If you’re like me, perhaps you think that the Reagan deification has gone far enough. Yes, the Berlin Wall came down, and so did the Soviet Union. But that doesn’t make a former actor and dementia-ridden president the best choice to go on the $50 bill, does it?
And besides, doesn’t the $50 already have a dead president on it? You bet — one Ulysses S. Grant.
If you thought that I was shallow enough to feel some sort of special affiliation just because he and I share a name, you’d be right. (Besides, my first, middle and last names are Grant Andrew Hamilton, which nicely match up to the faces on the $50, the $20 and the $10 — Ulysses S. Grant, Andrew Jackson and Alexander Hamilton. It makes me feel worth something — about eighty bucks, I guess.)
Plus, my weekly newspaper column is called “Grant’s Tomb” in part honour of Grant’s actual tomb, which Amy and I visited a couple of years ago during a trip to New York. She took this picture (I’m the speck with my arms spread):
Luckily, I’m not the only one opposed to removing Grant from the $50. This op-ed in the New York Times argues that Grant has been the subject of vicious character assassination since his death, and makes an excellent case for him as a good, though flawed, president.
Grant Hamilton
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thebanana
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Colin
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Colin
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Brian