The
Treasury Department recently announced it was going to remove the image of
Alexander Hamilton, the founder of The New York Post and the nation’s first
treasurer, from the $10 bill and replace him with an unnamed woman in 2020 – a
century after women gained the right to vote.
A
logical choice would be Sandra Day O’Connor, the first female US Supreme Court
Justice, or maybe a woman suffragist such as Harriet Tubman would do the
trick. As a black female, she would fulfill two firsts. Rosa Parks would also kill two birds with one stone.
I’d
love to see an author on our money. The
currency of the United States is ideas and content, so why not a writer? Our money is not reserved just for
politicians or political figures. Let’s
put a female author on the ten.
It
has to be someone who made a significant contribution to America, who is dead,
and whose books are still read today.
Oprah, EL James or JK Rowling wouldn’t qualify. But there is no shortage of great writes who
would met the actual specifications of the US Treasury.
To
qualify, according to the government, one has to be dead, be familiar to the
general public, and have made a contribution to American democracy. So far, only white men seem to have filled
the bill, so to speak. On coins, Susan
B. Anthony graces the failed $1 coin. An
identity-less Lady Liberty also graced silver dollar coins. Another failed dollar coin was of an Indian,
Sacagawea. Helen Keller also made it
onto a coin, the back of the quarter for Alabama in 2003. That’s it.
Let’s
explore great American female writers such as these:
·
Maya
Angelou
·
Harper
Lee (if she passes soon)
·
Edith
Wharton
·
Emily
Dickinson
·
Joyce
Carol Oates (if she passes soon)
·
Laura
Ingalls Wilder
·
Flanner
O’Conner
·
Eudora
Welty
·
Dorothy
Parker
·
Sylvia
Plath
·
Pearl
S. Buck
If
there isn’t a condition that one must be born in America, consider Ayn Rand.
Certainly,
a qualified female writer should be given great consideration. We don’t need to look beyond those who used their
gifts and talents to make the world a better place, who employed the power of
written words.
We don’t do enough to honor our writers and great thinkers. Today’s society is absorbed in itself, using social media to promote, well, itself. The generation of “me” media has taken over. If it’s not ourselves that we’re absorbed in, we’re enamored in celebrities from theater and TV, sports heroes, and musical artists.
Writers
deserve a seat at the able when it comes to money. Ironically, most writers struggle to make
money, so it would be a bit odd for one to adorn what few can attain. Still, as a status symbol, writers deserve
top billing on the 10-spot. Perhaps if a
writer made it onto our money we can elevate publishing to a new level.
I’m
not sure why people need to be on money.
Maybe it should be great monuments, documents or animals that are
featured on money. Or, we can feature a
library, indie bookstore, or a famous book cover on our money.
Books
and authors are worth our praise, attention, and literally, our money.
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Brian Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog
are his alone and not that of his employer. You can follow him on Twitter
@theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2015
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