Skip to content

Monthly Archives: January 2008

Focus the Nation on Politics As Usual

Benjamin Franklin was largely apolitical during the first half of his life, focusing his curiosity, intelligence and energies on business and self-improvement. The second half found Franklin as involved in politics as anyone before or since.
For several decades now, young Americans seem to have been following suit. Voter turnout among 18 to 30 [...]

America’s Royal Rumble

As we sail ever closer to a national election, only days from “Super Tuesday” on February 5, I am reminded of Benjamin “Poor Richard Saunders” Franklin remark from his Almanack:
“Here comes the Orator! with his Flood of Words, and his Drop of Reason.”
These next two weeks will revolve around many [...]

Kwame Kilpatrick, Christine Beatty and Catalog Choice

Benjamin Franklin was among the most widely read writers and publishers in the 18th century.
He was also a very sly and creative entrepreneurial type, not above a bit of marketing sleight-of-hand.
This posting isn’t about Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his alleged dalliances with Ms. Christine Beatty, or the magic of Catalog Choice. These just happen to [...]

Let My People Go

Benjamin Franklin was doggedly determined for many years to improve the lives of American colonists by negotiating with Great Britain for greater autonomy and freedom. At the very least, his goal was to secure a more reasonable British perspective on, and more charitable parental understanding of, its children in the “New World.”
Following decades of disappointment [...]

Spare Some Change?

The following comes from a letter written on March 9, 1790 by Ben Franklin to Ezra Stiles, a Congregational minister and president of Yale College, responding to specific questions by Stiles regarding Franklin’s “opinion concerning Jesus of Nazareth” (written when sick at 86 years old — Franklin died a few weeks later on 4/17/90):
“As to [...]