Who's your favorite American?

[Docnzhoss]

Hey everyone. I was on AOL checking my email when an advertisement caught my eye. "Who is the Greatest American?" I clicked the link and I got to write in five choices. Wanna know who I voted for? Here they are (in no particular order):

Abraham Lincoln
Jim Henson
Susan B. Anthony
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Theodore Roosevelt

Apparently, you can vote as many times as you like and they will air the choices on the Discovery Channel in May. I thought it was a great question to ask here on the forum, as well as an opportunity to give Jim Henson some recognition (heck, they had Marilyn Monroe's picture next to George Washington on the ad, surely Jim's had more importance in the world than her). I'm also interested to hear who our friends in other countries would choose.

Here's the link if you're interested in voting:
http://tv.channel.aol.com/greatestamerican

I'm hoping this will lead to a good discussion. Talk to you all later!

 

[King Jim]

Bob Hope's mine.

 

[DanDanStrawberry]

Marilyn Monroe
Walt Disney
Jim Henson

 

[ceecee]

I chose (in no particular order, really):

Franklin Roosevelt (for inspiring Roosevelt Franklin....just kidding!!!)
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Robert F. Kennedy
Jim Henson

 

[christyb]

Thanks for sharing I voted!!!!

 

[Mario]

I wrote Walter Disney!

 

[JaniceFerSure]

I voted too.


Mine were:

Jim Henson
Martin Luther King Jr.
John Lennon
Walt Disney
Abraham Lincoln

 

[Docnzhoss]

Was John Lennon a U.S. citizen, Dee? I love his music, but I don't know much about his personal life aside from Yoko.

I hope that the Discovery Channel does the top 100. Surely, if we all vote often enough then Jim Henson would make the list. Here are the people I would bet on to make it:

Presidents/statesmen:
George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
Benjamin Franklin
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
John F. Kennedy
Ronald Reagan (possibly, with all the attention his death has brought him)

Entertainers/Athletes:
Marilyn Monroe
Walt Disney
Bob Hope
Frank Sinatra
Jim Henson (fingers crossed)
Elvis Presley
Oprah Winfrey
Joe Namath
Babe Ruth
Ted Williams
Muhammad Ali

Activists/Civic or Community leaders:
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Susan B. Anthony &/or Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Rosa Parks
Frederick Douglass

Educators/Scholars:
Booker T. Washington
Horace Mann
Frances E. Willard

Writers:
Ernest Hemingway
John Steinbeck
Emily Dickenson
Samuel Clemons (Mark Twain)
Edgar Allen Poe


Inventors/Scientists:
Thomas Edison
George Washington Carver
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Henry Ford
Samuel Morse
Alexander Graham Bell
John James Audubon

I'm leaving out dozens of people but this is where the discussion can really take off. Talk to you all later!

 

[DanDanStrawberry]

Mine were:

Jim Henson
Martin Luther King Jr.
John Lennon
Walt Disney
Abraham Lincoln

John Lennon is from Liverpool; but if he wasnt I would have voted for him!

 

[JaniceFerSure]

Your both right,my bad.To me,it should be The Greatest Person,not just The Greatest American,just my opinion.Others outside of America have made great contributions,obviously,to our history.