The Greatest American: Who'd you vote for?

I have been watching this show this evening on the Discovery Channel. Quite an interesting and cheap history lesson of past and current Americans who people feel are the greatest. You have inventors like Edison and the Wright Brothers. You have past Presidents Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson, along with more current 20th Century one's like Roosevelt, Reagan, Kennedy and (gulp!) Clinton. Then people of courage like Rosa Parks, Lance Armstrong and Martin Luther King. Anyhow, check out the top 25. With out Bill Gates, Edison and Einstein, we wouldn't have TV or this computer upon which this post has been written.

You get to vote for 3 tonight. What a choice. My choices:

Martin Luther King. Probably the greatest American and someone I think should win this whole greatest thing above anyone else. And this is coming from a blogger who is white, middle class and Republican. (Oh the shock and horror) King to me bridges the past, from the start of the country through the Civil War, the Depression to well, now. If you listen to what the guy said in his "I have a dream" speech, he is telling first in foremost on how to be an American, how to live free, and all that stuff that fills our history books from 1776 on is what Americans ultimately try to accomplish from the good times and bad times. We must start with equality. If we aren't all equal, then we aren't Americans. Equality is truly the foundation of our Constitution. In order to have equality however, we all must support the American Dream. King was speaking for his people, which really was all of us. His vision was not unique but was well spoken and will stand forever in American History. He defied the paradigm because he believed in freedom and thought others should hear his vision as well.

My second choice, our greatest President, Ronald Reagan. I was in 1st grade when he won the Presidency but I was way too young to understand what he really meant. Our country ended World War 2 in good shape. We had great properity that was put in place with our escape of the Great Depression. Reagan was a man who lived through it all. He knew the Depression. He knew World War 2 and the suffering that went along through all of those events. But he also witnessed America at its worst. It's neglect of the military fighting a war in Vietnam. The troubles in the Civil Rights movement. America's loss of the Kennedy's and Dr. King. Then you had the scandal with the Nixon Administration where Nixon ended up resigning. We had an oil crisis that was more extreme then todays. You had two soft leaders in Ford and Carter. America was a mess and could have seriously faced the threat of war from the Soviet Union. Reagan rides in from California. Life is suddenly good again. He put country on his back, fought off the Soviets through diplomacy and got us to see some prosperity again. True he ran a deficit but what was wrong with that? He made America strong again. Americans had jobs. Americans became inventive again. Americans enjoyed their leisure and their prosperity. His shadow has still been cast over Presidents since. Even Clinton was a great admirer and was not afraid to speak to America, much like Reagan.

My last vote went for Lance Armstrong. Even with his story of survival from a pretty wicked cancer, his 6 Tour de France wins, and his LiveStrong Foundation, his story is still severely under-rated in my book. Those not familiar with sports, the Tour de France is probably the toughest endurance test by far in sports. An Ironman Triathlon is a 2 plus mile swim, a 100 mile bike ride and a Marathon. Tough long race right? Months of training, to complete one leg of that event in a day is awesome in itself. However, the Tour is 100 some odd miles of riding a day for 20 days. Up and down mountains. Time trials. Sprints. Crashes. Get on your bike and ride across town and back and tell me that is not take some effort. Lance won the event after recovering from a cancer that sucked half of his body away. His body, due to cancer, doesn't produce testosterone like the average 33 year old guy. He has said, he can't take suppliments to replace that loss because injecting yourself with testosterone is illegal in sports. In fact, for years he has been tested 300 plus times for banned substances with no positive tests. The odds are stacked high and deep against this guy and he still rolls on. Live Strong eh? I don't think there is another American hero out there than can hold up to this guy's courage and determination. Unbelievable!

If you have seen this Greatest American series on Discovery or have any thoughts on the list on the link I posted up top or my choices, let me know. Thanks!