So 5 miles is too far, Fort Myers?
To the editor:
Lets put it on the table, Fort Myers. Many do not want to talk about this because most of us are scared or for some it does not flow with our agenda. We fear being labeled or not fitting in with the other uninformed people around us. We find comfort in misery and enjoy pointing the finger at others instead of taking the personal responsibility of own our state of being. Do you really care? Are you this content with the life position you are in and how your community stands? Do you adore perpetual mediocrity in the East side of our city? To me you do not want growth or change. You just want to stay the same and live as isolationists.
Without the knowledge of greatness we never know the taste of what is out there for us. As the great writer, Malcolm Gladwell said: “To a worm that lives in horseradish, the world is horseradish.”
As far back as all of us can remember, being a doctor, a lawyer, military hero, statesman or teacher has been the pinnacle of the professional high. Well, on this past Nov. 4, one of, or possibly, the greatest medical doctor America has ever seen, came to the Fort Myers Forum Shops and sat inside the Books-A-Million book store located between Buffalo Wild Wings and Target. Dr. Ben Carson pulled up in his A More Perfect Union book tour bus at 3:30 p.m. and stayed until after 6:30 p.m., to sign books and meet and greet the people of Fort Myers. The Forum is located exactly 5 miles, (12 minute drive, 27 minute bike ride and 1 hour walk) from the center of the Dunbar Community in Fort Myers, according to Google maps.
The neurosurgeon from inner city Detroit, Michigan was raised by a single, illiterate mother. Dr. Carson did not do well academically as a child, but he immersed himself in books and rose through Yale University to become the youngest Chief Surgeon, at one of America’s best Children’s Hospitals, while performing some of the most studied and recognized pediatric operations of conjoined twins and brain seizures. Carson is now leading the heaviest Presidential field in recent years, pushing to become the next President of The United States. This great man was here. Yes, Dr. Carson sat in Fort Myers for three hours and made himself available while encouraging us to read his book about the history of our nation’s greatest document.
Unfortunately, as I stood in line for over 2 hours to meet Dr. Carson, I could not help but to count only two black families and one black male under the age of 25, for a total of possibly 15 blacks out of the 1,000 people who stood patiently. Only 1.5 percent of the people waiting to meet one of the most brilliant and accomplished Americans of all time, who happens to be black, were black. I will tell you that the 10-year-old blond girl in front of me, waiting in line with her mother, sifting through one of Dr. Carson’s books as she anticipated to meet the Presidential hopeful, had one heck of an inspiring moment when she reached the finish line.
The past can be blamed, the police can be blamed, the teachers can be blamed, political parties can be blamed, people of other colors or religions can be blamed but those are just excuses, others are not to blame. Blame yourself for missing an opportunity to inspire those that deserve it the most. When opportunity knocks, it’s those that seize the opportunity that will live in its victory. Equal opportunity has no agenda or color line.
For a child in horseradish, the world is still horseradish.
Stephen Bienko
former candidate,
Fort Myers City Council Ward 2
Fort Myers