Leftists: It's An Insult to Harriet Tubman to Put Her On Money, Because She Was an Anti-Property, Anti-Capitalism Pre-Marxist Radical

Ohhhhh. Oh.

See, she wasn't just helping freed slaves escape to the north, or Canada; she was really striking the capitalist system at its heart -- at the idea of property itself. She was stealing other people's property, which makes her a proto-Marxist, and hence, it insults her to sully her memory by associating it with dirty American money.

Greta Van Susstern on the other hand says Obama is being "needlessly divisive" by putting Tubman on the bill, displacing Jackson. She suggests a new bill, a $25 bill, which will of course never be used, for Tubman.

I think Tubman is a good choice for our currency. She was pro-freedom and risked her life in furtherance of it. That's an American hero in my book. Union scout and spy and ultimately a covert agent for freedom and human dignity -- she's a good pick.

I also think it helps that Tubman's "controversial" activities were so long ago. I could understand objections to Rosa Parks-- her "trouble-making" is still within living memory. Some people resent her as an activist who's story is not quite told straight by a media with a narrative.

Fine.

But... isn't Harriet Tubman's "subversive activities" far enough in the past that we should no longer have any residual emotional objection to it, no feeling that she's against us?

I mean, we're not pro-slavery are we? We don't disagree with Tubman's ideology, do we?

Anyway, she demonstrated physical courage and great moral purpose in the service of an American ideal which was not being given its actual full measure of due at the time.

Some are now pointing out the virtues of Andrew Jackson -- and sure, he had some.

But there can't really be any strong objection to the basic idea that Tubman is an American hero.

posted by Ace at 03:55 PM

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