I love seeing $20 bills in my wallet. What I don't love so much is seeing Andrew Jackson's face every day. For obvious reasons.
But it goes beyond the fact that we have a hateful, murderous asshole on the $20 bill. Our currency is littered with "great men," but where are the women? Sure, we have the Susan B. Anthony and Sacagawea dollars. When is the last time you used one? The faces we see every day belong to men. The $20 bill is especially ubiquitous. But surely, even though we haven't yet seen a woman in the White House, there are plenty of great women who have shaped American history and deserve to be honored on our money. Enter Women on 20s:
Andrew Jackson's portrait has held its place on the $20 bill since Jackson replaced Grover Cleveland in 1928. For the organizers of Women on $20s, that's quite long enough. "A woman's place is on the money," the Women on $20s campaign says. The new group has come up with a list of 15 women it would like to see on the $20 bill instead, including Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Harriet Tubman.
Campaign organizers are targeting the 20 because 2020 will mark the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote.
But there's another reason: Jackson's authorization and enforcement of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 -- which forced several Native American tribes to give up their land to white farmers and move to Oklahoma -- makes his continued presence on American currency controversial. Slate pitched the idea of doing away with the seventh U.S. president's face on the $20 bill last year, writing: "Andrew Jackson engineered a genocide. He shouldn’t be on our currency."
Follow me below the fold for more on the campaign, but first, a word from the man who could make it happen:
Top Comments recognizes the previous day's Top Mojo and strives to promote each day's outstanding comments through nominations made by Kossacks like you. Please send comments (before 9:30pm ET) by email to topcomments@gmail.com or by our KosMail message board. Just click on the Spinning Top™ to make a submission. Look for the Spinning Top™ to pop up in diaries posts around Daily Kos.
Make sure that you include the direct link to the comment (the URL), which is available by clicking on that comment's date/time. Please let us know your Daily Kos user name if you use email so we can credit you properly. If you send a writeup with the link, we can include that as well. The diarist poster reserves the right to edit all content.
Please come in. You're invited to make yourself at home! Join us beneath the doodle...
|
More about Women on 20s, from the group's website:
We at Women on 20s applaud President Obama for acknowledging that it's time to put a woman's face on our paper currency. In fact, for almost a year we've been plotting to petition him to do just that. It struck us, for instance, that most Americans today have no idea that there was another woman behind Susan B. Anthony -- Elizabeth Cady Stanton -- who was instrumental in ensuring the rights that women enjoy today.
As an organization, it's our mission to make sure that when the new face of U.S. money is chosen, it is decided by We the People in a widely publicized online referendum from a slate of candidates who embody the values, ambitions and ethics upon which this country was founded. Welcome to that voting booth. Explore the site, familiarize yourself with the candidates, learn a thing or two about our currency and what it stands for. And leave with satisfaction of knowing that you've moved the country another vote closer to transforming American history into our story.
The idea is to propose a replacement for the $20 bill by having the public vote from among a group of important women who have changed the course of history. All of whom I'm sure we can agree are better choices than Jackson.
So, who are the women?
Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross
Margaret Sanger, who opened the first birth control clinic in the US.
Rachel Carson, a marine biologist who wrote the hugely influential environmental book Silent Spring
Rosa Parks, the iconic civil rights activist
Harriet Tubman, the abolitionist activist famed for her journeys on the underground railroad
Barbara Jordan, a politician who was the first black woman in the south to be elected to the House of Representatives
Betty Friedan, feminist author of the Feminine Mystique
Frances Perkins, the Secretary of Labor under FDR, who was the first woman appointed to the U.S. Cabinet
Susan B. Anthony, women's suffrage movement leader
Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman elected to Congress
Elizabeth Cady Stanton, early women's rights activist and abolitionist
Eleanor Roosevelt, human rights activist and former first Lady
Sojourner Truth, African American women's rights activist and abolitionist
Patsy Mink, the first woman of color elected to the House, and the first Asian American elected to Congress
Alice Paul, women's suffrage movement leader
The list was trimmed to 15 women in a "caucus" phase with women's historians, academics, and museum curators. We are currently in the primary round of voting, in which you can vote for up to three women. In the final round of voting, we will pick from the top three, and the winner will be officially proposed to President Obama.
Is it really that simple? Can President Obama do this without Congress? Well, yes, technically.
Fortunately, it doesn’t take a messy act of Congress to change a portrait on paper money. It requires an order from the Secretary of the Treasury. With the stroke of a pen, the President can direct the Treasury Secretary to make the change. President Obama already has publicly expressed an interest in featuring more women on our money. With at least 100,000 votes, we can get the President’s ear. That’s how many names it takes to petition the White House for executive action.
Yes, it seems like a long shot. Can you imagine the outrage such a move would generate? (Not that
anything the president does fails to generate right-wing outrage.) But, as the group's executive director Susan Ades Stone puts it:
The goal is to get it done, but it's not only about that. It's about raising awareness and making sure people get to know these women.
I think that's a noble goal. I'm in. If you are, too,
you can vote here. I cast my vote for Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Barbara Jordan.
You can also spread the word on social media and donate to the campaign on its website.
What do you think? Which woman's face would you like to see on our money?
TOP COMMENTS
March 6, 2015
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From belinda ridgewood:
In Hunter's diary noting that GOP leadership will avoid the commemorative events in Selma, Inland speculates about the reason, Railfan responds, and presto! A new euphemism is born!
|
TOP PHOTOS
March 5, 2015
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
|