I want you to send these guys a letter I wrote.
So I heard you like activism. Have you got a minute to contact your Senator?
On April 15 Senate Bill S 925 aka The Women on the 20 Act was assigned to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. To come to the Senate floor, it needs to get through the committee, which consists of 12 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Their names are listed in the picture above. If you are represented by one of these Senators, your call would be especially helpful.
The letter I sent to Charles E. Schumer at press time follows below the fold. Feel free to copy it and send it to your representative, whom you can find at this link.
To: Senator Charles Schumer of New York
CC: Secretary of the Treasury, Jacob J Lew
BCC: President Barack Obama
Dear Sirs:
As a constituent voter in the State of New York I am writing to enlist your support of S. 925 aka the Women on the Twenty Act which is currently in committee.
Women have always been an equal part of the past. But their contribution to this country has been erased and replaced, and nowhere is this more self-evident than on the faces of our currency. Each founding father appears in his turn, painting a picture of American history that is overwhelmingly white and male. The stories of those men are passed around as the bills themselves are, a testament to their place in American history. It’s time for the women who made America great to find their place on our currency – and not the small change either, I mean the big bills.
Previous attempts by the Treasury to appease the demand for equal representation on currency have been notoriously half-assed. Susan B Anthony dollar coins were unpleasant to use because they were of a similar diameter and composition as quarters. Sacagawea gold coins are similarly relegated to vending machines and bus fares. When was the last time you personally used one? On the other hand, the $20 is a bill people use all the time.
There is already a significant grassroots interest in this measure, womenon20s.org. This organization has identified four great candidates to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20. Jackson is just the man to hang up his jersey, so to speak, because he exemplifies the way history revises itself to excuse its injustices. Jackson is celebrated as the founder of the Democratic Party and a military genius, but he’s also the guy who signed the Indian Removal Act of 1830 and a complete gold bug. I think it is wrong to lionize a president who utilized ethnic cleansing on paper currency he would have hated. I think the faith and credit of the US Treasury could be better represented than with the face of a man whose treaties with the Natives were junk bonds.
There could be other currency releases in this vein as well, like a set of 50 quarters all featuring different women; similar to the extant Hellen Keller/Arkansas 25-cent-piece, a part of the State Quarters program. Or one with just Civil Rights activists like MLK and Ida B Wells. The possibilities are as diverse as history itself, and the Secretary of the Treasury has as much license to change the portraiture on money as the Post Office does to make new stamp designs.
I would request that each of you do what you are able to do for this measure: Mr. Schumer by supporting it in committee, and Mr. Obama by reaching out to Secretary Lew. Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Margaret Pless