POLL: Greatest American

Interesting results. I'm amazed to see no votes for Rosa Parks, while Martin Luther King leads the pack (but then I'm guilty of voting that way, too). Without Rosa, there would have been no Martin (his protests started with the arrest of Rosa Parks). I guess that ultimately it was his death that brought so much change.

A few people missing from the list:
Richard Nixon -- incredible diplomat and signed title IX (which has truly changed America).
Jackie Robinson/Branch Rickey -- they changed sports and advanced the civil rights movement at least a decade.
Dwight D. Eisenhower or Douglas MacArthur -- certainly their contributions as military men should have put them on this list.
Harry S. Truman -- one of top presidents of all time.

Gnarf: take a deep breath ... in and out ... a few times. Besides, from a purely historical standpoint, David O. McKay would make the list long before any other past president of the church.

 

@T2B - Check out AOL with keyword search Greatest Americans, and you'll find many of those that you seek. There are a great many presidents on the list of top 100, just very few in the top 25. In addition the Eisenhower and Truman, you'll also find Nixon, Carter, Jackson, and others. Robinson is also on the list, but Rickey is not.

 

I apologize if I sounded a little too pissed off, but the request is the same: If you are going to oppose someone's position, check your sources thouroughly. The criticism of one of the names I put forward was misrepresented in it's source. The link was to a site sponsored by an organization who's sole aim is to discredit the Church rather than their leaders as was claimed.

T2B: I am unaware of David O MacKay's contributions. I know that he was President of the Church for a number of years, but know very little of his teachings...

 

Sorry, AFI. I must have been brain dead that day. I realized it later but we're not allowed to edit our votes. (At least I got to use the new smiley...)

 

I would go for the Wright Brothers, for advances in technology, and made the world a more accessible place.

Gnarf, I was not attacking your religion, and have made my original post less vague.

 

As it stands right now, our final five look to be Edison, Einstein, King, Lincoln and Washington. So that's three of the five I voted for. What my intent is, is to wait until the History Channel announces its final five (assuming they are not exactly what our final five are) and then run a poll with two questions, one for us, and one like the History Channel.

I am still somewhat on the fence with Einstein in the poll. I'm trying to reconcile how un-American he is in many ways, and whether or not he even belongs in the poll. (He will be included as that is what the results indicate - this is a personal dilemna for me.

The first part, he didn't do a lot of his most famous work within the U.S., and wasn't exactly a young man when he came to live in the U.S. His biggest contribution to the U.S. was probably his input on the atomic bomb, which is not what Einstein considers his proudest moment.

So at this point I have to look at other aspects, and I admit I don't have the answers to all of these questions. For example: Did he ever become a U.S. citizen? Did he maintain a German or Swiss citizenship simultaneously? He lived most of his later years in the U.S., so at the time of his death, would he consider himself an American? Did he wish to be buried in the U.S.? The one thing he does have going for him is he taught for several years at Princeton. Being in contact with a younger generation of Americans probably "Americanized" him to a large extent. Still, I need other things answered before coming to a conclusion.

 

The difference a sentence makes in a post. The title of the site (chick.com) may also have something to do with the popularity (I really don't want to know what some of the visitors are really looking for). History is full of smooth talking charlatans who make their names by turning crowds against a certain minority. For the intent of this thread, I understand how such defamatory web sites can sabotage some worthy candidates. If public opinion can put some recent presidents in the top 25, then it can keep other candidated out...

 

Here an interesting tid-bit regarding Einstein's famous work on the movement of molecules - some may already know this. While Franklin was in England he experimented with the movement of water quite a bit. On his voyage to England, he studied and recorded the Gulf stream. But while in England, he experimented quite a bit with the effect of oil and water. He discovered some interesting effects - that not only did oil have a calming effect on water (which everyone already knew), but that a small amount of oil could calm quite a lot of water surface.

Franklin was fond of parlor tricks. So, he devised a trick to amuse his English friends: he fashioned a small compartment in the tip of his cane and filled it with a teaspoon of oil. Then, while out walking with his friends, they all came upon a rippling pond. Franklin walked a bit in front of his friends, and standing at the edge of the pond announced boldly that he would "still the waters."

He waved his cane over the surface of the pond, releasing the tiny bit of oil and managed to calm about 1/4 of an acre of water surface, amazing his friends. What Franklin had discovered, which of course he was not fully aware of, was how to measure the size of a molecule. By dividing the amount of oil (one teaspoon) into 1/4 of a acre of water surafce, he could have predicted roughly the size of one molecule of oil (I think that's right, but I'm not really much of a math person and I am recalling this from memory).

Now, the connection to our topic is that about 150 years later, Einstein crafted a famous paper that proved the existence and measurement of molecules. Einstein is credited with being first with this, but really it was Franklin, who had first stumbled onto molecular measurement, quite inadvertently, at least according to a few books on Franklin.

[ June 11, 2005, 06:10: Message edited by: Chandos the Red ]

 

Stupid poll. There's no option for "other" and IMO there is no great americans in that list.

 

I disagree. Aldeth has a good thread here. You have a good opportunity to post whomever you think would have been a good alternative to those listed. I, for one, would be curious to see whom you would have perferred...

 

To be fair, he's basing his choices on the History Channel.

 

Correct Charlie. The list isn't mine. I took it directly from the History Channel, who in turn took it from the number of nominations they received for each person in the open nomination process. So even if Lynadin would have preferred someone else and tried to nominate him, it would be unlikely that his nomination would have put him in the top 25.

So don't hate the player. Hate the game.

EDIT: Spelling, grammar

[ June 13, 2005, 22:26: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

 

Oprah Winfrey? WTF?? You've gotta be kidding -- I hate that woman and all of the NOISE she makes. She's rich, she's popular, she's a pain in the buttinski, but whoever put her on a par with Einstein, Jefferson, Edison, and Parks is seriously whacked out.

It would be nice, though, to have some sort of criteria for greatness. Is being great:

Making a whackload of money? (Billy Gates)
Making contributions to science? (Edison)
Fighting against slavery? (Lincoln)
Sleeping with your own slaves? (Jefferson, IIRC)
Founding/propounding a religion? (Graham, Smith)
Beating the crap out of someone? (Ali)
Having good hand eye coordination? (Any stupid athlete)

It's a cool list and idea, and yes, we had a "Greatest Canadian" thing here a few years ago, but the whole "Greatest" concept suffers from a lack of meaningful criteria.

 

The Greatest Canadian Contest looked at four criterion: Leadership, Intelligence, Passion and Legacy. The top ten included athletes, scientists and politicians.

The winner was a politician that introduced the Canadian Healthcare system.

 

#Chandos. I would have put my vote on someone like Jimi Hendrix, H.S. Thompson or maybe even Edgar A. Poe Now that's just my honest choice of a 'great' American.

 

Hmmm... Interesting. I see three things in common with these three people. First, all of them were writers, although the medium was usually different (musician, columnist (although some fiction), and horror fiction). Secondly, they all were active drug users. Thirdly, they all died before their time. Out of curiousity, which of these three traits makes them a "great" American in your opinion?

[ June 14, 2005, 18:24: Message edited by: Aldeth the Foppish Idiot ]

 

Hey, hey, hey ... what about Micheal Jackson or OJ?

 

In regards to Adleth's post.

Poe also had an affair with his 13 yearold cousin, so I am thinking (hopefully) its talent more than anything else.