The Rapid City Journal has shown a lot of chutzpah in referring to Mount Rushmore as a "sacred" national site. All of the Black Hills were sacred to the Lakota when we ignored the Fort Laramie Treaty and through murder and treachery stole the land from them. Then to add insult to injury we carved those four mugs onto that beautiful mountain. The Journal also states that Gerard Baker failed miserably and that our national sense of security and well being were wounded. George Bush was told that America would be attacked by aircraft crashing into buildings and he sat on his phony ranch and did nothing. That is a national security failure.

The one thing that does not fail in the West River area is the ignorance and racism.

LEE TACKETT

Hill City