News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. June 19, 2015: Dear M. Lew,
Your decision to replace Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill in its own way is so shocking and disrespectful of American history as any you might possibly make. Worse that there was absolutely NO public discussion or input on this matter, nor did you seek advice from members of Congress or others.
Further bitterly ironic is it that the current Secretary of the Treasury intends to make the First Secretary of the Treasury disappear. It is nothing but contemptuous of the role Alexander Hamilton played in our nation’s creation. There is a very strong argument to be made that the United States would not exist today were it not for Alexander Hamilton and his plan to fund this young nation in 1789. Many have called Hamilton America’s most brilliant Founding Father.
Making it yet worse if that is possible is the fact that Alexander Hamilton is America’s greatest immigrant, born poor on the Caribbean island of Nevis, making his way to America and New York City as a young boy, becoming a Revolutionary War hero, playing an essential role in the development and passage of the U.S. Constitution, and rising to greatness others can only dream. How can the Obama Administration possibly remove the ONLY immigrant on American currency?
And there is still more. There has been an active campaign by groups of women to replace Andrew Jackson on the $20 bill in favor of a woman that has been completely ignored by you in this decision. Why did they choose Andrew Jackson? Jackson was a slave holder and actively opposed to abolition, he practiced genocide against Native Americans and he tried to destroy the very financial system that Hamilton created that saved our nation and led it to become the greatest economy the world has ever seem. Yet you leave Jackson and remove Hamilton?
But allow me to reduce this all to one singular point. There is no moral or ethical basis for you making your decision yourself arbitrarily in secret without any input, without letting others be heard, and without any public hearings. I pray and hope there are others like myself who will not stand by and allow this outrage to take place.
The American people have a right to be heard on this very important symbolic issue that you have NO right to deny us.
Sincerely,
Arthur Piccolo
New York City
