Stone Mountain in Georgia contains the largest bas-relief sculpture in the world. It also happens to be the largest Confederate memorial and features Jefferson Davis, Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee on their horses. It was carved by Gutzon Borglum, who also carved Mount Rushmore. And now there’s talk of destroying it.
We used to live in Atlanta so I’ve been to Stone Mountain at least a dozen times. Whenever someone would visit we’d take them to Stone Mountain for the day. It is a very patriotic place. In front of the carving, there’s a hill that has been cleared into a huge lawn. People spread lawn chairs and blankets and have a picnic dinner while waiting for the show to start.
Every night, well, normally every night, there’s a laser and fireworks show. But, it isn’t your normal laser show. Think of the best/largest laser show you’ve seen and multiply it by 100. Yeah, it’s that big. Lasers are used to project animations hundreds of feet tall on the side of the solid granite mountain. Add 92,000 watts of sound, smoke machines, geysers, flame cannons, drones and fireworks and you’ve got a hell of a show.
The show that we saw included songs like “Livin’ in America”, “God Bless the USA”, Surfin’ USA and a bunch of other patriotic items, all with their own huge animations. After a half an hour, the crowd has been driven into a patriotic frenzy, proud to be Americans. And then it gets even better.
For the big finale, they briefly light up the carving to remind people what it looks like. Then the lights go out and the laser starts tracing the carving’s outline. Finally, the legs of the horses are drawn and they start animating the riders on horseback galloping across the face of the mountain. And Elvis starts singing Dixie.
Battle scenes from the Civil War are shown and when the song gets to the quiet instrumental, we see images of Lee viewing death and destruction wherever he looks. Legend has it that Lee broke his sword rather than let it be taken whole as a souvenir. When the music hits the crescendo, he breaks the sword over his knee and throws it to the ground. The music peaks and the two pieces of his sword rotate and morph into the northern and southern states combining to show a divided country once again united. And 15,000 people of all colors break into a tremendous cheer.
I admit, the carving and park has ties to the KKK. And if that were the message the park sends I’d be first in line to call for a change. But it isn’t. Each night, the laser show gives a big middle finger to the KKK by having a 400-foot tall James Brown dancing on the side of their mountain. Today, the carving is used as a vehicle to send an entirely different message than was originally intended. The message the park gives today is one of patriotism, healing and unity.
Let’s not tear down Stone Mountain or any of our remaining monuments to the Confederacy. Instead of pretending that our past didn’t happen, let’s give the monuments a different purpose. Use them to educate and learn from the mistakes of our past to build a better future. Let the monuments remind us of our history, so we don’t repeat it.
If you’re still reading this, I’d like to share with you one of my favorite memories.
When my son was a hard-to-impress 15 year-old, we took a trip to Atlanta and went to the laser show. When the show was about to start, he leaned over and said, “You know, you guys have been talking about this for 10 years. My expectations are so high this needs to be really good or I’m going to be disappointed.”
After the show, he looked at us and said, “That was way better than you said it was going to be.” Pretty high praise coming from a teenager. It makes me smile every time I think of it.
