This week, the U.S. Government confirmed that by 2030 it will have replaced Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill with Harriet Tubman. To be fair, the current plan is for Jackson to be replicated on the back of the bill, perhaps on his horse depicting the war hero image that helped make him the 7th President of the United States.
There is no denying that Harriet Tubman is an American hero and deserves any honor available. Personally, I’d have chosen Martin Luther King Jr. if I would have been asked, but my phone never rang.
There is also no denying that Andrew Jackson, despite his fatefully bad choices in the rear view mirror of history, is also an American hero.
We don’t have to tear down one to honor the other. But of course, that would indicate a reasonable society which had the ability to put things in perspective, which we clearly are not and cannot.
Why not create a new bill? Let’s pretend cash even matters come 2030, if it does, we should probably start considering some new denominations…how about a $25 bill? Maybe a $75 bill?
The answer is simple; that suggestion is reasonable and smart and doesn’t actually tear anyone down, which is what this asinine society needs to feel good about itself.
Andrew Jackson was one of the greatest war heroes of early America. He was also the original populist who truly fought for the “common” man. And he was staunchly against our nation ever engaging in debt spending. Can you imagine what he thinks of a nation $19 trillion is debt?
He also ordered what came to known as the “trail of tears,” a horrendous and brutal assault on Native Americans. There is no denying his role, as the man who ordered the operation, in one of the most savage periods of American history. But to judge him in the 21st century using our values is to forget the ignorance of the 18th century.
I have long asked the question “what if science proves, 100 years from now, that animals are more intelligent and soulful than we have any reason to believe today? Are we now all savages, or are we simply acting on the best knowledge we have at the time, even if it’s later proven to be based in ignorance? What if we find out decades from now that diapers are bad for babies, or that burning firewood is good for the environment, or that dishwashers are giving us cancer? Are we all to be condemned for our ignorance and for the common thought process of the time? Of course not, but if society doesn’t change, God knows we will be.
It has become very in vogue for America to rewrite its’ history in the name of political correctness. Even in the age of Donald Trump, we are as PC as ever and it is literally killing us. It is taking away who we were and who we are, all in the name of making ourselves feel better.
The founding framers? Are you kidding me? Sorry, world, but yes, the people who founded America were all men because it was a different time when women were seen and treated as second class citizens. Period. Grow the hell up. We evolve as humans and as we do, we don’t need to demean those who came before us and made us who we are, we just need to learn from them.
