But it was only 30 seconds.
I’ve always admired and adored Harriet Tubman also, another woman of
enormous personal courage, who maintained a sharp tell-it-like-it-is tongue for
those who needed a swift kick and a kind heart for those in affliction – that
difficult combination. Contrary to what
some of her admirers have been saying, she was not a one-issue woman. She didn’t just care about ending
slavery. She didn’t just care about the
economic and social plight of newly-freed but resource-destitute black farmers,
and the urban black poor. She also
championed women of all colors, who were no more powerful than slaves in the
mid-19th century, who were beaten and killed with impunity, who had
no power to obtain a divorce or retain custody of their children if they were
dumped by a husband wanting a younger model, or even travel as they chose. She cared about factory workers who signed
contracts forbidding them to quit or complain of abuse and ill treatment, and
who also could be killed by goon squads with impunity if they tried to organize
or blow the whistle. She annoyed
abolitionists who sanctimoniously condemned black slavery while making a
fortune on this factory-slavery, by calling them on their hypocrisy. She cared about the treatment of animals,
horses in transportation and on farms, and pets in the cities. No one is perfect, and she had plenty of
human blindness and flaws, but she tried hard to make the world a better place
for us, her spiritual descendants, and for that, she absolutely deserves the
place of honor on America’s most popular bill.
Jackson will be gone soon, although not entirely; he will be
on the flip side of the bill. Perhaps
the next generation can get rid of him entirely. Much ink has been spent on his racist, genocidal
actions against the native people of the south. He was also an awful president, per se. His spoils
system fit the backwoods money-grubbing mentality of his peers on the
frontier, but as a responsible principle to run the government of a
multi-ethnic, multi-religious supposedly-better-than a child’s view of
“fairness,” it’s appalling. The fact
that historians are reluctantly, and not whole-heartedly stating the obvious –
He was an awful President; any one of the other candidates would have been a
genuine statesman in comparison; OMG - is a belated step in the
right direction.
And a big shout-out to the writers who have managed to
discuss all the various candidates for the new face of the bill without
resorting to cheap racial reasoning. Soapbox
commences: No, everyone who says that
Harriet was their original #1 choice isn’t a better human being than people who
originally had a different candidate in mind, even if they are telling the
truth. All the potentials were
wonderful, admirable people who would honor our country’s currency and
ourselves for recognizing their value.
No, people who had a warmer spot for a different woman aren’t
racists. If we used that word sparingly,
and for people who are truly and provably motivated by hate, then the real
tribulations of my sister and two brothers, and my black friends, would not
risk being trivialized by over-use. I
don’t want to see the word “racist” trivialized. The pain that true creeps like Donald Trump
cause is too serious. End of soapbox.
Everyone’s favorite bill is getting a face to be proud
of. Glory, glory, hallelujah! One giant leap for all of us….
