Last night, The Squire and I went to the library for a meeting with Ben Franklin.
What an amazing man he was! He only had two years of formal education, but his great love of books and reading led him to be ahead of his time in every possible way. He went to England to help defuse the coming war; the colonists, for the most part, were willing to remain part of the British empire, but England treated the colonies as a cash cow. His description of Parliament then sounds a lot like our Congress now. He discussed the passage of the Townshends Acts, which was the final straw for the colonies. “Never was so much trouble unleashed with so little discussion.”
He gave up and came home.
Franklin worked with George Washington to force the thirteen individual militia to work as a single army. Each militia had its own drum and bugle signals, and all were loath to agree to a uniform code. (Ah, States Rights!) He was ambassador to France, he started the first public lending library in the country in Philadelphia, he set up a new Post Office system and served as Post Master General. He was the only man to sign all four of the following documents: the Declaration of Independence, the treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris that ended the war, and the Constitution. His last public act, in 1788, was to sign an appeal to Congress calling for the speedy abolition of slavery.
This marvelous one-man show was put on by a local fellow, David Fisher, who has combined a love of history and acting into bringing Dr. Franklin to life. He lives near Baltimore, and if you live along the Eastern coast you might want to go to his website https://sites.google.com/site/drbenfranklinspeaks/ and see about getting him for your organization. Unsolicited testimonial, here. As a re-enactor myself, I know how much goes into this sort of thing.
Had a rather rough night last night. I’m not in as much pain, but trying to get the cast in a comfortable position was difficult (I think I have it figured out now.), and – the curse of the elderly – both The Squire and were popping up and down to go to the bathroom. The dog sleeps in the hallway, and he was getting disgusted with us. I keep telling him “Stay down” and sometimes he does, but most of the time he stands up and gets against the wall, so he was grumpy about being disturbed so much. After I smacked him twice with my cast, I finally told The Squire to go sleep in the guest room, so at least one of us could get a decent night’s sleep.
This morning, he helped me wash my hair at the kitchen sink. I think I’m going to let him keep me.
thisendoftheswamp 
Just to let you know, the website which you posted is up for sale.
Thanks. I changed the link. I have his email and will tell him the brochure is wrong.