Students were challenged to raise their hands at this week’s University Forum to pledge to be nice for one week.
Dr. Benjamin Carson is director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In 1987, he became the first surgeon to separate a pair of Siamese twins. Over the years, he has received 60 honorary doctorate degrees.
[media-credit name=”Chris Bunker” align=”alignleft” width=”300″][/media-credit]Dr. Benjamin Carson, director of the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaks at Tuesday's forum at the Marriott Center.Tuesday, he spoke at a Forum in the Marriott Center about his life and why he appreciates this nation.Carson recently wrote the book, “America The Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great,” which was released last month and is already on the New York Times Best Seller List.
Growing up, Carson said he always wanted to be a doctor. He aspired to obtain this title since to him, doctors sounded important.
Carson used Thomas Edison’s story of inventing the light bulb and the product 409 to illustrate how the best way to learn is to learn from mistakes and things that take work.
Carson’s said the nation needs to focus on giving compassion, while knowing how to be fair. He talked about the fairness of 10 percent tithes.
“When I think about fairness, I look to God,” Carson said. “We need to get rid of the tax loopholes and let’s just learn to be fair to people.”
Carson used the acronym “think big” to explain how to achieve our goals as a nation. He said the “t” stands for talent intellectually, “h” for honesty, “i” is for insight from others’ triumphs and trials, “n” for being nice to people, “k” for knowledge, “b” for books to obtain knowledge, “i” for in-depth learning, “g” for God, who is our creator.
During his speech, Carson challenged the audience raise their hands for a one-week pledge to be nice.
“Be nice to every single person you encounter for one week,” Carlson said. “That means no talking about people behind their back for one week.”
Carson expanded on the rules of the nice pledge, including men practicing chivalry for the week, saying hi to people you walk by and thinking about others before yourself.
He encouraged students to remember to not just walk away from the speech, but to think big.
“It’s okay to live by God and his principles of loving our fellow man, caring about your neighbor, of developing your God-given talents that let you become valuable to the people around you, of having values and principles that govern your life,” Carlson said. “And if we do that, not only will we remain a pinnacle nation, but we will have one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”
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