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General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: TwentyFo on December 03, 2007, 06:39:12 PM

Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: TwentyFo on December 03, 2007, 06:39:12 PM
Who of you wins the award for the most American? Maybe this video will give you some insight on your Americaness. Please give examples of Americaness so we can have an educated and productive debate. Thanks

America!!!!! Yea!!! (http://youtube.com/watch?v=rq2_YKQGE_U):aok
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: C(Sea)Bass on December 03, 2007, 06:44:24 PM
Are you suggesting that to improve how "American" we are we should all wear tight red,white, and blues pandex and carry a sheild around?

I hope so, because I have nothing else to do with my spandex suits:D
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: TwentyFo on December 03, 2007, 06:45:21 PM
Quote
Originally posted by C(Sea)Bass
Are you suggesting that to improve how "American" we are we should all wear tight red,white, and blues pandex and carry a sheild around?

I hope so, because I have nothing else to do with my spandex suits:D


Exactly:rofl
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: saad on December 03, 2007, 09:02:39 PM
Most American is any man who is proud of all things that will bring about his end. That is most American.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: AWMac on December 03, 2007, 09:05:13 PM
(http://www.movie-poster.ws/movies/wallpaper/action/western/johnwayne/john_wayne.jpg)
Word..pilgram
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Tango on December 03, 2007, 09:26:16 PM
Quote
Originally posted by AWMac
(http://www.movie-poster.ws/movies/wallpaper/action/western/johnwayne/john_wayne.jpg)
Word..pilgram


I agree. Can't get more American than "The Duke".
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Thrawn on December 03, 2007, 09:31:01 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Tango
I agree. Can't get more American than "The Duke".



All these guys have him beat by a mile.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (USN, Silver Star)
Henry Fonda (USN, Bronze Star)
Clark Gable (USAAC)
Eddie Albert (USN, Bronze Star)
Tyrone Power (USMC)
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: doobs on December 03, 2007, 09:45:19 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Thrawn
All these guys have him beat by a mile.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. (USN, Silver Star)
Henry Fonda (USN, Bronze Star)
Clark Gable (USAAC)
Eddie Albert (USN, Bronze Star)
Tyrone Power (USMC)



Ya forgot

Jimmy Stewart
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Holden McGroin on December 03, 2007, 09:47:51 PM
Jimmy Stewart, Brigadier General, Eagle Scout.
(http://www.otrcat.com/z/stewart.jpg)
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: SuBWaYCH on December 03, 2007, 09:51:14 PM
Clint Eastwood.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Hornet33 on December 03, 2007, 09:59:11 PM
Jimmy Stewart is the man. I love the movie "Strategic Air Command"   All those shots of the B-36 Peacemaker and the B-47 Stratojet. Classic Cold War film.

We had a B-47 on "the stick" in the city park in Altus OK where I grew up. Sits on the corner of Broadway, and Park Lane on the NW side of the intersection. I used to love going up and looking at that plane when I was growing up there. It's still there to this day. Also had a Minuteman Missle on "the stick" at the local little leauge ball fields on the south side of town. We called it Missile park growing up.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: FiLtH on December 03, 2007, 10:53:03 PM
Jane Fonda?
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Tango on December 03, 2007, 11:17:13 PM
Quote
Originally posted by FiLtH
Jane Fonda?


He said MOST American, not UN-American.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Maverick on December 03, 2007, 11:29:38 PM
I would say that John Wayne made a great symbol of an American.

As to who the most American is, there is no one person. The ones who typify at you can't talk to. They are in small plots in various countries including home. There are some who are still living, some who are serving now and some who will serve later. They are those that put themselves in harms way for the defense of strangers. They are in a variety of uniforms but they are serving in one manner or another. This is not limited to the Military and can and does include civilians.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: rpm on December 04, 2007, 02:12:45 AM
You also forgot Commander Robert Montgomery, USNR.
(http://media.monstersandcritics.com/articles/1173165/article_images/lastplaneout.jpg)

He was the uncredited director of They Were Expendable. When John Ford became ill he personally asked Montgomery to take over.
It was his debut as director. Argueably his finest work.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: rpm on December 04, 2007, 02:24:03 AM
Quote
Originally posted by Hornet33
Jimmy Stewart is the man. I love the movie "Strategic Air Command"   All those shots of the B-36 Peacemaker and the B-47 Stratojet. Classic Cold War film.

We had a B-47 on "the stick" in the city park in Altus OK where I grew up. Sits on the corner of Broadway, and Park Lane on the NW side of the intersection. I used to love going up and looking at that plane when I was growing up there. It's still there to this day. Also had a Minuteman Missle on "the stick" at the local little leauge ball fields on the south side of town. We called it Missile park growing up.
I love that film. Probably responsable for my aviation fascination since early childhood.

Back in the mid-late 60's my Dad hauled freight for the military. Mostly bombs and other ordinance but on occassion he would haul aircraft. I got to sit in and explore F-86's and other obsolete aircraft headed for the boneyard. You couldn't ask for more than that as a kid.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: SkyRock on December 04, 2007, 02:24:36 AM
Quote
Originally posted by AWMac
(http://www.movie-poster.ws/movies/wallpaper/action/western/johnwayne/john_wayne.jpg)
Word..pilgram

Wow, word!  




Mac, because of this one post,.......
U ahight with me,  kind of!

hee hee:D
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Rino on December 04, 2007, 03:44:00 AM
(http://www.noblenet.org/icons/wash1.gif)

Without this guy, wouldn't be an America that we would recognize.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Slash27 on December 04, 2007, 04:32:04 AM
Quote
Originally posted by doobs
Ya forgot

Jimmy Stewart
:aok
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: AWMac on December 04, 2007, 07:49:19 AM
Quote
Originally posted by SkyRock
Wow, word!  

Mac, because of this one post,.......
U ahight with me,  kind of!

hee hee:D


Well I'll be dam.  Finally Skyrock and I find common ground.

I'm glad you liked the pic.

:D

Mac
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: TwentyFo on December 04, 2007, 11:33:33 AM
Seriously, why did most of you pick actors?
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Maverick on December 04, 2007, 01:06:29 PM
Check to see what most of those actors listed did. Other than Wayne (who was too old at the time) the others that were named served in WW2 and several saw combat. A couple other actors in that same category were James Doohan (Scotty) and Lee Marvin. There are others as well.

They were heads and shoulders above what we are seeing on the screen now. They aren't notably American because they were actors, but what they did besides acting.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: AWMac on December 04, 2007, 01:11:29 PM
What Mav said.

:aok

Mac
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: lasersailor184 on December 04, 2007, 01:14:21 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Rino
(http://www.noblenet.org/icons/wash1.gif)

Without this guy, wouldn't be an America that we would recognize.


Actually, it was this guy who really helped us to win:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Baron_von_Steuben.jpg/481px-Baron_von_Steuben.jpg)
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Neubob on December 04, 2007, 01:14:30 PM
Henry Ford
Thomas Edison
Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak
Larry Page and Sergei Brin

And anybody else whose innovative spirit spurred and created the industries that built this nation, and will continue to propel this nation forward.

Nothing is more American than the ability to think freely, the courage to act on it, the perseverance to bring it to fruition, and the humanity to accept the fruits of its success without guilt.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Shamus on December 04, 2007, 03:31:17 PM
Quote
Originally posted by lasersailor184
Actually, it was this guy who really helped us to win:

(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/86/Baron_von_Steuben.jpg/481px-Baron_von_Steuben.jpg)


That looks like Benedict Arnold.

shamus
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Maverick on December 04, 2007, 05:20:31 PM
Up until he was wounded then became a traitor, he was the most effective leader for battle that we had.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Arlo on December 04, 2007, 05:25:44 PM
Yeah but that's not him. That's Von Stoob. (Methinks LS has a "prussian" thang on).

Here's Bennie:

(http://portrait.kaar.at/USA%201/images/benedict_arnold.jpg)

Does seem to be a resemblence - wig - fluffy collar .....
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Shuckins on December 04, 2007, 05:46:43 PM
(http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/almurphy-usa-photo-01.jpg)
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Rino on December 04, 2007, 05:48:56 PM
I was thinking more of George turning down the "Kingship" after the
revolution.  If you seriously think that von Stueben was capable of holding
the Continental Army better than Washington did, not much I can say.

     Frankly the English had a better military than we did throughout the war.
There is no doubt that training helped, but head to head fighting the
European way against the UK just played into their advantages.

     As far as Arnold goes, I think he's the very definition of a "Sunshine Patriot".
He fought for himself, and that was it.

     I do find it interesting that virtually all of the guys mentioned so far were
military, when frankly the military is one of the smaller cross sections of
America.  I'm as big a fan as the next guy, but I'm not sure that being a great
warrior makes you a great American.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Arlo on December 04, 2007, 06:05:05 PM
Might be easier for some to declare who'd they'd vote "off the island" so to speak.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_of_Fame_for_Great_Americans

Classification of honorees
 
The first 50 names were required to include representatives of a majority of 15 classes:

authors and editors
business men
inventors
missionaries and explorers
philanthropists and reformers
clergymen and theologians;
scientists
engineers and architects
lawyers and judges
musicians, painters, and sculptors
physicians and surgeons
rulers and statesmen
soldiers and sailors
teachers
distinguished men and women outside of these classes

George Washington
Abraham Lincoln
Daniel Webster
Benjamin Franklin
Ulysses S. Grant
John Marshall
Thomas Jefferson
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Robert Fulton
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Washington Irving
Jonathan Edwards
Samuel F. B. Morse
David G. Farragut
Henry Clay
George Peabody
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Peter Cooper
Eli Whitney
Robert E. Lee
Horace Mann
John James Audubon
James Kent
Henry Ward Beecher
Joseph Story
John Adams
William Ellery Channing
Gilbert Stuart
Asa Gray

Later groups

Added in 1905:

John Quincy Adams
James Russell Lowell
Mary Lyon
William T. Sherman
James Madison
John Greenleaf Whittier
Emma Willard
Maria Mitchell

Added in 1910:
 
Beecher Stowe
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
Edgar Allan Poe
James Fenimore Cooper
Phillips Brooks
William Cullen Bryant
Frances E. Willard
Andrew Jackson
George Bancroft
John Lothrop Motley

Added in 1915:
 
Alexander Hamilton
Mark Hopkins
Francis Parkman
Louis Agassiz
Elias Howe
Joseph Henry
Charlotte Cushman
Rufus Choate
Daniel Boone

Added in 1920:

William Thomas Morton
Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Augustus Saint-Gaudens
Roger Williams
Patrick Henry
Alice Freeman Palmer
James Buchanan Eads

Added in 1925:

Edwin Booth
John Paul Jones

Added in 1930:

James McNeill Whistler
James Monroe
Matthew F. Maury
Walt Whitman

Added in 1935:

William Penn
Simon Newcomb
Grover Cleveland

Added in 1940:

Stephen Foster

Added in 1945:

Booker T. Washington
Thomas Paine
Walter Reed
Sidney Lanier

Added in 1950:

William C. Gorgas
Woodrow Wilson
Susan B. Anthony
Alexander Graham Bell
Theodore Roosevelt
Josiah W. Gibbs
 
Added in 1955:

Wilbur Wright *
Thomas J. Jackson
George Westinghouse

Added in 1960:

Thomas Alva Edison
Henry David Thoreau
Edward A. MacDowell

Added in 1965:

Jane Addams
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
Sylvanus Thayer
Orville Wright *

Added in 1970:

Albert A. Michelson
Lillian Wald

Added in 1973:

George Washington Carver
Louis D. Brandeis
Franklin D. Roosevelt
John Philip Sousa

Added in 1976:

Clara Barton
Luther Burbank
Andrew Carnegie

The inductees voted on in 1976 (and Brandeis) do not have busts at the Hall.

 Nominees not elected

In addition to Constance Woolson and Jefferson Davis, the following people were nominated at least once but not elected:

John C. Calhoun, Horace Greeley, Ephraim McDowell, Richard M. Hoe, Adoniram Judson, Henry Wheaton, Hiram Powers, Louisa May Alcott, Dorothea Dix, Alice Cary, Lydia Huntley Sigourney, Theodore Dwight Woolsey, Martha Washington, Francis Wayland, Frederick Edwin Church, Sarah Franklin Bache, Horace Bushnell, Mary Washington, Matthew Simpson, William Austin Burt, Ottmar Mergenthaler, John Eliot (missionary), Helen Hunt Jackson, Robert L. Stevens, John Jay, Samuel Adams, Sacagawea, Benjamin Thompson, James A. Garfield, William McKinley, Cyrus McCormick, Henry George, George Rogers Clark, Charles Follen McKim, Henry Barnard, Borden Parker Bowne, Edward Austin Sheldon, Peter Bulkeley, Lucretia Mott, Elena Petrovna Blavatsky, Sarah Josepha Buell Hale, William Lloyd Garrison, Wendell Phillips, John Singleton Copley, Andrew Johnson, William Henry Harrison, Chester Alan Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, S. Weir Mitchell, William Brewster (Pilgrim), William James, Warren G. Harding, William Beaumont, Elizabeth Blackwell, Benjamin Peirce, Robert McCormick, James K. Patterson, Elizabeth Seton, Calvin Coolidge, Paul Dunbar, John Ireland (archbishop), Judah Touro, William Henry Welch, Joyce Kilmer, George Caleb Bingham, Paul M. Warburg, John Stevens (inventor), Karl Landsteiner, Jacob Schiff, Nikola Tesla, Noah Webster, Henry Ford, Charles Evans Hughes, Fiorello La Guardia, Babe Ruth, John Shaw Billings, Gilbert N. Lewis, Crawford Long, George M. Cohan, Al Jolson, Lou Gehrig, Johnny Appleseed, Amelia Earhart, Chief Joseph, Wyatt Earp, Huey Long, Will Rogers.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Masherbrum on December 04, 2007, 06:10:17 PM
Quote
Originally posted by lasersailor184
Actually, it was this guy who really helped us to win.
Incorrect.   Baron Von Steuben didn't enter the Revolutionary War until February 1778 (I believe).    Saratoga was the turning point of the Revolutionary War in October of 1777.    General John Burgoyne surrendering was a huge blow to the British.  

Most American?   It's a tough question.  

Steve McQueen?    He was a teenager committing crimes, went to a "boys reform school", joined the USMC, Actor, Racer and the "Anti-Hero".  

Audie Murphy?  We all know of his accomplishments.

George Washington?   I'd put him near the top of the list as well.  


McQueen would be my choice.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Meatwad on December 04, 2007, 06:12:34 PM
(http://www.theodoresworld.net/pics/0806/PattonImage2.jpg)


Patton
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: lasersailor184 on December 04, 2007, 07:20:53 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Masherbrum
Incorrect.   Baron Von Steuben didn't enter the Revolutionary War until February 1778 (I believe).    Saratoga was the turning point of the Revolutionary War in October of 1777.    General John Burgoyne surrendering was a huge blow to the British.  


Saratoga gave the French the confidence that the revolution might not fail, so the french hired the Baron von Steuben.  It wasn't necessarily the battle that signaled that the Americans would win from then on out.  It signaled that we had a chance, and there was hope in helping us.  

The Baron von Steuben taught the american troops how specifically to counter British tactics.  This alone was the cause of many winning campaigns from there on out.



And it is true that Benedict Arnold does have a bad reputation.  The truth is that he was the best leader the Americans had in the revolution.  He did not change sides UNTIL the american politicians royally (pun fully intended) screwed him over.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Arlo on December 04, 2007, 07:24:24 PM
Make up your mind .... Stoob or Bennie, dude. ;) :aok
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: MotleyCH on December 04, 2007, 07:34:06 PM
(http://a1259.g.akamai.net/f/1259/5586/5d/images.art.com/images/-/Ben-Affleck---Pearl-Harbor--C10102382.jpeg)


:D
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Mark Luper on December 04, 2007, 07:52:37 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Neubob
Henry Ford
Thomas Edison
Steve Jobs and Steven Wozniak
Larry Page and Sergei Brin

And anybody else whose innovative spirit spurred and created the industries that built this nation, and will continue to propel this nation forward.

Nothing is more American than the ability to think freely, the courage to act on it, the perseverance to bring it to fruition, and the humanity to accept the fruits of its success without guilt.


Hear! Hear! I do also agree with most of the other picks in this discussion.

Word.

Mark
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: TwentyFo on December 04, 2007, 08:02:13 PM
(http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en-commons/thumb/c/c7/220px-Lee_Greenwood.jpg)

Lee Greenwood


(http://creativeclass.typepad.com/thecreativityexchange/images/2007/07/15/stephen_colbert_1.jpg)
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: lasersailor184 on December 04, 2007, 08:14:04 PM
Quote
Originally posted by Arlo
Make up your mind .... Stoob or Bennie, dude. ;) :aok


I wasn't saying who I thought was the best American at all.  I was only pointing out that Washington wasn't the cause of us winning the revolution.
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: SuBWaYCH on December 04, 2007, 08:19:08 PM
Quote
Originally posted by TwentyFo

(http://creativeclass.typepad.com/thecreativityexchange/images/2007/07/15/stephen_colbert_1.jpg)


He's up there on my list.

Regards,
Subway
Title: Who is the most American?
Post by: Arlo on December 04, 2007, 08:21:49 PM
Quote was: "Without this guy, wouldn't be an America that we would recognize."

Not ....  "This guy was the cause of us winning the revolution.."

(Not that your example was, either.)

Just sayin'. :)