Silence Nomore

In 1722, sixteen-year-old Benjamin Franklin pretended to be a middle-aged widow, Silence Dogood, and submitted letters to the local newspaper. His letters poked fun at various aspects of life in colonial America and especially Boston, such as the drunkenness of locals, religious hypocrisy, and the persecution of women. He slipped a total of fourteen letters under the door of his brother’s shop where the New-England Courant was printed. The letters were well received by readers, however when James Franklin learned of his brother’s ruse he was very angry. They found a way to work together on the Courant, poking fun at the bad manners of Bostonian society and at puritanical hypocrisy, until James was finally thrown in jail for his extreme views. Ben took over and published the paper until James was released. James was not grateful for Ben’s work and treated him badly enough that the very next year he fled Boston for Philadelphia. The rest, as they say, is history.

I love Benjamin Franklin. He was truly the most influential of our founding fathers and though he never held the office of President of the United States, he was elected the President of Pennsylvania. He was often the sole voice of reason and served as a resolute authority on the freedoms that he felt were essential to the birth of this nation. One of my very favorite things he ever said was, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” And in that quote lies the meaning of this post.

I recently added permissions to this blog, making it invitation only. I was frustrated with the amount of attention the site was getting due to the amount of personal content included. Now that I’ve given it some thought, I realize that I’m not really concerned about anyone knowing my private thoughts or feelings, about my cadaver or my dead mother, as a matter of fact, I’m entirely surprised that so many are interested at all. The original intent of “anthology” was to entertain my Dad, but it seems it has become a bit more than that. The recent and wonderful feedback from so many of you has encouraged me to open the doors again … that and the words of Ben that I mentioned before. Enough of ‘invitation only’ … if you know me, then you know that’s just not my style at all and if you don’t know me and you still feel like spending part of your afternoon interpreting my personality or analyzing my point-of-view, have at it … I’ve got nothing to hide.

I’ll find my safety in my liberty, not in my silence.