WWBFD? What Would Ben Franklin Do?

I am currently reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin, the man that sadly many of today's generation know little more of except as the man on the one hundred dollar bill, made even more popular by the hip-hop phrase "gettin' those Benjamin's." Today, as I was driving to work, caught up in the hurried morning of my own simple life, munching food from a grocery store less than a mile from my house, checking emails on a hand held smartphone, cruising along at 80mph with the AC on, I passed a plumbing company truck emblazoned with Ben's image in cartoonish glee on the side. He was holding a wrench and stating himself as the punctual plumber. Now, Benjamin was an incredibly dedicated worker, leaving after many other shops closed up and arrived before those same shops opened, punctuality was in his ethics but seeing his image this morning and realizing a company which fixes leaky pipes and clogged toilets was using his image, one which hundreds of years after his life is one we Americans are quite familiar with, set me off a bit. In a time where people who were real and had lives of their own, people who did very important things with the short and drastically more difficult time that their lives truly were only to then be used by others to simply get a laugh or prove a point, make a rhyme or create an idiom or symbolic statement seemed demeaning and disrespectful to me. For a man who started the first reputible newspaper in America I felt that an injustice was being done to famous people of our past, people who should be revered rather than used for marketing ploys. How far is too far?

As I began to consider what really bothered me about it, I began to imagine Mr. Franklin riding shotgun with me on my way to work. He was aghast at the speed at which we were moving but inwardly tickled at the ride. He asked me questions about the modern world which all had simple answers to me but were enlightening him with every mile we traveled. Issues of science, politics, taxes, literature, media were conveyed and pondered, some with chuckles while others moved him to thoughtful silence. Electricity was a subject of great interest, moving from AC/DC to batteries, then cordless and hotpads, once the idea was implanted he seemed to follow along fairly well. But when we passed the plumbing truck he was speechless. At first he smiled, then looked at me with a saddened expression, I told him the country was a very different place now indeed, and he agreed with a sigh asking if we could stop off at an alehouse for a pint to calm his nerves. Luckily, I knew what he wanted and didn't ask google maps for the closest  chain restaurant with that title, one  known for their fried food and numerous flat screens. I figured that might be a bit too much.

The people of our past are just that, people who lived, breathed, fought, loved, invented and if we know their names there is a reason for that, they were important, their accomplishments were more than the fellows Ben mentions in his memoirs, men who tried, drank too much, failed in their businesses and died penniless in the Barbados. Men who were negative and told him Philidelphia was going down the tubes and would never support a successful trade. Men who borrowed and never paid back, let alone with interest. It was an honor to know Ben as a young man even and especially in his later life and that was due to who he was, how he lived and what he did for his country and community. He was a real American idol, a title not given due to his skills as a singer or dancer but earned over a lifetime of work and commitment. That day at work did not drag on as long, each moment seemed so much simpler with the tools at my disposal, so relaxed in the climate controlled environment, so much more special knowing what I have known since I was five with a map of the galaxy and known universe on my classroom wall. Living in the 21st century has its' perks but forgetting where we come from and those who passed all this on to us is an injustice to our own existence. The next time I see someone "makin' it rain Benny's" I will consider the eyes of the man's face on those bills, eyes which never saw the country he helped create, a country he will remain a part of in so many ways for generations to come. Generations which will have a chance to respect their elders more than we did.