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Cheated By The Mists

We had traveled over 1000 miles from Salt Lake City through Grand Teton National Park and Yellowstone National Park to reach this spot—Mount Rushmore. I was looking forward to seeing it. 

However, it was raining In Keystone, South Dakota, on the morning of Memorial Day 2025. Nevertheless, we all came out and got on the bus that morning for the short drive up the mountain. As we approached the entrance, I began to wonder. We paid the entrance fee of $100 for our group and drove in. 

As we parked the bus, I kept looking through the trees where I knew the monument should be. It was a solid wall of white. After a few minutes we all stood at the grand viewing platform and looked up—into a misty fog of oblivion. We could see nothing. Was it disappointing? To say the least. I had been hyping this moment for months in private and public conversation and all we could see was shifting hues of white mist. 

We stayed about an hour and walked through the exhibits and displays, but it was not the same. A picture—even a movie—never does justice to standing on the dirt and seeing the real thing.

I went outside in the rain and sat staring in the direction of the grand monument. It was there. I knew it was there, but I had lost sight of it and because of that lack of vision I did not and could not feel the sense of awe and wonder that I had experienced before. We were cheated by the mists. 

As I sat there in the rain looking up, that familiar sense that I was being taught something settled into me and I pondered what was happening. I was staring up at one of the grandest of all symbols of America and her greatness and I couldn’t see it for the obscuring mists. 

America was founded on “just and holy principles,” as ancient as civilization itself. If the fog of false principles causes us to lose sight of those time-tested principles of the past we will no longer be able to see our way to power, peace, and happiness. 

The Almighty intended America to stand as a light unto all the world. As has been said before, America will be as great as she is good, if she ever ceases to be good she will cease to be great. Her glory will be lost in the obscuring mists of wickedness and strife. 

Glenn Rawson. Memorial Day 2025