Page 6- The Behrend College Beacon - Thursday, October 15, 1998 Some say redesigned $2O bill looks like funny money By Paul Farhi The Washington Post WASHINGTON funny money, or play money, or, as one bank executive thought upon first encountering it, “some kind of bank promotion The new $2O bill is genuine le gal tender, as solid as a sawbuck can be. But call it the shock of the new. As the radically redesigned twenty begins to trickle out of automated teller machines, it looks to many eyes as odd as a three-dollar bill. April Crews, who works for a nonprofit youth organization in Wash ington, gets her first glimpse of the new bill’s clashing type fonts, its luxu riant fields of white space, its new, in your-face portrait of Andrew Jackson and almost physically recoils. "Oh, it looks awful,” she declares. “What have they done?” George Medina, a file analyst at the Export-Import Bank, offers a short, unambiguous design review: “Fake-looking." They - and you - might as well get used to it. The twenty is the third U.S. bill to be redesigned in the past two years - the comparatively rare $ 100 and $5O bills tame f' r ‘.t - out it's destined to become the most familiar repackaging since New Coke. The twenty, after all, is the second-most widely used U.S. note, after the $1 bill, which means that virtually every American will see the new version within a few months The U.S. Treasury began adding millions of the new $2O bills to the banking system late last month. Within six months, Treasury officials said, nearly a quarter of all $2O bills in circulation will be the new kind; within two years, the classic twenties, Excavation reveals slaves as entrepreneurs By Linda Wheeler The Washington Post An archaeological team exca vating an old James River plantation in Virginia has found evidence that some enslaved Africans partially supported their families with their own gardens and livestock and that they hunted for game and fished the river. They became part of entrepre neurial America, bartering or buy ing dishes, beads and children’s toys. The work of College of William and Mary archaeologist Tom Higgins, supported by similar finds at other Virginia plantations, shat ters the long-held belief that all slaves were helpless, dependent people who could do little to care for themselves. "We know now that the people who lived here took the initiative to make their condition better,” Higgins said as he walked along a soybean field where 100 or more slaves had lived on the 2,000-acre Wilton plantation east of Richmond. "They were creative. They found ways to take care of themselves un der a brutal and oppressive system.” Higgins bases his conclusions on several discoveries made by a team of archaeologists that has been exploring an acre of the farmland since April. The Virginia Depart ment of Transportation hired them o document the area, as required by aw, before construction begins on l nine-mile, four-lane state road through the former plantation. Tuesday, Virginia officials will stand on the site of the slave quar ters to announce the start of the road project, Higgins said. Sunday, Higgins spread out a drawn-to-scale map of the area as he sat cross-legged on a new gravel road laid for the ceremony. He pointed to the location of barracks style housing and adjoining fenced areas, appropriate for penned ani mals or garden crops. Some slaves were given guns to all but unchanged since they were in troduced during the Coolidge admin istration, will mostly be a memory, though some of the old bills are likely to be around for decades to come. Local banks and merchants re port a few puzzled looks from cus tomers when they hand over the new bill. That’s easy to understand; even the pros are sometimes startled. Ken Darby, a spokesman for First Union Bank, recalled that when he withdrew some money last week from his ATM he momentarily wasn’t sure what he No, it’s not was getting. “I must admit when (the cash) first came out I thought it was some kind of bank promotion,” Darby said. Treasury officials recognize the enormity of the change, and they aren’t particularly troubled by a few knocks on their new creation. “Some people like the way it looks, some people don’t,” said Roger Anderson, a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury. “It’s natural. Anytime you change something that’s been around for 70 years, it takes a while to get used to it.” Besides, Anderson said, “we didn ’ t do any of this for aesthetic rea- The Treasury figures that what ever the ungainly new bill may give up in form, it compensates for in func tion. That’s because the new design is all about foiling counterfeiters, who copy the $2O bill more than any other denomination. Some of the anti-counterfeiting features of the new bill are downright interactive. For example, the “.20” in the lower right-hand comer of the face side that is green when you view it head-on shifts to black when the angle is different. When the bill is held up to the light, Jackson appears as a hunt wildlife, and although Higgins found no state government permits issued to the African workers of Wilton, he did find pieces of 18th century guns buried in the heavy clay along with animal and fish bones. Within the boundaries of what had been large, single-room build ings dating from the 1700 s, Higgins found multiple rectangular holes that had been lined with brick or wood. Similar spaces had been found at the restored Carter Grove plantation near Williamsburg and at Monticello near Charlottesville, he said. At Wilton, he found five such spaces under what had been a slave house that burned to the ground about 1790. So sudden was the de struction that the log walls caved in, the twig and mud chimneys col lapsed and the five rectangular holes were buried under the debris. In these spaces, which some historians call root cellars or hidy-holes, Higgins found an impressive collec tion of things that would have been considered special to occupants of the house. On the gravel, he spread out some of his favorite items: the metal part of an oversize hoe, two heavy clothes irons, earth-tone beads, stone marbles, a dozen common pins and a metal thimble. He held up a reconstructed, china chamber pot with graceful blue flowers, blackened at the top by the fire. “If this had been trash, it would have been broken into small pieces,” he said. “It would have been trampled and crushed.” Higgins’s theory about the use of the underground storage areas as places to keep important, personal possessions is supported by the di rector of archaeology at Monticello, Fraser Neiman. boxes,” he said, Neiman said that the “boxes” were first documented about 20 “I like to call them safe-deposit World and Nation ghostly watermark on the far right side, and a tiny security thread read ing “USA TWENTY” and featuring a little American flag become visible. The oversized and oddly con trasting “20” on the back of the bill was put there to help visually im paired people recognize the bill, as well as to help make it stand out in “low-light situations,” such as in a cab or a bar, Anderson said. All well and good, but some de sign experts suggest that the govern ment could have done that and still made a graphically pleasing impres- “In my opinion, it truly reflects the establishment - it has a conserva tive, puritanical quality,” said Franz Werner, a professor of design at the Rhode Island School of Design. The redesign involved input from the Secret Service, Bureau of Engrav ing, Federal Reserve and Treasury officials, and took several years to complete, the Treasury’s Anderson said. Despite the long development process, some organizations are still scrambling to adjust. The U.S. Postal Service, one of the nation’s largest operators of vending machines, snio its 12.000 stamp-vending machines that take 3>20 bills can’t recognize the new bill and will have to be retrofit ted. The Postal Service doesn’t know how much it will cost to upgrade its equipment, but it plans to hire a com pany to begin the job sometime next month, spokeswoman Monica Hand said. Eventually, all 38,000 post of fice vending machines will have to be overhauled because Treasury plans to redesign the $lO, $5 and $1 bills over the next few years. years ago and that historians have had several theories about their use. One theory holds that they were used in the practice of an African custom; another says they were places to hide items stolen from the plantation owner. He discounts both. The “boxes,” have been found only in Virginia and not in other slaveholding states. They have been found in connection with large, single-room slave quar ters, but not at excavations of smaller, family-size houses. He said people living commu nally needed secure places to put their possessions, such as extra food, cash or purchased items. They dis appeared from use about 1800 when Virginia plantation owners built in dividual houses that offered security for personal possessions, he said. The opulent Wilton mansion had eight rooms paneled entirely in elaborately cut pine. The furnishings were from France and England. The Marquis de Lafayette made Wilton his headquarters during the Revolutionary War, and George Washington was a frequent visitor. Built between 1750 and 1753, the Georgian house was home to Will iam Randolph 111, his wife Anne Carter Harrison and their eight chil dren. Eventually, high debts forced the sale of the plantation in 1859 to buyers outside the family. By 1932, it was used to store hay. Then the National Society of The Colonial Dames of America purchased Wilton, had it dismantled, moved and reconstructed in west Richmond as its headquarters. It is open to the public for tours. Wilton House Museum admin istrator Sylvia Evans said the group would like to exhibit the artifacts found by the Higgins team as a way to acknowledge the role played by the slaves at the plantation. “These are the silent voices of history,” she said. Violent the rise By Gilbert A. Lewthwaite The Baltimore Sun TSHILAMBA, South Africa - Violet Dangale, 42, was driven from her home 30 months ago by relatives and neighbors who accused her of being a witch growing rich from the work of zombies, as the “living dead” are known in that line of work. Now penniless and in fear for her life, she hides in this remote village of Northern Province in a tent given to her by the local police. Francina Sebatsana, 75, and Desia Mamafa, 55, suffered a worse fate in December. They were burned to death on pyres of wood in the vil lage of Wydhoek, in the same prov ince, after also being denounced ?s witches. Eleven men, ages 21 to 50, will be tried on murder charges in November. Since 1990, more than 2,000 cases of witchcraft-related violence, including 577 killings, have been re ported in this remote, northern cor ner of South Africa. This is not the only area that has seen such violence. This month, in the heartland province of Guateng, four men were arrested after the house of Nokonleko Shingane, an other alleged witch, was set afire. Phumele Ntombele-Nzimande of the Commission on Gender Equal ity said the violence associated with witch hunts has become “a national scourge.” A five-day conference of gov ernment and social agencies held last week in Thohoyandou, capital of Northern Province, called for a na tional educational campaign to counter popular superstition. The conference rejected outlaw ing witchcraft, which has millions of followers in South Africa. It favored tolerating the belief, or superstition, but not allowing it to impinge on the basic rights of others. “In this new South Africa, there is no need seriously for a law to sup press witchcraft,” said Barney Pityana of the South African Human Rights Commission. “We need to say to our people, ‘You are free to prac tice and belong, but you are not free to violate someone else’s rights.’ “At the end of the day, what is more important to me is not whether you believe in witchcraft or n0t.... It is whether your belief in witchcraft leads you to violate my rights.” The conference urged registra tion of traditional healers, who are often involved in starting witch hunts by identifying alleged witches. The proposal would subject them to a Officials launch aggressive Megan’s Law enforcement By Josh Meyer Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES - If you think it’s unsettling to get a letter from the Internal Revenue Service, imagine opening an envelope and reading that a violent sexual predator is living down the street from you and your children. In the coming weeks, the county Board of Supervisors has decided, that is exactly what is going to happen to thousands of Los Angeles County residents who live on the same block as a “high risk,” violent sex offender. The supervisors have directed Sheriff Sherman Block to make such formal notifications in the county’s unincorporated areas, home to about 1 million people. Supporters and crit ics say that Los Angeles County’s new policy is among the nation’s most aggressive applications of Megan’s Law, named after a New Jersey girl killed by a violent and repeat sex of fender. California law has long required about 65,000 sex offenders to regis ter with their local law enforcement agencies. The state version of Megan’s Law, enacted two years ago, allows the public access to informa tion about whether convicted child molesters are living nearby. But few, if any, large police de partments actively notify all residents living near such high-risk offenders, according to Mike Van Winkle, the witch hunts in South Africa code of conduct, “People often come to me want ing me to point out who among them is a witch, and I always refuse,” said Credo Mutwah, a leading traditional healer. “A ‘nanga’ (traditional healer) doesn’t need to point out people as witches to earn income. A good nanga makes money by strengthen ing people’s homes against harm ... by giving people medicine to rid people of sickness.” Nowhere, perhaps, are the an cient superstition and mystery that surround witchcraft more deeply en trenched than in South Africa’s Northern Province. There, among the poorly educated rural residents, tra ditional healers and clairvoyants claiming supernatural powers hold broad sway. And hunger, poverty and unemployment can create jealousies that can quickly turn to anger and vengeance. “People believe that a person can, through some sort of remote control, influence a driver of a ve hicle to sleep and be involved in an accident, a pregnant mother in hos pital to have a miscarriage, or a per son anywhere to be unfortunate in some way or other,” said a 1996 re port by the Crime Information Man agement Center on witchcraft in Northern Province. But the violence is not limited to witch hunts. “Witches” have con ducted ritual killings. In pursuit of magical power, Noledzane Ernest Mabuda allegedly killed his 11-month-old baby, plan ning to use the body parts as “muti,” or ingredients for bewitching com pounds and potions, according to the charges against him in Venda High Court. He is charged with forcing his wife, Helen, to take part in the ritual killing in February and drink the baby’s blood. She has been granted immunity in return for testifying against him. His trial is expected to end this week. As a nanga in the village of Vondwe, Ndweleni Collbert Ramagoma used to make a lot of money by helping the sick and dis tressed. He said he invoked only good spirits able to cure ailments such as female infertility. With the fees he earned, he could afford four wives. He owned a large house, land, four cars and a tractor. He used the trac tor to help his neighbors cultivate their fields. Today, all but one of his wives have left him. His house and vehicles have been burned because, he says, Megan’s Law specialist for the state Attorney General’s Office. He said he didn’t know of any city or county that does targeted mailings, as Los Ange les plans to do. The board voted 4 to 0 last Tues day to approve the motion by Super visor Gloria Molina. Molina says she hopes the 88 cities in the county, in cluding Los Angeles, follow the county’s lead, and that the rest of the state follows suit. The board also in structed the County Counsel and the Sheriff to begin networking with other law enforcement agencies to achieve that. “We are talking about ... a very high-risk kind of individual; someone with multiple convictions, who really has a problem,” says Molina. “There’s no doubt this is aggressive, it is pro active.” Some have hailed the board’s action as bold leadership on a critical and controversial issue of public safety. Block, who is locked in a tough battle for re-election, is especially pleased, calling the change “an en hancement to our approach to the law” that costs little in the way of effort or money. His departmental point man on Megan’s Law, Cmdr. William Mangan, says the letters will be go ing out within a month to everyone on the same “100 block" as a high risk offender, encouraging them to go to their local Sheriff’s station to get more information. The offenders’ ad- a neighbor’s son kept his father awake one night chanting the name “Ramagoma.” The father accused Ramagoma of bewitching the boy. Ramagoma appealed for support from the local leader, who turned against him and organized a witch hunt. A few days later, a crowd marched on his house. Crouching in side, he heard someone say, “We will finish up with him today.” He fled as they burned his property. Several miles away on another night, Thari William Masithi also watched his house go up in flames. It was the best house in Mpego, the village of his birth. He built it for $25,000 from industrial compensa tion for a back injury he suffered while working for a Johannesburg building contractor. “There was no one who had a house such as this one,” he said. “Even the traditional leader didn’t have a house like this one.” A crowd of youths approached and accused him of practicing witch craft by using zombies to acquire his property. The youths burned the house, killing Masithi’s mother, who was inside. He and his wife fled with their six children. The youths who set the fire were arrested, tried and sen tenced to three to five years in prison. Violet Dangale’s main accuser was her uncle. He first accused her father of using zombies to enrich himself. Then he turned on her, sug gesting that she enjoyed her share of the family’s wealth through witch craft. “We had our own water,” she said. “We didn't have to go down to the river. When we wanted meat, we didn’t go to the butcher. We slaugh tered one of our own cattle. That’s why people were so jealous.” As the accusations and threats grew stronger, the Dangale family fled their homes in Dzimauli. "They said I was a witch: I don’t know anything about witchcraft,” she said. “I don’t believe in zombies. Since I was born, I never saw a zom bie.” Dangale, her mother and her four children sought refuge in the Mutale police station. They camped in the police compound for almost two years before moving to Tshilamba in February. She started to build a brick house beside the tent but ran out of money. Her old house is standing, but she is afraid to return to it. “They could bum the house down while I’m inside and kill me.” dress will not be made available Even so, “it won’t take too many neighbors talking to each other to fig ure out who it is,” Van Winkle says of the sex offenders. That’s one reason critics are al ready beginning the describe the board’s vote as politically motivated and, ultimately, counterproductive. By notifying communities of child molesters’ whereabouts, critics predict, authorities are creating a situ ation in which most sex offenders - as history has shown - will seek cover elsewhere rather than risk vigilantism and harassment by angry parents in their neighborhoods. The Los Angeles Police Depart ment and some other police forces, in fact, have decided not to participate in the mailings. “Eventually, if they’re forced to move from city to city, they will not register, and we won’t know where they are,” said Capt. Stuart Maislin, commanding officer of the LAPD’s Juvenile Division. Block acknowledges that the new policy undoubtedly will “out” some sexual predators within their commu nities, and lead them to seek cover elsewhere. And he agrees they might not register there, either. But he says the penalties for not re-registering could send many offenders back to prison, and that the threat of further incarceration will keep the number of such scofflaws to a minimum.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers