Hud Secretary and one time presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson announced some sad news on Facebook earlier this evening: his mother, Sonya Carson, has passed away.
Dr. Carson shared some insight into the woman who raised the man who rose to prominence after the national prayer breakfast in 2013:
https://www.facebook.com/realbencarson/posts/933305980169202
His mother had “very little formal education” yet she still managed to be a success. The secret to her formula? She “absolutely refused to be a victim” and she encouraged her kids not to develop a victim mentality. Obviously, this is a lesson that really resonated with him because he shared the poem she used to always read to them when they wanted to make excuses:
If things go bad for you
And make you a bit ashamed
Often you will find out that
You have yourself to blameSwiftly we ran to mischief
And then the bad luck came
Why do we fault others?
We have ourselves to blameWhatever happens to us,
Here is what we say
“Had it not been for so-and-so
Things wouldn’t have gone that way.”And if you are short of friends,
I’ll tell you what to do
Make an examination,
You’ll find the faults in you…You are the captain of your ship,
So agree with the same
If you travel downward
You have yourself to blame
Here’s a look back at that now infamous speech, in which he obliterated the “pc world” we now live in, and so eloquently warned of the dangers of being politically correct. He also expanded on the role his mother played in his life, and how critical it was that she believed in him and valued education so much. What a great mom! May she rest in peace.
WATCH: