Themes

Inequality, justice, equity--modern society struggles with these values, and the media, politicians, economists, and artists address income and inequality as if it's a new issue. Anyone who reads the Bible or even Charles Dickens knows these issues have been part of human society throughout recorded history. At common law, judges developed the concept of equity to do the right thing.
The elite propose income transfer schemes and government control designed to protect and insulate the elite and keep the poor indebted to them. Some of the worst abuses have been inflicted on Native Americans or American Indians.
Now the elite have incurred massive debts that leave entire nations (and their citizens) vulnerable to a different kind of rule of equity--domination by creditors, foreign and domestic.

Monday, February 17, 2014

President Andrew Jackson

In 2012, Indian Country Today published an article on the five worst U.S. Presidents. Andrew Jackson topped the list. This is no surprise, given his reputation as a slave owner, Indian killer, and proponent of Indian removal. What is a surprise is that his statue continues to dominate Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. From this perspective, you can see both the White House and the Washington Monument. Why not move this statue somewhere else? 


The novel The Rule of Equity features this incongruity and the message it continues to send to American Indians.


Here's an excerpt from the article:

Andrew Jackson:A man nicknamed “Indian killer” and “Sharp Knife” surely deserves the top spot on a list of worst U.S. Presidents. Andrew Jackson “was a forceful proponent of Indian removal,” according toPBS.Others have a less genteel way of describing the seventh president of the United States.
“Andrew Jackson was a wealthy slave owner and infamous Indian killer, gaining the nickname ‘Sharp Knife’ from the Cherokee,” writes Amargi on the website Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory & Practice.
,,,

In 1830, a year after he became president, Jackson signed a law that he had proposed – the Indian Removal Act– which legalized ethnic cleansing. Within seven years 46,000 indigenous people were removed from their homelands east of the Mississippi. Their removal gave 25 million acres of land “to white settlement and to slavery,” according to PBS. The area was home to the Cherokee, Creek, Choctaw, Chickasaw and Seminole nations. In the Trail of Tears alone,4,000 Cherokee people died of cold, hunger, and disease on their way to the western lands.

To add insult to injury, Jackson is featured prominently on the $20 bill. When the Treasury redesigned the bill for 2006, they made his image even bigger. My question: Why not remove Jackson from the $20 bill? 


2006 Series $20 bill


1995 Series $20 bill


1929 Series $20 bill



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