Free America the Beautiful: Rediscovering What Made This Nation Great by M. D. Ben Carson

opponents of anything that has to do with God. Somehow the people initiating these lawsuits believe that making these objects visible to the public violates the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution, which says the legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion. They conveniently forget about that part of the amendment that follows saying that the government should not prohibit the free exercise of religion. The infamous lawsuit instigated by Michael Newdow in Sacramento sought to remove the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance, but if these kinds of activities don’t constitute the prohibition of free exercise of religion, then what does? Until the antireligion zealots learn the meaning of the word
tolerance
, we will continue to experience unnecessary strife.
    What message are we sending the next generation when a student is not allowed to express himself freely? In the Morgan v. Plano Independent School District case, also known as the “candy cane” case, several students were denied their free speech rights and discriminated against because their speech was religious in nature. A young boy was singled out and banned from handing out candy cane pens with a religious message at his class “winter” party. This case also includes a little girl who was threatened for handing out tickets after school to a religious play, and an entire class of kids was forbidden from writing “Merry Christmas” on holiday cards to American troops serving overseas. The government officials who appealed the ruling are now arguing that elementary students are too young to have First Amendment rights. 10
    If anyone is still skeptical about our roots as a nation of faith, consider the fourth stanza of our national anthem:
    Oh! Thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war’s desolation,
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the heav’n-rescued land
praise the pow’r that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, for our cause is just,
And this be our motto — “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.
    Is it any wonder that God has blessed America to such a great extent? We acknowledge him in our founding document, the Declaration ofIndependence, in our Pledge of Allegiance, in our courtrooms, in our national anthem, and on our money, to name a few things. In return, he has blessed us above all nations just as he said he would. Before we throw away those blessings, remember what George Washington said: “The man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude toward the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf. And it is my earnest prayer that we may so conduct ourselves as to merit a continuance of those blessings with which we have hitherto been favored.” 11
    Could it be that the father of our nation was not only talking to the people who were his contemporaries, but was also providing a word of encouragement and warning for future generations?

— C HAPTER 4 —

A D IFFERENT S CHOOL
OF T HOUGHT
    O N MY FIRST DAY in Mrs. McQueen’s bright, cheery kindergarten class at Detroit’s Fisher Elementary School, all students were required to bring a rug on which to sit while we happily learned new songs, games, and facts all day long. Since my mother was (and still is) so thrifty, she was able to supply one for me in spite of the fact that we didn’t have much money. At the time, I didn’t think about the fact that it probably came from either Goodwill or the Salvation Army; I was simply excited about the new experience and the opportunity to play with so many other children.
    Kindergarten, first, second, and the first half of third grade were not particularly rigorous. School was mostly fun and games, I was an