We live in a world of instant gratification. President Ulysses S. Grant, what have you done for me lately? North Carolina Rep. Patrick McHenry has a wonderful, if exactly half-baked, idea. The Republican congressman wants to replace Grant on the 50 dollar bill, where he has been featured since the first $50 Federal Reserve Note was issued in 1914.
I agree. For nearly a century he's had a fine fiduciary run on the fifty. But this is the 21st century, how am I supposed to relate to a guy who never even had his own URL?
Rep. McHenry wants to displace Pres. Grant with long-time Hollywood actor Ronald Reagan. That's right, the movie star-turned-politician. Throw out a famed Civil War general for President Ronald Regan, the godfather of the federal budget deficit. Yes, the historical statute of limitations on Grant has run out. Agreed. In the modern world we do not especially need to worry about, much less view on our money, ancient history that bears no significance to, for instance, the unprecedented unemployment and economic meltdown of today. A contemporary presidential hero, Jimmy Carter, it is he who belongs in our wallets. In 2002, the question of "great or greatest?" was answered when Carter was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Growing up the son of a Georgia farmer, Carter graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy, earning the rank of lieutenant. It was he who later orchestrated the 1978 Camp David Accords. Without Pres. Carter there is no Israel-Egypt Peace Treaty the following year, the first lasting Middle East pact. Ronald Reagan had his predecessor, military hero Jimmy Carter, to thank for newly normalized U.S./China diplomatic relations when the the so-called "Great Communicator" began his own presidency in 1981.
Has your mother ever asked you to loosen a jar of peanut butter so she can open it? Without Carter and Pres. Gerald Ford before him, Ronald Reagan doesn't get to be standing in the right place at the right time to observe as the Iron Curtain began to fall. But not, of course, until Rep. McHenry's heroic President Reagan drove up our national debt by hundreds of billions of dollars with massive military spending on everything from Star Wars to the Stealth Bomber. Conversely, Carter's national security accomplishments that should place him on the $50 bill, include the SALT II treaty curtailing the expensive nuclear arms race that Reagan tried to maintain.
Lieutenant Carter, whose national imprint belongs on our money as well, only resigned his commission from the Navy to move back home to take over the family farm, upon his father's death. That was, of course, before Carter entered politics, where he rose to governor of Georgia before being elected our 39th president. He has probably had the most active and successful post-presidency, leading his renowned Jimmy Carter Center, in Atlanta. Since its founding more than 25 years ago, the Carter Center has been active in more than 70 countries, living up to the motto: “Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope.” I remind you that James Carter, Jr. is the only president to share initials with Jesus of Nazareth. Coincidence? We'll have to let history decide.
Rep. McHenry is spot-on about the need for Grant's disappearance, but McHenry picked one president too late. And maybe he is setting the bar too low in other ways. I think Americans of all political stripes can agree it is time to revamp our current currency. I would never deny the one-time importance of old men like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, but that was many lifetimes ago. And important historical figures or not, other than being on the $10 and $20 I have never even heard of Presidents Alexander Hamilton or Andrew Jackson.
I believe in compromise. OK, Rep. McHenry, put Reagan on the $50. But Jimmy Carter adorns the $20. Twice-elected President Bill Clinton last gave us a budget surplus and he fits nicely on the $10. In a nod to contemporary women's advocates, we'll insert Secretary Hillary Clinton on the $5. And on the one-dollar bill, George Washington should gracefully bow out to Barack Obama. Already our only president to win a Nobel prize while in office, Obama represents the diversity that so many of us take pride in. I believe over 10 percent of American citizens are black, like President Obama. Over 10 percent of Americans still believe he is now our first Muslim president. And over 20 percent of us continue to believe he is our first foreign-born president. That's an awful lot of people believing in an awful lot of change.