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In reply to the discussion: Two Questions: [View all]Beringia
(4,316 posts)33. A long list
charles darwin
barbie
carlos castenada
richard mclean
james mathewson
dad
thomas merton, dorothy day
roosevelt
MLK
jimmy carter
james cagney
juan felipe herrera
albert schweitzer
charles laughton
marilyn monroe
picasso
isadora duncan
woodie guthrie
studs terkel
jacque cousteau
jules verne
lame deer
cat stevens, janis joplin
black elk
farley mowat
johnny moses
brooke medicine eagle
jane goodall
mike royko
dalai lama
obama
henry ford
kurt vonnegut
abraham lincoln
thomas edison
burt lancaster
Because they all inspired me at some point in my life, opened my eyes to possibilities or had a huge impact in my eyes on the development of America or extremely creative.
They are not all Americans though.
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Without giving your question much thought, the names that immediately lept to mind were
scarletwoman
Jan 2014
#6
I think Melville is quintessentially American, and "Bartleby the Scrivener" is genius -- & also
El_Johns
Jan 2014
#71
Helen Keller, socialist, labor rights activist, suffragist, early supporter of the NAACP...
Luminous Animal
Jan 2014
#12
Mark Twain, Joseph Heller, Henry James, Emma Goldman, Edward Snowden, Joan Baez,
Tierra_y_Libertad
Jan 2014
#15
Duke Ellington, Kurt Vonnegut, Susan B Anthony, Orson Wells, Harvey Milk, Malcolm X.
Bluenorthwest
Jan 2014
#20
living - Bernie Sanders why? he knows what empathy is. deceased - they're all dead...
Agony
Jan 2014
#28
Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King. In the modern day - Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald
quinnox
Jan 2014
#30
Nobody as disgustingly anti-Semitic as Henry Ford deserves a place on the list (nt)
Nye Bevan
Jan 2014
#41
Waterman, it's not like you to post and run. I'm looking forward to you making some comments here.
scarletwoman
Jan 2014
#35
I don't think the best our society has produced is newsworthy enough to know by name
NoOneMan
Jan 2014
#63
When I lived in Europe, I had a circle of acquaintances who, when I was in a bad mood or
El_Johns
Jan 2014
#75
some very great names here. let me add Satchel Paige, Randolph Bourne and Aldo Leopold to the list
villager
Jan 2014
#85