all of the places dr seuss will go or
maybe won't go
after cancer culture takes a big bite
out of his uh
legacy online retailer ebay is now
telling the wall street journal that
they are currently removing the six
books that were pulled by the dr seuss
enterprises to prevent future resale
children's books are now dominating
amazon's best-seller list
flying up the list nine of the top ten
are all by dr
seuss so you see how that works joining
me now is dr ben carson the former
secretary of housing and urban
development
and founder and chairman of the american
cornerstone institute
dr carson always good to see you thank
you for being here today
thank you martha so i i understand that
you want to
express your feelings on this in poetry
and i
invite you to do so with your poem that
you wrote about this now
well very good i do not like to cancel
books
i do not like how that looks i do not
like it here
nor there i do not like it anywhere
i do not like it in the store i do not
want it anymore
i do think it's time passed no longer to
have thought a crime
i do hope one day to see across my
country tis of thee
books used to read and learn instead of
set ablaze to burn
our heritage for all to share little
patriots everywhere
our nations rich story rich and vast
our true history taught in class a
special place for all to be
a place known for its liberty
you know those are the kinds of things
that dr seuss did
he encouraged people he made people
believe that everybody was equal
and you know we it's appropriate that
we're talking about children's books
because as a society we're acting like
children
like a child who's in charge who doesn't
like peas
so he says let's ban peas anybody eating
peas or growing peas shall be killed
you know that's childish thinking that's
what we're doing right now and it's
absolutely absurd and i think the rest
of the world is having a good belly
laugh
and it's time for us to mature to grow
up to recognize
you know america was the beacon of
liberty it was the place where people
came so that they could express
themselves so they could believe what
they wanted to believe so they could
have religious freedoms
it was a place where we believed that
our liberties and freedoms came from god
and not from government and you know the
socialists believe that everything comes
from government
we can't abide it you know i think when
you look back at
books being banned you'll find that in
throughout history
you don't want to be on the side of the
folks that were doing that
it didn't really turn out very well in
most cases i remember when you know the
discussion was to kill a mockingbird and
uh and classics which should always be
taught in in the context of the time in
which they were
they were written and published um
you know it i was actually heartened to
see that the new york public library
says that they're going to keep all of
their dr seuss books in publication and
in circulation i should say
um at the library but i but the fact
that that that that
encourages us you know just says
something about where where we are right
now and i agree with you that other
countries must look at this and i know
europe's looking at this and saying
whoa too far folks relax i hope people
will stop thinking about this as a
political issue it's not a political
issue
this is about freedom in america and
that's what we're dealing with right now
we will determine what happens to our
children and our grandchildren
will they have a country where they can
grow up and
and be free and where they can
live up to their potential or will they
have somebody trying to control
every aspect of their life including
what they can say
and what they cannot say this is poison
in our system yeah it takes people
pushing back and standing up
uh the president could have done that
the other day you know what we're going
to keep dr
seuss around you know you should teach
it in context or say anything as a
parent that you want to say when you
read any of these books but
give people the freedom to do so dr
carson thank you thanks for the poem
thank you for being here all right if
you write another one let us know come
back