Shiver Showcase - Mount Rushmore: A Monument to the Promise of America

Few places stir my soul like Mount Rushmore.

Conceived by historian Doane Robinson and brought to life by sculptor Gutzon Borglum, Mount Rushmore took fourteen years to complete. Nearly four hundred workers carved sixty-foot faces into granite, often hanging from ropes hundreds of feet above the ground. Borglum envisioned more than a monument to four presidents. He envisioned a monument to the American experiment itself.

George Washington represented the birth of our nation and the character and sacrifice required to establish it.

Thomas Jefferson embodied liberty, vision, and the boundless possibilities of what America could become.

Abraham Lincoln preserved the Union during its darkest hour and reminded us that freedom and equality were ideals worth defending.

Theodore Roosevelt represented optimism, action, and the belief that each generation has a responsibility to leave things better than they found them.

Neither the nation nor the men honored on the mountain were perfect.

Yet imperfect people often accomplish extraordinary things.

That may be the greatest lesson Mount Rushmore has to teach.

For nearly a century, millions have stood beneath those faces in awe of their grandeur, but reminded that America is more than a monument.

It is an idea.

An experiment in freedom unlike any the world had seen before.

An idea built upon freedom, opportunity, personal responsibility, and hope.

An idea entrusted to each generation for 250 years.

Mount Rushmore is not really about the past.

It is about the future.

The monument stands as a reminder that every generation is called to preserve and renew the promise of America.

The granite may be permanent.

But America's future is written every day by ordinary citizens.

Parents raising children.

Teachers shaping minds.

Entrepreneurs building businesses.

Neighbors serving neighbors.

Citizens doing their part.

The monument is carved in stone.

The promise lives in us.

And that responsibility is both our blessing and our privilege.

May we prove worthy to realize the full potential of that promise.

May future generations look back and say that when our turn came, we answered the call.