Tag Archives: republicans

I am sick and tired of being demonized

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What is so wrong about this adorable book about one kind of American family?

I am just sick of it. And here we go again. The North Carolina Republican-dominated legislature has called in the superintendent of the Chapel Hill – Carrboro school district, Rodney Trice, to question him about LGBTQ-themed books in their school libraries. Link to article. Despite not being able to pass an annual state budget for an entire year (the Republicans in the State House and the State Senate cannot agree), they are wasting their time on this non-issue because of one parent’s complaint.

If this one parent does not want their kid to read LGBTQ+ themes books, they can simply direct their kid not to take one out.  Why should this one parent trample on the rights of all the inclusive parents who are fine with their children reading books that include LGBTQ-themed content?  Don’t those parents have rights too?


But worse than this being a waste of time instead of addressing the needs of our state, this continues to send the message that gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people are somehow bad or illegitimate human beings. What does it say to a teenager coming to grips with their sexuality that there are no books in the library about this subject? What does it say to a small kid with two moms or two dads that their family is so bad, that there are no books about kids with two moms or two dads in their library?

And North Carolina is not the only state bent on demeaning and demonizing queer people. Some states are passing laws forcing transgender people to change their driver’s licenses to gender markers that do not align with their gender identities or to use the bathroom that matches their gender assigned at birth instead of their current gender identity. Some state legislatures are asking the Supreme Court to invalidate and reverse the ruling on universal marriage rights for same-gender couples. And some state legislatures are trying to ban the flying of the Pride Flag.

Should this man really be forced to use the ladies room because his birth certificate has the gender marker F?

It’s a disgrace that one particular political party (OK – let’s call it out – Republicans) are hell-bent on finding some group to hate. Over the past decades their hate and demonization has cycled across Black people, immigrants, Muslims and LGBTQ+ people. The only way they think they can win elections and keep power is to pit groups of Americans against each other with divisive rhetoric and laws.

It’s time to put and end to this hate. When you vote, please consider … are you voting for all Americans to be treated equally and respectfully, or are you voting for hate and division?

Brother, can you spare a dime? 3rd in a series highlighting numismatics and diversity.

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The beautiful Mercury Dime was in circulation during he 1930’s Great Depression

An Op Ed – Republicans are still up to those same tricks they pulled during the Great Depression.


As a diversity consultant and numismatist (a collector of money,) I am now finding some interesting connections between our nation’s money and our diversity as a nation. This past summer I wrote my first two parts of his series:

• “Black Lives Matter and the $20 Bill – an Awful American Travesty,” (do use the link and read it), I recounted the very sad story of how the approved plans to place African-American abolitionist Harriet Tubman on our $20 bill got derailed.

• In “A Black Lives Matter and an American Coinage Travesty – blog 2,” I recount the sad story of a Ku Klux Klan-inspired coin.

In this blog, I am going to share an interesting sub-plot that was shared in the Numismatist Magazine story “Collecting Great Depression Coinage.” Our American coinage during the late 1920s and early 1930s included some beautiful and historic specimens such as the Buffalo Nickel, Mercury Dime and the Standing Liberty Quarter.

Typical scene from the 1930s Great Depression (photo courtesy Wikipedia)

In 1930, the song “Brother, Can You Spare a Dime” was written by lyricist Edgar Yipsel Harburg and composer Jay Gorney. Shockingly, its release and exposure on the radio was limited due to the censorship of the Republican Party who considered the song to be the project of “anti-capitalist propaganda.” Clearly, they wanted to deny the existence of the millions of hard-working loyal Americans hurting, homeless and hungry from the Great Depression, just like the Republican Party of today is trying to deny that COVID-19 is ravaging our nation, that systemic racism exists and that Joe Biden actually won the 2020 presidential election!

Great economic disparity continues to be a major issue in our country that still needs to be addressed. (See my 2014 blog “The Growing Culture of Poverty in the USA.”) And now we are seeing the highest rate of unemployment in our country since the Great Depression, and it is disproportionately impacting those on the lower ends of the economic scale.

Ultimately, the song “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?” could not be repressed indefinitely due to recordings by well-known popular artists such as Bing Crosby (watch and listen here to Bing’s recording with a poignant photo essay), Lennie Hayton, Al Jolson and Rudy Vallee. The general public needed to become aware of the sad plight of their fellow Americans through this song.

Now, current day Americans should accept the reality that we are again in horrific times, and the truth should not and cannot be repressed. Hopefully we can rise up as a nation, face the truth, do the right thing, and give our brothers and sisters who need assistance several thousand dimes.