Rushmore (Redux)

When people consider trekking across the country on a road trip I assume that most people consider taking sometime to visit Mount Rushmore.  It was definitely on my list of places to visit within my lifetime and I have to say it was worth it.  However, the overt hyper nationalism was uncomfortable, but simply imagining the mental initiative of sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was inspiring to imagine.  As an adopted Asian American, who grew up in the affluent suburbs of Washington, DC in Northern Virginia, I had an existential experience while visiting Rushmore.  

Aesthetically speaking, the sculpted mount was supposed to have been more...completed.  Not just heads, but full bodies of the four chosen presidents.  It also was supposed to have a cave (located behind the heads) for enclosing important documents for our country, such as copies of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. 

Rushmore is a weird place, and I wish I could report that it was a diverse gathering, but it really wasn't.  Crowded with aging veterans and senior citizens, there were some foreigners and families.  Majority of the people who were there were older and white, and this national landmark pilgrimage site seemed designed specifically for them.  

While in I was in the gift shop, an elderly man asked me 'where was I from' and what languages I spoke.  I'm resentful of the repeated occurrences of unintended racist encounters I am subjected to by living in this country.  Why am I still fixated on a weird encounter with a guy asking me about my perceived ethnic background?  I usually brush things off and tell myself that it's because he's from a different generation, which I realize is a reverse prejudice.  Trying to explain this (to him or myself) is usually a dead end and it's worthless to be angry.  But I'm still resentful.


Perhaps I had a notion of what a road trip in America should be--and in reality I learned that the journey is different for everyone.  Just as some people might argue that the United States of America is Free and Equal--in reality it is not.  I'm not concluding that my hour at Rushmore made me realize this, but just as I might have been subconsciously looking for some weird epiphany by driving for thousands miles, the country is figuratively still traveling towards an uncertain destination. 

Rushmore (for me) represents the unfinished work our country must work toward accomplishing.  Perhaps my self-reflective pit stop could be useful to some politicians in Washington, especially this coming week.