Walt Disney: Greatest American?

A recent issue of The New Yorker included an advertisement by the Discovery Channel about their "Greatest American" contest and TV series. Beginning June 5th and hosted by Matt Lauer, I'm guessing it will be a biography-type show. A long list of great Americans is in the running. This particular ad was interesting in that it listed two of the nominees: Bill Gates and Walt Disney... who both "Changed the world with a mouse."

Go to http://tv.channel.aol.com/greatestamerican for more information. Beginning June 5, you can cast your vote.

I'm just bumping this thread to remind everyone that they can cast their vote tomorrow (June 5th) for whom they think is the greatest American

http://tv.channel.aol.com/greatestamerican

Bill Gates? Greatest American? Sells an admittedly inferior product and dominates the market. forces the all american little guy off the map. Yeah right. Greatest industrialist sure, but being an American is being more than a Shark. What about the poor woman scrubbing floors so her kids can go to school? He is only recently a philanthropist of any measure.

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Originally Posted by Cousin Orville

Bill Gates? Greatest American? Sells an admittedly inferior product and dominates the market. forces the all american little guy off the map. Yeah right. Greatest industrialist sure, but being an American is being more than a Shark. What about the poor woman scrubbing floors so her kids can go to school? He is only recently a philanthropist of any measure.

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So my voting for Larry Flynt isn't a good choice? :lol:

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Originally Posted by Cousin Orville

He is only recently a philanthropist of any measure.

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I'm cool with the fact that you don't like Bills business practices but I think you sort of downplay the extent of the philanthropy. It goes back over a decade and is pretty substantial.

Interesting article from BBC.

Some stats...

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The Gates' Foundation
Endowment of $27bn.
$7.1bn in grants since 1994.
Largest grant: $1bn to the United Negro College Fund.
Average grant: $903,711.
Supports work in more than 100 countries.

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Granted, it doesn't mean that I think he is the "greatest" american. That's an awfully tough choice. Did Walt do more than Albert Einstein or Jonas Salk? More than FDR or Martin Luther King? Walt brought happiness to millions upon millions of people and that is worth a lot but so did Bob Hope.

I love Walt dearly but he has some stiff competition.

I vote for michael Jackson for raising awareness on the serious issues of child molestation. Let's hope he is innocent.