Ok, I would like to know how Ben has gotten away with fooling everyone. Everone in the world thinks he is someome really special, and I'm not saying he isn't but he's not all that he has himself cracked up to be. So why don't people realize the real him.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2000

Answers

Jacki, I don't think Benjamin Franklin fooled anyone. He was truly a unique man full of wisdom and insight. As I stated in my journal entry, without the guidance of Franklin, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson we would not have the form and type of government we have today. He has his faults, but his achievements and contributions to mankind more than balance his life. I think we see the real him in his writing. Some bad, but mostly good as we all would want to be portrayed.

-- Anonymous, January 23, 2000

I don't believe that Ben tried to fool anybody. That it's stated in our history he was a very brillant man. He was also very into himself. If it wasn't for him we wouldn't have alot of things that we have today. He is everything that he makes himself out to be. He conqued alot in his lifetime. Probably more than we will ever dream about. Even though I think the book might have streched it to the limits but, that is because a lot of us didn't know all of his acheivements.

-- Anonymous, January 27, 2000

When I first started reading the autobiography of Ben Franklin, I realized he did indeed have a rag to riches story, but I also sort of thought he had some selfish characteristics to him. I felt he was solely interested in the power and in the money that was truly offered in this "equal America". When I read furthur I realized that although money and power were in his interest, he too, gave and took his fair share. He did prove himself to be a great man and he got what he worked for, which is what he was trying to prove. He worked hard for what he believed in and in turn retired a weathly and powerful man. He may not have been the most pure or saintly man, but that was the real him. No one is perfect.

-- Anonymous, May 17, 2000

I don't know if Ben Franklin fooled people so much as people do not have the whole story or picture of him. I had never read his autobiorgaphy before, and of course I learned so much that I did not know. Therefore, I have a whole new attitude towards him. I do feel he worked very hard and in general, was a good person. But like any normal person, he had skeletons that we all have in one way or another, and we probably would not like to leave this earth with "that" being what people remember us for!

-- Anonymous, May 22, 2000