Who do you consider to be "NATIONAL TREASURES'?

[AnArmyVeteran]

Which public figure(s) speaks out for the same causes you believe in?

Michael Moore was on the Rachel Maddow show a few weeks ago and told her she was a 'National Treasure'. I agreed with Michael. But I can think of a lot of others who merit the same amount of respect and admiration. How many other people from all walks of life can you name who speaks out for the little guy and is a positive influence in our society?

There are champions of progressive causes throughout our country. Who is your favorite, or favorites? I would list a few other names here, but I don't want to taint your judgement. I thought of presenting this in a 'DU Poll' format, but that method only lets the person creating the poll list people's names, without allowing the respondents to add a name of their own to the poll. (Hey DU, it would be a nice feature to have!)

Thanks...

[Kerrytravelers]

1. DU Moderators.

I may be a bit biased. :)

[EFerrari]

21. I don't know if we should share you with THE WHOLE COUNTRY.

LOL

[rpannier]

54. Yes you are

On both counts

But, you're braver than I am
I don't have the disposition to be a moderator

Though, it would cull the herd -- Tombstones for Everyone

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. First thought I had reading your heading was "Rachel Maddow"

She is wonderful.

[Kitty Herder]

79. Me too.

She is a treasure indeed.

[NeedleCast]

3. Other than me?

Have to think about it...

I would say Jon Stewart (and his staff) for their uncanny ability to find hypocrasy in politics (on both sides) and point it out.

[leveymg]

4. Howard Zinn

will always be with us, fighting the good fight for the little guy.

[xxqqqzme]

5. Bill Moyers many times over

[Captain Hilts]

6. Dorothy Height just died. Damn. nt

[annarbor]

7. Rosa Parks...

a true treasure....

[AnArmyVeteran]

25. I met Rosa Parks...

I was fortunate to have met Rosa Parks in the summer of 1984. She came to our company and spoke briefly. She was a quiet, dignified lady. I wish I could have been able to talk with her for hours, but just meeting her was such an honor.

[coffeenap]

8. Amy Goodman, Daniel Schorr, Dennis Kucinich, Thom Hartmann

And I second Rachel Maddow.

[Goblinmonger]

9. Kurt Vonnegut n/t

[TroglodyteScholar]

43. Seconded...

He was my first thought too, followed closely by Frank Zappa....

[grasswire]

10. Bill Moyers

Garrison Keillor, in a more subtle sense.

[Rambis]

11. Pete Seeger

[gratuitous]

16. Number 1 on my hit parade

I'd also plump for a couple of obscure folks who nevertheless make this a better country and world: Cliff Kindy and Rick Polhemus to name just a couple.

[AnArmyVeteran]

35. great choice

[coffeenap]

12. Morris Dees

[divvy]

64. I love Morris Dees

SPLC is my favorite charity.

[Dinger]

13. Here are some:

Wesley Clark
Johnny Cash
Willie Nelson
Dr. Martin Luther King
Rosa Parks
Howard Zinn
Chief Joseph
Steven Spielberg
Dennis Kucinich
Michael Moore
Bill Moyers
etc.

[juajen]

47. I would like to add Hillary Clinton, Martha Stewart and Barbra Streisand.

[Oregone]

14. Seth Rogan

[blm]

15. Those who do the dangerous work of uncovering CORRUPTION - a handful of investigative reporters like

Robert Parry and Gary Webb...and a handful of lawmakers who made permanent enemies because they worked to expose IranContra, Iraqgate, CIA drugrunning and BCCI like Henry Gonzalez and John Kerry.

Just think what would have happened by 1992 if none of these men had the courage and integrity to stand against the dangerously corrupt involved in those unconstitutional and downright fascist operations.

[roody]

46. The staff of CREW.

http://www.citizensforethics.org/

[blm]

58. CREW is a definite add....

.

[Individualist]

17. Helen Thomas

[jannyk]

76. Here's another vote for Helen!!

[zipplewrath]

18. Kathy Anderson

No, you haven't heard of her, and you won't. Thought globally, acted locally. But she taught a couple of generations of volunteers and employees how to be incredible people. I happened to marry one.

She worked for a long time in the area of suicide prevention. But what she was really teaching is how to listen to others, and help other people achieve what THEY wanted to choose to achieve. In the process, one would learn that other people can concieve and achieve great things, if the rest of us will just help and then get out of the way. This town is littered with people who got their start working with her. And they have deep penetration into the schools, social service, medicine, politics, and volunteer agencies of all stripes.

[Lucian]

19. Dennis Kucinich and Paul Wellstone.

[AnArmyVeteran]

38. Paul was taken way too soon. And under very suspicious circumstances...

[Lucian]

49. I agree. With both parts.

I always believed Norm Coleman had something to do with it...

[EFerrari]

20. Amy and Juan, Noam Chomsky, Michael Eric Dyson

Bill Moyers, Robert Redford, Danny Glover, Harry Belafonte, Mike Farrell, Medea Benjamin, Skip Gates, Alice Walker.

Gosh, there's a lot of them! lol

[Kitty Herder]

81. Great list!

[ecstatic]

22. President Barack H. Obama, Oprah

:)

[Demonaut]

23. Jon Stewart

Nothing like humor to make a point

[AnArmyVeteran]

Jon Stewart and his 'correspondents' are absolutely perfect...

He skewers people with ease and he relishes outing hypocrites. Only a fool would dare take on Stewart. But Fox News is not known for smart talking heads...

[AnArmyVeteran]

44. And Stephen Colbert is great too!

[cbdo2007]

24. Bob Dylan

[eShirl]

26. Maya Angelou

Still I Rise
by Maya Angelou


You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.

Does my sassiness upset you?
Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells
Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,
With the certainty of tides,
Just like hopes springing high,
Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?
Bowed head and lowered eyes?
Shoulders falling down like teardrops.
Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?
Don't you take it awful hard
'Cause I laugh like I've got gold mines
Diggin' in my own back yard.

You may shoot me with your words,
You may cut me with your eyes,
You may kill me with your hatefulness,
But still, like air, I'll rise.

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?

Out of the huts of history's shame
I rise
Up from a past that's rooted in pain
I rise
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
Welling and swelling I bear in the tide.
Leaving behind nights of terror and fear
I rise
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear
I rise
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and the hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise.

[lamp_shade]

27. Jim Henson

[Ohio Joe]

67. My obligatory... Richard Hunt

Because he deserves to be mentioned alongside Jim Henson every time.

[lamp_shade]

70. Oh yes... so so many characters. My favorite? Sully.

[Ohio Joe]

75. He was my next door neighbor when I was a kid

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Hunt_(puppeteer)

"While in middle school and high school, he put on puppet shows for local children,"

That does not do justice to the performances that Richard and the entire Hunt family put on in Memorial Park. It also makes no mention that the neighborhood kids were used to test out new muppets :D

[lamp_shade]

78. I suspected that you knew him. I didn't... not until you mentioned him at which time I googled his

name and read all about him. He was quite a guy.

[kentuck]

28. Dolly Parton and Jimmy Carter....

off the top of my head. I'm sure there are many others.

[demwing]

29. Back at ya Michael Moore. And Al Gore.

Do they have to be alive?

[texastoast]

30. Gloria Steinem and Erica Jong

and all the other wonderful, brave women who raised consciousness about sexual harrassment at the workplace.

For starters.

[Romulox]

31. Lou Reed!

I wanna play football for the coach...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPrIulnAblk

[90-percent]

32. got a few

Frank Zappa
Dennis Kuchinich
George Carlin
Rachel and Keith
Jon and Stephen
Howard Dean
Max Keiser
Thom Hartmann
Don Garlits
John Force
Don Van Vliet
David Letterman

[FSogol]

33. Joey Ramone, Sherman Alexie, Kurt Vonnegut, Joesph Heller, Garrison Keiller,

[The Straight Story]

34. Bender's shiny metal ass

[frylock]

36. oasis..

But is not Oasis the greatest British band since the Beatles? Can we not vote on this?!

[scheming daemons]

37. George Carlin

[branders seine]

39. Hartmann

Sirota
Maddow
Olbermann
Moore
Moyers



the rest of their "profession" can pound dirt.

[Motown_Johnny]

40. Nicolas Cage Movies

[EFerrari]

52. Snap out of it!

[Saboburns]

41. Jimmy Carter

Being President of the US wasn't even his most important Job.

Talk about integrity, service, dedication, and he still teaches a Sunday School Class.

[greencharlie]

42. nah...

no one can be a national treasure during their life... it is something that should be contemplated and weighed over time after they're gone.

[roody]

45. Roy Bourgeois---founder of SOA Watch

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

[itsrobert]

48. Jon and Kate

who else

[underseasurveyor]

50. You're sick

:rofl: I like it

[hfojvt]

55. John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale?

Wait, isn't she British?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsjR5P3TuWY

[muffin1]

59. Yes, but she's HAWT!!

:D

[BlooInBloo]

51. Alyssa Milano, Jessica Alba, and Jennifer Love Hewitt.

[lpbk2713]

53. Tom and Dick Smothers

They used their soap box to say what needed to be said at a time when only a few would have.

[Odin2005]

56. Garrison Keillor

[divvy]

63. I have tickets to see his show live this summer Yay !

I am in the center section precisely six rows from the stage.

[flvegan]

57. I'll go musically. RATM, Rise Against, Beastie Boys

Neil Young, Springsteen, Bon Jovi (yeah, that was out of left field, right?)

I've left hundreds out. You finish the list.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

60. Daniel Ellsberg. Heard him speak on the college circuit in '72.

Also met him later at Rice University and got him to sign my copy of his book SECRETS.
And at that time, I told him the opinion that I had formed of him 35 years earlier:

"Sir, I believe you are the moral equivalent of Gandhi".



Also Jimmy Carter, I send money to the Carter Center to combat crippling parasitic diseases that are cheap and easy to cure.

Gloria Steinem.


Dead ones: Charlie Chaplin, Studs Terkel, Woody Guthrie, Mary Travers, John Denver (don't laugh, he was an excellent musician), John Lennon, Frank Zappa (very anti-censorship), Norman Thomas.

My dad Cliff was a union organizer for the Oil Chemical and Atomic Workers back in the bad old days of the 1930s and 40s. He said he was doing something right anytime somebody called him a Communist.

[LWolf]

61. Granny D. (RIP)

Howard Zinn

Willie Nelson

Medea Benjamin

Alfie Kohn

Steven Krashen

Marion Brady

Gerry Bracey and Ted Sizer, RIP.

Angela Davis

Cindy Sheehan

[AnArmyVeteran]

73. Granny D spoke at the Reform Party's founding convention. She was such a great speaker...

She stayed in the homes of many Reform Party members as she walked across the country in support of campaign finance reform. Any real campaign finance reform law that gets passed should have her name on it. Our country won't change until we STOP THE FLOW OF MONEY that is corrupting out government. But conservatives are ALWAYS against reforms that would make the system less corrupt and more open to candidates who are honest and qualified.

[LWolf]

74. Thanks for remembering Granny D. with me.

I agree that the true place to start is campaign finance reform.

[divvy]

62. Barak Obama !

He is a really great president.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

65. Joan Baez, Noam Chomsky, Helen Thomas, Arundhati Roy, Aung San Suu Kyi.

Well, you didn't say what nation, in the case of Arundhati Roy and Ang San Suu Kyi.

[KG]

66. Dave Alvin.

[TwilightGardener]

68. Garrison Keillor.

[Paladin]

69. Ry Cooder. Elmore Leonard. (n/t)

[NoPasaran]

71. Chelsea Handler

[Swamp Rat]

72. The City of New Orleans and its native tribe

:hi:

[Iggo]

77. Teachers.

[Kitty Herder]

80. I'll second that.

[AnArmyVeteran]

82. I'll THIRD that! They are overworked and underpaid. And still get attacked...

Anyone remember Rod Paige, Bush's Secretary of Education who said teacher's unions were terrorist organizations? I wrote an article called, "My Wife, the Terrorist?". It's still floating around the internet if you care to read it.

[BlueIris]

83. Maya Angelou, Garrison Keillor, Robert Redford and my beloved John Kerry. nt

[Elwood P Dowd]

84. Have Molly Ivins and Jim Hightower been mentioned?

Which one said Bush was born on third base and thought he hit a triple.