What Woman Would You Vote For?

[Nyboy]

Prior to 1861 we had Lady Liberty and Pocahontas, and since then men on the $20. Why choose? Let's just replace all US bills for the next 150 years with these great women since men got the last 150!

I am waiting for first lady president.

 

[Smart Red]

Hum-m-m-m, biting my tongue and thinking of going out for flower and veggie seeds. I love this gardening site!

 

[Nyboy]

LOL @Smart Red I didn't say what woman !! You have to admit it is time .

 

[Ridgerunner]

I enjoy a good political discussion when it is a discussion, but with many people I'd much rather be in the garden by myself. Maybe most people because it is hard to actually discuss politics.

I'm well past the point where I worry about someone's sex, race, or religion when I'm deciding who to vote for to any office. I don't have any litmus test issues either though that factors in some. I'm more worried about their standards and how they align with mine. And I try to look at what they have done, not what they say they will do.

 

[Smart Red]

It is not that, Nyboy. I see no special reason to look forward to the first woman president any more than I thought it prudent to look forward to the first bi-racial president.

What I look forward to is being able to look forward to a truly honest and experienced American to become president and get this country running fiscally, morally, and Constitutionally on the correct path. I don't care if it is a woman, (I tend to favor the abilities of women, anyway) a person of color, a "Little Person", is red, black, yellow, or green!

I want the right person, not the right gender, color, or creed. Alas, I fear I am searching with a lantern that's low on oil.

 

[Nyboy]

Good points both red and ridge, guess I would just like to see it in my lifetime.

 

[Rhodie Ranch]

Rosa Parks. Then Tubman and finally the Indian woman. Not sure I want a Roosevelt on there.

 

[TheSeedObsesser]

Red and Ridge - if everybody shared your view when it comes to that, I think that we would be more united as a people, and better off in general. Yes, I like that.

 

[Smart Red]

Rosa Parks did an important thing that day on the bus, but a group she was in had discussed and planned the action long before the event. What Rosa Parks did was not one desperate stand by one weary Black woman, but a calculated decision backed by many supporters.

It was an action well past its time to take. I spent some time in and around Little Rock, AR during the late 50's and I was aghast at the "Separate but Equal" position taken at that time! Black schools were nowhere near equal to White-only schools. Black housing areas, Black entrances to shops, Blacks not being allowed to walk on the same sidewalk as whites. The conditions of that (in-)'Equality' were outrageous.

As a youngster, I walked through part of Little Rock with my brother. We watched as two large men walked toward us along a narrow sidewalk. As we were trained, we politely stepped aside for them to pass and were surprised to see the two men step off the sidewalk and into the street as they went by us. I asked Dad about the incident and he said that in the South, the Black men would have risked a beating or worse by walking past white children. Years later, I wonder if our attempt at good manners and stepping aside was seen by them as fear of them or well-taught prejudice toward them as Blacks?

And not only in the South, was this happening. A man I dearly loved and admired owned the soda fountain across the street from my home. He taught me so much and listened to this child's problems for many, many years. One day a Black man stopped in for a hamburger. After he left my friend laughed and said, "I put so much pepper in on that burger, he'll never stop here again." I was crushed! My rose-colored glasses were damaged. An adult had ordered and paid for a meal and the store owner deliberately ruined it? I could never feel the same about Phil again and once I started looking, I found so many slights toward Blacks that spoke of deep-seated bigotry.

My first adult job was as a factory worker. One night after working late I stopped for a snack at "Chicken Charlie's" (a dive with really good food). It was just after bar time and the customers were mostly looking for coffee before driving home. In the corner I spotted an older co-worker who had also just gotten off work, so I went over to sit with him.

He was smiling and polite (as always) but uncomfortable as he warned me that I shouldn't be sitting with a Black man. That had never occurred to me. I was tired and hungry and he was a friend in a room full of rude, noisy, and obnoxious mostly white strangers!

I'm not saying Rosa Parks wasn't brave or that there weren't risks involved, but certainly not on a level with Harriet Tubman's challenges. Still, the media bring up Rosa Parks' name and stand often. To my knowledge, I was the only American history teacher around who taught about the incredible life of Harriet Tubman, so only a few students each year understood the unjustness of slavery and the greatness of Harriet Tubman's life as I saw it.

 

[Pulsegleaner]

The more and more I read suggestions like this, the more and more I tend to think that the people who put editorials in Coin World probably have a point when they say that NO actual person should be on ANY of our money, that ALL denominations should bear generalized images of our ideals. They usually say it as a return to the old days when every coin had to have an image of lady liberty on the obverse and an eagle on the reverse but I feel that is probably over restricting things, as there are many other inherent American ideals probably worth representing besides liberty, and that route tended to result in a lot of coins that basically had the same basic design on them. I also do not agree with the statement they usually issue later ( that the US should abolish all fiat money and return to making all coins out of precious metals whose PM content should be completely equal to their face value (and all paper money be automatically exchangeable for precious metals on demand i.e. back to gold and silver certificates ) That boat sailed long ago.