Greetings from the National Archives flagship building in Washington, D.C., which sits on the ancestral lands of the Nacocha Tank Peoples. I'm David Ferriero, Archivist of the United States, and it's my pleasure to welcome you to today's conversation with Michael Meyer about his new book, Benjamin Franklin's Last Bet, which traces the evolution of a bequest Franklin made to support tradesmen over the next two centuries. Before we begin I'd like to tell you about two programs coming up later this month on our YouTube channel. On Tuesday, April 19th at 1 p.m., environmental historian Adam Sowers will be with us to talk about his new book, Making America's Public Lands, which synthesizes public lands history from the beginning of the Republic to recent controversies. And on Thursday, April 28th at 1 p.m., Mark Uptegrove offers an illuminating account of John F. Kennedy's brief about transformative tenure in the White House in his new biography, Incomparable Grace. In his autobiography, Benjamin Franklin wrote, I've always thought that one man of tolerable abilities will work great changes and accomplish great affairs among mankind. A year before his death, Franklin added a caudasal to his last will and testament to back up this assertion. In addition to the bequests he had already made to his family and friends, he added a gift intended to benefit the nation. Franklin set up a 200-year fund entrusted to the inhabitants of Boston and Philadelphia to lend money to young tradesmen so they could set up their own businesses. Author Michael Meyer calls the bequest a final wager on the survival of the United States and tells its story from 1790 to 1990 in Benjamin Franklin's last bet. Michael Meyer is the author of three critically acclaimed books, The Last Days of Old Beijing in Manchuria and The Road to Sleeping Dragon, as well as articles in The New York Times and other outlets. A Fulbright scholar and Guggenheim NEH common center and McDowell fellow and the recipient of Whiting Writers Award, Meyer is a professor of English at the University of Pittsburgh where he teaches nonfiction writing. Now let's hear from Michael Meyer. Thank you for joining us today. Thank you David for that introduction and welcome everyone. Thank you for tuning in. I know people are watching from all over the world from Beijing to Bilbao to Boston. I'm coming to you from Taipei, Taiwan of all places. I think a place that would have fascinated Franklin and I'll talk about that in a second as to why Franklin was long interested in China. I want to start with the cover of the book because it forms a nice outline for the talk I'm going to do for the next 45 to 50 minutes or so, which is that, you know, book covers, we're not supposed to judge books by their covers, but sometimes a book cover really does explain what the reader is going to find when he or she opens the cover and starts turning the pages. You'll notice the very famous portrait of Benjamin Franklin here from our $100 bill. Some of you might know this already, but if you don't, this portrait was painted when Franklin was sent over to Paris in 1776. There are two versions of the painting and in both of them, one of them was as late as 1779 and Franklin at this time is in his early 70s. And it strikes me when you see it, when you really look at the portrait, how frail he looks and actually those bloodshot sort of bloodhound eyes as well that are focused in on. And I'll talk about maybe why that is at this moment in Franklin's life. There's fallouts going on with his family. You know, the Revolutionary War was also a civil war for Benjamin Franklin. And there's also a big divide between what his vision for the Republic is and that of his fellow founders.   The second act being Franklin's afterlife, what happens in the immediate decades after his death and the bequest to his heirs, which all came with lessons attached to them, go out into the Republic and into America. And we follow in the book, the trail that his heirs take and make good or don't make good on his bequest to them. And the third act is Franklin's rebirth, which is that, you know, starting in 1890 at the centennial of his death, there's a renewed interest in Franklin and his idea. And this codicil that David alluded to in his introduction, his last bet of his wager on the working class of America. So I'll end with that and talk about how his money is actually still in circulation today. And you can blend your money with Franklin's money if you want to, and I'll explain that at the end. I didn't know a lot about Benjamin Franklin to be honest with you when I started researching this book. I think like a lot of people I read his memoir is autobiography when I was in school and it felt like a forced homework assignment. I didn't realize until you know started researching this book that Franklin those events end in 1757. He's only 51 years old when that book is ends and he addressed that book to his son William his first born son it begins dear son. And so there's not a lot of juicy tidbits in it about his life, which I'll get into in a second as well because you might imagine if you're leaving a memoir to your child, maybe you don't want to talk about some of the less salubrious decisions you made in your life. Some of the regrets you have Franklin very much wanted that book to show only his successes. But there's a lot more to his story than that. All right. 13 days before Benjamin Franklin died, John Adams fumed in a letter to their mutual friend Benjamin Rush, who was the father of American psychiatry in Philadelphia. And some of you may have heard this quote before but I want to continue it to the end as an introduction to my talk here today. Adams writes to Benjamin Rush the history of our revolution will be one continued lie from one end to the other. Historians will record that Benjamin Franklin smote the earth was his lightning rod and out sprung George Washington. That's a very well known quote but if you keep reading the letter a letter that you can find on founders online the great National Archives website where a lot of my source material comes from. Adams continues to Benjamin Rush. If this letter should be preserved and read 100 years hence the reader will say the envy of this John Adams could not bear to think of the truth. But this my friend to be serious is the fate of all ages and nations. No nation can adore more than one man at a time. But upon his death 13 days later, Benjamin Franklin was not that man. There's a great Chinese saying I love that is without coincidence there would be no story. I was one of the first Peace Corps volunteers to China was sent over in 1995 and I ended up staying in China for over a decade writing three nonfiction books about life and its various corners it's under reported corners. And when I came back to the states. When President Obama was in office and President Vice President Joe Biden was his was his second in command excuse me. A friend of mine working for Joe Biden said you know, the Chinese President who Jun Tao is coming for a state dinner. You're not important enough to go to the state dinner but there's going to be a state luncheon for Chinese President who Jun Tao at the State Department and would you like to come to that so he invited me down to DC and I bought my first ever suit off a clearance rack at Macy's really ill fitting sweating the whole way down. He looked at the State Department from the outside and found that it does in fact look like what a critic called it once the chewing gum factory it's very nondescript from the outside. It actually looks like something that would would not be out of place in Mao era Beijing. But when you step inside the State Department and go up to the diplomatic reception rooms you see this. Viewers you can see this picture here. We're looking at, you know, Chippendale sofas, and there's Paul Revere silver. And there's these beautiful and irons and there's these honey colored you know herringbone wooden floors. And I walked into this and I felt very, very uncomfortable because yo yo ma is playing his cello and Colin Powell is chatting to Barbara Streisand, and even the Chinese officials look relaxed which was a first in my experience and I thought I don't belong here at all. I got excited into this room, and I put my hands on this writing desk right here this table kind of leaned and exhale. And from behind me a voice said, please don't touch that. And I flinched embarrassed and I said oh is it old. And it was a marine guard standing behind me and he said, that's the table where Benjamin Franklin signed the Treaty of Paris. And he honestly was, I didn't know Benjamin Franklin did that. And my second thought was, what was the Treaty of Paris again. And so the marine guard and I started talking and he started he was very interested in Franklin except Franklin is the father of the foreign service and you know there's a reason these diplomatic reception rooms are named for Franklin and why we have so many Franklin things here in these rooms The marine guard told me I was surprised to learn this that Franklin spent most of the latter part of his life overseas, 27 out of 30 years until he returned home after Paris in 1785 and then went to the constitutional convention. So that I didn't know that I had no idea and so I sat here during the luncheon that followed feeling very stupid and thinking how is it that I know more about Chinese dynasties and Chinese politics and Chinese geography. So how about the foundations of my own country, and one in the marine pointed out to me we're standing in this room. This is porcelain figurine of Benjamin Franklin with Louis the 16th the King of France. Louis the 16th is only 24 years old at this moment and Benjamin Franklin is 72. The porcelain figurine shows them signing the Treaty of Alliance of 1778 were Louis the 16th under Franklins after Franklins, you know, massive persuading committed to supplying the American Revolution with men material and money. And you know it's funny when he would the Marine was showing me this you look at how the King is dressed, but then you look at how Franklin is dressed with the shoulder linked unpowdered hair, the beaver collared robe. And you know at that moment I thought I'm sweating through this terrible suit I was wearing and I thought we could add business casual to Franklin's long list of inventions. Well, it's Will and Testament which I'll talk about we can also I think add micro finance, but I went back to the hotel room after that luncheon, and I started doing what people do right I started Googling Franklin and trying to figure out how did I what, what am I missing about this guy. This is you know a painting or an image of an event I think we all know it's an apocryphal image this is his younger son William was going to factor large in my talk and in the book today. William was the one likely who was holding the kite string for his father, while his father was the one touching his knuckle to the string itself and feeling that electrical charge proving that electric lightning is electricity. I didn't know where this has happened I if you I was thinking about it where they fly the kite. And this likely happened in the Philadelphia neighborhood the Northern liberties at a pony stable or a field where William had his his pet horse. I realize you know that night I started reading about Franklin I thought when you start reading Franklin and some of you may have done this before. If you look at the bookshelf that's sagging under the weight of all the biographies about this man's life and his achievements or if you go online and start Googling Franklin. It really does feel like you're pulling at a kite string that keeps pooling at your feet, because where do you even stop right let alone begin. I mentioned that Franklin you know we could credit you know credit him as the inventor of business casual we'll talk about as the inventor of micro finance. But I think we can also credit him as you know the forerunner of the open source movement. This is Franklin in his 40s. This is at a time when he had retired from printing at age 42, quite successful, and was devoting himself to scientific experiments and his inventions. And the reason I say we can credit him as a forerunner of the open source movement is that I was amazed to find out that Franklin never directly profited from his inventions. He was an inveterate tinkerer. He was always trying to solve problems with the things he was making. And although there was no patent office during his lifetime that would start with Thomas Jefferson when Jefferson was Secretary of State 1792 1793. In Franklin's lifetime he could have applied to have an exclusive commercial license for his inventions, but he didn't he said, just as I benefit from the inventions and technology of others, others should benefit from mine. So he did not patent the lightning rod or get a license for it, or the bifocals that he invented or the glass harmonica the musical instrument that he invented. So he did not take credit, at least until much later in his life for coining the words electrician and battery and electric shock. He did not lend his name to his philanthropy. So, you know, this is quite different from today and we'll talk about the evolution of philanthropy with his will. But you know, Philadelphians in Franklin's lifetime could have gone to the Franklin Academy, which became the University of Pennsylvania.  And of course there is the Franklin stove, but that wasn't named by Franklin that was coined by users of that stove, in particular, in London, Franklin himself said I just invented that stove so my wife Debbie, and my daughter Sally would have a more efficient and warmer art heart while they were, while they were cooking. And so as a brother in lights, he was the first person to map the Gulf Stream. One of my favorite inventions of his is he invented swim fins, or at least he's credited as that. I was shocked to learn that Benjamin Franklin feared shipwrecks his older brother, perished in a shipwreck. And so as a young child in Boston Harbor and as a teen, he would strap suitcases filled with books or suitcase filled with books on to his back and practice swimming laps so he built up his strength. And when he later went on to London, he amazed people with his swimming prowess by once jumping out of a boat and Chelsea and swimming against the title current of the town's two miles to black fires, black fires bridge, excuse me. And for his efforts, you know, Franklin was posthumously obviously inducted into the international swimming Hall of Fame. I mentioned London, you know, I didn't know until I started researching this book. How much time Franklin actually spent living there. You can visit the Benjamin Franklin house it's quite near Trafalgar Square it's between Trafalgar Square and the Thames Herman Melville ironically has a blue plaque on a house a few doors down Melville live there on the same street, a century after Franklin. But, you know, I thought when I started researching this book that the only tangible presence we can really feel the real connection we can feel with Franklin is in this house.   I went over to London when I started researching this book and visited this and then I went up to ecton, which is in Northampton share about an hour and a half north of London. And this is the village from which Franklin's father Josiah emigrated to Boston and in ecton Josiah was a skilled dire. He did not want to belong to the Anglican church. And so he picked up move stakes went to Boston quickly learned when he landed in Boston that there wasn't going to be a great market for his fabric. Boston at that time people were still brazing cows and pigs on the common. And so Josiah became a candle maker and a soap maker as well and sort of a public utility. There are some estimates that say he supplied up to one third of Boston's candles with Boston was a town of only 10,000 people. But I'm showing you this now before I get into the will because I want to set up a couple things about Franklin rather quickly and about I think, you know, if you look at the will as a story of a life. If all wills tell stories of lives. Franklin's in particular tells a rather remarkable story and I think he's trying to make up for some mistakes he made earlier in his life. He knows that his will is going to be published. He wants to set an example for Americans going forward. The reason I'm showing you this image is this is in the church yard at ecton.  And the reason I'm showing you this is that again I mentioned at the beginning of the talk that I what I learned about Franklin was really through his memoir. Before I started researching this book and if you read the memoir. He talks about visiting these graves and he says. I discovered that I was the youngest son of the youngest son for five generations back. And if there were any estate to inherit, none would have been the less able to do so than me right it was going to be broke my whole time. Holding a private letter to his wife Deborah which I read later did I find that Franklin visited this this graveyard with an enslave man named Peter who Franklin called his servant Franklin did not write about being a slave owner in his memoir in fact his family owned at six slaves. He called them again servants. And although he professes later in letters to not liking the practice of slavery he certainly profited from it as well. Early on in his Gazette it was the Pennsylvania Gazette not the Franklin Gazette, but he you know he would put ads for rewards for runaway enslave people slave auctions. He was a bit duplicitous there's a lot of this in Franklin's life I think where one hand kind of doesn't know what the other hand is doing so while he's running those ads in his newspaper. He's also the first American to print the great first abolitionist tract in Pennsylvania and in the colonies as well in the 1730s, saying that anyone who holds a human being in bondage is a post it. In the moment, you know, traveling to London in the 1750s where Franklin is in his 40s. He's still traveling with an enslaved man named Peter. Now in an earlier version of Franklin's will the will of 1757 he says upon my death, I want to release Peter, and his wife. In the later version of his will he doesn't do that he does something else which I'll talk about in a second. This is probably because the people that he had held as slaves either had run away and had not been followed you know not been pursued by Franklin or unfortunately they had died. But I'm telling you this to because I noticed that when I started looking at Franklin's letters and you can do this at Franklin papers.org is a wonderful digitize repository of Franklin's letters. There's 8000 pieces of correspondence that still survive to or from Franklin at a time when you're not writing on paper you're writing on like mashed up hamper mashed up sales you know that have been made into paper with a quill. He was a voluminous correspondent and it's really fun to dig into his river of words and let him tell the story and in this book, I try to let Franklin tell the story as much as possible. I also let his wife Deborah tell the story as much as possible because I think in up until this book I think I hope I find that Deborah is sort of assigned a walk on role in the blockbuster production that's Franklin's life. She's often sort of pushed on stage. It almost feels like she's trapped him in marriage in the common tellings of Franklin's life story. She's described using very curt adjectives like sturdy. You know, reliable, never beautiful, you know, beauties in the eye of the beholder Franklin was smitten with her love at first sight and his side of it when he landed in Philadelphia as a young man and took some persuading to get Deborah to become his wife. They never were formally wed. There's was a common law marriage. Franklin wed her when he was 24 years old. We don't know exactly how old Deborah was because no recorded date is known for her for her birth. But in the book I try I reproduce her words is, you know, faithfully, right from her letters to him. She's a remarkable person. And I'm saying this now because we're going to talk about Franklin's fortune next. Franklin is often described as being a self made man. He was anything but not only do we know that he profited from unpaid labor in the form of the enslaved people that work for him in his print shop. We also know that he benefited greatly from Deborah Debbie through her parents inherited parcels of land on Market Street, including what is now today the Franklin Museum, and where you can see Franklin's the remnants of his print shop.  It's fun to look in their letters, while he's away in London, where she's chasing down payments that are in arrears. Franklin made the unusual step of giving her power of attorney at a time in the 1730s, when the pre printed form said I give my friend, and you would of course read a man's name in, and Franklin on that form crossed it out and said I give my wife, and then wrote in Deborah read Franklin, and gave her power of attorney.  You can look at the American Philosophical Society they have in Philadelphia they have Deborah's ledgers. This is at a time of course when the American dollar is in the future, but people weren't using British sterling for payments all the time in Philadelphia either Philadelphia was this massive, you know, the biggest port in the United States at that time. And so it's fun to look in the ledgers at the coffee and the mackerel and the chocolate and the stationary, and so forth that Deborah is selling and then giving you know taking currency from Mexico, South America, different European currencies and making change and other currencies back. She's a very important character in this story and in Franklin's life. And I just want to add one more thing about Deborah. She, you know is often criticized I think obliquely or directly for not going with him overseas to London, when he's appointed colonial agent and leaves and goes overseas in the 1750s. But you know this belies the point that if anybody has ever lived overseas before one of the worst. One of the worst positions you can have is of the trailing spouse, where your husband or wife or your partner is the one that has the great job and gets all the adulation and has the social circles, and you're sort of the appendage. Deborah was very much a part of Philadelphia civic life she had a pew at Christ Church. She had her family members there. She had her children around her she had businesses to run. And Franklin himself said that she had an invincible aversion to crossing the seas. And this is because as a young girl and when Deborah made the crossing from England. It was a very, very rough voyage, and she had really did not ever want to do that again. At a time when a voyage to England was six to seven weeks. So I just want to put that out there right now that you know there's a big part of this book and I'll get to Franklin's will now. That I hope makes Deborah come alive to people. I have to say she reminds me a lot of my own mother. My mother had a long time had a business in construction. And I find when I read Deborah's letters. She reminds me a lot of my mom, my mom's a lot smarter than I am she can read blueprints and price jobs and I can't do that. Okay, let's go to the next slide. You know, in Franklin's will. He, he lays out how he wants to be remembered so well to the point where when he writes his epitaph. He traces it out for the stone Mason, and even names the Mason he wants to do the carving chambers the man in Philadelphia. He's telling us this now to begin this talk about his will, because I love that it's so reminiscent of type setting. Right, it's not. It reminds me so much of the type that that that Franklin would use as a printer. And at the end of this talk I'll show you his tombstone that he wanted. And it has the same dimensions as a page of newsprint. So it almost looks like he and Debbie are sleeping under the Pennsylvania Gazette itself. But for all of Franklin's achievements. This is all he wanted on his tombstone. And I think when you know in the book when you see the connection the two of them had and she really was I think the foundation of his fortune. It's only fitting that he felt the achievement he wanted people to see the achievement that was most important to him was his marriage and his friendship to Debbie. Benjamin Franklin wrote this version of his will is third version of his will in 1788. He's come back from Paris in 1785 he's gone through the blistering constitutional convention, sweltering hot months on and he's living only a few blocks away from what is now Independence Hall, but he's so ill with pleurisy, this inflammation of the lungs with a kidney stone that prisoners from the Walnut Street jail are carrying him to the convention in a sedan chair. He's by far the oldest delegate. He could have been the other delegates, but almost all of them he could have been their father, including George Washington who's almost 20 years, 26 years older than Washington, much older than Jefferson and Madison and Hamilton. And so, you know this is 1788 the convention has ended we all know it maybe it's an apocryphal quote. It's here at the National Archives you can look it up a woman named Eliza Powell said what have you brought you know he says a republic if you can keep it. But you know he goes back home, and he starts writing letters to his old friends in France and he starts saying things like you know the only things that are certain in life are death and taxes, like many of Franklin's great systems that's not his original. He freely admits toward the end of his life how many of these great sayings he had borrowed from other sources and made his own. And that extends to his last will and testament, because in 1789 after he affixes the seal to the will here and by the way you can hold this will this will still exist it's at the American Philosophical Library in Philadelphia. It took a lot of jumping through hoops for me but I actually got Philadelphia's register of the wills to approve the use of this. These images as the end papers of this book so when you see the hardcover edition. When you open it up you'll see the facsimiles here of the will. But in 1789. This is only two months after George Washington has been inaugurated sworn in, and Franklin is skeletal in bed. He's suffering from pleurisy he's suffering from the kidney stone he's suffering from 18th century medicine as well he's drinking a tonic called Daffy's elixir. In the book I talk about I find his physicians bills for syringes for opium for laudanum.  And he's complaining to his sister Jane in letters that I'm wasting away there's not much left of me here. And suddenly, in the midst of all this, Franklin remembers a promise he had made to a Frenchman in 1785 and admiring Frenchman named Joseph but don't deal a cure, tries to get Franklin's attention in Paris and tries to estimate a satiric essay, and the essay instead of being called poor Richard, the essay is called fortunate Richard, the last will and testament of fortunate Richard. And in this essay. The writer imagines that a little boy is told by his grandfather. I'm giving you a little bit of money, and I want to teach you the magic of compound interest, and I want you to leave this money untouched for 100 years and after 100 years, it will have multiplied to 131 times its value. And then you can leave it in your will and testament to worthy causes you want to support. And in this essay that the Frenchman writes to Franklin is so with this money multiply 131 times. And the first thing that this young man did with it, how he lived to be 100 plus years is we don't mention that and the essay doesn't explain. First thing he does is he sets up loans to trades people to start their own businesses. Next thing he does is he starts business schools for women, so they'll learn trades and be paid equally. He starts founding libraries. This is obviously a wink at Franklin say look I love your ideas. And he starts doing things like, I'm going to, I'm going to fund a universal childcare pension, so that every newborn baby gets three years of salary so their parents will have money to pay for childcare. I'm going to start a European bank a central European bank, a precursor of the euro, which will prevent Europe from having wars and so forth. He reads this back in 1785 he loves it he thinks it's great he sends it to a friend in London who translates it, and it goes nowhere. The friend translates it sticks it in the back of a pamphlet about the importance of the American Revolution, never heard from again. Until 1789. Franklin writes to this gentleman in France and says I remember your essay. I love the idea. It might make you happy to learn that I'm going to tuck this into my will. I'm going to do exactly what you said. I'm actually doing something else by putting this provision in his will. The provision was this he said I'm going to put aside 1000 pounds in a fund for Boston 1000 pounds in a fund for Philadelphia. The money is going to be used to fund young apprentices in those cities under 25 years of age, who are also married. Deborah, he married common law when he was 24. It's not about how important it was to have a partner in business and in life to tell you when your ideas are terrible, and to keep you on the straight and narrow and to help you and everything. So 1000 pounds to Boston 1000 pounds to Philadelphia. It's really difficult to do historic conversions of money 1000 pounds in 1789 was equivalent to $4444. The purchasing power of millions. I mean it's in the book I talk about comparisons of what something cost at that time. Franklin had raised about 500 pounds with his favorite invention ever the matching grant to build the Pennsylvania hospital, which still stands today. He had raised about 300 pounds to build the American Philosophical Society, the library who's building still stands today in central Philadelphia. So 1000 pounds was a great deal of money. And I mentioned at the beginning of my talk this sort of you know we can call him an adventure of microfinance because he said what I want to do with this money is in Philadelphia in Boston some citizens some gentlemen is going to step forward and manage these loan schemes for free. They give small amounts of money, 60 pounds to each applicant, and the applicant is going to use that money to hang up their shingle to start their own business. They're going to repay the money over a period of 10 years at below market interest, he set the rate at 5%. This is at a time when the American financial system is fledgling. The stock exchange and New York Stock Exchange will not open until two years after Franklin's death in 1792. The American dollar will not be made official currency until two years after Franklin's death in 1792. So we also says that there has to be two backers for these loans to make sure that the fund keeps accumulating, and they have to back the money using Spanish gold. So I want the fund to keep growing. As these trades people pay their money back in increments, the principle is going to keep growing. I want this to continue for 100 years. At the end of 100 years, I want Boston and Philadelphia to get together independently and democratically decide on what to spend a large portion of the money on to build something in the cities that will benefit the common good. You can kind of picture Franklin laughing to himself as he writes this having just gone through the constitutional convention and how fractious it was and how hard it was to reach a compromise. At the same time, he says, I want the rest of my money to keep going back into a pot in Boston in Philadelphia and I want you to fund skilled trades people to start their own businesses for another 100 years. And then on the bicentennial of my death, which by the way is coming up this Easter Sunday, April 17 be 232 years since Franklin died on the bicentennial of my death. I want you to take all the money, which is going to be a windfall by my calculations and build something great for the cities, the cities in which I was born, the cities where I learned my trade, the cities in which I made my fortune. What could go wrong, right? One of my favorite sayings of poor Richards is, blessed is he who expects nothing for he shall never be disappointed. Franklin wanted to do something else with this will. And I talked about this in the book too. He said, I'm choosing to use 2000 pounds as the figure, because that is the salary that was due to me when I served as president as the President of Pennsylvania for three years. Franklin argued at the Constitutional Convention unsuccessfully, obviously, that people who hold public office should not be paid. He said, he found that in England and in France, people tolerated a king, because one ruler was better than an aristocracy ruling as a group. But he said, because in the United States, we will not have a king. I fear that an aristocracy will rise up, and these will be the people that serve in government with their selfish desires rather than public service. His fellow Constitutional Convention delegates sort of shrugged and said, sure, old Ben, whatever and they listened to him, but they wrote it off as a joke and John Adams and I'll come to him in a second. In particular, it was really incensed by this idea that Frank would make a mockery of public office by suggesting that people who hold it should not be paid. But Franklin ensured he put this in the will. That salary that was due to me is going to go forward and fund these tradespeople because he continued, in my experience, good apprentices make the best citizens. Franklin saw when he came back from Paris, that the America that he grew up in, I should say, found his fortune in practices trade in the Philadelphia that he had helped improve had changed remarkably. And the Philadelphia Academy, for example, the college that he co founded that went on today to become University of Pennsylvania was not following his blueprint at all Franklin co founded that college in order to be a great leveler. He wanted to help poor boys. Franklin, by the way, was ahead of his time but in many ways he was very much of his time as we see with his slave holding, and also his refusal to allow women to attend the college he founded. He wanted people there to learn practical skills, bookkeeping, public speaking and so forth. He comes back from Paris and he finds that it's all blue blood Pennsylvania's the highest families setting their sons there to be well rounded in Latin and Greek, and a wall had literally gone up around the college. Franklin might be one of the first people, if not the last to have founded a school and let left nothing for it in his will. He was so disgusted at how it had turned out. And so in his mind he wanted his loan scheme to help apprentices start their own businesses, but more importantly, start entering public life, and he wanted them to serve an office he said tradespeople are so important because they see the effect of taxation and policies at the ground level. They interact with all sorts of people, different genders, different origins, different creeds on a daily level. They're very much attached to the community in which they serve. And these are the people you want serving in government. Okay, now let's talk about what happened after Franklin dies and how this all turns out. And this is the depth notice that ran in the Pennsylvania Gazette four days after he passed away and it's announcing Franklin's funeral. His funeral was held on April 21 Philadelphia was then a city of 28,000 the largest city in America. The estimates were that 20,000 people attended it, but I was very surprised to learn. There was no state funeral for Benjamin Franklin. The state funeral would be for George Washington, nine years later, President Washington decided against it.  So that sets a dangerous precedent, I don't want to begin this tradition. Furthermore, at the beginning of this talk I showed you the cover of the book with those black bands over it. There are also called badges of mourning people at this time if you wanted to mourn someone's passage you would wear a black armband. Congress took up the measure should we wear badges of mourning. The lower house the House of Representatives CDS we should the Senate, over which John Adams presided as Vice President said absolutely not. Thomas Jefferson pleaded with George Washington to wear an armband of mourning for Franklin and Washington refused. He felt that Adams had his eye on him, and he didn't want like he didn't want to start a quarrel with this. So when Franklin dies, the country that mourns him the greatest the most is France. And in the book I talked about there is a festival of Franklin in comiums and funerals going on across Paris and public eulogies and then comiums given for him and my favorite one was a group of printers, as they're giving the speech or setting the man's speech in type and running it off on presses and then sending the speech out across Paris. I think Franklin as a printer would have loved that tribute the most. His will for all his achievements begins I Benjamin Franklin printer. He leads his will with this trade. So here we are in Philadelphia here's the death notice. Again as I mentioned there's no American there's no state funeral and really the first official eulogy for Franklin in America is not given until you're nearly 11 months after he died. And only then is it given by the one man we could call Franklin's true enemy, the Rev. Rev. William Smith, who was an Anglican minister that Franklin had actually hired to come over and run the Philadelphia Academy after Samuel Johnson had turned it down. And we can thank William Smith for all the rumors about who Franklin's firstborn son Williams mother truly was. It's pretty apparent that that William was born to a prostitute, it may he may have been born to Deborah, and because they were a common law marriage. And Deborah had a non dissolved marriage from up to a previous man who had absconded away from her. Maybe they hid the pregnancy. So they would not be charged under Pennsylvania laws under adultery which would have been 39 lashes and hard labor. But likely William was mothered by a prostitute and the Reverend William Smith was the man in the 1750s and 1760s who made sure that Philadelphians knew that and would accuse Franklin of this in print, they had a long falling out. And William Smith would spy on Franklin for the Penn family and so forth. This is the man who gives Franklin's American eulogy in the book I try to do better by him. All right, let's move on to this loan scheme and what happened going forward. Franklin knew his two hometowns had a rivalry which I think probably still extends today at least in baseball if not, if not in character. He grew up in Boston. He apprenticed under his brother James in Boston as a printer, and then he fled Boston he broke his indentures and fled when he was 17 years old Boston was the center of American learning, and also the center of the American it was largely homogenous community. Philadelphia, on the other hand, was a largely heterogeneous port, the center of business, the center of finance, the center of publishing, and this is where Franklin makes his fortune. And he puts in his will. If one of you Boston or Philadelphia refuse my loan scheme idea, the other city gets all the money. So Boston jumped at the chance to take the money first and here you see this begins not long after he dies this is the first page of the ledger where you can see the man who received the first loans. The first Franklin loan went to a bricklayer named Daniel Tuttle, and it was actually guaranteed by two masons that are whom he apprenticed, but you could also see in the early ledgers, a lot of famous names. There's a man named Silver Smith named Thomas Ayers, and his loan was guaranteed by Paul Revere. There's another man a carpenter whose loan was guaranteed by Samuel Adams. And when you turn the pages of the ledger to begin in the 1790s, it really feels like a whole village is assembling before your eyes on the page.  It's really exciting to watch and I started I found myself in the archives as you're turning these pages. And they're crinkling, you know, and no one's looked at them for decades of hundreds of years. You're rooting for these men to make these loan payments and so you want them to succeed. Philadelphia, and this is going to set the course for how things go with the management, takes a little bit longer to get going on their loan scheme. This is an ad in Franklin's grandsons, Benny's newspaper 1792 calling people to put in their applications for the loans. Philadelphia's when the first loan went to a shoemaker named John Grant. I love these early names as well. You see, we get bakers, glaciers, potters, harness makers, copper smiths. There's a bricklayer named Oliver Cromwell. There is a cabinet maker named Christopher pigeon. So again, as you're in these early decades, the people who are running the loan scheme really do a good job of finding people to use the money and the people are making their payments. So at the beginning, this is actually working out quite well. I want to touch real quickly though on other bequests that Franklin made because he had four main heirs when he died, he had a largely fractured family when he died. This person here, this young man here is Temple, his grandson. That's his son, William's grandson and Temple was a bit of a fop and a roux. And to Temple Franklin left all of his papers and said I want you to publish my papers, edit them, bring them together. It takes Temple 20 years to do so. And I'll talk, I talk about that in the book about how long it takes to produce Franklin's memoir, his autobiography, for example. He gave his other grandson, Benny, a very different gift. He gave him his printing press. And in the will Franklin talks about one of my greatest regrets is that I didn't train my own son, a trade. And so young Benny who was with him in Paris learns Franklin's trade as a printer and Benny throughout the 1790s as these first loans are being given becomes a muck raking journalist and heavily criticized George Washington for owning slaves and George Washington had slaves in Pennsylvania and under Pennsylvania law in the 1790s. If an enslaved person existed lived in Pennsylvania for six months, they were automatically free. And now Washington is sending secret letters back and forth to Mount Vernon saying I want my enslaved people my slaves brought back to Mount Vernon before that six months happens. Benny Franklin's grandson knows about this and begins criticizing Washington in the press. This is an editorial cartoon from a pro Washington newspaper, in which a man named porcupine is attacking Benny in the press as Lady Liberty here weeps over a portrait of Franklin. You can see Benny's print shop here today. There's no plaque for him though, and you can't see a gravestone for him I think people should know more about Benny because not only is he the best example I think of carrying on Franklin's wishes. Benny was also the first American charged under the alien and sedition acts, and he dies of yellow fever before he's put on trial in 1798. To his daughter Sally, Franklin leaves his most valuable gift, which is a diamond encircled portrait of Louis the 16th, and he tells Sally, this is in the will he writes this is for you and you alone. This is 50 years before the end of Coverture laws in Pennsylvania, women at that point were really had no better legal standing than a dependent child, if they were married, and Franklin endeavors to show in his will.  This is no mark on your character, but I want my daughter to have her own independent income and independent life. He also tells Sally whatever you do don't make these diamonds into jewelry. So Sally I think does something even more clever and said she starts selling the diamonds off. And she puts Franklin's house up for rent in 1792. So she can finally go overseas. So in 1792 when Mary Wollstone crafts the her book on the rights of women is being published for the first time in America. Sally sells the diamonds off rents out Franklin's house and gets to go overseas for the first time and she goes to London. And this is the portrait she has painted of herself. It's a portrait we have of her that survives it's in the net in New York, Franklin would have been shocked at the lace she's wearing because he once scolded her. She wanted him to buy lace for her in Paris and he said what a waste of money.  If you want lace do what I do just wear your cambrick cloth and let moss eat holes in it and voila, it becomes lace. The last error in his will is his son William, and he knew that his will be published some of you I'm sure watch the Ken Burns mini series so I don't need to recount the fate of William here but William remain loyal to King George in the American Revolutionary War, and really did some horrible things as far as hunting down Patriots when he was when he was released when he was in New York City, William ends up exiled in London. He ends up being buried in the old St. Pancras Church graveyard. A young novelist named Thomas Hardy, who was then working as an architects assistant was given the task when they were building St. Pancras railway station to move the graves and move the tombstones. So they could put the railroad in so Williams tombstone is rumored to be around what's called the Hardy tree, this tree at which Thomas Hardy directed the tombstones be put. He knew that his will was going to be published and he made sure that William was the first beneficiary that people would see, and he said because my son labored to take away the estate that I had worked hard to earn.  There's nothing. Okay, let me talk for about five more minutes and just show you what happens with the money. These are pre printed loan forms we can see here Benny, Benjamin's grandson printed these up and you can look through these in Philadelphia. And you start seeing great names like I said in the ledgers this man is Liberty Brown, he was born on the 4th of July and he's a silver Smith, and he gets his loan in the year 1800 Liberty Brown fulfills Franklin's ideal he rises to become president of the Philadelphia There's a bricklayer in Boston named Charles Wells, who becomes the fourth mayor of Boston, and his election was the newspaper reported a protest of the middle classes against what they thought was the high handed and extravagant way that Wells elitist predecessors ruled the city. Now, here's where things get dicey though as we enter the 1800s, Eli Whitney patents the cotton gin only three years after Franklin dies, Franklin does not see the industrial evolution coming. And so as we get into the 1800s, the path of his money takes two very different paths in Philadelphia, here you see the Walnut Street jail, you have men like Pat Lyon, a man who was jailed wrongly during the yellow fever epidemic that killed Benny. And with his settlement, he starts his own foundry he starts building fire wagons. And he says, I want to be painted wearing my leather apron. This is the kind of person I am I belong to Franklin's leather apron class. Philadelphia is being stripped into the 1810s and 1820s, you know, not only it loses its status as national capital, the Erie Canal opens strips its status as major port. It starts lending money to people that can no longer pay it back because trades people are going out of business, but it's still lending Franklin's money it wants to adhere to his vision. Up in Boston, the textile factories of the Lowell's on the Charles River where Franklin used to swim are benefiting from the Industrial Revolution, and they are changing American manufacturing, and they are also signaling the end of the apprenticeship system that Franklin believed in. And you have up in Boston men such as the Daniel Bodich, whose statue we see here over his grave. He's a major figure in this book because Bodich is the man we can credit as having invented the investment bank. And he would have a hand in inventing the mutual fund, and he would have a large hand in managing large family trusts and trust for places like Harvard College. And he decides, you know what, we're not going to give the money to workers like Franklin intended, we should be aiming for that 100 year, and that 200 year payout. And so instead we're going to invest the money and let it grow. Totally different paths. As we get toward the centennial, the two cities are fighting with each other over who's the true bearer of Franklin's legacy and spirit. In Philadelphia, they try to start attracting tourists to Franklin's grave by putting a barred fence here to make him a tourist attraction. Up in Boston, a man takes over the fund named Samuel McCleary. He's an important character in this book because when he takes over the fund. This is what he looks like. When he ends managing the fund. This is what he looks like. And McCleary in Boston tries quite hard to get things back on track. To all during the 1800s, you see a series of defaults. I think Franklin didn't think that anyone might not pay money back. That was completely antithetical to what his values were. But look at these names of the people that default. They could be Franklin Penn names, John Death, Francis Hammer, Frazier K. Work, Daniel Deal, Samuel Stackhouse, and Isaac Kite. Poor Richard said it's against some, some men's principle to pay interest and seems against others interest to pay the principal. And that's what starts happening to his fund. Okay, I'm going to show you about five more slides. This is a very American story. And in the book I talk about how Franklin's descendants come to the fore. This is Elizabeth Dwayne Gillespie, a leading Philadelphia feminist who says, listen, it says in his will if you're not going to manage the fund correctly, the money goes to his heirs. And by the way, women work trades too. And so she hires a young lawyer named George Wharton Pepper, another important character in this book who will help define Franklin's legacy going forward in the 20th century. And they start loosening Franklin's conditions to allow women trades workers to start receiving the money as well. As we get toward the centennial to Boston decide let's build the trade school and the city treasurer says we're not letting you have the money. This is a one off gift. You're supposed to build something with one time use you can't burden the taxpayers with something that's going to keep causing you know expenses every year. So a young man from Scotland, who follows a very Franklinian trajectory, also a born British subject, also the son of a skilled fabric worker, also an immigrant to Pennsylvania, also master the technology of the day Franklin with his printing and with the telegraph, also a great lover of philanthropy and libraries, Andrew Carnegie comes to the rescue. And Carnegie, at a speech decides, I'm going to match Franklin, I'm going to use his favorite invention and use the matching grant I'll match him penny for penny to build the trade school in Boston. And you know in the book I talk about Carnegie a great deal, because Carnegie said Franklin was my teacher.  Just as Franklin wrote the way to wealth Carnegie wrote the gospel of wealth, he modeled his autobiography on Franklin as well and tried to give as much of his money away as he could. Carnegie, as many of you know, though, put his name on almost everything that he donated money to, but after a big outcry in Boston, he agreed to take his name off the Franklin trade school, which I'll show you at the end is still there today. Okay, quickly now summing up into the 20th century Franklin's image changes greatly in the book I keep saying that every generation discovers Franklin for themselves. And these people like Gatsby J Gatsby are saying we love Benjamin Franklin at Gatsby's funeral Gatsby's father shows Nick, Nick or Nick careway excuse me. Gatsby wake up every morning as a boy and say what invention should I study what electric, you know how should I master electricity I want to self improve every day. And Franklin became sort of this stoic stentorian patron saint of thrift and seriousness. This is a man who had a child out of wedlock, who, you know, had a very and wanted in his will to be remembered as a trades worker, and wanted that spirit to continue into American public life, especially in government. And instead of the 1930s onward, we get this very serious Franklin, not the Mark Twain Franklin, not the will Rogers Franklin, right, a very different voice and a very different image. Let me go ahead a little bit here.  There's a man who escapes Nazi Germany fleets Berlin as a young man serves in the US Army in Japan, comes back to Philadelphia and says, I want to crack at this money in Franklin's will he said we have to build something of use, what better use than protecting the environment. This is Walter lion one of my favorite characters in the book, and he has this idea that we should elevate people like Rachel Carson to public recognition, and Pennsylvania should use Franklin's money to protect the environment. And he has a long battle against us that ultimately he loses, because a lot of the Philadelphia Franklin money goes to the Franklin Institute Science Museum, which you can still visit today. Lost in money, a big block of it go into the Franklin trade school, which you can still visit today. Fantastic place I think no place better invokes Franklin spirit, then when you walk in and you see young people learning to use tools. I said to its president at the time, aren't you worried about mechanization and robotics, and he said no no no, we're the people training the kids who are fixing those robots are graduates always need work. And here on Franklin's last will and testament and how we remember him today. You know I hope the purpose of this book is to give us a different sense of what Franklin value and what he believed in. I think he'd be quite shocked if he came back today to Philadelphia, for example, and saw his face on a bus, and saw his name over an ice cream bar and saw the entrance to his old home, and saw the shell of his former home, and saw people standing at his grave and say what do they think of me what do they remember me for the caretaker of the cemetery by the way told me that people put pennies on his tombstone all the time, they never throw less abrasive $100 bills, I love that detail. But I think Franco would really be shocked again about how do we remember him today. And I think you'd also be shocked that you know over half of Americans identify as belonging to the working class, but less than 2% of Congress people have ever held working class jobs. So there's more people employed in the nonprofit sector in America today there is a manufacturing. And the last statistic I'll give you and I'll end on this note is that are 17 million young people enrolled in four year degree programs. There's only 600,000 agreed enrolled in apprenticeship programs. And I say this as an English professor, you don't need to pursue a four year degree to find fulfillment and happiness and life. You know you can also learn how to hang doors and make things with your hands and be useful in that way, and hopefully be involved in public life. I'll end on that note. Thank you so much for listening, and I hope you go to your local library or your favorite independent bookseller or online and read Benjamin Franklin's last bet.


First, I'd like to recognize a few individuals. The first individual is Anna Bermudez. She was assigned or appointed to the Department of Labor Basin as a commissioner in 2014, and she was retained by Mayor Ed Adams in this administration. Under her leadership, the agency continued to progress and meet the needs and challenges of its clients. When she retired, she left some big shoes to fill. Fortunately, there are people in this administration who have big shoes. The void was filled temporarily by Michael Forte, who's the deputy commissioner for administration. He's been with the agency for 12 years, and he's a 28-year veteran of the city government, and I want to personally thank you, Michael, for you stepped in and all you've done. And right now, I'd like to turn over to the mayor of the city of New York who will announce our new probation commission. It's going to be an interesting conference. Dana's here from the time. How are you? Before we go into the good news, we have, I want to really, I say over and over again, my little slogans that I state, what's important for our city, public safety is a prerequisite to prosperity. Public safety is the prerequisite to prosperity. And we're seeing, as we announced, the direction we're taking New Yorkers in public safety, decreasing our major crimes. We started out in the new year with decrease in shootings and homicides. Now we're seeing a decrease in our seven majors. Now one year, the one year anniversary of our announcement of our economic blueprint, we're seeing new numbers that show that we are doing to boost our economy, and it is working. Started being safe, and we're seeing a prosperity of that. Just released data from the state labor department shows that New York City has recovered 99% of the job loss during the pandemic. That's prosperity in the city that we're talking about. We're not done yet, but it's clear that New York City is back, and you're seeing a reflection of that every day. And they're going to be more good numbers that are coming out to talk about the issue on hand. It's my honor to announce the appointment of Anita Holmes as a commissioner for the New York City Department of Probation. She's the right leader, and for the right time, over 30 years of distinguished service rising through the ranks in the New York City Police Department. And I believe when you look at my overall approach to public safety, it is unique. There's never been a mayor that has had the depth of understanding of public safety. And what we did by bringing on Phil Banks to be the Deputy Mayor of Public Safety, we knew that we had to have one apparatus that was combined with all of our public safety apparatuses that were historically disjointed, our probation, Department of Correction, FDNY, the hospital police, all of these agencies were disjointed. It was our vision to have one focus on dealing with public safety, and this aspect of it in the Department of Probation is a unique approach. Under the amazing work of Commissioner Bermudez, she did not treat the Department of Probation as just a reactionary tool. She had great programs that would ensure people who were involved in the criminal justice system would not be abandoned, and would not be part of the revolving door system. And we want to continue to build on that. But Chief Holmes brings another dynamic. We saw what she did with blue chips, building a relationship with the police in the law enforcement community. When girls talk, we just recently having Cardi B, the only disappointing aspect of you having Cardi B that I wasn't invited. That you weren't invited. I apologize for this. You know, and there are those who critique, why would you bring Cardi B because she was arrested? The same reason you brought Cardi B is why people voted for me because I was arrested. You don't discard people. This is an administration that believed perfectly and perfect people can show from their lessons to help people as they move forward in life. It was a brilliant idea to do so. And we're hoping Chief Commissioner Holmes will bring that same level of creativity, boldness and unafraid to lean into areas where people historically were afraid to do so. She understands that we don't give up on people. And nowhere we understand that better than the Department of Probation. Commissioner Holmes is going to play a key role and ensure that New York City remains the safest big city in America. Her distinguished career as a public servant, most recently as the chief of the NYPD Training, the first uniformed black woman to hold that position. And as Chief of Patrol, she created the Girl Talk Mentorship program, as I stated in several other programs. She did this on her own time, went beyond the call of duty of performance. And that's the type of energy we are going to need in the Department of Probation as we continue the good work that the agency has already put in place. Now she would take that same attitude, never giving up on anyone, her unique skill set, her leadership to the Department of Probation, where she can further move it forward. And she comes from a distinguished family that they have contributed their lives. And from the Department of Correction to the police department, her sister, Janet Holmes, who's part of our terrorist fighting apparatus. And her entire family, from detectives to supervisors, have been committed to law enforcement. And this is a law enforcement family, and we should be proud that she would take upon this awesome responsibility. It's going to help New Yorkers exit the criminal justice system and find a better path. And I am proud that as the commissioner, she's going to bring that energy that she has brought for over 30 years in the New York City Police Department. And so commissioner, I want to give you your new shield and thank tell you congratulations, and thank you so much for your contributions and what you want to continue to do. Good morning, everyone. I first want to thank the mayor and Deputy Mayor Philip Banks for this tremendous opportunity. Also, I'd like to recognize Michael Forte for his position in being Acting Probation Commissioner. This is a tremendous opportunity for me. 36 years in New York City Police Department in New York City, and the assignments that I've had wasn't behind a desk. So as a result of such, I have always been involved with children. Nothing more precious to me. Children don't have the opportunity to choose their parents, to choose where they live or the economic income that's brought into their household. So as a result of such, I really feel my years of experience, as well as my experience with children, mentorship groups, youth programs, really, really qualifies me for this position, but more so because I'm passionate about it. I've always been an advocate for anyone that's touched the criminal justice system. How do we do better? How do they access not just knowledge about services and resource, but the access, right? A lot of times people just don't have access. So I want to say thank you, Deputy Mayor, and thank you, Mayor, for this tremendous position. Thank you so much. Thank you. I have a few questions. Mr. Mayor, can you explain why Chief Holmes is the right person for the probation's department and why make the switch now in light of all the stories about the conflict between the police commissioner over the training and the qualifications needed to become an officer? Well, you've been coming for a little while, Nolan. I don't listen to the noise. I had a vacancy. We looked at other candidates. And I know the skill set that Commissioner Holmes bring to this, as she stated, she has a real passion. And I think that sometimes we don't fully understand those in law enforcement what they bring in their volunteer state. So here it is. We are trying to change the aspect of probation to continue what the former commissioner has done. And this is the best fit of someone that understands that you don't throw people away. And I think it was reflected in what she did with Cardi B. Many people would have been afraid to embrace Cardi B. But the number of people she has embraced, it just shows me the quality that she brings. She's the right person for the right job, for the right time, with the right Mayor. More detail about why you did requirements. It's been reported that it was to help recruit more women and just wondering what that differentiation is. Who was the first person? The one and a half mile training requirement that was dropped. I was just wondering if you could speak more on that. Just kind of your decision behind that and why now? She's now the commissioner of probation. If you have conversations about the 1.5 miles, we have a commissioner of the police department. She will handle questions on the department of probation. The commissioner or I will answer questions on the run. She has a new job and a new role. She's not going to be giving her advice on things that impact NYPD. Jeff, I'll talk about probation. This year, what role does probation play in that? I mean, Rikers Island's population is up as well. I know a lot of Rikers Island trainees are there because of probation violations. Is there a stricter hand in probation? Great question. This is an extremely unique day that you asked me a great question. So I want to make sure you have a response. What has happened? And this is why I need commissioner homes. We don't want people being violated for mining fractions being brought back on Rikers Island. If there are legitimate reasons to do so, then we need to do so. But we want to ensure that we allow people to stay with their families, continue employment. And that is where Commissioner Bermudez has done and will continue to do and under the leadership that we currently have. The goal is to find how do we keep people from going back into the system? That is the goal. And that is what I need to commissioner to continue to do what the former commissioner has done and to bring her flair in doing so. And the goal is, you've heard me say this over and over again, we have extreme recidivism. We need to find ways to make sure people who are committing crimes and not continue to commit crimes and stop the disjointedness of ensuring they're in the right programs with like block power. We spent millions of dollars to train people on green jobs. I need the commissioner to be directing them in that direction. We want to stop the recidivism that we're seeing. Which might, oh my God. You might. Thank you. If you could tell me how the car you beat decision happened without commissioner's tools and put that's my understanding of how that happened. And how the decision on the fitness test happened. Basically the old road to stop the commissioner's tools. Right. I think she had a question. The Cardi B is a continuation of what this commissioner has done. This is her style of what Girl Talks was about. This was not the first program. I don't know if you guys, what you should really be doing is a profile on what she has been doing with Girl Talks. You know, what has she, you know, this has been a couple of years now as she has been going into communities where girls were not having a voice for years, not this week, not last week, for years. On her time, this was not the police department style. On her time, she were bringing in young girls to sit down and empower her, empower them. That's the real story here. And so if we want to focus on Cardi B and the fact that I didn't get invited, you could do that, you know. But the reality is, for years, she has been volunteering her time to help empower girls. We made it. Oh, you did it? Yeah, morning. Okay, how are you? Great. I want to see you continue recidivism. So what for? No, and I want to be clear. So I don't want to be, I don't want Nolan to, you know, misquote me. I want to be clear. People who commit serious violations should be held accountable. These extreme recidivists are really destroying our city because of their violent behavior. But if you are out of your residence, for example, and there may be a legitimate reason, you know, and Commissioner Bermudez has been really helping to deal with those overly use of violation. We want to really wait a situation and determine, is it better for this person to stay with his family? Is it better for this person to take corrective actions or do we want to violate them? And then is there a pattern to this person? Is this person having some other experiences that's preventing them from doing their obligation? That's the creativity that I need coming from the Commissioner. That's what she's going to go in and look at. She don't have the job. She just has her first day. She will go in and look at that and she'll come back and give you a thorough report and do an interview on 10, 10 live in the morning. Explain it. How are you? Great question. And you always have great questions. You know, that is what I need. I need for, there's a real concern in the Department of Probation. And I spoke with the head of the union. I know Deputy Mayor Banks, he has also been speaking with them as well. We want to make sure that those men and women receive the level of respect that they deserve. And the Commissioner Holmes has the real ability of examining how do we bring up the morale in these agencies. And so I'm looking forward for her to come with some real recommendations to me and Deputy Mayor Banks. Do you worry about the impression that broke the chain of command? Since I'm not rewarding anyone that broke the chain of command, I don't have any worries. The chief is, she was the chief and now as the commissioner, she respects the chain of command. So I don't have any worries because no one is being rewarded that's broke the chain of command. Okay, a few, a topic. Good luck to you. Reach this decision that they approve the Medicare Advantage plan that you're pushing. But it's already been reported that it's likely to face legal challenges. Are you concerned about those legal challenges? What do you think of their decision overall?  So the health care plans that people are fighting for is what I fight for. You know, eventually I'm gonna be riding off to the sunset and be retired. I think this is a great plan. I'm glad that the MLC voted in the right way. And I wanna take my hat off to those who wanted to make sure that our retirees receive the adequate health care. This is a good plan. This is a good plan. And I can't predict what's going to happen in any form of lawsuit if there will be one. But I'm glad they made the right decision to the right vote. I cannot tell you. I think the commissioner made the right decision of appointing Chief Madri as chief of the department. His years of experience. People just adored him in Brooklyn North. Like Commissioner Holmes, the amount of time Chief Madri participates in volunteerism around holiday times, around so many other things of, you know, listen, he's just an excellent law enforcement person. We see shooters are down, homicide are down. Seven majors are down. We're catching bad guys. And so I think he handled it appropriately and there's internal reviews that are done to make the determination. I have the utmost confidence in Chief Madri. Kate, I didn't do the review of their internal mechanism to do those reviews. I allow those reviews to take its course. But again, I have the utmost respect, with confidence on Chief Madri. And I'm excited that he's leading my patrol force. I'm excited about it. Tommy, what did you do with it? No, the campaign finance board, they do a great job and they review all of our records. Trust me, you know, the number of records you need is just astronomical. And where there are moments that they've filled as though you owe money, we have to pay it. And so Tommy was a former vice principal at a school.  He was loved. He was beloved in that community. And so if he owes the money, he has to pay it. All of us got to pay what we owe. I'm going to release my taxes in a little while. I got a lot to pay. So he'll pay his fine if there's a fine that he has to pay.


Stink Tech Hawaii, Community Matters here. Okay, we're back live, I'm J.F.I. Delens, Monday morning. It's the start of our broadcast day-to-day and week, and we're doing Community Matters, but today the community is not necessarily Hawaii Day, although it may be involved later. Today the community is the community of Puerto Rico. Okay, and my co-host for this show is, of course, Marsha Joyner, who follows things around the world and especially all over this country. Yes, thank you for inviting me. And I do, I do follow things all over the world because we are part of the world, and it's nice for people of Hawaii to know that different parts of the world, and especially other islands. Yeah, and our special host to look into what's going on in Puerto Rico on the ground is Nancy Wizard, and she is with the Puerto Rican Heritage Society here in Hawaii. Welcome to the show, Nancy. Thank you so much for having me. Great to have you. So, what is the Puerto Rican Heritage Society? What is that? The Puerto Rican Heritage Society started many years ago. Sure, because it was a whole wave of immigrants from Puerto Rico in about 1910 or so. Exactly, and it's very ironic because it was the same reason that brought the Puerto Ricans here back in the 1900s in, I believe it was, 1898. There was a hurricane that devastated the island. It was only a category three, but... In those days, they didn't have climate change. It's all different now. And it was also, they didn't have the structures that now we have. So it was a lot of devastation, and lucky for them, there were recruiters that basically went to Puerto Rico and offered jobs, and so they moved here, that generation to work at the plantation fields. And so this is a society that helps perpetuate the memory of the Puerto Ricans, the culture that came here to Hawaii many years ago. Interesting, and they follow the Portuguese lunas, didn't they? Yes. They were lunas, I think, a lot of them, yeah? Yes, and there were many other ethnic groups that came to work, but yes, there were one of the latter ones, and they were brought, it was entire families. It wasn't just single. So they really got along with, they had a lot of things in common with the Filipino ethnic group. And so there's a lot of people here in Hawaii that have Puerto Rican ancestry, and they might not really realize. Yeah, yeah, well that's interesting. I think one of the interesting things for our local audience is that in 1898, America decided they wanted the Philippines just like they wanted Hawaii at exactly the same time. So that was all a part of that. That was manifest destiny. And part of the Spanish-American war? Big war. Big war. I mean, for the purpose of manifest destiny, yeah. Yeah, so that's when they took Guam and Puerto Rico and Hawaii and so on other... Yeah, should have taken Cuba too. I'm only kidding. Anyway, so let's talk about, now when's the last time you were in Puerto Rico? Actually, it's been four years. I moved here 28 years ago. And so my parents were military and I decided to stay. And so the reason why I decided to stay is because I love Hawaii. And it was easier for me to stay here with the mode of transportation. I could just be a 19-year-old and make it on my own. I stayed on a six-month trial and 28 years later, I'm still here. But it took a while before I started going back. And then a few years ago, I decided that I wasn't gonna let five years go back without going. So the past two times that I've gone, I've taken my children and I have three grown children. They're 18 and 21, three of them, twins. And so last time we went, the next time we go, it's gonna be a complete difference because of this devastation of the hurricane. Just all the places that we went are going to be extremely... So even following the news, of course, and what's going on in Puerto Rico and you have friends and family there. So let's take a quick look at some of the news you've been following, some of the photos that you've seen, just to get a general idea about the level of devastation. Yes, oh my. Yes, and as you can see, people of all ages are helping, they're making... Is that why they're drinking stream water? So in Puerto Rico, we didn't have leptospirosis like we have in Hawaii. And so now they're having that problem and so people are being warned about this bacteria that can be deadly and with the problem of the antibiotics and the hospitals not having the supplies, the appropriate supplies, it's becoming a health threat. And here is the dam in Oaxaca, it looks like. It's pretty old, I guess. And so this looks like, oh, what's happening on the west side right now Yeah, that was a road once. Yes. So transportation, talking about the road, transportation of provisions will be very difficult if there is no roads. It's not that they're just holding it, right?  And everybody, like I said, of all ages helping, I have a dirty house right now sometimes I think, I don't know where to start. So can you imagine if you have an entire tree blocking your driveway or? So as you can see, you start working little by little. In my hometown, in an area, in La Sierra, in Ibonitos, 60 people were homeless. And here's a good example of how you could lose, even if you have a cement home, the streets again, the transportation. Look at that road, yeah, that road is not really passable. So the provisions might be stuck at the warehouse and so there's gotta be a little creativity in bringing the provisions to the inner towns. Yes. Again, what a mess. But as you notice, the roof in these houses, they could have been just completely blown off. A lot of people have water tanks there so that could have been also gone. Yeah. And yes, and right now they have very bad weather. Still? Yes, there is. Yeah, when we asked for a weather report this morning, there are flood warnings in Puerto Rico right now. San Juan specifically, yeah. Yes. We have right now the need is for generators and especially to help people with diabetes keep their medications refrigerated. A little things that we don't think about. What about oxygen? Because you need a generator to power oxygen. Yes, a lot of people that are on oxygen tanks and the people with diabetes were the first ones to notice. Do you know where that might be? I'm not sure, I'm so sorry. It looks like it's a coastline. It's a coastline, yeah. And every town, my friend Dr. Lisette Gutierrez went to Ponce and she's helping some of these towns that are really picturesque and we see them all the time. Actually a lot of people from Ponce came to Hawaii back in the early 1900s. And so those are some of the towns in the south. Ponce is known for the coffee plantations and then also on the west side, Aguadilla, Rincón, Rincón is famous for surfing. And so people from Rincón have to drive about an hour to the closest town to get maybe cash because the ATMs are down. We get our cash through ATM or we charge. How do you get cash without an ATM? You have to go to the actual bank and the banks are open to give you cash. It's like the good old days, I suppose. I suppose so. They're good. But it will be kind of hard if you are, used to living in the 21st century and you gotta go back to 1900. It's a shock, major shock everywhere. My little niece, they live in Rincón, which is on the west, and my little niece has asthma and they had to go to three hospitals in Aguadilla, which is a 45 minute drive and to find a hospital that could help her. And in the meantime my brother is waiting to get gas for like an eight hour wait. And that's improving the wait for gas lines but there's still lines for the bank and the supermarkets are not shelfed like here. We have food, you know, you just go and get what you need. It's a little bit more struggling there. I think that we locally need to think about that because I understand we only have two weeks of food stored here. And what would we do in a case like this? Exactly. And we have more people. No, we don't. Well, the National Disaster Preparedness Training Center came on Friday and they suggested that where the recommendation had been for seven days before, that is for your household, now it's 14 days. But I mean, some people would take that to maybe four weeks just to be sure. Anyway, let's go back to Puerto Rico. Puerto Rico has been in the news for the past few years about its finances. And that means, ultimately that means infrastructure. So Puerto Rico has economic problems. I do. And it has bills it can't pay. And the last time I looked it was something like $80 billion unpaid liabilities. And, you know, territories and states can't file bankruptcy. But if they could, Puerto Rico would be filing bankruptcy already. So this has had, I'm sure, a profound effect on the way Puerto Rico worked and operated the way people saw their homeland and lived in their homeland before this storm ever happened. Can you describe that? Well, about the financial crisis that was before Maria, yes, it exists. And I think that the problem is that they don't have too many options. They are not a state. So they can't get the regular help that a state could get. And they still have to pay taxes. In fact, they pay higher taxes than we do here in Oahu. And some of their prices are very similar. I guess that the difference is they grow more their food. That's different from us. We bring everything almost, right? Ship to us. But there you'll find fresher food that's grown, produced there. It's an agricultural area, Puerto Rico. Yes, it's such a larger island than Oahu, but smaller than Hawaii Island. But they did have a problem. And I think that I'm not super knowledgeable about this, but I know that the Jones Act had something to do with that where the Jones Act you cannot receive unless it's from a U.S. port. That's the American ship. There's a lot of detail to an American ship. And if it's not an American ship, then they can't land in Puerto Rico. So that was one of the things. So there was a waiver recently with a storm. Yes. But it's a temporary waiver. It's very temporary. But that did affect the economy. And then there is the maintenance of the infrastructure. The Jones Act affected the economy before. As a matter of fact, we had a show a couple of years ago with members of the legislature in Puerto Rico and San Juan about the effect of the Jones Act. And they were effectively making resolutions to petition Congress to give them relief from the Jones Act. I don't think that happened. And it didn't. The Republicans did. It's really, really tragic. And of course, it will be tragic for Hawaii, too, when we get into the same situation. And we may do that just very thing. Just to let you know, these other islands, the independent islands, Dominica, for instance, not the Republic, not Dominican Republic, Dominica, which is independent. They had ships come from China and France and all kinds of places that couldn't go to Puerto Rico to bring them relief. But there's been a waiver of it. I'm not sure that. No, but immediately. Yeah. Because, yeah, it took a while to get the waiver going, which is really one of those tragedies. Well, we can take a break now, Nancy. But when we come back, I'd like to talk to you about how the people in Puerto Rico, too, observation and friends and family you've talked to, the doctor who was your classmate there, and that's Lisette Guterres, how they feel about what happened here, what's their state of mind, and also how they feel about the United States government and the relief efforts that have reached or not reached them after this storm will be right back after this. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. I just walked by and I said, what's happening, guys? They told me they were making music. I'm Ethan Allen, host of a likable science on Think Tech Hawaii. Every Friday afternoon at 2 PM, I hope you'll join me for a likable science. We'll dig into science, dig into the meat of science, dig into the joy and delight of science. We'll discover why science is indeed fun, why science is interesting, why people should care about science. They care about the research that's being done out there. It's all great, it's all entertaining, it's all educational, so I hope you'll join me for a likable science. Okay, we're live. We're back. I'm Jay Friedel. This is Community Matters here on Think Tech. And with my co-host, Marsha Joyner, we're talking to our special guest, Nancy Wazzard, who is with the Puerto Rican Heritage Society here in Hawaii. She is Puerto Rican and she has friends and family she talks to and she follows what's going on in Puerto Rico since the storm. So one of the things, we've seen the devastation. We know the place is really wrecked. And we know it must be even more wrecked because it was economically because it was in trouble before, big trouble. So now here we are, it's like devastation at every level, including medical. So how do people feel about the support? How do people feel then generally? Are they up? Are they down? Are they sideways? What are they telling you? Well, okay, so there's us that are watching from afar and so it can be a little hurtful. Hurtful. Yes, you know, there's a little bit of resentment that it took a long time for our president to even acknowledge that there was devastation at crisis, humanitarian crisis. And so, but you know, trying to keep things positive just focusing on helping the people of Puerto Rico which are a reminder that they are U.S. citizens. My grandpa did serve in the second World War and I always will ask him as a little girl why did you do that? Why didn't you go to the first one? You know, all in order. And he will say I wasn't alive but I did it so we have freedom. And so we are, well, we are very patriotic about being Puerto Rican. We also have, we are U.S. citizens and we are also proud to be Americans. And so that hurts. But how do the people in Puerto Rico feel? Well, they don't have time to be complaining about the treatment. They are just trying to pick up where they left and just trying to rebuild from there. They have been a couple of things that have been, you know, done incorrectly and I'm a teacher and well, as a child I was told not to throw things so, you know. You're talking about the paper towels. Yes, yes, that it's a, so what did I do when I first saw that? I did get a little bit irritated but what can you do? You have to laugh sometimes just at crazy, absurd things. You're very tolerant. I'm a teacher. But no, you have to, you shake your head, right?  The delay on the response was, to me personally, I thought it was, it just took a long time. I'm glad that he did respond and that so many people didn't know that Puerto Ricans are U.S. citizens so something good came out of this. He did make the attempt to go visit Puerto Rico and I was glad that Puerto Ricans didn't, they were not filmed disrespecting the head of state or the president, right? Because then that will look negative. You don't have to get at that same level. So I'm glad, even if the audience, I feel that was maybe chosen to be there in that group. Maybe so, yeah, I would expect that. And now she won't say it, but I will. Say it, Marcia. The racism, pure, unadulterated racism, it took what, five minutes to lift the Jones Act to get ships into Houston, 10 minutes to get them into Florida and what, a week or so? I mean, what else can you say? When those people look like this. It's a presidential decision. It's a stroke of a pen, like that. Yes, just like that. And when they look like this and they speak a different language, let them, they're out there in a, what do you say, on an island in the ocean? A big ocean. Yeah. And then he didn't even know, he said he met with the president of the Virgin Islands. He didn't know that he's the president of the Virgin Islands. Oh, what can I say? What can I say? Well, I mean, it's just, I mean, if you looked at the future of Puerto Rico before the storm hit, you would say, well, they got a lot of economic troubles. And there was a time when statehood was a big discussion. Maybe it's not so much a discussion anymore. Well, they did, they have voted about two or three times. Again, I gotta check my. To say they want statehood? Yes, they have voted for statehood. But it's Congress's turn. But it's like, we want to come to your house, but are you going to accept us into your home? So it's more, now it's not on the hands of the Puerto Ricans, it's more like you said, Congress. The Puerto Ricans have already made official statements, governmental expressions, that they want to be included in the United States as a state. That would be the 51st state, yeah. So it's kind of like adopting this child that has many problems already.  So it feels like they're being used as well. Because when the focus was on the communism and the threat of Cuba being so close, then yes, Puerto Rico is important. And, you know, there's just so many political things that we can get into. Yeah, now, you know, seriously, there's, I do not understand when the pharmaceuticals are making so much money and you've got pharmaceutical factories in Puerto Rico. Yes. They used to have. Oh, yeah. So why is it that they're making so much money but it doesn't trickle down to the economy in Puerto Rico? I know you can't answer that, but that's one of those big elephants in the room.   Infrastructure, you wouldn't want a place with an $80 billion. Actually, it'll be a lot more later than it is 80 billion now because the cost of rebuilding is gonna be huge and I wanna talk to you about how that's gonna be done. But if you were a pharmaceutical or any factory coming to Puerto Rico, participating in the economy, offering jobs and all that, you'd have certain basic baseline requirements and they don't have them. So, I mean, what you have is an economy that's really blown up and you have an infrastructure that's blown up. So, where do you start? Do people talk about this? Where do you start rebuilding? In a way, it's good to have to rebuild because you rebuild better and you rebuild newer and you have more modern thoughts and ideas and approaches to solving problems, but it costs a lot of money. Somebody's gotta have the political will and the capital to do it. So, what's the discussion, Nancy? Well, it's gonna, right now, I think that they're just focusing on the present and just taking it one day at a time. It's gonna be a long road to recovery and I'm not even talking about the financial. I don't know how it's gonna happen. I think that we need everybody's help and the pharmaceuticals, I'm not sure if they're even going to be going there, but the history is that they will go and they don't have the same environmental laws that they have to follow in a state. So, they do take advantage, right? So, they do take advantage of the island and harm the island, but I think that we just have to focus on the recovery, providing oxygen, the generators, reestablishing the energy. One day at a time. At least hospitals, yes. Now, you had a fundraiser yesterday, gigantic. Tell me, do you know how much you raised yesterday? Do you have any idea? I quickly added everything, because you asked me that and actually we did pretty well. We raised $50 in cash, but that added to 1,083, no, 1,033 in cash, checks, 1,083, and then we also had about 400 in charges. We had wireless to make it easy for people to make donations.  And we're going to... It was at McCoy Pavilion and it was gigantic. I thought everybody on the island was there. It was more than just the Puerto Rican community. Oh, yes. So, we not only raised for Puerto Rico, but we also are going to... People could also donate and make it for Mexico, for the earthquake that affected some areas in Mexico, Chiapas, Oaxaca. And so, if you're Mexican, you're going to want to support Mexico. And some people just said, split it. So, we took all of that down. And so, at the time of dividing the funds, we're going to take that in consideration and make sure that we allocate the funds where the people want it. So, who are you sending the money to? So, we chose, for Mexico, we chose two organizations, Global Giving and International Community Foundation. And so, I am not Mexican. And so, but I did my research and I wanted to make sure that people are actually getting help. And so, they got a four out of four rating on the charity organization, I guess, Grades. And then, for Puerto Rico, we were selling t-shirts and 100% of the profit of those t-shirts that sales is going to help Dr. Lisa Gutierrez, who is my classmate, and she's helping, she's going to the hospitals. She even helped the nuns in a convent. Shelters didn't have medication or supplies, so she's helping them. And then, also, for people who didn't want to give to, because she has a PayPal, Dr. Gutierrez, the other option was Hurricane Maria Recovery Fund, and that one, you can find it online. And so, that one also helps on different. Now, can people still donate? Yes, yes. I'll be happy to. And can you give us the contact? Sure. So, we have... Is there a website? There is some websites I can give them to you, but if you Google Hurricane Maria Community Recovery Fund, you'll see it. It has a flag, Puerto Rico flag. I can show you, I don't know if this will be too glossy for the TV, but it looks like this. Not sure if you can see. But that's what the website looks like. The website looks like this, yes. And we had this printed in case people wanted to see and learn more about it. And then, Dr. Lisa Gutierrez, if you want, she started with Doctoras Boricuas, which means woman doctors. Boricuas is the name of Borinquen. Puerto Rico is the native name. So, the native name of Puerto Rico. So, Doctoras Boricuas is another way that you can Google and help that group. And there are doctors that are going further than San Juan or where the president visited, yeah. One last question, Nancy. And that is, I worry about the future of Puerto Rico. I worry about getting its economic act together. It hasn't received a lot of money from the United States. Capital concentrations, those who might contribute or make big loans for the reconstruction, they haven't really appeared yet. So, yeah, they're trying to get oxygen and food and water, but the big effort has not really yet begun. At the same time, at the same time, I read that 10,000 people, like, a day are leaving. There are 3.4 million, but 10,000 a day are leaving because they don't have jobs, they don't have anything. They're American citizens, they can fly to Miami in no time, and they can get a job there. So, why stay in Puerto Rico? What do you think is gonna happen with that? Well, that makes the recovery harder in a way because the young and able are leaving, but I think that we have to make sure that we keep the hope and a lot of people don't want to leave. They want to really try. They love Puerto Rico. Family is really important. I think that for people like me who have been living abroad in the United States for a while, we just wanna make sure that people don't forget, and so we're just gonna be that pesky fly reminding you we're Puerto Rico. And so, I think that's important and that we do our little bits. It didn't sound like we did so much, but it doesn't matter. It was something more than we had before. And so, instead of worrying because that's not going to be positive and it's not gonna help, I think that we just gotta make sure that we all help whether you are Puerto Rican or not, and that we have the hope. Just keep that hope going. Marcia, it's time to close. So, why don't you make a closing? Look at the cloud yesterday. You did base awareness, and I think all of Hawaii was aware. And so, we look forward to having you back and seeing how the progress goes in Puerto Rico. And thank you so much for being here. Thank you, Marcia. As always, thank you so much. We love you. Thank you, Nancy. Thank you. Aloha.