Being a long-time Philadelphian (well, 5 minutes outside of Philadelphia anyway), I’ve been pretty interested in American history — particularly colonial American history — for much of my life. Particularly, I’ve always been a huge fan of Benjamin Franklin, who is perhaps my favorite person from history; he’s an American da Vinci, if there ever was one, and the US would not be the same today (or might not even exist today) if not for him. He was a true polymath, a renaissance man: statesman, printer, author, inventor, among other things. So this chicken is an homage to good ol’ Ben and Philadelphia, with Independence Hall as a backdrop

The Founding Father

I hope it can also serve as a reminder today that even in our country’s infancy, our founding fathers were just as divided over political issues as we are today. Maybe we can remember that no party — Democratic, Republican, or other — truly holds a monopoly on the dreams of the founding fathers. I think that’s an important point especially today, as we face a rising tide of passionate political grandstanding and claims that one party has lost sight of our past, or that one party is not representative of “Real America.” Ben Franklin would have called bull on that one and reminded everyone that we are all true Americans, from those of us whose ties go back to the pilgrims to those of us who just swore a citizenship oath this morning. Farmers, suburbans, and city-dwellers; intellectuals and idiots; we’re all Americans, and the only un-American thing is attacking your countrymen as “un-American” for having different ideas.