Sure it's time for a change. I've been commenting for years that other countries have artists, authors, poets and scholars on their money while we have government officials, symbols of authority. I've long suggested that Andrew Jackson be the first to go: a miserable racist who deported thousands of people in brutal fashion to miserable concentration camps because he simply didn't want them East of the Mississippi. Many American Indians have compared him to a certain German leader it's impolitic to name here.
I wish however that there could have been a calm, scholarly but public discussion of just who most merits becoming the face of the twenty dollar bill, that denomination that dominates the wallets of America. I know, that's naive. This is America and discussion in America sounds much like the wilds of Montana at night during a full moon.Harriet Tubman won't be the first female on our currency, that distinction has been had by mythological figures for a long time and of course Sacagawea ( and a baby boy) had a run on a now defunct dollar coin even though we have no idea what she actually looked like.
So it's mousy, plain and un-heroic looking Harriet Tubman. we have photographs to prove it. Of course real heroes hardly ever look the part and for her efforts to save people from slavery at great personal risk, she certainly is as much of one as men like Oskar Schindler and probably greater since she took so many terrible risks with her life. Good for her. She stood for something, just like George Washington even if she didn't have a white horse to ride on. She not only stood for something truly moral, she broke laws to do it and essentially went to war, which come to think of it was what our founding fathers did even though those were British laws.. I just wish it didn't feel so much like pandering because I know full well every time someone pulls out a twenty in America, there's going to be some comment, some grimace and I'm going to have to distance myself from people even further. I just don't want to listen to it - idiots demanding that we boycott the twenty. I can see the stickers on all the ATMs. I just wish it didn't absolutely have to be a woman and a black women, even though it does, doesn't it?
I'm glad it's a $20 bill. I'm glad every ATM in the land will dispense a history lesson on one of our darkest chapters: a history of slavery, lynchings, Jim Crow, torture, murder and oppression. And glad we are finally recognizing a true and courageous champion of human rights.
ReplyDeleteWho needs a discussion! When did we get a chance to vote on Andrew Jackson? And if racists and bigots deface those bills, I will refuse to accept them as currency.
I couldn't be more pleased. The Reich wing is going nuts over this.
You are right, Octo. They are not going to like it at all. Why not a five dollar bill with Reagan to replace Lincoln? Obama has finally gone too far.
ReplyDeleteFascinating choice. Harriet Tubman is a historical figure who accomplished the seemingly impossible. The more one learns, the more in awe one becomes. I was lucky enough to see the Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn, New York, at least from the street. Just now, I started to wonder how she could have purchased such a fashionable residence? As it turns out, it was sold to her at a modest price by the senator from New York, one William Seward. The whole of Upstate New York is replete with a rich history of wonderful and influential personages from this important period in our history. Another interesting example is William Letchworth.
Here is a thumbnail about Ms. Tubman for the books.
I'm more of an e pluribus kind of a guy than a mea culpa culprit. Encouragement rather than punishment, hope rather than endless sin and lamentation. There have been many great Americans and we have room on the money.
ReplyDeleteI confess I learned a lot about Ms.Tubman while writing this and am truly impressed. I'm ashamed to have known so little, but I'd rather see her as a lesson in heroism than a spokesman for more of the endless self-flagellation. I prefer to see this as a positive thing. Not as a deliberate insult to white people but a tribute to a struggle that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives. The new 20 should make us proud, not ashamed.
If we were to honor more neglected American heroes in similar fashion, it might be a good thing and good for our image worldwide. There are a lot of them and I have a little list: people who have in fact made us worthy of our patriotism. Tom Paine perhaps, John Muir, Thom Edison, Susan B. Anthony, Amelia Earhart, Emily Dickenson -- poets and pilots and engineers, why not? Looking for greatness? We've been soaking in it. Glenn Curtis, Zora Arkus-Duntov and why the hell not Neil Armstrong?
Others have lists too - look on Google and you'll see lists of greatest Americans and sadly they don't include Haim Solomon or Richard Feinman or Sam Morse but (and I'm not joking) Taylor Swift, Honey Boo-Boo and Michael Jackson.
This being another full moon, I quite expected, as I mentioned, a lot of howling and barking and while I enjoy feeling their pain, I just know I'm going to be biting my tongue a lot and for a while. Of course I'd be on the other side of this if they had succeeded in giving us a Reagan Dollar.
So get ready for a Fox News Furor, it's gonna happen!
duh, I wanna Donald Trump 2penny coin. But then that would not make change any cents.
ReplyDeleteDidn't there used to be a two cent US coin? You know, back when America was great and the slaves were all happy?
ReplyDeleteBut I'm surprised he doesn't already make his own money. If we can have bitcoin, we can have Trumpchange.
Trumpchange...not bad. But is a change we can believe in or merely a change of bad socks.
DeleteSo far the only denomination for Trumpchange is the wooden nickel, but there's no problem with it. It's really good money. No problems at all.
DeleteJackson will be put on the back of the twenty, not exactly a declaration of getting rid of the old racist. Given your criteria we must get rid of all the founding fathers (and others) images on all sorts of items. Any talk of getting rid of Grant? He was responsible for killing more Native Americans than Jackson. To revere these old racists only supports today's racists. I went to the Treasury site and voted for Mrs. Roosevelt. Tubman is fine with me. I'm sure this choice had most Americans Googling her name.
ReplyDelete"Given your criteria we must get rid of all the founding father" What criteria? You're putting words in my mouth. I think Jackson was unworthy. I don't give a flying shit what you think.
ReplyDelete"Given your criteria we must get rid of all the founding father... "
ReplyDeleteTedious Anonymous, as well as pointless methinks.
Personally, putting Tubman on Mt. Rushmore would be fine by me as well.
get rid of all the founding father... " sheesh...some of the founding mothers weren't so hot. I want a one Dollar Bill with Edith Wilson on it.
DeleteI think we ought to rotate the money more often actually. Makes it harder on counterfeiters and gives us a chance to honor a great many people who should be given the honor.
ReplyDeleteAnd BTW, if you want to blame Grant for killing so many of the Cherokee, remember they fought for the confederacy. Perhaps they would not have if the Union didn't represent Jackson and the Trail of Tears for them.
As long as they don't put Prince on the dollar bill, I'm fine.
Agreed. Rotate some of that money back into my hands.
DeleteI'll put you on Obama's "free stuff" list. Everybody's talking about it - or at least the Republicans are.
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