The 20 Greatest Americans

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Comments

  • Alex_Coe
    Alex_Coe Posts: 762
    Byrnzie wrote:
    I agree. Dubois could make my list, for sure.
    In the meantime, check out the Ken Burns film about JJ. It's an eye opener.
    You may say that Mohammed Ali just punched people too. We all know that's not the full picture. And things were a lot tougher in Johnsons day. He was just as abrasive, comical and rebellious as Ali during a time when half the U.S population wanted to see him hanging from a tree. The man was a great human being and a powerful force for change and for hope amongst black Americans at the turn of the century. He would have excelled in our own time - with our modern day cult of celebrity e.t.c. Again, he still managed to shine way back then, and against all the odds.


    Ok, I'll compromise with you. JJ is on this list if WEB is too.
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    Alex_Coe wrote:
    Ok, I'll compromise with you. JJ is on this list if WEB is too.

    Deal. ;)
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    jlew24asu wrote:
    cool thread. list isnt bad either. :high five:

    Thanks. High five back at ya!

    Where's your list then? I'm waiting! ;)
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    Purple Hawk wrote:
    Noam Chomsky? are you serious? obviously you are...which is funny in and of itself.

    http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/intellectuals/results.htm
    http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=7110

    Looks like I'm not alone.
  • Collin
    Collin Posts: 4,931
    Byrnzie, nice thread. Too bad the majority simple doesn't get it.

    I'll think about who I think are the 20 greatest Americans.
    THANK YOU, LOSTDAWG!


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  • Jeanie
    Jeanie Posts: 9,446
    but I've been thinking on it all day! ;) And this is my list people, and you know I don't give a toss about politics so try not to flame me please! :p

    ELMO - THE GREATEST AMERICAN AMBASSADOR EVER!!!! :D
    Jim Henson
    Martha Jane Canary - Calamity Jane
    Tennessee Williams
    Amelia Earhart
    Alexander Graham Bell
    Thomas Eddison
    Ansel Adams
    Harper Lee
    Paul Newman
    Mae West
    Paul Robson
    Solomon Guggenheim

    That'll do for now. I'll add the rest later. Need more think time! ;)
    NOPE!!!

    *~You're IT Bert!~*

    Hold on to the thread
    The currents will shift
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    Flannel Shirt wrote:
    Word. I picture you all being professors or wanna be professors wearing your cord suits with the elbow patches and no rim glasses and shit, or, dressed like militant soldiers waiting for the revolution to start.

    All spittin hot fire.

    You've got me all wrong man, all wrong. This is me popping down the shops for some milk and a loaf a bread...

    http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/marcos-waving.jpg
  • Collin
    Collin Posts: 4,931
    Jeanie wrote:

    Jim Henson

    Awesome!

    I'm going to put Jasper Newton (Jack) Daniel on my list!



    Byrnzie, I always pictured you more like this
    THANK YOU, LOSTDAWG!


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  • Jeanie
    Jeanie Posts: 9,446
    Collin wrote:
    Awesome!

    I'm going to put Jasper Newton (Jack) Daniel on my list!



    Byrnzie, I always pictured you more like this

    Yeah, how could we forget Jim? I mean he's had the most amazing influence on people all around the world for 30+ years! :)

    Would this be Jack Daniel the maker of the bourbon or am I completely stuffing that up Collin? ;):D
    NOPE!!!

    *~You're IT Bert!~*

    Hold on to the thread
    The currents will shift
  • Collin
    Collin Posts: 4,931
    Jeanie wrote:
    Yeah, how could we forget Jim? I mean he's had the most amazing influence on people all around the world for 30+ years! :)

    Exactly, I still love watching the Muppet Show.
    Would this be Jack Daniel the maker of the bourbon or am I completely stuffing that up Collin? ;):D

    Indeed the maker of the old No. 7; Jack Daniel's.
    THANK YOU, LOSTDAWG!


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  • Jeanie
    Jeanie Posts: 9,446
    Collin wrote:
    Exactly, I still love watching the Muppet Show.

    Ooh!! Actually thanks for that Collin!! :) I've just realized that there's someone VERY IMPORTANT that I need to add to my list!! :D


    Collin wrote:
    Indeed the maker of the old No. 7; Jack Daniel's.

    Phew!! :D Well that's a relief!! I was thinking I'd probably slighted some great American historical figure! Not that he isn't but you know! ;):D
    NOPE!!!

    *~You're IT Bert!~*

    Hold on to the thread
    The currents will shift
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    Collin wrote:
    Byrnzie, I always pictured you more like this

    :D I'm like that on the inside.
  • moho
    moho Posts: 541
    Byrnzie wrote:
    I've always placed artists on a footing above politicians and other businessmen.

    If so why not include some great American artists? I mean Eddie Vedder is a fantastic lyricist/campaigner/singer/songwriter but with all due respect, is he really up there with people like John Coltrane, Miles Davis or Hendrix. Or writers such as Ernst Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Plath, John Steinbeck. Or visual artists such as Jason Pollack.
    JUST PLAY THE F***ING NOTE!!!
  • Byrnzie
    Byrnzie Posts: 21,037
    moho wrote:
    If so why not include some great American artists? I mean Eddie Vedder is a fantastic lyricist/campaigner/singer/songwriter but with all due respect, is he really up there with people like John Coltrane, Miles Davis or Hendrix. Or writers such as Ernst Hemingway, T.S. Eliot, Plath, John Steinbeck. Or visual artists such as Jason Pollack.

    Hemingway wouldn't make my top 20. I don't regard him as a great artist. Miles Davis and John Coltrane maybe. Sure. I'm just not a fan of Jazz really. John Steinbeck? Nah. Not my cup of tea. Still, some interesting names you've listed there.
  • RainDog
    RainDog Posts: 1,824
    Byrnzie wrote:
    One word: Nicaragua.
    Six words: Osama bin Laden and the Taliban.
  • Flannel Shirt
    Flannel Shirt Posts: 1,021
    Byrnzie wrote:
    You've got me all wrong man, all wrong. This is me popping down the shops for some milk and a loaf a bread...

    http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/mexico/marcos-waving.jpg
    Nice fashion. All you're missing is the flaming "coctail".
    You look NOTHING like a militant.

    Save the word man, save the world.
    All that's sacred, comes from youth....dedications, naive and true.
  • RainDog
    RainDog Posts: 1,824
    Purple Hawk wrote:
    aren't we in a civil discussion?

    i didn't say they weren't "great" i said they were liberals...they ARE liberals. and not very smart liberals...i mean...eddie vedder? as a top 20 all time american? are you SERIOUS?

    i've posted here long enough that the left has NO DESIRE of hearing the other side. at all. so i don't need a lecture on how i need to hear the other side. i'm resigned to the post of pointing out idiocy.
    *Jack Kerouac was a Republican and Goldwater supporter.

    *Malcolm X told his supporters to never trust a liberal.

    *Johnny Cash was deeply religious and, with the exception of being someone who supported the weak and destitute, was "socially conservative."

    *Hunter S. Thompson, in relation to his rabid gun facination, once said, "I think George Washington owned guns. I've never seen any contradiction with that. I'm not a liberal, by the way. I think that's what's wrong with liberals. I believe I have every right to have guns. I just bought another huge weapon. A lot of people shouldn't own guns. I should. I have a safety record. Guns are a lot of fun out here."

    *Purple Hawk obviously doesn't know much about the people on Byrnzie's list.

    By the way, good choices Byrnzie.
  • godpt3
    godpt3 Posts: 1,020
    let's see... a few in no particular order:

    Richard P. Feynman
    Robert Goddard
    Orville/Wilbur Wright
    Jackie Cochran
    George Washington
    Thomas Jefferson
    Clarence Darrow
    Ben Franklin
    Thomas Edison
    Norman Borlaug
    "If all those sweet, young things were laid end to end, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised."
    —Dorothy Parker

    http://img210.imageshack.us/img210/6902/conspiracytheoriesxt6qt8.jpg
  • baraka
    baraka Posts: 1,268
    Very cool thread! Here are a few that come to mind.............

    *Maria Mitchell (an excerpt from wikipedia) She became the first woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1848 and of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1850. She later worked at the U.S. Nautical Almanac Office, calculating tables of positions of Venus, and traveled in Europe with Nathaniel Hawthorne and his family.

    She became professor of astronomy at Vassar College in 1865, the first person (male or female) appointed to the faculty. She was also named as Director of the Vassar College Observatory. After teaching there for some time, she learned that despite her reputation and experience, her salary was less than that of many younger male professors. She insisted on a salary increase, and got it.


    *Walt Whitman
    *Henry David Thoreau
    *MLK and Booker T Washington (I like the non-violent, 'lead by example' approach of these two)
    *Susan B Anthony
    *Thomas Edison
    *Wright brothers
    *Andrew Carnegie (for his passion of philanthropy)
    *Alexander Graham Bell
    *FDR

    So many, I'm sure I'll have more later.
    The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance,
    but the illusion of knowledge.
    ~Daniel Boorstin

    Only a life lived for others is worth living.
    ~Albert Einstein
  • Jeremy1012
    Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    Purple Hawk wrote:

    2. you really think eddie vedder is a greater american than ronald reagan? if it weren't for the latter, the last bastion of conservatism would be gone...he was single handedly responsible for a political realignment and the rebirth of conservative values...

    but yeah...eddie vedder really cares about stuff...what an intellectual
    yeah because Reagan was a leading intellectual and superior human being wasn't he? the guy was a bloody B-movie actor.

    anyway, why are people slagging off the starter of the thread just for posting his opinions? don't reply if you don't like it.

    It was a good list anyway.
    "I remember one night at Muzdalifa with nothing but the sky overhead, I lay awake amid sleeping Muslim brothers and I learned that pilgrims from every land — every colour, and class, and rank; high officials and the beggar alike — all snored in the same language"

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