On This Day

The treasonists surrendered.

Robert E. Lee surrenders - Apr 09, 1865

Reagan on the $50.00 bill?

It seems the Republicans have come up with an idea they want to push.

For health care reform?

Reducing the budget?

Some other important goal for the good of the country?

Oh, heck no. They want to tinker, instead, with the $50.00 bill.

They love, love, love their man Former President Ronald Reagan so they've come up with the idea of replacing U.S. Grant on the 50 with Ronnie.

Whoop-ti-do.

My first reaction is just that--why don't these people focus on working together to solve our problems, rather than toying with who's on our money?

My second thought is pretty much, so what? Grant helped get us through the Civil War, the biggest internal mess this country's ever been in, to date but he was alcoholic. He had his problems, like the rest of us. He was no saint.

But actually, this got me thinking.

If Republicans want to replace someone on our paper money, they've picked the wrong guy and denomination.

The guy we should replace is Andrew Jackson on the twenty.

Now there's a guy who should be ousted.

Things Andrew Jackson did:

--put many of his friends in government jobs;

--killed or effectively tortured many Native Americans;

--exercised his power in government by ignoring two branches of government;

--was a slave owner and horrific racist;

--broke campaign promises (typical, right?);

--didn't just kill many Native Americans, he was responsible for the Trail of Tears--thousands of Native Americans died because of him;

--saw to the "removal" of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands (see the following: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part4/4p2959.html) both prior to and during his Presidential tenure.

So, yeah, Republicans, take Andrew Jackson and the $20.00 bill. Have at it.

Then get over it, stop messing around and work on the things that really matter.

Like seeing to it our clearly-broken health care system works, instead, and maybe passing legislation outlawing "earmarks" in Congress.

Now there's some things worth spending time on.