Jared's+Speech

When mom said, "We’re going to Mount Rushmore for our vacation!"

I admit,

I thought, "Oh, a couple of faces carved on a mountain and a bunch of boring history of what each person did to get on a hunk of rock. Just of looking at old photos that are so old they're black and white. I get enough of that at school. Just no educatioal stuff till the fall. But they said I would change my mind about this whole thing once I got there. We'll see.

This is the trip I was telling you about. We were at the entrance area to Mount Rushmore going past flags from every state. Then we went to a big exibit. It said that because of who this monument symbolizes (the best of our leaders) it symbolizes the American people. It displays the faces of some of the greatest minds and hearts that have ever led this country.

It showed George Washington, our first president and the man who led us against the British and made it possible for us to be a free country, a democracy, and a land fair and just from sea to shining sea. The father of the new country. It was him that made the place we call the land of the free even possible.

There is Abraham Lincoln, our 16th president, the man who held our country together in the time it was most torn apart. The south and north turned on each other over slavery. It was the bloodiest war in the history of the United States of America. But he pulled the country back together. It’s one of the most challenging feats any president ever had to do.

Then there's Thomas Jefferson. He was our 3rd president. He wrote the Declaration of Independence, that very article the founding fathers tried to use to declare America a free country. The document that inspires democracies around the world to this very day. He doubled the size of the United States of America by buying the Louisiana territory from France.

And finally there’s Theodore Roosevelt, our 26th president. He provided leadership when America experienced rapid economic growth as it entered the 20th Century. He linked the east and the west by the creation of the Panama Canal.

We then went to look at Mount Rushmore. Have you ever seen it? If you haven't, let me tell you, It takes your breath away. I've seen pictures of Mount Rushmore but that is nothing compared to the real thing. It's big. Their faces are about the size of my school. Then I read a plaque that included a quote by Gutzon Borglum. It read //"A monument's dimensions should be determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated. We are not here trying to carve an epic, portray a moonlight scene, or write a sonnet; neither are we dealing with mystery or tragedy, but rather the constructive and dramatic moments or crises in our amazing history."// That made me think this monument stands to show the greatness of our country. It's the great spirit, our sense of right, our willingness to do what's right. That's what this monument is about.

After viewing Mount Rushmore, we went to a side exibit. It talked about the constuction and carving of Rushmore. The carving was made by Gutzon and 400 workers. There were no people killed during the construction and carving of the mountain. It took the workers 14 years to complete the construcion of the monument. And all the carving up till the point where there was only 3 to 6 inches to the final carving surface was done with dynamite. That means it had to be very precise in where the charge was placed and the size of the charge.

This is why Mount Rushmore is the most important national landmark. It's the monument that represents us, the people.You, me, the old man down the street. And who knows? You might be the next person society chooses to go on the most important American landmark of all, Mount Rushmore.