One thing about Benjamin Franklin is that he finished much better than he had started out. If you’ve read his Autobiography, which I hope by now you have, you know that Ben left his family, his brother’s printing business, and his city of Boston, at the early age of 17. And that with only a few pennies to his name.
He certainly made something of himself. He built his own business in Philadelphia, made the city better, help others build their own business, performed experiments, taught himself, learned music, wrote the most widely read volume in Europe about electricity, became involved in Philanthropic endeavors, and helped build a new nation. And much more. Whew!
One of Franklin’s favorite sayings was: “All education is self-education.” Meaning you must develop personal learning habits in your personal and professional life. We should fill our minds with reading and then process what we have been reading and learning.
Yesterday I advised you not to become a snollygoster. Then I went to my dictionary and defined snollygoster for you. It is a clever unscrupulous person. A person who is smart and clever, but who has no scruples.
Some of the Democrats are complaining that too many in America get ahead just because of luck. Therefore, the abundance they receive should be subject to division around the citizenry. The lucky didn’t really deserve it. The unlucky should take part in the good luck by forcing the government to take such lucky proceeds and dividing them up among the less fortunate. Wow, how do they come to that conclusion?
OK, I didn’t want to read Dinesh D’Souza’s new book “Stealing America.” It sounded too hardboiled a perspective even for me! I admit I did see his documentary about “America, Imagine a World Be Without Her?” And I enjoyed it—especially from the point of view of the Founding Fathers. And then I read the book, too. But wouldn’t “Stealing America” just be too much?
I used to love to read the newspaper. The daily, home delivery newspaper.I especially liked the comic section. Now my grandkids ask “what’s a newspaper?”
George Washington, in his First Inaugural Address reminded us, as citizens of America, and as voters: