Choose Wisely
In 21st century America, we are facing two negative -isms: racism and sexism. Trump is the paradigm of both. He is the de facto political leader of the white supremacists and sees women as objects whether he admire or dislike the person. When he realized that Harriet Tubman was going to replace Andrew Jackson on our $20 bill, he said that it was “pure political correctness.”
Trump’s inane comment means that being politically has nothing to do with addressing the two major social ills that have plagued America for centuries. An attempt at reconciling America’s history regarding both racism and sexism isn’t being politically correct. It is merely the ethical thing to do regardless of whether Trump recognizes it or not.
Trump isn’t concerned about ethics, but he is concerned about deleting anything that President Obama did while in the White House. It started with Trump claiming that Obama wasn’t born in America. Reluctantly, Trump admitted that Obama was born in America, which is another failure of Trump. Then there was the Affordable Care Act or Obamacare. Here again, he failed.
Name something Obama did, Trump ran counter to it. Interestingly, both impeachments od Trump were the opposite of what Obama ever thought to do. Obama never tried to bribe another leader of a country like Trump did with President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.
Additionally, Obama never said at a rally,
You have to show strength, and you have to be strong… So we are going to --we are going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue, I love Pennsylvania Avenue, and we are going to the Capitol, and we are going to try and give--the Democrats are hopeless, they are never voting for anything, not even one vote but we are going to try--give our Republicans, the weak ones because the strong ones don't need any of our help, we're try--going to try and give them the kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back our country. So let's walk down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Trump told Steven Mnuchin, the Secretary of the Treasury, to derail having the Treasury replace Andrew Jackson with Harriet Tubman on our $20 bill. Mnuchin lies as well as Trump lies. He claimed that there were technical issues with the Tubman $20 bill causing a delay of six-years.
Perhaps, Mnuchin needs to read any of my essays about Gilgamesh. Gilgamesh grasped that he wasn’t immortal…at least not physically immortal. Nonetheless, Gilgamesh’s immortality was based upon being remembered after he died. Mnuchin and Trump will be remembered as racists and sexists.
This is a copy of one of the suggestions of the Tubman $20 bill that I have.
As for political leaders, there was a bipartisan questioning of Mnuchin’s six-year delay. Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican from Maryland wrote to Mnuchin, “I hope that you’ll reconsider your decision and instead join our efforts to promptly memorialize Tubman’s life and many achievements.” Neither Trump nor Mnuchin wanted to memorialize Tubman because they are both racists.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, a Democrat from New Hampshire said, “The Trump administration’s indefinite postponement of this redesign is offensive to women and girls, and communities of color, who have been excitedly waiting to see this woman and civil rights icon honored in this special way.”
Harriet Tubman was born in Maryland sometime in March of 1822 and died on March 10, 1913. Therefore, this essay is a tribute to this abolitionist on the 108th anniversary of her death. As Gilgamesh pointed out five millennia ago, we all have immortality, the immortality of being remembered after our death.
Tubman was a slave in Maryland. During slavery, she was beaten as a child. When she was young, her slave owner thrown a large metal weight at another slave, but it hit her in the head causing her what today is called traumatic head injury throughout the rest of her life. It wasn’t long before she escaped to the North.
Interestingly, Tubman experienced what she thought were aspirational dreams, which were from God. These visions or dreams motivated Tubman to dedicate her life to freeing slaves in the South. She went on over a dozen rescue missions, which freed around 70 slaves. She utilized the Underground Railroad on these rescue missions. Tubman also worked with John Brown on the raid at Harpers Ferry. During the Civil War, she worked as a spy for the Union Army and led the raid on Combahee Ferry. The result of that mission was that some 700 slaves were freed.
Gilgamesh grasped the notion of the immortality of being remembered after one’s death. Harriet Tubman is remembered as a slave who freed other slaves. It should be noted that Andrew Jackson lives on after his death for being a slave owner.
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