Who is your favorite American in history regardless of race or gender? (Japan, Ireland)

[dynimagelv]

I gotta agree with Chief Joseph

"From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more, forever."

One of the greatest speeches of all time......

[kungfulou]

John Adams...we owe so much to him that the list would be too great to make.
It's a sin that there is no great tribute to him in our nation's capital.

[Capt. Dan]

Ernie Banks- Robert E Lee- Jerry Garcia- Curly

[Capt. Dan]

I also have a lot of respect for the REAL founding fathers of our country. Geronimo-Crazy Horse-Chief Joseph

[Goodpasture]

[Nerys52SoSilver]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4rpchCLjoI

[slowlane3]

This American saved from starvation, an estimated ONE BILLION people. His statue is inside the U.S. Capitol. Yet he is lesser known than Paris Hilton or Kim Kardashian.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug

[Babe_Ruth]

Originally Posted by albion

Mark Twain.

yeah, Twain is a good one. I like Edgar A Poe a lot too..

[SunGrins]

I gravitate toward the Presidents on this topic. Maybe blinded by that.

Washington stands tall in American history. Seemingly more now after the events of the last couple years. So much could have gone wrong if he had a different perspective or personality. His self discipline was exemplary. Viewing through the prism of modern culture, we see a lot of flaws but in his own time he would not stand out in a negative way. He was not an exceptional battle general but was good at seeing and using opportunities. He would have been a great poker player.

Lincoln would probably rank second on my list. He was steadfast in his mission and quest to hold the Union together -- in spite of countless impediments coming from all sides. Had he lived and served the full second term, I think we would be a better country today.

Jefferson ranks pretty high, maybe third, but he had some deeper blemishes and flaws. He was mostly proud of his statute on religious freedom -- freedom from religion was important to him but he is not remembered much for that. Instead we see quotes taken out of context used to support all sorts of fringe positions. He was not part of the constitutional convention and his views on constitutional issues are interesting but not always relevant or weighty.

Among the rest, I would rank FDR and LBJ (interrupted...edited) pretty high. Others would disagree, and I was no fan of LBJ at the time, but in retrospect he accomplished a lot in spite of having to fight a lost war. His flaw or weakness was that he was not a military man or versed in that environment. His only prior war experience was with MacArthur in WW2, sent to check up on him by FDR. He bought into MacArthur's notion that we could win with sufficient boots on the ground -- keep adding boots until you win. He was taken in by the promises and faulty intelligence. But he excelled at other things.

FDR's imprint on history is huge, maybe because he lasted so long. He faced a lot of difficult situations and handled most of them well. He might look better than he actually was in comparison to his predecessors.

For non-presidents, Franklin and Hamilton would be on the list. MLK would be. Maybe Sam Houston. The list thins out.

[Lodestar]

I don't know that I have any favorites but there are some women and men who occupy a place in my understanding of the development of the culture of America. I particularly think about our first Minnesotans who seem to have to take last place in our considerations. Yet where I live they greatly influence history and evidence of them is all around.

I have a story about this native Dakota woman, born on the Yankton, SD reservation in 1876, and how the story of her life and achievements were secretly offered to me by an elder in the tribe in the Black Hills of South Dakota when I was eight years old. I carried this gift for many decades before I even knew what I had been given.

I was all excited to travel to where the Indians lived and wanted to know all about them. To appreciate my story it's necessary to remember that we practiced different, some would say ignorant and offensive, ideas and attitudes about culture at that time.

It was common for some tribe members to frequent the tourist towns and make a humble living dressing and acting as the tourists expected to see as part of their introduction to the west. Little did we know some were doing more than that. They were planting seeds of their, as yet, untold story. And I was a beneficiary of one of those educators.

In the little town of Keystone stood an old man dressed in full chieftain regalia and I desperately wanted my picture taken with him. My parents asked and it was done.

After the picture was taken he graciously made some conversation with me and I asked him if there were any way he could make me an honorary member of his tribe. He got out a small head-dress, a porcupine quill and bone breast plate and a
Pipestone peace pipe and put them on me, said a few works in Dakota with appropriate gestures and declared that my Dakota name was Zitkala Waste. He told me it meant Good Bird.

I never forgot that and the sense of connectedness it gave me with our indigenous settlers.

One day a few years ago I started to think about his clever way of connecting in light of all the underlying thoughts and feelings he must have had and of all the conflict and anger which has since been evident. Maybe he was trying to tell me something?

So I started to search the net. Here in MN a tremendous about of work has been done to preserve the Dakota language and that was a great help Then I found her - Zitkala Sa. Red Bird

There was her story and a picture and she must have been a contemporary for part of his life. A young, Dakota girl with intelligence and creativity recognized by educators from the East who took her to Indiana and provided her with the tools and voice she needed to pursue her later work.

I don't know. A mystery. Was it a message to me to learn and understand more. Or was it just improvising off the top of his head? I like to think, years after he was gone, I finally got his message, complete with its sorrows and joys.

https://wams.nyhistory.org/modernizi...sm/zitkala-sa/