BENJAMIN's BIRTHDAY

PROACTIVE HISTORY:
The Respectful Remaking of the Words and Wisdom of
Benjamin Franklin and his Inner Feminine Co-Revolutionary
Silence Dogood as lived by and through

LETTERS FOR TODAY

Benjamin Franklin took great pride in his writings while recognizing that time and better men (or women) could still come forward and do them one better. He even went so far as to write a sample epitaph about him that said:

The body of / B. Franklin, Printer; / (Like the cover of an old book, / Its contents worn out, / and stripped of its lettering and gilding) / Lies here, food for worms. / But the work shall not be lost: / For it will, (as he believed,) appear once more, / In a new and more elegant edition, / Revised and corrected / By the Author.

January 2006 marks his 300th birthday. In this series I am introducing a new couple (DoNada and Genoroso) who, with any luck, will find their place in the position of his dear Silence Dogood, the first of many characters who presented for the public the wit and wisdom of this great man.

To give this opportunity the justice it deserves, I am creating it in a format that salutes Open Source ideas and gives you as readers the opportunity to shape, edit, twist and turn their commentaries four our future.

You can see more about this opportunity and participate in the editing at http://BFdoesUS.pbwiki.com.

Below is a taste of the project:

Benjamin Do Nada & Franklin Carlos Genoroso
''Version 300.0 – Intro and Overview''

In 1722, Benjamin Franklin submitted to his brother, the publisher of the newly released New England Courant newspaper, a series of letters penned by a mysterious female commentator named Silence Dogood. These letters were written surreptitiously using the Dogood tag as an exercise by Benjamin to demonstrate his opinions, which he knew to be controversial, and to sharpen his writing skills, which his brother had already questioned.

But they did much more than that. The Dogood letters became a kind of cultural catharsis for some of the conflicting ideas the boiled away in the contentious culture of the time, focusing, first and foremost on the place and role of woman in America. Some have even said that it was these and his other writings that laid the foundation for the inward focused, folksy America humor that has come to symbolize our nation's unrelenting progressive idealism. (Benjamin's writings, for example, are thought to presage the style of Mark Twain and many other American satirists, wherein we laugh at ourselves and learn.)

The letters, or Epistols as they were called at the time, were exceptionally well received. They entertained and inspired everyday readers, providing an outlet through laughter at many of the cultural constraints that really impacted the lives of ordinary Americans at the time. It was, after all, a time when the infant nation was coming to grips with just what it really meant by concepts like freedom, liberty, justice, fairness and the like. And it was a time scared by the ugliness of slavery and the philosophical enshrinement of women as nothing better than second-class citizens.

So powerful was the influence of these letters that Benjamin Franklin built much of his future writings and deeds around the same approach. He found the technique of using pseudonyms beneficial at making his pragmatic suggestions at least consumable, and for demonstrating a heightened sensitivity to the different perspectives of his friends and enemies alike as he sought to be thought of as a balanced ambassador to many of the nation's and world's disputes.

But what was just as interesting about the Dogood letters was the fact that they also carried within them the self-effacing confidence that underscored the very heart and soul of Benjamin Franklin. He knew his words and ideas were good, and he knew that they had value not just for the people of his time but for the people of many other times as well.

Please head over to see the background and writings of our Benjamin DoNada and Franklin Carlos Genoroso, contemporaries of a not necessarily similar time: http://BFdoesUS.pbwiki.com.