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Debate The greatest American ever

Zauriel

Zauriel

The Angel of Justice
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100 greatest americans. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/100_Greatest_Americans

Ronald Reagan- 24.0% - named "Greatest American"
Abraham Lincoln - 23.5%
Martin Luther King, Jr. - 19.7% - named "Greatest African American"
George Washington - 17.7%
Benjamin Franklin - 14.9%
George W. Bush-named "Greatest Living American"
Bill Clinton
Elvis Presley-named "America's Greatest Entertainer"
Oprah Winfrey-named "Greatest Woman in American history"
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Billy Graham
Thomas Jefferson
Walt Disney
Albert Einstein- named "Greatest American Scientist" & "Greatest Jewish American"
Thomas Alva Edison
John F. Kennedy
Bob Hope
Bill Gates
Eleanor Roosevelt-named "America's Greatest First Lady"
Lance Armstrong-named America's "Greatest Athlete"
Muhammed Ali
Rosa Parks
The Wright Brothers
Henry Ford
Neil Alden Armstrong
Maya Angelou
Susan B. Anthony
Lucille Ball
Alexander Graham Bell
Barbara Bush
George H. W. Bush
Laura Bush
Andrew Carnegie
Johnny Carson
Jimmy Carter
George Washington Carver
Ray Charles
César Chávez
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Bill Cosby
Tom Cruise
Ellen DeGeneres
Frederick Douglass
Amelia Earhart
Clint Eastwood
John Edwards
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Brett Favre
Mel Gibson
Rudy Giuliani
John Glenn
Alexander Hamilton
Tom Hanks
Hugh Hefner
Katharine Hepburn
Howard Hughes
Michael Jackson
Steve Jobs
Lyndon B. Johnson
Michael Jordan
Helen Keller
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
Robert F. Kennedy
Rush Limbaugh
Charles Lindbergh
George Lucas
Madonna
Malcolm X
Phil McGraw
Marilyn Monroe
Michael Moore
Audie Murphy
Richard M. Nixon
Barack Obama
Jesse Owens
George S. Patton
Colin Powell
Christopher Reeve
Condoleezza Rice
Jackie Robinson
Theodore Roosevelt
Babe Ruth
Carl Sagan
Jonas Salk
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Frank Sinatra

George Washington, the "Father of the United States" and one of the world's most famous national founders.Joseph Smith, Jr.
Steven Spielberg
James Stewart
Martha Stewart
Nikola Tesla
Pat Tillman
Harry Truman
Donald Trump
Harriet Tubman
Mark Twain
Sam Walton
John Wayne
Tiger Woods
Chuck Yeager

Comments and criticisms
Many viewers and media commentators have criticized the shortlist as being extremely androcentric, with only a handful of female politicans, athletes, innovators and entertainers making the cut. Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt and Oprah Winfrey are the only three females in the Top 25. Much criticism has been made of the overselection of entertainers and a bias towards recent times at the expense of those who lived in the 18th or 19th centuries. Others have complained about the selection of Ronald Reagan as the Greatest American, beating Abraham Lincoln, often called the Greatest President. There have also been objections to many candidates being eligible because of the country in which they were born. For example, Albert Einstein, Bob Hope and Arnold Schwarzenegger are placed in the Top 25, were born in Germany, United Kingdom and Austria respectively. Some feel this disqualifies them from the list because they are not "Americans."

Alexander Graham Bell also appeared on the Canadian version of the show, The Greatest Canadian, and the original British program, Great Britons, where he ranked ninth and fifty-seventh place respectively. The scientist, inventor, and founder of the Bell Telephone Company was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1847, before moving to Brantford, Ontario in 1870. Three years later, Bell relocated to Boston, Massachusetts to continue his research into vocal physiology. He became a naturalized citizen of the United States, though he maintained an estate and laboratory in Canada, conducting research in aviation, among other things. He died and was buried in Canada, though his tombstone bears the prominant line "citizen of the United States." Thus, all three countries make a claim to him.
 
this list is ridicoulous...tom cruise??????? mel gibson???? arnoldddd???
since when did actors become so great.... and what the hell .... laura bush and barbara bush AND GEORGEEEEE?? simply unrealistic and totally stupid
 
Actors, entertainers and athletes? Politicians???? I'm not certain that I like that list at all. I am suprised that some of the greatest educators, innovators, and visionaries are either burried on the list or absent.
 
It looks like most lists taken nowadays. It is from the public and they only really know celebrities or prominent politcians, maybe a few from when they were at school. I think it was from Men in Black when K said 'A person is smart, people are stupid' I mean George W is there as the greatest living American!?!. Albert Einstein? Last time I checked he was born and lived most of his life in Germany until the Nazis came to power.
 
Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland and lived in Canada for a while before comming to the US. He became a naturalized US citizen in 1888 at age 41...

Einstein was born in imperial Germany, gave up German citizenship at age 17, recieved Swiss citizenship five years later. Breifly held Prussian Citizenship and became a US citizen in 1940 at age 61. He never lost or gave up his Swiss citizenship...

Is there an American who positively affected the lives of Americans and all the people of the world? I vote for that man or woman.
 
Duo said:
this list is ridicoulous...tom cruise??????? mel gibson???? arnoldddd???
since when did actors become so great.... and what the hell .... laura bush and barbara bush AND GEORGEEEEE?? simply unrealistic and totally stupid
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I don't get the actors either, but what's wrong with Laura Bush? Quite frankly I feel sorry for the woman.
Oprah has done alot of good, so that's not a bad choice. She started the Angel Network which helps unfortunate children in the US and abroad.
Maya Angalou! I met her in person you know. :cool: She came to the university I attend back in March. She's a sweet woman. I admire her for her causes. She's a civil rights activist, an actress, and a poet. Did you know she wouldn't talk for several years, because she had been raped and her uncles murdered the man that raped her, because she told them what had happened.
I don't see Magaret Sanger on the list, she was a great American because she was promoter of the birth control and she founded Planned Parenthood.
Alice Walker is another great woman. Her literature is wonderful and has had an impact on American literature. She also developed a term called "womanism" which is basically black or African American feminism. She had been criticized for this, because to the critics she was implying that feminism was racist. But this wasn't the case at all.
I'll shut up, now, but I think people need to know that there are some worthy Americans that aren't entertainers.
 
I think it's time for me to make my own list.

Top 10 greatest Americans:

1. Martin Luther King Jr.
2. Mark Twain
3. George Washington
4. Benjamin Franklin
5. Betsy Ross
6. Helen Keller
7. Paul Revere
8. Neil Armstrong
9. Geronimo
10. Malcolm X
 
Ma Cherie said:
I don't get the actors either, but what's wrong with Laura Bush? Quite frankly I feel sorry for the woman.
Oprah has done alot of good, so that's not a bad choice. She started the Angel Network which helps unfortunate children in the US and abroad.
Maya Angalou! I met her in person you know. :cool: She came to the university I attend back in March. She's a sweet woman. I admire her for her causes. She's a civil rights activist, an actress, and a poet. Did you know she wouldn't talk for several years, because she had been raped and her uncles murdered the man that raped her, because she told them what had happened.
I don't see Magaret Sanger on the list, she was a great American because she was promoter of the birth control and she founded Planned Parenthood.
Alice Walker is another great woman. Her literature is wonderful and has had an impact on American literature. She also developed a term called "womanism" which is basically black or African American feminism. She had been criticized for this, because to the critics she was implying that feminism was racist. But this wasn't the case at all.
I'll shut up, now, but I think people need to know that there are some worthy Americans that aren't entertainers.
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I'not saying that she's not a good/nice/worthy woman...i'm saying that i don't undestand how she could be a great american... i would put any fallen american soldier in WW2 before her in any such list
 
Zauriel said:
I think it's time for me to make my own list.
Top 10 greatest Americans:
1. Martin Luther King Jr.
2. Mark Twain
3. George Washington
4. Benjamin Franklin
5. Betsy Ross
6. Helen Keller
7. Paul Revere
8. Neil Armstrong
9. Geronimo
10. Malcolm X
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I like your list.
I like: MLK, Twain, Washington, Franklin, and Keller.

I'm thinking one of the great industrialists/capitalists should be on the list. Carnegie was technically Scottish... so perhaps Ford or Rockefeller? Bill Gates?

There's Eckhert and Mauchly who invented Eniac. Or John Dewey or Horace Mann who both influenced public education.



My Amended ten...
1. MLK
2. Twain
3. Washington
4. Franklin
5. Hellen Keller
6. Ford
7. Gates
8. Mann
9. Ike
10. Lincoln
 
Where's my name!?

So, I see I'm not on that list. I see how it is now. lol
Well I don't care if actors or athletes are on there. But they must actually do something outside of their profession. Like do some charity work, and is really sincere about it, not just to look good or promote a movie.

I think that Martin Luther King Jr., Ronald Reagan and Abraham Lincoln are my first thoughts.

But to me. The greatest americans are the ones who aren't even famous.
Maybe your teacher, who tutored you, stuck by you, Mentored you. Maybe your parents. Or even a neighbor who inspires you and others.
I think the greatest Americans are the one who are the least known.
 
I don't understand why Reagan is valued so much...in my view he didn't do that much to upbring america...his worst legacy is probaply the 21 drinking age.
 
I think that Henry Ford would be near the top of this list....MLK would not make the top of my list though he would be in the top 10.

Ford literally changed the world for decades to come.
 
CC1 said:
I think that Henry Ford would be near the top of this list....MLK would not make the top of my list though he would be in the top 10.

Ford literally changed the world for decades to come.
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Henry Ford was an anti-semite, publishing a magazine that was widely distributed in Nazi and pre-Nazi Germany to whip up sentiment against the Jews. He used his riches to publish this magazine. However, under increasing pressure from sectors of the U.S. public, he finally disavowed or denied anti-semite views.

The Germans modeled their killing machines on the efficiency of the assemble line that Ford adopted from slaughterhouses.

Ford was an American with widespread impact, but I look at the word "great" in modern times to have to not have a black mark of large proportions associated with it. Anti-semite characteristics are pretty large.
 
Please don't start this crap with me. If you don't like the man that is fine, but otherwise contain your views to the Philosophy forum.
 
Hi CC1,

CC1 said:
Please don't start this crap with me. If you don't like the man that is fine, but otherwise contain your views to the Philosophy forum.
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Why the hostility? All I did is put forth my opinion why I do not feel that Henry Ford is worthy of the title "Greatest American ever." I didn`t target anything personaly at you directly -- just at "Henry Ford," so, CC1, I haven`t started anything with you. On the contrary you started back at me rather hostily for me just stating my opinion on the guy.
 
CC1 said:
I merely said he would be near the top...not the greatest! Maybe you should re-read the post?
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I see. I was replying to the thread title with his nomination.

However, it still did not warrant such a hostile reply.
 
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