by RaeLynn Ricarte
U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew is planning to change the face of the $10 bill that has featured Alexander Hamilton since 1929 to a notable American woman.
On the list for consideration to become the first woman to appear on U.S. paper currency in more than a century is Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks. Treasury has created a website, wwwthenew10.treas..., for people to submit suggestions.
The plan, said Lew, is to unveil the bill’s new design in 2020, the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment giving women the right to vote.
It makes me angry to even contemplate the need for that amendment — what cretins ever thought women were incapable of intelligent thought? If you are still out there, Bring It! I’ll take you on in a Cross Talk on any subject and we’ll test out your theory (less than 500 words please).
Anyway, back to business. I am opposed to changing the look of the $10 bill if it is going to carry any significant cost. With our national debt now topping $18 trillion, it is time for Americans to learn the difference between a want and a need.
In the event this change can be made in a cost-effective way I would like to suggest the name of Annie Oakley.
Her colorful life as a sharp shooter epitomizes the independent spirit of an American woman who was determined to overcome great odds and succeed in a traditionally male role.
For those of you who don’t know the back story on Oakley (her stage name), she was born in a log cabin in rural Ohio of Quaker parents. She was the sixth of nine children and, after the death of her father, the family fell into extreme poverty.
Oakley began trapping at an early age and shooting and hunting by age eight to support her siblings and mother.
She sold game to local shopkeepers, restaurants and hotels.
Although she was sent at the age of nine to a poor house and then “bound out” to a local family to care for their infant son – a situation she later described as mentally and physically abusive — she made enough money sharpshooting by age 15 to pay off her mother’s mortgage.
Oakley might have been a small woman but she stood tall in championship shooting competitions and, in 1885, joined Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. At 30 paces she could reportedly split a playing card held edge-on, shoot dimes tossed into the air and cigarettes from her husband’s lips.
She used her celebrity status to promote the service of women in combat operations and offered to go to war herself as U.S. tensions ratcheted up against Spain.
Throughout her career, which included acting, Oakley is credited with teaching 15,000 women how to handle a gun.
She advocated for women to empower themselves, especially in the area of self-defense.
by Mark Gibson
The three women proposed for the front of the $10 bill were drawn from the list of 20 candidates for the $20 bill, and subjected to an online vote. That Harriet Tubman, Eleanor Roosevelt and Rosa Parks were selected as “finalists” is no surprise: These three names are recognizable to many.
How many Americans are familiar with Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm, a politician, educator and author who in 1968 was the first African-American woman elected to congress? Or Betty Friedan, a writer, activist and feminist, author of “The Feminine Mystique?” Indeed, the majority of the 20 women listed were completely unfamiliar to me.
Most of these candidates were known for their work in women's rights, anti-slavery, civil rights and the temperance movement. They were politicians and activists, teachers and writers. Some of them suffered for their beliefs, others were honored.
So how does one go about selecting one, or even three, as the national face of the $10 bill?
Of the three that have been announced, Tubman would make my own list as well. Born into slavery about 1822, Tubman escaped and made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 enslaved family and friends, using the network of antislavery activists and safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.
During the civil war, she served as a union spy. Post war she worked for women's suffrage. To have escaped slavery, and then returned to help others do the same at great risk to her own newly found freedom, seems heroic almost beyond words.
Bravery has many forms, of course, and having the guts to step outside established boundaries and societal expectations for something as simple as nursing a wounded warrior has its own gritty heroic strength.
I would like to have seen Clarissa "Clara" Harlowe Barton make the final list as well She was the pioneering nurse who founded the American Red Cross, an organization that survived the test of time in its commitment to helping those in need.
She worked as a hospital nurse in the civil war and later as a teacher and patent clerk. At a time when few women worked outside the home, Barton showed all of us that an individual woman could have a tremendous impact in the workplace.
If I had to choose one woman to face the $10 bill, however, it would be Rachel Louise Carson, a marine biologist and conservationist whose writings are credited with advancing the global environmental movement. Her book, “Silent Spring,” despite opposition by large chemical companies, spurred a reversal in national pesticide policy and led to a nationwide ban on DDT and other pesticides.
Anyone who can make the list of the “top 20 most influential women in American ” as a marine biologist is worth thinking about every time you reach into your purse or wallet and fish out a $10 bill.
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