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Put MLK on the $20

Happy Birthday, Dr. King
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(Apologies to those outside USA, for whom this probably won’t make much sense. Today is a Martin Luther King day in the US, a recently adopted national holiday).

The U.S. Mint has been on a program to redesign our currency for a couple of years now, mostly in an effort to make counterfeiting more difficult. This process continues, the authorities recently revealing that they are going to add more colors to the bills, and renew the designs every seven years or so.

Most of our bills feature the faces of the “Fathers of Our Country” such as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Ben Franklin. But among these portraits one has always stuck out like a sore thumb to me: Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill. Frankly, I never thought he was in the same league with the others. And after some reading, I find there is much to dislike about the 7th President:

* A supporter of slavery, he tried to deny abolitionists their first amendment rights
* Responsible for the “Trail of Tears” (Indian Removal Act)
* His first cabinet was broken up by scandal
* First president censured by the U.S Senate
* His economic policies caused the Panic of 1837
* Originated the “spoils system” in federal civil service
* At one time supported traitor Aaron Burr

At the same time as we are all carrying pictures of this racist in our pockets, race relations in this country continue to suffer. And no wonder when our monuments, our institutions and our currency offer mostly white men to us as heroes.

I say, next time they redesign the $20 bill, lets really redesign it. Put the late civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. on the bill instead. I don't think I need to list his merits here.

krelnik, Jan 20 2003

MLK $10 http://teacher.scho...earchives/honormlk/
Suggested prior to the last redesign, but obviously not baked, and I agree that a $20 would be the better choice for a face lift. [Shz, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

I marched in Selma http://www.newzcent...nt/weekly_selma.txt
So it's in CA, not AL, but still... [thumbwax, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 21 2004]


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Annotation:







       No, you don't, and I agree with you, but it's a rant & should be [m-f-d].
snarfyguy, Jan 20 2003
  

       If you're gonna really redesign it, make it triangular.
Zircon, Jan 20 2003
  

       I really don't get why this is a rant, snarfy.
krelnik, Jan 20 2003
  

       (read as put MILK on the 20).
rbl, Jan 20 2003
  

       // make it triangular //   

       And rubber. And 6,800 miles along each side. Nobody likes fiddly small change.
8th of 7, Jan 20 2003
  

       Put my face your on the $20.
my face your, Jan 20 2003
  

       krelnik: Why not Booker T. Washington? Although less well acknowledged by popular culture (probably because he wasn't martyred the same way as MLK) he also, so far as I know, avoided the womanizing reputation.
supercat, Jan 20 2003
  

       Damn fiddly ningis, lost one round the back of Saturn last week.   

       Incidently, why not* have money printed on the fly by cash machines, which could scan the face of the person taking out the cash and print a likeness of said face onto cash. With a digitally enhanced smile that grows depending on the value of the note.   

       *okay I know there are lots of reasons.
Zircon, Jan 20 2003
  

       That's worth posting as a proper idea, Z.
my face your, Jan 20 2003
  

       You think?, okay, maybe tomorrow; trying to stick to one idea a day maximum, so as to aid the uni work.
Zircon, Jan 20 2003
  

       //hook up// And have me steal someone else's idea? Nah, it's Zircon's baby (assuming he gives birth). I'll just take 20% of the croissants. Gross.
my face your, Jan 20 2003
  

       HM The Queen, only kidding <g> where's my coat?
po, Jan 20 2003
  

       [my face your]: Aye, trust a lawyer to avoid any real work, but still take a 20% cut of proceedings.
Jinbish, Jan 20 2003
  

       Rant in the sense of an idea for political reform discussed elsewhere. Perhaps "rant-like" would have been better.
snarfyguy, Jan 20 2003
  

       would I be wrong in saying that a rant is where the author is putting forward an idea which promotes his own best interest? not the case here. +
po, Jan 20 2003
  

       //certainly not an original idea, krel//
[waugs] I searched the net, and although there are other proposals to change the faces on various bills, I could find no proposal involving Dr. King. (The link you cite, though it mentions him, contains a melange of other suggestions as well).
  

       //an idea for political reform//
[snarfy] I really don't think whose faces are on the bills has anything to do with politics. They are just symbols. But symbols can be very important in shaping how people think about themselves and others. I think that underlies the value of this idea.
  

       //Why not Booker T. Washington?//
[supercat] I agree. The core of this idea is to get a person of color onto the money, one could certainly make a solid argument for Booker T. or perhaps George Washington Carver. It just happens to be MLK Day today, and I live in his hometown.
krelnik, Jan 20 2003
  

       //MLK hasn't been dead long enough.//
I don't buy this, raven. Roosevelt and Kennedy were both put on coins in the very year after their deaths. (FDR in 1946, JFK in 1964).
krelnik, Jan 20 2003
  

       This is a bit awkward, krelnik, but I'm going to have to ask you to read the help page. See link.   

       I'll also need your badge and gun.
Monkfish, Jan 20 2003
  

       "Awww, Sarge, he was just one day away from retirement!"
krelnik, Jan 20 2003
  

       Anybody besides my elf march in Selma?
thumbwax, Jan 20 2003
  

       It is the thought that counts. A rant with a thought, baked on this historic Monday.
UrineForATreat, Jan 20 2003
  

       I never understood why jackson was on the twenty either, he seemed kinda like a dictator
davidcreede, Aug 09 2003
  


 

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