There's a group called Women on 20s that wants Andrew Jackson ousted from the $20 bill and replaced with a woman. I don't feel strongly one way or the other about Andrew Jackson or, for that matter, about whose face is on my money. The group offers 15 suggestions and at least one of them - Underground Railroad operator Sojourner Truth - would be an inspired choice.
But then there's Margaret Sanger.
She is the founder of Planned Parenthood, and for many of you (not to mention me) that's more than enough reason to never honor her in any way. But there's more. Many people don't know this, but when Planned Parenthood was first established, the vast majority of its locations were in predominantly black neighborhoods. That was no accident. Margaret Sanger believed it was of the utmost importance that black women stop having so many babies.
You might say she just wanted them to be responsible about birth control, and that there was no racial attitude informing her position. You'd be wrong. This is the same woman who wrote in a book that Aboriginal Australians were just a step above chimpanzees. In fact, she wrote a book in 1920 that enthusiastically endorsed eugenics as a way eliminate the "unfit" from the human race.
Most of you know my story. I did not come from a wealthy family. My parents worked very hard but they never had a lot of money. It wasn't easy for me to become successful in business and in my other pursuits, but with God's help I managed to do it. According to the way Margaret Sanger thought, poor black folks should not have been having so many babies back in the day when I was born. I'm glad I had parents who didn't think like Margaret Sanger.
And if her face is put on the $20 bill, I will never use one again.
Then again, certain operators of private homebrew e-mail servers admire this racist eugenicist monster tremendously:
