Nominations for the ATS Greatest American Poll

I'm not really sure how to go about this, but here we go. Discovery Channel had its Greatest American poll. Now we're going to have one here. I hope. Post your nominations to this thread and we'll work out some ground rules and see what pops up.

I'll start it out with Lieutenant General Lewis Burwell (Chesty) Puller, USMC, a grossly neglected American hero.



en.wikipedia.org...

hqinet001.hqmc.usmc.mil...

Turn to!


[edit on 2005/7/5 by GradyPhilpott]

All right we have one nominee so far. I'll keep up with the one who are posted and provide a concise list periodically.

If you want to nominate someone please provide a bio or a link to one along with your nomination.

I nominate James Madison!!!!!!!!

The father of the Constitution, The Federalist Papers, Representative from Virginia, Secretary of State, and President.

Madison is the one who proposed the first ten amendments to the constitution, the Bill of Rights.

Madison was a driving force in limiting the power of the federal government.

en.wikipedia.org...

Norman Borlaug, Savoir of !BILLIONS!

Well, as I said, my pick is Norman Borlaug. When he won the Nobel Prize in 1970, the commission said he had saved a BILLION lives. Not million, not ten million, not hundred million, but !BILLION! He is currently a proffessor at Texas A&M college.

nobelprize.org...
www.normanborlaug.org...
www.ideachannel.com...

All right this looks good. It will be interesting to peruse the biographies of those nominated. This should be very educational, as well as entertaining.

Semper Fi!

Hey looking4truth, whoever that is doing the shooting is a terrible shot the muzzle of the pistol drops about 20 degrees everytime he fires, which means he's jerking the trigger.

howardzinn.org...

www.southendpress.org...

www.geocities.com...

www.thirdworldtraveler.com...

I nominate Howard Zinn he is a historian, playwright, and social activist. He taught at Spelman College. And was a leader in the Black antisegrigation movement. He teaches at Boston University, and has been a visiting professor at the University of Paris and the University of Bologna.



He has received the Thomas Merton Award, the Eugene V. Debs Award, the Upton Sinclair Award, and the Lannan Literary Award. He lives in Auburndale, Massachusetts.

When he was fired in 1963 for insubordination related to his protest work, he moved to Boston University, where he became a leading critic of the Vietnam War. He also went to Vietnam and had talks with the Vietnamese Government to release prisoners of War.

[edit on 7/5/2005 by Rhiannon1968]

Did he save more then a !BILLION! lives? No? You lose.

Sorry, unless you find someone who has saved more then a !BILLION! lives you lose.

George Washington Carver. He saved trillions. Gazillions,

www.galegroup.com...

Although he did hold three patents, Carver never patented most of the many discoveries he made while at Tuskegee, saying "God gave them to me, how can I sell them to someone else?" In 1938 he donated over $30,000 of his life's savings to the George Washington Carver Foundation and willed the rest of his estate to the organization so his work might be carried on after his death. He died on January 5, 1943.

While you are riveted, reading the story about GWC, feel free to click the link and read about another great Merican, Booker T. Washington.

How many Zeros follow Gazillion?(Kidding, it's not a number, as far as I know)

Hmmm, really? Peanut works, or a guy who helped Mexico grow more and save about 30 million, then went to India/Pakistan and tripled the out put of the grain saving 100-250 million. Then he went into Communist China, risking his own behind, to help double the amount of rice made through GE/Hybridization(sp?) and saving 1.1billion. Then went into War Torn Africa to save a few hundred million there. Not to mention how much is sold in America, making it cheap for us to buy food, and Canada, and England, and wherever else it might be sold.

Some people, like Greenpeace and the church go on about mutations and side effects and other whiny crap like that. Here is a little something I posted a couple months back.

Not to mention him helping todays youth by teaching at Texas College or whatever. Strange thing is, he isn't a billionaire. If he had a dollar for every life he saved, he would be a multi-billionaire. It was at a !BILLION! in 1970, 35 years later....

Started by Norman Borlog, the Nobel Prize winner for saving a Billion lives, GM, or GE crops are safe! Or else you would have a billion dead people, not a billion saved people. I think if a billion people ate it, you would have noticed side effects, but there aren't. ALso, I know you think(keyword, think) They just one day said "Hey, lets splice human DNA with a tomato and sell it to people." But that isn't what happened.

"You can't build a world of Peace on empty stomachs and human misery." Norman Borlog, Nobel Prize Winner, Savoir of a billion people.
BTW, he won it in 1970, so he probably has saved another billion lives by now.
THEY ARE TESTED! Don't listen to Greenpeace, they want to commit mass murder on over a billion people. GE crops are the MOST Tested/scrutinized(think that's the word) crops EVER! Wanna know who tested/researched them?

EPA-Regulates if pesticides are involved
USDA-Where they are grown and how the Enviroment will be affected
FDA-FOOD SAFETY!!!!!!
FFA-Basic Agriculture
AHA-Affects on Humans, which is NONE!

They go through many MILLIONS of dollars worth of testing a year to be approved as a commercial crop. Sorry, Greenpeace/other idiot activists may want to kill a billion+ people, but until you find a billion+ people willing to starve to death, SHUT UP! These foods feed A BILLION+ A YEAR! China was starving, but Norman Borlog comes in and saves the day with GE rice that quadruples the amount made.

So, until you are starving to death, don't tell others what they can and can't eat.

FDA? No comment on USDA, FFA, AHA, and the EPA? Nothing on the BILLION people? So, you don't like it, kill a billion people. You see, if it was bad, if it had ANY side effects, a BILLION people is a huge freaking group. Most studies are done on a couple dozen people, but after DECADES of research/study, after MILLIONS of dollars spent on research, they approved GE crops, and saved A BILLION PEOPLE!

All you people(not you Sar in particular) screaming it is bad because you said so, that it will make you mutate and have extra limbs or whatever, or that we don't know what side effects it has, ARE WRONG! There are no side effects, there are no mutations, a BILLION people are proof. It's not like they said "Hey, lets mutate people." and started selling nuclear waste as food, no, they had to do research, studies, and a bunch of Government Programs making sure it didn't affect people, and so far been right. A Billion times right.

Sorry, let me make this clear, this isn't like "Well, we did s study on 3 people, and none of them showed any signs, sure they were all healthy white males, so who knows about blacks, hispanics, women, asians, not as healthy people, but who cares, we did it on 3 people and no side effects."

It is "After years of research and study, after a BILLION people, no side effects, no mutations, no deaths, NOTHING!"

You can't say "It might hurt you" when a BILLION people have been eating it for DECADES and have NO SIDE EFFECTS! How hard is it to understand! Ok so this Mon group are assholes, what big business isn't? They are nothing to Exxon who drilled a lake for oil. There wasn't none, there was a salt mine, the people were WORKING the salt mine, told them there was a salt mine, but Exxon didn't care. After they were done the Gulf of Mexico was lower by inches, and the town died. Why? The salt mine and lake were the main means of making money, everything revolved around those, but Exxon destroyed both. See? Big Business are all assholes, but SAVING A !BILLION PEOPLE! ISN'T!

If we were to only grow food organically , we wouldn't have enough for 2 billion

Also, to note, many people are allergic to peanut butter/peanuts/any peanut product. How many people are allergic to GE Foods? You can't tell the difference, well, except GE foods require less posions and produce more. I'll go find my links on this...

www.guild-hall.net...
www.monsanto.co.uk...
capmag.com...
www.abetterearth.org...
www.monsanto.co.uk...

Those are things like millions saved by not needing to buy as much pesticide, thus enviroment safer, people safer, so forth.

Oh, and somewhere in that mess is how if we didn't have GE Foods, only enough to feed 4billion people. I don't see 2 billion volunteers to die of starvation.

So, a !BILLION! in 1970, and another 2 !BILLION! now, that is 3 !BILLION!+ people. Over 3 billion people saved by this man. More money then the Olsen Twins, Tom Cruise, and Adam Sandler combined. Yet the man is like George Washington, has the chance to be delcared King of America, and is humble, he decides not to make billions off of the people he saves, he decides to live his life teaching others.

If that isn't a great person, IDK what is. Jesus has nothing on him, even more since he Norman is real.

ed. to add emphasis to Norman

[edit on 5-7-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

Hmm...greatest American?

Coming from an outside perspective I would like to see two people on the list:

Huey P. Newton the co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Which helped Black people firmly stand up for what they believed in and stopped them from going down the wrong roads of violence or passive resistance. Teaching children about both Martin Luther King and Malcolm X, as well as attempting to remove the drug-culture that was beginning to exist in these "Ghettos"

Links:
www.blackpanther.org...
en.wikipedia.org...

The second person I would like to see on this list would be:
John F Kennedy the 35th President of America, who I hope we all know enough about him, what he did and how he died.

Links:
education.yahoo.com...
en.wikipedia.org...

Originally posted by James the Lesser
Yet the man is like George Washington, has the chance to be delcared King of America, and is humble, he decides not to make billions off of the people he saves, he decides to live his life teaching others.

If that isn't a great person, IDK what is. Jesus has nothing on him, even more since he Norman is real.

A little overboard on this guy James.

All he did was invent it, the "heroes" behind his invention are the farmers that grow the crops, feed their families, and take the product to market. I don't see how you can say he saved a single life never the less billions. Did he actually buy land in Mexico etc., grow the crops, and feed the people? His legacy is a chemical formula, a good invention, but thats it.

Apparently Geldoff and the G-8 crowd should read your post, why demand millions of taxpayers dollars from the paychecks of citizens in wealthy nations if all we need is to bring in Norman Borlaug and some GE crops and bingo no more starving Africans.

I'm sorry James I didn't mean to attack your nominee. I understand having passion for your nominee but maybe the rhetoric is drowning out your argument.

James Madison gave a lifetime of service this country. He is one of the few Americans whom you can say truly shaped the world he lived in. His work on the constitution and the newspaper articles and Federalist Papers which rallied the people behind the new system of government solidified our young nation.

The man wrote the Bill of Rights, what brilliance. It was his pen that authored the freedoms that nations and peoples throughout the world have envied and emulated. Every time someone condems the consolidation of power and the collapse of individual rights in this country they are fighting for the very things this man felt we all deserved. It doesn't matter what political party you belong to, James Madison left us the principles and basic ideals we all hold so dear. He authored these rights, fought for them in congress, got them passed into law, and protected them throughout his life.

James Madison's ideals can appeal to anyone along a broad spectrum of political beliefs. He believed that war was the greatest enemy of liberty and was always in favour of peace. Even as President and tasked with fighting the war of 1812 he was against a large standing army which could be abused later. Madison believed that government and religon MUST be seperate and that one corrupts the other. He also believed in individuality and private property as well as the importance of private enterprise.

If you find yourself leaning left in your political views here are some quotes you may enjoy:

"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy"

""In no instance have . . . the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.""

"The purpose of separation of church and state is to keep forever from these shores the ceaseless strife that has soaked the soil of Europe with blood for centuries."

"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"It is a universal truth that the loss of liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or pretended, from abroad."

If you fall to the right in your political beliefs you may enjoy these:

"The personal right to acquire property, which is a natural right, gives to property, when acquired, a right to protection, as a social right"

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms"

"The happy Union of these States is a wonder; their Constitution a miracle; their example the hope of Liberty throughout the world. Woe to the ambition that would meditate the destruction of either!"

"In a just and free government…the rights both of property and of persons ought to be effectually guarded. Will the former be so in the case of a universal and equal suffrage? Will the latter be so in the case of a suffrage confined to the holders of property?"

Links to more Madison quotes:
en.thinkexist.com...
source

edited to shorten link

[edit on 5-7-2005 by DontTreadOnMe]

I'LL DO IT!!! ok although i have no clue whats goin on or anything explain it to me

Originally posted by ArtemisFowl
I'LL DO IT!!! ok although i have no clue whats goin on or anything explain it to me

It's kinda like an informal ATS poll. It all has to do with this thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
If you read thru the posts you'll see where the idea came from, who gets credit (GradyPhilpott & Astronomer68), and what they are trying to do here.

I think I have to go with Thomas Crowne on this one. Carver was incredible for this country, far beyond just "peanuts". Science, civil rights, and feeding the hungry all made fantastic leaps forward thanks to Carver's contributions to America and the world. Like TC said, he saved trillions by helping America to become the agricultural powerhouse it is today, and introduced farming techniques which allow food crops to be grown on otherwise unyielding soil, such as in the jungles of Africa. That dude did wonders for the world.

So Jesus isn't real anymore, eh, James?

The only reason Jesus doesn't get nominated is because He isn't American. There is nobody who has saved more than HE, though. This being the case, James, you are incorrect. If you would quit being so obstreperous, He could save you, too!
Man, I hope I spelled that word correctly. The dictionary is only 2 feet from the keyboard and I'm too lazy to pick it up! That just goes to show that one cannot be saved from one's self.

I knew He was out because He's not an American, but I was making reference to this comment by James The Lesser:

If that isn't a great person, IDK what is. Jesus has nothing on him, even more since he Norman is real.

My post was directed at JTL, in an attempt to get his goat. I didn't even know you had a goat tied up in this area!

If you keep your goats hidden, nobody can get them!

Hey JTL,

I didn't hear anywhere in the last thread about nominating our own greates american having to meet your expectations. On the contrary, it is supposed to be in your own opinion who do you think is the greatest.
Also it said nothing about busting on other peoples nominations