It may not seem like it matters who is on the ten dollar bill, but it does. The pictures on the money do help make citizens think they are part of the country or they are NOT part of it, in subtle ways. However, I like Alexander Hamilton and I believe he should stay on the sawbuck. He really has something to say about the current state of affairs in this country as it regards money corrupting politics. It does not seem RIGHT to me to remove him from the currency, nor does it seem right to have whatever woman we put on the currency to share that space with a man. That just reinforces chauvinistic stereotypes about men (the gender I hail from).
I propose we give the $2 bill to this endeavor. The dollar bill will be phased out someday soon, I think and the $2 bill will see a lot more usage. Also, the $2 bill has Thomas Jefferson on it. A man that I greatly admire, but that was also a bit of a hypocrite when one considers Sally Hemings. Jefferson is also on our coinage, so he remains on the money even if he loses the $2 bill. Even though I GREATLY ADMIRE Jefferson and his ideas concerning individual liberty versus the state, I believe this is the right thing to do. I also believe that Jefferson would want us to do it. I will not explicate on that here, I just "feel" he would support this idea.
In any case, Harriet Tubman is THE woman to put on our money...apologies to the other contenders. Her efforts to lead escaped slaves along the Underground Railroad of the early nineteenth century are so unarguably heroic. Not only that, in the early nineteenth century, she is not protesting, she is DOING. She is leading men in a time, when it was unheard of. She was leading men in a dangerous game of cat and mouse. She belongs on our money. She helped change us at the risk of her own life; she fought against what is worst in us. She built a coalition of men AND women, white AND black to organize the Underground Railroad.
Harriet Tubman's heroic efforts to free slaves and lead them to liberty are so American. Leading people to freedom, that IS America. Harriet Tubman built a coalition of white and blacks, men and women that epitomizes the ideals espoused by “Land of the Free and Home of the Brave”. I also believe that she can build that coalition AGAIN today. To bring together men AND women, to bring together white AND black and help bring about the REAL post-racial society so many of us hope for. DNA tests are starting to reveal just how mixed race America is in the 21st century and long ago indicated that we had transitioned to a post-racial society...at least genetically.
To take the $2 bill from a Founding Father of questionable racial ethics and give it to a black women that fought against those questionable ethics (...and worse, as human slavery is a dark, dark thing), to give the $2 bill to Harriet Tubman is to move forward the idea of healing. For the "Establishment" to bring "color" to the money, to bring "gender" to the money, is what we need to bring us TOGETHER.
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