Carson’s message about the importance of education, and emphasis on reading and the need for reforms such as vouchers and school choice.
“Education is the great divide in America. It doesn’t matter what your ethnicity is or what your economic background is, if you get a good education, you write your own ticket. Nobody can take that away from you.
“There are a lot of people who fought and died for the right for people to get an education – particularly black people – and now you got to drag people to the door to get an education,” Carson said.
Dr. Carson also talked about the need to improve the inner city economy, and the nations as a whole, by lowering corporate taxes and allowing repatriation of overseas profits to spur economic growth. On repatriation Carson included a requirement that companies would have to use 10 percent of the money brought into the county that is currently sitting overseas to create jobs and to hire new workers to get more people off of welfare and other public assistance.
Pastor Brooks has invited all Republican and Democrat candidates to come to Chicago’s south side and to talk to people about the issues facing Chicago and other major cities across the nation. Last month Sen. Rand Paul was the first to make an appearance.
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