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People are sharing which great American hero they'd add to Mount Rushmore

What legendary non-president deserves to be the 5th face?

via Wikimedia Commons
Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota.

Sculptor Gutzon Borglum designed the Mount Rushmore National Memorial and oversaw the project's execution from 1927 to 1941. The sculptor also chose the four presidents who are carved into granite on the mountain’s face. He selected the four presidents to represent the nation's birth (George Washington), growth (Thomas Jefferson), development (Theodore Roosevelt) and preservation (Abraham Lincoln).

Since the faces on Mount Rushmore were first chiseled into granite there have been debates over which presidents also deserve to be on the monument. Two years ago, then-President Donald Trump floated the idea that he deserved to have his face carved in granite.

A Reddit user posed an interesting question to the online forum about the famous monument and it sparked a great conversation. “You get to add another American to Mt. Rushmore but it can’t be a president. Who do you choose?”

That’s a tough question to answer but a fun one to ponder. What criteria does one use to choose the greatest American that ever lived who wasn’t a president? More than 545 million people have lived in the country over the past 244 years. How do we choose one?

Do you select someone from the world of sports, science, the arts, literature, civil rights, religion, military or healthcare? What about someone who performed a heroic deed? Someone that would be hilarious next to these fabled statesmen? A fictional character? There are so many choices!

mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsYou'll definitely want to visit Mount Rushmore if they start adding people from this list.Giphy

To weight the responses on the Reddit post, I looked at the number of upvotes each suggestion received and then ranked them. It’s not the most scientific way of doing things but it gives us a pretty good idea about who people think should make it to the monument.

Here are the top 20 most popular responses to the burning question: “Which non-president should be added to Mount Rushmore?”

1.

"Dr. Jonas Salk. Saved us all from polio." — Barefoot_Alvin

Salk invented the polio vaccine in 1955. Soon thereafter, the disease was essentially eradicated after killing a stunning half a million people per year for the previous several decades. This man, this hero, would certainly have strong thoughts if he were alive today.

jonas salk, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsSalk worked incredibly hard to develop a lifesaving vaccine. Wonder what he'd think about RFK Jr?By SAS Scandinavian Airlines - Commons

2.

"There is already a non-president on Mt. Rushmore. John Cena." — zoqforpik

The Reddit user is clearly referencing the wrestler's catchphrase.

john cena, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsIs John Cena in the room with us right now?Giphy

3.

"Dolly Parton." — Airos42

A true legend in her field, with plenty of longevity and a huge heart. I can see it.

4.

"Mr. Rogers." — PitchforkJoe

One of the best human beings to ever live. How rare is it for a man to achieve this level of fame without a single controversy or scandal? Oh, sorry, we're forgetting about the one time he did piss off a lot of viewers — for taking a stand against racial inequality on his show.

mr. rogers, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsA famous heterosexual white man without a scandal to be seen.Giphy

5.

"Mark Twain. The quintessential American writer. We always put up statues of military and politicians across this country. It would be nice to see more of our creative side get honored. Put up Poe on the mountain. Attract goths to the site." — inksmudgedhands

6.

"Martin Luther King Jr." — bahamuto

A great and noble choice. Few people did more to advance social progress in the United States than Martin Luther King, Jr., who did so at great cost. If anyone deserves to live forever in granite, it's him.

7.

"How is Nicolas Cage not here yet?" — deus_vult

Nicolas Cage has had an amazing redemption arc that puts him up there with some of the greatest American heroes. A few years ago he was considered a washed-up, no-talent actor who's best days and films were behind him. After a rough string of B-movies, he somehow earned "cult favorite" status and began stacking up an incredible filmography. Not too many people come back from that kind of soft-cancelling. That's the American dream, right?

nicolas cage, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsComing back from the edge of irrelevance is the real American dream.Giphy

8.

"John Wilkes Booth but he's further back behind Lincoln." — Jakovosol0

Oof. Still too soon?

9.

"Benjamin Franklin." — FinnbarMcBride

It's a common misconception that Ben Franklin invented electricity. He didn't. But he did discover that lightning was a form of electrical discharge, so if it weren't for him, we'd all still be frolicking around in thunderstorms without a care in the world! Thanks, Ben.

ben franklin, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsWhat's under those pantaloons?Giphy

10.

"Sacagawea." — bivalve_connisseur

The Louisiana Territory, ever heard of it? Without Sacagawea as their guide, Lewis and Clark never could have made the perilous journey across what is now a stretch of land containing Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Montana, and more. She was only a teenager at the time. Sadly, she died in her early twenties — just think of what other historical impact she may have made.

sacagawea, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsLewis and Clark get way more fanfare than they deserve.Giphy

11.

"Homer Simpson." — EonClaw

If we're considering fictional characters, this discussions starts to get a whole lot more interesting.

12.

"Bob Ross." — j-oats

13.

"Weird Al." — OntarioLakeside

No one did more for the genre of satirical polka parodies of pop songs than Weird Al.


weird al, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsWeird Al turned parody into a true art form.Giphy

14.

"Frederick Douglass." — kade22

15.

"Betty White." — Diatrial

If you really think about it, everything started going downhill after Betty White passed away at the age of 99. No one had a bad word to say about her. She definitely has a strong case for being included on Mount Rushmore 2.0.

16.

The person who started the thread chimed in with their nominee.

"Neil Armstrong would be my number one." — taint_licking_clown


mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsFunny enough, Buzz Aldrin didn't receive any votes.Giphy

17.

"Harriet Tubman." — 44cksSake

She freed hundreds of slaves during her time as an operator of the Underground Railroad and through other activist work. A remarkable feat for people who otherwise would have continued to suffer unimaginable cruelty.

18.

"Ronnie James Dio!" — kevinthegeek21

If you don't know Ronnie, you probably know him by his greatest achievement: He invented the iconic "devil horns" commonly associated with heavy metal and rock music.

19.

"Maria Darlene Pearson or Hai-Mecha Eunka (lit. 'Running Moccasins') (July 12, 1932 – May 23, 2003) was an activist who successfully challenged the legal treatment of Native American human remains. A member of the Turtle Clan of the Yankton Sioux which is a federally recognized tribe of Yankton Dakota, she was one of the primary catalysts for the creation of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). Her actions led to her being called 'the Founding Mother of the modern Indian repatriation movement' and 'the Rosa Parks of NAGPRA." — CTeam19

20.

"Danny DeVito." — distantshadow

Alright, DeVito is a legend and all, but we're really starting to stretch here. Even Danny would agree:

danny devito, mount rushmore, greatest american, reddit, presidents, heroes, mt. rushmore, south dakota, legends, iconsDanny DeVito is all set with his current level of fame.Giphy

This article originally appeared three years ago. It has been updated.

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This viral tweet about Thanksgiving and Native Americans deserves our attention.

A tweet that's gone viral days before Thanksgiving shows exactly why the indigenous communities of South Dakota didn't want oil pipelines on their lands.

"Just a reminder last year on Thanksgiving that Natives were being tortured with dogs, illegal scare tactics, being run over by angry white [people] all to protect our water," the tweet reads. "And this year on Thanksgiving they are now cleaning up 200,000 gallon oil spill on a South Dakota reservation."

The tweet, published on Nov. 16 by user @lilnativeboy, has amassed over 100,000 likes and tens of thousands of retweets because of its powerful — and entirely sobering — message.

The tweet is referencing 2016 protests on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation that turned violent.

Last fall, indigenous demonstrators — or self-identified "water protectors" — rallied to protect the local land and water from construction on the 1,172-mile-long Dakota Access Pipeline. In November that year, when officials became agitated with their ongoing presence, the demonstrators were sprayed with water and tear gas in freezing cold weather. That same fall, security dogs reportedly bit protesters on multiple occasions.

Between then and now, a lot has changed; most notably, an oil-friendly Trump administration took the reins in Washington, approving the final pipeline construction permit needed in February 2017.

Trump has opened the floodgates (so to speak) on a number of oil infrastructure projects; among them is the also controversial Keystone Pipeline, which is disrupting much of the same upper Midwest region as the Dakota Access.

One year later and with Thanksgiving upon us, demonstrators' fears and predictions have come true as the viral tweet alludes to.

Over 200,000 gallons of oil has leaked in South Dakota, Keystone pipeline creator TransCanada confirmed on Nov. 17. The leak, the largest in the state to date, follows another leak in April from the Dakota Access Pipeline that tainted the land with nearly 17,000 gallons.

"It is a below-ground pipeline, but some oil has surfaced above ground to the grass," Walsh said of the most recent environmental setback. "It will be a few days until they can excavate and get in borings to see if there is groundwater contamination."

A demonstrator protests Trump's executive order fast-tracking the Keystone XL and Dakota Access oil pipelines in Los Angeles. Photo by Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images.

David Flute, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribal chairman, said his community is "keeping a watchful eye and an open ear" in the wake of the leak, according to the CBC. There's a real possibility the spill could pollute the area's aquifer and waterways. "The concern is at a high level, but there is really nothing we can do," Flute said.

But there is something you can do now.

TransCanada has proposed an extension of its Keystone pipeline system into neighboring Nebraska — a decision being weighed now by the Nebraska Public Service Commission. A vote to accept or deny TransCanada's proposal is set for Monday, Nov. 20.

Many environmental and activist groups are rallying support in hopes of keeping the pipeline out of the Cornhusker State. MoveOn, for instance, is encouraging supporters to sign a petition to say "no" to the project.

"If this spill had happened along the proposed route in Nebraska, it would be absolutely devastating," Brian Jorde, a lawyer representing Nebraska landowners opposed to Keystone XL, told Reuters. "Their proposed route is within a mile of thousands of water wells."

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Shailene Woodley's Columbus Day arrest reminds us how Native Americans still need support.

Columbus Day has always been a bit ... contentious in the U.S.

In elementary school, most of us learned about Columbus as the man who discovered America. By middle school, we learned that he actually went to South America and the Caribbean. And also there were already people living there.

Then in high school, we might have learned the truth: Columbus had nothing to do with the United States at all ... and also he raped and pillaged lots of indigenous peoples.

Our country's relationship with its native inhabitants has been complicated from the beginning.

In fact, you could call it downright awful. Inhumane. Genocidal. To this day, Native American communities continue to suffer from poverty and police brutality at alarming rates.

And this year, on Columbus Day, three things happened that proved how complicated all of this continues to be.

Photo by Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images.

1. 524 years after Columbus "discovered" the "New World," actress Shailene Woodley and a bunch of other activists were arrested in North Dakota for protesting to protect Native American rights.

The situation began earlier this year, when Energy Transfer Partners began construction on the Dakota Access Pipeline, a $3.7-billion project that would threaten the water supply that serves more than 9,000 Native Americans.

The Standing Rock Sioux and other tribes appealed to numerous government departments and courts to halt the project. But despite a few temporary rulings, the conflict continued.

The company behind the pipeline bullied their way through thousands of Native American protesters and clandestinely destroyed the same sacred lands and burial sites that the tribes had hoped to protect.

Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images.

Over the weekend, Energy Transfer Partners denied another request from the U.S. Justice Department to voluntarily stop construction.

Once again, the tribes gathered in protest, leading to the arrests of more than two dozen people on Oct. 10, including actress Shailene Woodley.

Woodley broadcast her arrest over Facebook Live, and while that publicity didn't keep her out of jail, it did help to raise awareness about the unfair ways which Native Americans continue to suffer.

Native American communities have been largely ignored, which has only made it easier for the U.S. government and corporations alike to get away with egregious mistreatments, like what's happening in North Dakota.

Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images.

2. Meanwhile, 26 U.S. cities and two entire states replaced Columbus Day with "Indigenous Peoples' Day."

Less than half of the country actually recognizes Columbus Day to begin with, which is a good step forward.

Over the last 25 years, communities across the country have started to use the holiday to celebrate the oft-ignored heritage of the country's indigenous inhabitants, instead of a man who did them harm. South Dakota was the first full state to replace the holiday with Native Americans Day back in 1990, with Vermont joining the charge just this past year.

"Indigenous Peoples Day represents a shift in consciousness," said Leo Killsback, a citizen of the Northern Cheyenne Nation and assistant professor of American Indian studies at Arizona State University, in an interview with CNN. "It acknowledges that indigenous peoples and their voices are important in today's conversations."

Photo by Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images.

3. The U.S. government also recently paid out nearly $500 million to 17 native tribes in a long-overdue settlement over property rights.

While European settlers took a lot of North American territories by force, the U.S. Department of Interior did enter into legal treaties with native tribes for the use of almost 56 million acres of land. Rather than selling the property outright, however, the tribes freely gave up the land, agreeing instead to take "just compensation" for whatever profits were made from the businesses and tenants that made use of it, including housing, timber harvesting, farming, livestock grazing, and oil and gas extractions.

Unfortunately, the U.S. government didn't do a very good job of managing the land resources or the money that was made from them. (And this is hardly the only example of U.S. interests ignoring legally-binding contracts with Native Americans.)

Since President Obama took office, though, nearly 100 lawsuits and billions of dollars have been settled between the government and Native American tribes — some of which dated back more than a century and had gone ignored all that time.

This might sound like some generous progress, but it's also something that the tribes have been legally owed for a long, long time. It's a tiny step forward.

Photo by Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images.

This year, Columbus Day reminded me of just how far we've come in terms of respecting our indigenous brethren — and how far we still need to go.

We've taken two steps forward recently by paying back the Native Americans and beginning to abolish a problematic holiday. But we've also taken one giant step back by allowing corporations to destroy sacred Native American land, just to build an oil pipeline.

The good news is that social media is a powerful tool for change. Now that people are paying attention to their plight and the celebration of their culture is spreading, we might start to see some actual change.

We can't undo the damage we've already done nor can we change the fact that we've refused to make up for our mistakes so far.

But if we want to do what's right and build a brighter future for all the people who live in the United States, there's no better time to start than now.

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Why would any state pass an invasive bill like South Dakota did?

Dear South Dakota,

I heard you recently passed a bill to help ensure students have their privacy respected, and I wanted to say "thanks!"

I do, however, have a few concerns I hope you can help me with. I was reading through the bill, appropriately titled, "An Act to restrict access to certain restrooms and locker rooms in public schools," and while it’s not the sexiest title (you can’t even make an acronym out of it — I mean … AATRATCRALRIPS?), that’s not really the focus. The important thing is that it ensures student privacy and, as Republican state Sen. David Omdahl said, "to preserve the innocence of our young people."

Photos via iStock.

I, too, think it’s important that we preserve the innocence of our young people, which is why I wanted to ask a few things about the bill before the governor decides whether he'll sign or veto. Let’s start with the obvious questions.

If you define "biological sex" as "the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a person’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth," I have to ask what category you place people who either haven’t had their chromosomes tested (which, I don’t know about you, but I certainly haven’t; that’s not something they do to newborns) or people with "anatomy" (very vague) that falls somewhere outside the male/female binary (as much as 1% of the population)?

Here's that section from your bill:

"BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA:

Section 1. That chapter 13–24 be amended by adding a NEW SECTION to read:

The term, biological sex, as used in this Act, means the physical condition of being male or female as determined by a person’s chromosomes and anatomy as identified at birth."



This next part came to my attention because, well, I’m just curious what this has to do with "preserving innocence" or privacy? Do kids still take showers in schools? That don’t have private stalls? It’s been a while since I was in school, but I can’t remember a single time anybody in my grade school or high school used the showers after gym class. Most people just showered at home, I think.

I decided to run a very informal poll, and yep, it seems as though open showers are a thing of the past.


And when it comes to restrooms, I’ve never seen anybody’s genitals (nor had the opportunity to test their DNA) while using the bathroom. I’m a firm believer that if you’re seeing others’ genitals while you use the bathroom, then you’re, well, bathrooming wrong.

And I’m curious how you plan to test students’ anatomy and/or chromosomes. That is, how will you enforce this new law? Will there be genital checks upon entering locker rooms? Do students need to give a blood sample? Surely you have some system in place. I’m sure you wouldn’t pass a law without  —  well, who knows?

But again, from your bill:

"Section 2. That the code be amended by adding a NEW SECTION to read:

Every restroom, locker room, and shower room located in a public elementary or secondary school that is designated for student use and is accessible by multiple students at the same time shall be designated for and used only by students of the same biological sex. In addition, any public school student participating in a school sponsored activity off school premises which includes being in a state of undress in the presence of other students shall use those rooms designated for and used only by students of the same biological sex."

Actually, the more I think about it, the more it seems like this bill actively wipes away innocence. I mean, I wouldn’t want a teacher looking at my junk. I wouldn’t feel as though my privacy is protected any better if a public school (which is essentially the government) had access to my DNA. That’d actually make me feel a whole lot less protected. I’d feel violated, even.

It seems to me that this bill wasn’t properly thought through. It sounds expensive (if you’re going to ensure people are in the "right" restroom and locker room, this’ll be pricey!), and it sounds like — well, I’m no lawyer, but — it sounds to me like this invites lawsuits. I could be wrong.

But can you tell me how knowing what students’ genitals look like helps ensure their privacy? It seems to me like this bill is a solution in search of a problem; sadly, that "solution" will only cause more problems.

Best,

Parker

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