Yasin's Shell

I stopped at a Shell station yesterday and was in a crabby mood. Gas at $3.89 should have cheered me up, but didn’t. I went inside to pay. Behind the thick glass, locked behind the register is a boy about 10 years old, shaved head, big glasses, red tee shirt.

Mom in her red tee shirt is stocking some shelves. The kid can’t wait to take my money. He wants to work the register and push the buttons that make the gas go on. I gave him a Benjamin.

Mom: “Yasin! Open the door! Yasin! Give me the money! Yasin! Don’t touch that.”

Forty dollars on number four, please.

Mom gives me back $60. Yasin grabs the Benjamin and puts it under the cash drawer. He pushes the button before mom can. He’s so happy!

I think about Yasin and the way America is changing. He doesn’t look like those guys on the $1 and $5 bills either. Mom and baklava instead of mom and apple pie perhaps.

That got me thinking about those guys on the money. So:

$1 - George Washington – Father of our country and slave owner.
$5 - Thomas Jefferson – Writer of the Declaration of Independence and slave owner. He used to take the lash to his slaves personally on occasion.
$10 - Alexander Hamilton – Island guy originally. Not a slave owner.
$20 - Andrew Jackson – War hero, slave owner and ethnic cleanser. Ask the Cherokee how they feel about Jacksonian democracy.
$50 - Ulysses S. Grant – Another war hero. Also apparently a slave owner at one point.
$100 - Benjamin Franklin – Patriot, diplomat, scientist. Oh yeah, slave owner before he became an abolitionist.

Hey Yasin – see you next week!