Dr. Ben Carson spoke to a sold out audience at Conroe High School in Montgomery County on Sept. 10th, at an event hosted by the Montgomery County Republican Party.

[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″]” In early America we had something known as the “Can do Attitude”. This is what characterized the rapid rise of America from nowhere into the pinnacle of the world. “That is now being replaced with the “What Can You do for Me Attitude?” which is taking us just as rapidly in the wrong direction, and that’s not what we need in this country” – Ben Carson.[/quote]

I was excited to see Carson speak from the moment I heard he was coming to Conroe, as I had read and heard great things about him as a person in general, and not just as a Presidential Candidate. The fact that he is a world renowned neurosurgeon who was the first ever to successfully separate twins conjoined at the head already had me intrigued about what I’d find out through the night as the speech unfolded.

That was just the beginning of a list of Dr. Ben Carson’s accomplishments that grew from starting out at the very bottom as an underprivileged child who was raised by a single parent in a poverty stricken household, to earning a PHD and becoming a world renowned neurosurgeon to his current candidacy for President of The United States of America.

Starting off the night we had an opportunity to be a part of a select few guests in a short open press conference who were allowed to ask Dr. Ben Carson questions before his main speech pertaining to his views on certain issues, policies and more. Here’s what we found out:

Dr. Ben Carson loves Montgomery County. When asked the question what drew him to Montgomery County to speak to this particular Republican group, Carson replied, “because there’s no place greater than Montgomery County.” (Audience laughs) Someone asks, have you ever been here before? Carson replies, “No” (Audience laughs) “but I have been to lots of different parts of Texas and one of the wonderful things about Texas is there are a lot of people here who have common sense.”

When asked the question, how he felt about his poll ratings? Dr. Carson replied, “I am pleased with my poll ratings as they are continuing to rise he said.” He noted this was a very good thing, because it means that people are actually beginning to listen, and they’re listening to actually what he’s saying as opposed to what people say that he’s said.

You can watch the entire press conference video above or HERE.

Inside the main auditorium Dr. Ben Carson had a warm and friendly welcome by two openers who both spoke about some facts and gave brief bio’s of Carson’s early life, overcoming triumphs and some of his accomplishments and achievements.

Here are just 12 of the facts out of many overcoming triumphs and achievements that were mentioned:

• Dr. Ben Carson was raised by a single mother and grew up in dire poverty
• It was the love of reading that changed the course of Carson’s life forever
• Admitted to Yale University in 1968
• Received MD from University of Michigan Medical School
• Performed the first and only successful separation of siamese twins conjoined at the back of the head in 1987
• Written 8 books, 3 of which were co-authored with his wife of 39 years Candy Carson
• Recipient of 2006 Spingarn Medal (NAACP)
• Awarded Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 which is the highest civilian honor in the land
• Recognized in 2008 by US News Media and Harvard Center for Public Leadership as one of Americas best leaders
• Served many years on the board of directors for Kellogg’s and Costco
• Gala Organization annual survey named Dr. Ben Carson one of the most admired men in the world in 2014
• Co-Founded Carson Scholars Fund with his wife Candy Carson which recognizes young people of all backgrounds and humanitarian accomplishments for their exceptional academic leadership and accomplishments (currently operates in 50 states and has benefited almost 7,000 students)

Dr. Ben Carson received a very large round of applause as he walked from the doors at the back of the auditorium to the stage surrounded by security and body guards, and as the crowds applause finally starts to fade out after a good two minutes of clapping and cheering, Dr. Carson says, “Thank you, thank you so much.. That’s what I call a Texas welcome, Candy and I love to come to Texas” and asks the crowd to please be seated.

“Candy and I absolutely love coming to Texas because, there’s so many people here with common sense.” said, Carson.

Dr Carson has been fortunate enough to travel around the world through out his life and career and has been to 57 different countries and says no matter where he’s been he’s always anxious after time to come back home to America. “There’s no place like home”, Carson said, America is one of the most incredible places one can imagine. He said that doesn’t mean that as America we’re perfect, or that we’ve never done anything wrong, of course we have, said Carson. Because we’re composed of people, but it’s possible to learn from the mistakes we’ve made and to move forward, and that’s what we have to do.

Carson’s early and mid childhood was plagued with poverty, growing up with a single parent mother, who worked very hard to make ends meet and provide. Carson’s mother was one of 24 children who got married when she was 13 years of age after being able to count together no better a 3rd grade education.

“My mother used to make my brother and I read two books every night before bed, and she’d make us write her reports and answer questions about what happened”, said Carson. He joked that at the time him or his brother did as his mother asked, not knowing that she herself couldn’t read the books or reports they were turning into her, because she would highlight things and underline things in the papers letting them know “she was reading them” and didn’t let them know she couldn’t read. She would also work 2-3 jobs at a time to provide.

Ben said that growing up when you’re younger people usually have at least one thing they couldn’t stand, and for him it was poverty, because of the way he lived. Being that it’s what his life consisted of was poverty, he joked that he often times would say to himself he was certain he was born into the wrong family. Once he had grown up a lot mentally and after much studying and reading about people of great accomplishments; scientists, explorers and philosophers he said he came to realize, “The person that has the most do with what happens to you in life is you, it’s not somebody else”, said Carson. That was very liberating for him, he said. Once he began to realize this, he no longer hated poverty, because he realized it was only temporary, and he knew the power to change it was within himself. Carson said, “It’s so important that we reinstill that message in the people of our nation. We in addition to instilling that message must also make sure that we are willing to invest of ourselves in our fellow man.”

“The care of the downtrod in our society is our responsibility, it’s not the responsibility of the Government”, said Carson

After shifting from place to place trying to achieve a place of their own Carson’s mother and father ended up settling in Detroit, where some years later his mother figured out his father was a bigamist which resulted in a divorce.  Moving from Detroit to Boston, to live with his moms older sister and brother and law Carson said, “it was a large multi family dwelling, boarded up windows and doors, sirens, gangs, murders” and jokingly with his charming sense of humor said, “the things that impressed me the most were the roaches, they had large aggressive roaches. In more upscale suburban areas people called them waterbugs, but we knew what they were”, declared Carson.

Not only did Carson’s mother work 2-3 jobs at a time, she’d also go out and knock on farmers doors on Sunday mornings and ask them if they could pick 4 bushels of their apples, corns, beans, grapes etc. 3 for you and 1 for us she’d say. He said they always liked that deal.

Then she’d take the goods home and can them, and just stretch things out. “I’m convinced that if my mother with her 3rd grade education were secretary of treasury, we would not be in a deficit today”, said Carson. Once again his charming sense of humor drove the audience into laughing and a lot of clapping and cheering.

Carson spoke about criticism from others, and how some people out there will outright lie in order to demonize others in order to keep control over certain groups of people.

Dr. Carson spoke about welfare type programs and said, “I have no intention of withdrawing safety nets, from people who need safety nets. What I don’t want to do is to sustain programs that create dependency in able bodied people.” (Large Audience Applause) He continued, “You know that is not true compassion, to pat someone on the head, and say there, there you poor little thing I’m going to take care of all your needs. That’s not enabling people to utilize their God given talents, that’s enabling people to become dependent and that’s not what America is all about.” Carson said, “We need to utilize all of our resources in order to develop all of our people. That’s what real compassion is about”

One of the things most impressive to Carson was reading about Alexis de Tocqueville who came to America from France in 1831, because the Europeans were so fascinated by our country. They couldn’t understand how a new nation barely 50 years old was already competing with them virtually on every level and de Tocqueville wanted to disect our way of life, and figure out what it was, and why. Carson said, de Tocquville looked at our government, our separation of powers and was very impressed with the way we put our government together and how efficient our government was. “Now this was sometime ago,” joked Carson. (Audience laughs and applauds)

When de Tocqueville looked at our education system he was blown away that anyone finishing the second grade was completely literate. “It’s what separated America from other countries,” said Carson. That you could find a mountain man, and someone virtually anywhere in America and they could read you a news paper and discuss with you what was happening in the country and carry on a conversation with you. Only the aristocracy was allowed to do that in Europe at the time. “Our people (Americans) knew how to do things, they were well educated, they knew how to build roads and bridges, and construct things and invent things”, said Carson.

” In early America we had something known as the “Can do Attitude”. This is what characterized the rapid rise of America from nowhere into the pinnacle of the world. “That is now being replaced with the “What Can You do for Me Attitude?” which is taking us just as rapidly in the wrong direction, and that’s not what we need in this country”, said Carson.

The speech ended with the Montgomery County Republican Party presenting Dr. Ben Carson with a cowboy hat which he wore out into the main area after the speech was over.

Carson had many good things to say in his speech which lasted a little over an hour and a half, and there is no way everything can be covered in this article so we hope you’ll watch the Dr. Ben Carson press conference video. The press release video is also available at the top of this article and has some very informative information, that he also addressed in the speech.

This event was definitely insightful and helpful in allowing me to learn more about Dr. Ben Carson and what it was like growing up in his shoes, coming from his point of view being raised by a single mother parent, being poverty stricken and his journey to becoming a world renowned neurosurgeon and his Candidacy for President of The United States of America, and what a Presidency under Dr. Carson might look like. Carson is definitely very intelligent and I wish him the best of luck on his run for Office. I know one thing. Whether Dr. Ben Carson wins this election or not, one thing is for certain; he’s accomplished more things already overcoming what some might view as almost impossible odds, and overcome things unimaginable to most to get where he is today. He’s a leader and a perseverer. What his story looks like to me is The American Dream.