Dr. Ben Carson took to the op-ed pages of USA Today to write a reasonable and incisive critique of the BlackLivesMatter movement, and he made some suggestions as to how the energy and anger in the movement can be redirected in a positive way.

The idea that disrupting and protesting Bernie Sanders speeches will change what is wrong in America is lunacy. The "BlackLivesMatter" movement is focused on the wrong targets, to the detriment of blacks who would like to see real change and to the benefit of its powerful white liberal funders using the attacks on Sanders for political purposes that mean nothing for the problems that face our community.

The notion that some lives might matter less than others is meant to enrage. That anger is distracting us from what matters most. We're right to be angry, but we have to stay smart.

Of course, the protesters are right that racial policing issues exist and some rotten policemen took actions that killed innocent people. Those actions were inexcusable and they should be prosecuted to deter such acts in the future.

But unjust treatment from police did not fill our inner cities with people who face growing hopelessness. Young men and women can't find jobs. Parents don't have the skills to compete in a modern job market. Far too many families are torn and tattered by self-inflicted wounds. Violence often walks alongside people who have given up hope.

I grew up in neighborhoods most Americans were told to never drive through. I saw bullets, drugs and death in the same places I played tag and ball with my friends. Both of my older cousins died on the streets where I lived. I thought that was my destiny.

But my mother didn't. She changed all of that. She saved my brother and me from being killed on those streets with nothing but a library card..

Dr. Carson's personal story is very compelling, and the fact that he and his brother overcame similar obstacles faced by protestors in the BlackLivesMatter movement gives power and authority to his recommendations.

He thinks the protestors should be confronting the education system, the entertainment industry, local and national government, drugs, and finally, both political parties.  He ends the essay by writing, "There are many things to be angry about when you are consumed by hopelessness.  Bernie Sanders isn’t one of them."

Well and truly spoken.  In essence, Carson is imploring the radical protestors to stop being victims and take control of their lives and neighborhoods.  It may be too much to ask of people blinded by extremism, but the BLM protestors would do well to listen to Carson's analysis and recommendations.