2dogs
September 9, 2003, 08:31 AM
The only downside to this plan might be that after the First Amendment goes on the $1 bill, the National Rifle Association will want to slap the Second Amendment and its disputed right to "keep and bear arms" language on the $2 bill.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-09-08-mauro_x.htm
Put Constitution on $1 bill — or just First Amendment?
By Tony Mauro
As important as it is, most Americans have only the vaguest idea of what the Constitution contains.
Randy Wright is a middle school civics teacher on a mission. If he ever succeeds, dollar bills won't just be the lowest denomination of paper money; they will also be teaching tools. That's a good thing, though the concept needs work.
For five years, Wright and his students at Liberty Middle School in Hanover, Va., have been trying to interest Congress and the Treasury Department in redesigning the back side of $1 bills to include the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and a summary of all the Constitution's provisions. The idea is to educate the public about the Constitution, the founding document of the nation, which is vastly more important than the better-known Declaration of Independence.
As important as it is, most Americans have only the vaguest idea of what the Constitution contains. What three branches of government did it create? Many citizens couldn't tell you. Ask what is in the First Amendment to the Constitution, and many people can't say.
The idea for summarizing the Constitution on $1 bills emerged from a brainstorming session among Wright's students on how to one-up the previous year's civics classes, which had memorized the Constitution's amendments. (No wonder Virginia is known as the birthplace of presidents.)
Since 1998, eager-to-please members of Congress have introduced bills to implement the students' idea. Hearings have been held, students have testified, everyone seems to like the idea — but nothing has happened. Some of Wright's students who first cooked up the concept are in college. Wright is philosophical about the long wait, mindful that change happens slowly in Washington. Lately, a new batch of public service ads touting the idea has run in magazines, and Wright reports a new surge in public interest. The campaign has its own Web site: www.libertydollarbill.org.
But the students still have an uphill climb. The Treasury Department has been rolling out redesigned currency of higher denominations, but it has decided that altering the $1 and $2 bills is not worth the bother — largely because counterfeiters don't think they are worth the bother either. Vending machine manufacturers are not keen on the retooling that a new design might require. And in the background is the perennial debate over whether dollar bills should be junked altogether, in favor of $1 coins.
But as long as $1 bills are in circulation — more than 7 billion of them at any given moment — they could use a makeover. Next to the bigger, bolder and slightly off-center Abraham Lincoln ($5), Alexander Hamilton ($10), Andrew Jackson ($20) and the rest, George Washington looks shriveled and puny on the front of the $1 bill.
And look at what's on the back of the single. Both sides of the U.S. Great Seal stare out at us, with a spooky symbolism that means nothing to modern-day Americans. Just what is that shimmering eye doing on top of a pyramid, anyway?
The kids from Hanover, Va., would erase most of the back of the $1 bill and replace it with the Constitution, or at least a summary of it. Therein lies the problem with the concept. Capsulizing the titles of each part of the Constitution does not do it justice. In the proposed design, for example, the description of the 14th Amendment would be: "defines citizenship." From those two words it would be hard to explain how the 14th Amendment was the foundation this June for the U.S. Supreme Court's expansive decision in favor of gay rights.
The caption for the Fifth Amendment is "rights of the accused," which is accurate to a point. But it misses the Fifth Amendment's protection of property rights. Who needs to know anything about the never-invoked Third Amendment, summarized as "do not have to quarter soldiers during peacetime"? The Constitution, in short, does not lend itself to easy rendition on the back of a dollar bill.
Here's an alternative: On the back of the $1 bill, why not print the text of the First Amendment, pure and simple? "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
The First Amendment, more than any other part of the Constitution, defines what is unique about America. The late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. once told columnist Nat Hentoff that the First Amendment was his favorite part of the Constitution. "All other liberties and rights flow from the freedom to speak up," Brennan said. "Its enforcement gives us this society. The other provisions of the Constitution merely embellish it."
The only downside to this plan might be that after the First Amendment goes on the $1 bill, the National Rifle Association will want to slap the Second Amendment and its disputed right to "keep and bear arms" language on the $2 bill. And will criminal defendants, organized crime and property rights activists want to "take the Fifth" and put the Fifth Amendment on the $5 bill?
The possibilities are endless. Civil rights groups could join forces to push for creation of a $14 bill to celebrate the Fourteenth Amendment. The alcoholic beverage industry will want a $21 bill to celebrate the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition.
But as they say, first things first.
The kids of Hanover should take a fresh look at their idea and go back to first principles — back to the First Amendment.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2003-09-08-mauro_x.htm
Put Constitution on $1 bill — or just First Amendment?
By Tony Mauro
As important as it is, most Americans have only the vaguest idea of what the Constitution contains.
Randy Wright is a middle school civics teacher on a mission. If he ever succeeds, dollar bills won't just be the lowest denomination of paper money; they will also be teaching tools. That's a good thing, though the concept needs work.
For five years, Wright and his students at Liberty Middle School in Hanover, Va., have been trying to interest Congress and the Treasury Department in redesigning the back side of $1 bills to include the preamble to the U.S. Constitution and a summary of all the Constitution's provisions. The idea is to educate the public about the Constitution, the founding document of the nation, which is vastly more important than the better-known Declaration of Independence.
As important as it is, most Americans have only the vaguest idea of what the Constitution contains. What three branches of government did it create? Many citizens couldn't tell you. Ask what is in the First Amendment to the Constitution, and many people can't say.
The idea for summarizing the Constitution on $1 bills emerged from a brainstorming session among Wright's students on how to one-up the previous year's civics classes, which had memorized the Constitution's amendments. (No wonder Virginia is known as the birthplace of presidents.)
Since 1998, eager-to-please members of Congress have introduced bills to implement the students' idea. Hearings have been held, students have testified, everyone seems to like the idea — but nothing has happened. Some of Wright's students who first cooked up the concept are in college. Wright is philosophical about the long wait, mindful that change happens slowly in Washington. Lately, a new batch of public service ads touting the idea has run in magazines, and Wright reports a new surge in public interest. The campaign has its own Web site: www.libertydollarbill.org.
But the students still have an uphill climb. The Treasury Department has been rolling out redesigned currency of higher denominations, but it has decided that altering the $1 and $2 bills is not worth the bother — largely because counterfeiters don't think they are worth the bother either. Vending machine manufacturers are not keen on the retooling that a new design might require. And in the background is the perennial debate over whether dollar bills should be junked altogether, in favor of $1 coins.
But as long as $1 bills are in circulation — more than 7 billion of them at any given moment — they could use a makeover. Next to the bigger, bolder and slightly off-center Abraham Lincoln ($5), Alexander Hamilton ($10), Andrew Jackson ($20) and the rest, George Washington looks shriveled and puny on the front of the $1 bill.
And look at what's on the back of the single. Both sides of the U.S. Great Seal stare out at us, with a spooky symbolism that means nothing to modern-day Americans. Just what is that shimmering eye doing on top of a pyramid, anyway?
The kids from Hanover, Va., would erase most of the back of the $1 bill and replace it with the Constitution, or at least a summary of it. Therein lies the problem with the concept. Capsulizing the titles of each part of the Constitution does not do it justice. In the proposed design, for example, the description of the 14th Amendment would be: "defines citizenship." From those two words it would be hard to explain how the 14th Amendment was the foundation this June for the U.S. Supreme Court's expansive decision in favor of gay rights.
The caption for the Fifth Amendment is "rights of the accused," which is accurate to a point. But it misses the Fifth Amendment's protection of property rights. Who needs to know anything about the never-invoked Third Amendment, summarized as "do not have to quarter soldiers during peacetime"? The Constitution, in short, does not lend itself to easy rendition on the back of a dollar bill.
Here's an alternative: On the back of the $1 bill, why not print the text of the First Amendment, pure and simple? "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
The First Amendment, more than any other part of the Constitution, defines what is unique about America. The late Supreme Court Justice William Brennan Jr. once told columnist Nat Hentoff that the First Amendment was his favorite part of the Constitution. "All other liberties and rights flow from the freedom to speak up," Brennan said. "Its enforcement gives us this society. The other provisions of the Constitution merely embellish it."
The only downside to this plan might be that after the First Amendment goes on the $1 bill, the National Rifle Association will want to slap the Second Amendment and its disputed right to "keep and bear arms" language on the $2 bill. And will criminal defendants, organized crime and property rights activists want to "take the Fifth" and put the Fifth Amendment on the $5 bill?
The possibilities are endless. Civil rights groups could join forces to push for creation of a $14 bill to celebrate the Fourteenth Amendment. The alcoholic beverage industry will want a $21 bill to celebrate the 21st Amendment, which repealed Prohibition.
But as they say, first things first.
The kids of Hanover should take a fresh look at their idea and go back to first principles — back to the First Amendment.