Word: coin
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...same applies to cloning, which is really just the other side of the coin. True cloning, as first shown with Dolly the sheep two years ago, involves taking a developed cell and reactivating the genome within, resetting its developmental instructions to a pristine state. Once that happens, the rejuvenated cell can develop into a full-fledged animal, genetically identical to its parent...
...honest, I had never heard of Sacajawea until a minor controversy arose this past summer over whether she was an appropriate symbol for the new coin. Still, I initially sided with those who supported her. How perfect it would be, I figured, for the United States to recognize an American Indian woman on its first new coin of the 21st century, a piece of currency that may become one of the most widely used...
...most distasteful part of this episode may be the voting now taking place on the Web. Because no one knows what Sacajawea looked like, the Mint consulted 300 people-historians, artists, coin collectors and representatives of American Indian organizations-to choose the best among more than 120 designs. The top 13 are now up for the public's scrutiny and comment...
...Mint apparently thinks it's doing us a great service. "Rarely, if ever, in the history of the nation's coinage has the public played such an important role in the design of a new circulating coin," the Web page brags momentously. "Please consider each choice not only as a potential coin design...but also as a work of art that will exist in the public consciousness for hundreds of years...
Maybe it's not such a great idea to have Sacajawea on the new dollar coin. This tokenization of American Indians isn't raising awareness of our past and present wrongs; it is merely reinforcing our indifference and self-glorification. Until we more honestly and forthrightly deal with the damage our nation has wrought on an entire continent of people-in our schools, in our politics and in our hearts and minds-it is inescapably hypocritical to use Sacajawea as, in the Mint's words, "an allegorical representation of Liberty...