White Guilt in the Black Hills

There are many reasons that a trip to Mount Rushmore could feel a bit…off. Mount Rushmore can represent a lot of very negative things to a lot of different people. Mount Rushmore is the ultimate tourist trap, literally built for no other reason than to attract tourism dollars to the State of South Dakota. The mountain was carved on land that didn’t belong to us. It glorifies two slave owners. It represents four difficult, challenging, and controversial times in our nation’s history, and basically celebrates all things white people in America. Oh yeah, and the guy who carved it was kind of a white supremacist who had connections to the Klan.

(Fast forward to 3:15 in this video for an interesting history of Mount Rushmore)

But damn’t, after four years of college classes telling me that I’m responsible for all the world’s problems as a white male, it was nice to feel good about America for a little bit.

The Mount Rushmore complex is a pretty cool park that is tucked away in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It doesn’t cost anything to actually see the monument (your tax dollars at work), but it does cost $10 to park (the parking is contracted out to a private company) in a massive parking garage that is hidden in the base of the mountain. If you bring kids, you probably won’t be able to leave without spending money on ice cream, either.

There is a simple walkway with flags from all 50 states lining the way to the grand viewing terrace and museum, where most pictures are taken from. There is also a trail that is about a half mile long that takes you to the base of the sculpture, where you can get the best close-up shots of you so cleverly picking Abraham Lincoln’s nose. I’m sure that he is so glad to have preserved the union to protect that freedom.

As a nerd for presidents and their legacies, I must say that the museum is pretty awesome. Unfortunately, most visitors were simply interested in the giant faces in the mountain. There is so much more to the meaning and reasoning behind the monument, yet this seems to go over the head of the average tourist. I would recommend holding off the family trip to Mount Rushmore until your kids have had at least a taste of 5^th grade history. I can tell you that most of the 10 and under crowd were more interested in the ice cream and probably got nothing out of the place other than the heads in the mountain. I mean, if you’re going to drive all the way to the middle of f’ing nowhere, South Dakota, don’t you want your kids to actually get something out of the experience?

Anyway, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt were not perfect men by any means, but their visions for and impacts on America are laid out very nicely in the museum, along with very detailed explanations as to how these men represent the founding, growth, preservation, and development of the Union. And really, in order to enjoy the place, you have to put aside political differences and admire what positives these men were able to accomplish, and realize that if not for them, we would probably be living in a very, very different America.

Yes, if you think about it too hard and let your white liberal guilt get the best of you, Mount Rushmore can feel like a pretty dirty place to visit. But if you’re able to put that aside for just an hour or two, and focus on the positives of the legacies of these presidents, and be grateful that you live in the greatest country in the World (yes, even if we don’t have healthcare, America is still pretty sweet), Mount Rushmore is a pretty cool sight to see. Yes, there are many, many negative things to be said about Mount Rushmore and America in general, but wouldn’t you rather be living here than in a slum in India? Or with government censorship in China? Or with Kim Jong-Il in North Korea? Or Canada?

All in all, I enjoyed my trip to Mount Rushmore, and also went down the road for a bit to the Crazy Horse Memorial, where I was lectured about how I am responsible for my ancestor’s poor foresight and raping of sacred land, so I should give money to help build the memorial so future generations of white people may also be lectured and made to feel guilty about something they had nothing to do with. Just like college!

You can view all the photos from Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse here, or in the photo stream to the right.