Greenpeace on Mount Rushmore

Greenpeace, an organization consisting of well fed and very well educated persons who are congenitally opposed to the generation of wealth that pays for food and college, staged a protest at Mount Rushmore. Here is a clip produced, I am supposing, by the insurgents who hung the banner next to Abe's face. Hat tip to my friend and Keloland coconspirator Cory Heidelberger.

Apparently our own Stephanie Herseth denounced the act as "outrageous." I say: well done. I am not a big fan of "civil disobedience" among persons who have every right to peacefully assemble and petition anyone they please for a redress of grievances. But I think that the appropriate response is to prosecute them to the full extent of the law, and then play the YouTube clip at parties.

The clip shows the difficult process of unfurling the banner. I found that engaging in its own right. When finally positioned, the effect was striking. Obama's face added to Mount Rushmore with the slogan: America Honors Leaders, Not Politicians: Stop Global Warming. There is a bit of self-imposed ignorance there. Every face on Mount Rushmore is the face of a politician. And since I live in South Dakota, I am in favor of global warming. But as an act of political theater, it was well staged and elegant, and harmless enough.  

Ps. Since Native Americans generally consider Mount Rushmore to be a violation of their sacred rights, doesn't this make Obama a coconspirator with all those White Presidents?

Comments

[Mark Anderson]

South Dakota Politics is an organization of well stuffed and half-educated individuals who are opposed to the re-distribution of wealth as proposed by both Jefferson and Paine, which would pay for both college and beer.

[KB]

If Mark Anderson thinks Jefferson and Paine were in favor of a "redistribution of wealth" in any relevant sense, he has a lot more beer than college in his brain. I am charitably assuming the presence of a brain.

[Mac]

If the demonstrators are willing to pay the consequences for their actions...I see nothing wrong with the stunt.