Whose Head Is Next?

Sometimes you just have to ask yourself the questions that no one else seems to be asking. You never know when someone will ask something and, well, there you are -- speechless. You don't want to look like an absolute idiot do you? This is why it's a good idea to ask the stupid questions, the inane, the ridiculous. Such as

Whose Head Is Next? Mt. Rushmore has the heads of four American Presidents; Lincoln, Roosevelt, Washington and Jefferson. It's a very nice monument, as monuments go but, frankly, there is room for another head of a president....maybe more.

Whose head should be the next to be carved onto Mt. Rushmore? Which President would you like to see on this monument?

AS Im from the UK i'd say Sir Winston Churchill or Margaret Thacher!!!! lol
Do you belive as a US citizen that a previous President has meet the level of the four that are already up there?
Maybe when Bush as taken over the world he will convert Mt Everest to be the biggest monument on the face of the earth, joking aside, I cant see either of the two Bushs or a Clinton up there!!

Edited to say that I just noticed that your a Canadian and not an American.

[edit on 18-9-2006 by Kurokage]

I would leave well enough alone.

Not an American, but I highly doubt they would ever add another head to Mt. Rushmore. I maybe wrong but aren't these the Founding Fathers? If it is meant to symbolize this, how could you suddenly add another figure?

Originally posted by chissler
I maybe wrong but aren't these the Founding Fathers? If it is meant to symbolize this, how could you suddenly add another figure?

Well, George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are certainly "founding fathers" but the monument wasn't built to exclusively honor these men -- as founding fathers of the United States. Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt are up there as well.

Abe Lincoln, well, I can see him being up there. Without going into the causes of the Civil War and whether Abraham Lincoln really wanted to wage a war between the states over the issue of slavery, I will say that he deserves to up there as well. After all, he was the president that guided his nation through, perhaps, its' most perilous time.

Theodore "Teddy" Roosevelt? OK, Teddy was president and a bonafide (?) war hero (he bravely led the charge up San Juan Hill in Cuba against the Spanish). But, frankly, Teddy certainly doesn't fall into my list of "great presidents".

So, from this list of presidents on Mount Rushmore, it would appear that the presidents that they immortalized really were, in a sense, picked arbitrarily (Where's John Adams or Harry S. Truman? If the criteria for being carved into the side of granite mountain were "greatness", where are they?).

In fact, I seem to remember reading somewhere that the original plan for the carvings at Mount Rushmore were to include the entire president! You know, arms, legs, torso. We're talking truly epic proportions here. But they ran out of funding or some such thing.

Nevertheless, I can't find any rule or law from prohiting the addition of a new presidential head.

What about Presidents Dwight D. Eisenhower or John F. Kennedy? They'd be good. Both were "war heroes". Or could you think of someone better?

And though his career is almost dead, I think you should be in the ground before they start erecting monuments for you.


I've visited the monument years ago and took one of the tourist helicopters right up near the faces. That was an amazing flight, and your preception of it's scale sure changes when you get up so close.

There is a nice craggy bit of rock on the left of Washington that could make a good President Reagan though.

President Ronald Reagan was my own personal pick for a spot on Mount Rushmore. I think that in recent years, of all of the Presidents since Teddy Roosevelt anyway, Ronald Reagan would certainly garner the most votes if it ever came to that.

Of course, I would have to include Franklyn Delano Roosevelt as a close second behind Reagan.

AnxietyDisorder, it looks like he is about to take his hand, and swipe all the faces away. Could you imagine? Him, Condi, Cheney, and Rover? The bottom could be covered with Gucci Shoes for Condi, and we could stick Clinton up there, to complete the monument to da criminals!

I think it should be left well enough alone. It's there, it's done, and I wouldn't trust this president with any ideas. He would use a nuke instead of a stick of dynamite. Either that or spend centuries carving his face out with the pruners he uses down in Crawford for the mesquite.

On second thought, if he agrees to use the pruners, I think his face can go up there. That should keep him occupied for long enough.