Transcripts For CSPAN3 Benjamin Franklins Legacy 20160710

To our grommets and talks about the state of education in the united states. Gerard robinson if you expect tobe successful in college let them into a school is doing a disservice to them. Sunday night at 8 00. Walter isaacson discusses the legacy of Benjamin Franklin. He argues that franklins epitomized Americas National character. The museum is a Georgian House at 26 craven street, very centrally located, so on your next visit to london, i know you will want to stop there. I can very glad, indeed, to recognize and congratulate the Museum Staffing director, who is with us this evening, representing Benjamin Franklin house. Thank you. [applause] louise and i am also very glad to recognize and thank for all of her efforts as well as for Benjamin Franklin house, Benjamin Franklin house trustee anita wien. Thank you. [applause] louise some of you may be wondering about the names, including the auditorium and the house. Robert h. Smith, as you may know, was among much else a visionary developer of crystal city just outside of washington, d. C. , which is today one of the most young and hip neighborhoods, and robert smith was above all else a grateful american. He did an enormous amount of good for institutions, like the Benjamin Franklin house. It was he who first brought the institutions together, and i know that he would have been really, really pleased to know that tonights lecture is taking place here in this auditorium, which he very much envisioned as being as we are using it this evening, for a lecture that will surely engage us in the enjoyment in learning about american history. And i can surely say surely because Walter Isaacson, the author, is here. We are pleased to welcome him back. Mr. Isaacson is the president and ceo of the nonpartisan aspen institute. During his prolific career as a journalist, mr. Isaacson served as chairman and ceo of cnn and as the editor of time magazine. Please do join me in welcoming Walter Isaacson to the stage. [applause] walter thank you very much. It is wonderful to be back, especially on behalf of Benjamin Franklin house, and to talk about all of the biology subjects i have ever written, the one that is my most favorite, of course, dr. Benjamin franklin. I like seeing marcia and michelle sitting together. Being over in london quite a bit, i realized the only house Still Standing in which Benjamin Franklin lived was on craven street, near trafalgar square, and it was not renovated at all. It was pretty much an abandoned place, and there were people trying to make it into a place for Benjamin Franklin. I happened to know robert, all of the great founders, and i said to him, lets have breakfast, because he had an area which is maybe what we would call four blocks from Benjamin Franklin house, and he agreed to be one of the major funders. Michelle, who happened to be on my board at the aspen institute, said, never again will i allow you to have breakfast with my father, but we do believe in anita, who is on the board at the Benjamin Franklin house, that it was a wise investment, and dr. Franklin would thank you. I will be talking about Benjamin Franklin, his relevance now as well as as an innovator, but i will do it, if you do not mind, as storytelling. I will go to the stories about then franklin and try to draw the lessons from them. I thought about making it heres 12 things you need to know of Benjamin Franklin, but when i grew up, my mentor said, there are two types of people that come out of louisiana, preachers and storytellers, and he said, by god, be a storyteller, because there are too many preachers, and it is a good way to get the story across