Disclosure: I find Chris Matthews thoroughly annoying. Thoroughly! But this is about the Mt. Rushmore promo, not about the shil.
The Mt. Rushmore promo at its very best is insensitive toward violation of the natural environment — at its very best. Beyond that? It celebrates cynically broken treaties, theft of land from indigenous peoples, desecration of holy places. For what purpose? Greed. Racism. A sense of entitled superiority.
To Chris Matthews? Mt. Rushmore is a symbol of America’s greatness, a tribute to great men (sic!). To me? It’s a national embarrassment. What do you think? Why?
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Postscript: Teddy Roosevelt, the great champion of preserving the natural environment, has his massive image stamped on a terrible desecration of the natural environment. I wonder how he’d feel about that?
(1) None of those guys up there were Democrats.
(2) Teddy Roosevelt only wanted to preserve wilderness so he could shoot animals in it.
1. True enough, though you have to wonder in which of today’s parties the guys would fit best. For example, TR was the great “trust buster.” Interesting that Borgium (sp?) went from the Confederate Memorial at Stone Mountain to Mt. Rushmore.
2. Speaking of TR, I think you’re being a smidgeon too hard on him. He was a friend of John Muir and also a conservationist in his own right.