There's a movement afoot to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill with a woman. I'm not a big fan of Hamilton. I think it's ironic that liberals want to replace him since he's one of the most liberal historical people honored on our specie, but I digress. The movement is a canard. They have dressed it up as "the first time a woman will be honored on American currency". Well, that's not true. Like most journalists, this author seems to have researched only during her lifetime, as if the past doesn't matter, as if facts don't matter, ignoring everything except what lies immediately in front of her. The truth is more complicated. Thank God I earned the Coin Collecting and Stamp Collecting Merit Badges as a scout.
Lady Liberty features prominently on old American currency. Although the woman depicted as Lady Liberty is actually French, as early as the dawn of the Constitutional Republic, she featured prominently on our coins. I have a penny from 1804 with Lady Liberty on the obverse. She appears on the Morgan Dollar, the Liberty Dollar, the liberty quarter, and several other coins of historical relevance.
After reading this article late last night, I tore open my own collection, something I haven't done for over five years. I found a $1 silver certificate featuring Lady Liberty on the obverse and Martha and George Washington on the reverse. I also found a $5 silver certificate with an indian chief on it, but we also had indian head pennies, buffalo nickels, and the like. It is simply not true that we only put fat, rich, white people on our currency. Lest we forget, we've already had the Susan B Anthony and Sacajawea dollar coins, which went over so well they were quickly discontinued. Yet, those women are proposed again to replace Hamilton.
The people selected for this honor are of dubious value. In addition to the aforementioned redundancies of restoring Anthony and Sacajawea to a paper bill, the list contains people I would not consider. Why not Betsy Ross? Why not Martha Washington? Why not Florence Nightinggale? The choices on our current bills make sense. They are all people incidental to the Civil War and the Revolution, without which all the other events of American history are footnotes to footnotes. Yet, the list includes many women of whom I have never heard, mostly hat tips to civil rights. Again, without these hated white men, there would be no civil rights for anyone, particularly women. Yet, the article oozes with vitriol towards men, and while I don't care much for Hamilton, this is just another emotional plea.
People behind this movement want you to think that we do not respect, laud and honor women in America. Hogwash. I honor my mother, my grandmother, my sister, and other women constantly on this blog. Historically in our paintings and portraiture, in our currency and our calendars, we have depicted great women. That these women didn't champion suffrage for women isn't a sin against them, and some of these suffrage people and civil rights icons were miscreants and malcontents. However, for the emotional and irrational left, the ends always justify the means. That's dangerous, deadly, and defeating.
No comments:
Post a Comment