Discover Some Text Books!
Back in June, the Discovery Channel ran a contest, asking for votes for 'The Greatest American'. Then they ran with their top 25 vote getters. The top ten were:
10. Franklin D. Roosevelt
9. Oprah Winfrey
8. Elvis Presley
7. Bill Clinton
6. George W. Bush
5. Benjamin Franklin
4. George Washington
3. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2. Abraham Lincoln
1. Ronald Reagan
Let's look at this list. Oprah Winfrey. The fact that she makes the list is disgusting. Let alone top ten! She's a talk show host. That's it. Big furry deal! What makes her so great in people's minds? "But she does such wonderful topics on her show." I've heard that argument many times. And? It's a TV show! Yes, her wonderful topics are just so special that Tom Cruise has to be on and jump around like an orangutan. Yeah. That's the stuff of a Great American. If we need to have a diverse list, and a black woman is needed, where's Harriet Tubman?
Elvis Presley. I love the King. He was an amazing performer. But the 8th Greatest American of all time? Please. If you're looking at entertainers (and shouldn't be) why not Johnny Carson?
Bill Clinton? An impeached President? Why not Andrew Johnson then? Whether you like Clinton or not, what did he actually DO to be ranked so high?
George W. Bush? Too high. Way too high.
Ronald Reagan at Number 1? I love Reagan, and I think he was the best president of the 20th Century. But not the Greatest American. But I would have him on the list, probably in the teens.
Glaring omissions from the complete list: Paul Revere. Alexander Hamilton (Founder of the U.S. banking system). Douglas Macarthur/George S. Patton. Alexander Graham Bell (After all, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers all made it).
Certainly, ignorance runs rampant throughout our nation. You have to love our public school education! Just looking at the top ten is frightening. But then you add in others who made the top 25, such as:
14. Albert Einstein (He was German!)
17. Bob Hope (Granted, he always entertained our troops, but he was a comedian!)
20. Lance Armstrong (He rides a bike around France. That certainly makes one a GREAT AMERICAN!)
21. Muhammad Ali (Boxer who was a draft dodger)
22. Rosa Parks (For all the hype about her, all she did was be too tired to get up. She didn't "plan" to start a cultural change)
If you want to see the complete list, here is a link to it:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/greatestamerican/greatestamerican.html
Who would be my Number 1? Easy. Thomas Jefferson. (Number 12 on the list) Wrote the Declaration of Independence and was one of the authors of the Constitution. The Louisiana Purchase. That is certainly more impressive and worthy of high ranking than hosting a TV show, singing songs, or playing with interns.
10. Franklin D. Roosevelt
9. Oprah Winfrey
8. Elvis Presley
7. Bill Clinton
6. George W. Bush
5. Benjamin Franklin
4. George Washington
3. Martin Luther King, Jr.
2. Abraham Lincoln
1. Ronald Reagan
Let's look at this list. Oprah Winfrey. The fact that she makes the list is disgusting. Let alone top ten! She's a talk show host. That's it. Big furry deal! What makes her so great in people's minds? "But she does such wonderful topics on her show." I've heard that argument many times. And? It's a TV show! Yes, her wonderful topics are just so special that Tom Cruise has to be on and jump around like an orangutan. Yeah. That's the stuff of a Great American. If we need to have a diverse list, and a black woman is needed, where's Harriet Tubman?
Elvis Presley. I love the King. He was an amazing performer. But the 8th Greatest American of all time? Please. If you're looking at entertainers (and shouldn't be) why not Johnny Carson?
Bill Clinton? An impeached President? Why not Andrew Johnson then? Whether you like Clinton or not, what did he actually DO to be ranked so high?
George W. Bush? Too high. Way too high.
Ronald Reagan at Number 1? I love Reagan, and I think he was the best president of the 20th Century. But not the Greatest American. But I would have him on the list, probably in the teens.
Glaring omissions from the complete list: Paul Revere. Alexander Hamilton (Founder of the U.S. banking system). Douglas Macarthur/George S. Patton. Alexander Graham Bell (After all, Bill Gates, Thomas Edison, and the Wright Brothers all made it).
Certainly, ignorance runs rampant throughout our nation. You have to love our public school education! Just looking at the top ten is frightening. But then you add in others who made the top 25, such as:
14. Albert Einstein (He was German!)
17. Bob Hope (Granted, he always entertained our troops, but he was a comedian!)
20. Lance Armstrong (He rides a bike around France. That certainly makes one a GREAT AMERICAN!)
21. Muhammad Ali (Boxer who was a draft dodger)
22. Rosa Parks (For all the hype about her, all she did was be too tired to get up. She didn't "plan" to start a cultural change)
If you want to see the complete list, here is a link to it:
http://dsc.discovery.com/convergence/greatestamerican/greatestamerican.html
Who would be my Number 1? Easy. Thomas Jefferson. (Number 12 on the list) Wrote the Declaration of Independence and was one of the authors of the Constitution. The Louisiana Purchase. That is certainly more impressive and worthy of high ranking than hosting a TV show, singing songs, or playing with interns.
posted by One Man's Thoughts at 9:32 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home