Historical figures are overly glorified. America either isn’t aware, or doesn’t care, that the “great” men and country we envision when looking to the past had their faults.

Due to the new musical “Hamilton,” people have called to take Andrew Jackson off the $20 bill in exchange for a female historical figure, Harriet Tubman. The original plan was to replace Hamilton on the bill. It’s pretty gross that it took a Broadway spectacle to make people change their minds about replacing Hamilton on the bill. The fact that Jackson, the president who was responsible for one of the United States’ most atrocious actions, the Trail of Tears, would have stayed on the bill instead of Tubman if it weren’t for pop culture speaks volumes.

Abraham Lincoln himself, who “freed” the slaves, was more concerned with preserving the Union than granting African-Americans’ rights. Besides, you can’t “grant” rights; they are things that all people inherently deserve. Honest Abe was actually pretty manipulative. During his campaign during the 1860 election, he purposefully didn’t mention his goal of emancipating slaves to stop border states like Kansas from seceding.

During Reconstruction, 10 percent of each state population took an oath promising to follow the new amendments. Then the state would be reinstated with the federal government’s supervision. However, that policy didn’t last long. .

Despite the creation of the Reconstruction Amendments (the 13th, which abolished slavery, the 14th, which gave citizens equal protection under the law and the 15th, which gave suffrage to all men), they often weren’t enforced. The Jim Crow laws, as a result of the Plessy v. Ferguson case, allowed segregation to continue throughout the 1960s.

Even Alexander Hamilton is glamorized now. Hamilton was not perfect, and he wasn’t really an abolitionist. George Washington owned slaves. Thomas “all men are created equal” Jefferson had slaves. Stephen Ambrose sums it up pretty well: “history abounds with ironies” .

So should we just change everyone on our currency? Not necessarily. As long as we are aware that these men were just men, not heroes, not perfect idols, they can serve as a reminder for us now more than ever. We can’t “make America great again” because we never truly were.