In 1773, on this day, Benjamin Franklin writes “There never was a good war or bad peace”.
As with so many other aspects of his life, Benjamin Franklin, the most distinguished scientific and literary American of his age, was also the very first American diplomat. He was not the second or the third, but the first, the pathfinder of American diplomacy, as of so much else. And there it is, that famous line, penned by the one man, out of an entire nation, who had done so much to assist in purchasing, procuring, and perpetuating a revolution and war in North America, not to mention negotiating the peace that brought the war to an end.
Out of the same letter to his dear friend and colleague, Franklin also writes:
“What vast additions to the Conveniences and Comforts of Living might Mankind have acquired, if the Money spent in Wars had been employed in Works of public utility! What an extension of Agriculture, even to the Tops of our Mountains: what Rivers rendered navigable, or joined by Canals: what Bridges, Aqueducts, new Roads, and other public Works, Edifices, and Improvements, rendering England a compleat Paradise, might have been obtained by spending those Millions in doing good, which in the last War have been spent in doing Mischief; in bringing Misery into thousands of Families, and destroying the Lives of so many thousands of working people, who might have performed the useful labour!”
So, on this 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on NYC, the Pentagon and the world, I will look forward to the new buildings, replacing the old, as we THE PEOPLE have done forever, whether it is here in the United States or around the world. For each act aggression, brings a renewed spirit of resolve, that we are not shaken, we will not accept defeat, we shall rise above the ashes like a phoenix and rebuild out of a red hot forge. We shall progress to a better a society and lend the aid of comfort more so than before.
I look to Dr. Franklin’s letter on this day of infamy of so many atrocities taking in history on 11th of September, as bright light cast upon the dead and the living. We cannot remember the dead if they are not visible. The darkness looms on the dead and the living with each hate filled sentence, no light is being cast. Proper remembrance is to remember with love and how we can go forward into the dark and bring light where there is not any.
Build those roads, libraries, schools, build those houses and use labor and way to remember them. Name those buildings great and small upon those that can no longer build.
This is my history post, though I could write about the attacks, but would let the other atrocities that occurred on this day in history be forgotten. There are so many that are just as worthy to remember. No one shall be forgotten, I shall remember them all. It begins with a new build in their name.
