Learning from a Founding Father.

We all have heard the saying that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. It is a very true statement. It means that we can learn from others’ mistakes and use that knowledge to do better. When we ignore those events, we can suffer again from the failures or issues that arose. When we address those issues first ,we can find success.

United States history is a subject that is full of a rich amount of information. Being a young country that began after recorded history, there is much to have at one’s fingertips, if one bothers to look.

I always have a pile of books I am reading, and one is always history. Right now there happens to be two of them, 1676 and The Autobiography of Ben Franklin. Both are fascinating to me, but Franklin’s account is interesting because what we would think of the Founding Fathers and the colonial and revolutionary times, isn’t reality.

There isn’t this warlike attitude. There is no mention of guns, ambush or rights. It is daily life, as it were. It may be a disappointing read to some for that, but it is all the more interesting to me because of it.

There is so much talk today about what the Founding Fathers thought, or meant, or intended, and most of what I have heard lately is pure grade A  BullS*&. The Founding Fathers lived in a different world, they didn’t have thoughts, plans and ideals based on how we think today, they didn’t have the basis for it.   The only talk of guns in Franklin’s autobiography was a lottery set up to buy a cannon for the fort in Philadelphia. They had to borrow some others from Col. Clinton to finish arming the fort.

That is about 2 pages of the book.

Franklin was about community, fellow man, knowledge and doing the right thing (Jefferson was very similar). He didn’t attend church, he felt the preachers reiterated dogma and never talked about how to be a good person. He would listen to preachers here and there if they interested him, and give to the local church , just so they could have funds, but he didn’t attend.

He even made up a list of virtues (13 of them), to work towards, and kept track of how he was doing each day. He constantly forgave debts, set people up in business (usually printing houses), and was always looking for things to pay people to do.

He never applied for a patent on the Franklin stove although it was a hit in the colonies and later in England, where another man claimed to have come up with the idea and made a small fortune. Franklin didn’t care, he just cared that people were warm, and using less wood.

He started the first library, fire company and street cleanings in Philadelphia.He was constantly looking for ways to make people’s lives better, and didn’t care that he didn’t make a fortune off of any of it. His book talks about these things, not about the war, or the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He doesn’t talk of hating the British (he travels back and forth to England several times over his lifetime), or the military. There were more positive, productive, and helpful things to do and say.

He would offer people solutions to civic problems, and let them know if there was a cost and how much. When they wanted to pay, good, it was done, when not, it wasn’t. Rarely did something not happen that Franklin proposed. Now people whine over a few pennies here and there to help others. We are NOT our founding fathers, that is for sure.

He didn’t even get into political arguments. He would say “OK, let’s vote”, they would vote, then they would do what was voted on , all together, 100%, with no complaints, issues,whining or sabotaging. Our founding fathers were nothing like what people portray them as. They wanted what was best for all and cooperated to achieve that.

Franklin walked his talk, and did it very well. He helped others, and he frequently sacrificed his own comfort. Something that people don’t even have an idea of how to do today.

If Franklin came to America today he would think that the American public has lost its’ mind. The selfishness, hatefulness, and combative attitude would sicken him.

We talk about our Founding fathers, let’s see what they were really like, and act like them. They were not in church every Sunday, nor were they stockpiling guns. They weren’t standing on crates denouncing the Crown every chance they got. A war was going on and they were finding ways to keep mud out of the market streets, enlightening those who couldn’t afford books, and keeping their homes warm. They were helping each other.

They watched out for each other. They helped make the lives of those around them better.

People are right, we DO need to be more like the Founding Fathers, but we need to be what they REALLY were, not our 21st century warped idea of what that was!

Do the right things for the right reasons.

Peshaui Wequashimese

(C)2013 Dr R M Wolf, May not be used, copied or reproduced without prior written permission