One From Many. Leitz Elmar-V 65mm

Last Sunday, one of the candidates running in our Presidential Election this coming Tuesday, held a hate-fest rally at New York’s Madison Square Garden.  The candidate and surrogates hurled Nazi-flavored hate and derision at immigrants, Puerto Ricans in particular, Black people, Muslims, women, and, just imagine, even Jews…  The venue was no coincidence: the German-American Bund held a similar rally there in 1939 on the eve of World War II.
I was reminded of an antique coin in a little collection from my family.  It is an 1879 Morgan 1 Dollar, so named for its designer, Assistant Engraver for the United States Treasury, George T Morgan. I decided to Blip the side which depicts Lady Liberty – derived from the Roman goddess, Libertas.  She is encircled by the de facto motto of the United States, E Pluribus Unum - most simply translated as One From Many.  Originally, the motto referred to the 13 English colonies which became the Unites States in 1776.  In a Gematraic twist, there are 13 letters to the Latin words.
But E Pluribus Unum has come to refer to the generations of immigrants who have journeyed to the United States in search of that elusive thing, The American Dream.  I, along with countless millions before, have found it.  The country, and its people, have offered an environment in which those who work hard and play by the rules, can have Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness, as denoted in The Declaration of Independence.  And, in this symbiotic relationship, We, The People, have each contributed our bit to the whole.
We are A Nation of Immigrants, said President Kennedy in his little book published posthumously in 1964.  He observed that the United States is unique in that almost its entire population came from somewhere else, and its fantastic strength is derived from this very diversity.
We have a choice to make in two days from now:  to continue on this well-trodden path of, lo, these last 248 years. Or to allow the darkest, most primitive and tribal instincts which humans hold, to take control, and tilt the world we know, on its axis.

I am indebted to Wikipedia for clarifying the many references made above.