Brother, Can You Spare

Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? Highlighting Numismatics and Diversity

BY STAN KIMER | GUEST CoNTRIBUToR

Republicans are still “Collecting Great up to those same Depression Coinage.” tricks they pulled Our American coinage during the Great during the late 1920s Depression. and early 1930s in-

As a diversity cluded some beautiful consultant and nu- and historic specimens mismatist (a collector such as the Buffalo of money), I am now Nickel, Mercury Dime finding some inter- and the Standing esting connections Liberty Quarter. between our nation’s In 1930, the song money and our diver- “Brother, Can You sity as a nation. This Spare a Dime” was past summer I wrote An antique dime from the 20th century. written by lyricist my first two parts of (Photo Credit: cmbankus via Edgar Yipsel Harburg this series: Adobe Stock) and composer Jay • “Black Lives Matter Gorney. Shockingly, and the $20 Bill — an Awful American its release and exposure on the radio

Travesty” (bit.ly/3htsRu1). I recounted was limited due to the censorship of the the very sad story of how the approved Republican Party who considered the plans to place African-American aboli- song to be the project of “anti-capitalist tionist Harriet Tubman on our $20 bill got propaganda.” Clearly, they wanted to derailed. deny the existence of the millions of • “A Black Lives Matter and an American hard-working, loyal Americans hurting,

Coinage Travesty – blog 2” (bit. homeless and hungry from the Great ly/2L5vVR1). I recount the sad story of a Depression, just like the Republican Party

Ku Klux Klan-inspired coin. of today is trying to deny that COVID-19 is

In this op-ed, I am going to share ravaging our nation, that systemic racism an interesting sub-plot that was shared exists and that Joe Biden actually won the in the Numismatist Magazine story 2020 presidential election!

Great economic disparity continues to be a major issue in our country that still needs to be addressed. (See “The Growing Culture of Poverty in the USA,” bit.ly/2L9fOBG). 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 wellknown popular artists such as Bing Crosby (watch and listen here to Bing’s recording with a poignant photo essay online at bit. ly/3httL9T), 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. : :

Stan Kimer is a diversity consultant with Total Engagement Consulting by Kimer in Raleigh, N.C.