The Greatest American Hero
 

Happy Birthday Bruce Lee!! (11/27)

Truly one of the greatest American heroes. He would have turned 67 yesterday.

To me, he represented what America is all about:

Excellence
Diversity
Entrepreneurship
Learning
Being the best
The underdog
Overcoming great odds

Did you grow up with Bruce Lee? Did he influence your life?

i idolised Bruce!

as a kid i saw all his movies... yet i was too young to understand the spiritual side of bruce. he is by far, one of the most remarkable charachters of his time.

Never much of a fan of the guy myself... but RIP

I was a fan of his movies as a child and we played as Bruce in the yard. I was too young to realize there was something special about him. I never put him on my hero list but he does represent what America is all about.

have you visited his grave up there in lake view, seattle? it is on my "destination" list... i visited jimi hendrix's grave, sadly didnt' make it to bruce lee's though....

i live a few blocks from jimi's grave, heh.

american? he was chinese, wasn't he?

right up there with "the duke..."

I always thought of him more as a Chinese guy than American, but RIP none the less.

He was born about 45 minutes North of me at Jackson Street Hospital, San Francisco. He lived in Hong Kong until he was a teenager when he came back to San Francisco. He's American of Chinese ancestry.

the man kicked ass.
he's much more my american hero than that norris dude.

u mean good ol chuck? the man who takes on the lebanese army single handedly and belts the crap out of them? delta force if memory serves me well..

id love to give chuck norris a lesson or two...

ok so im still cut by the low budget crappy 80's movies chuck made.. but being of lebanese origin, i just cant help but get angry.

bruce on the other hand is loved the world over. he wasnt just an actor, but a philosopher at the same time. have any of you guys heard some of his interviews? i think he speaks with more of an american accent than many in the usa themselves!

Hey how about a Bruce and Chuck Norris pairing?

Yeah, Bruce is apple pie Chevy truck Nascar Garth Brooks American. I think Chuck Norris may be an American too, not sure though. Certainly more American than die fuher Schwarzenigger.

Didn't Bruce Lee kick Chuck's ass in Return of the Dragon?

Guy was a walking god.

Bruce Lee Quotes

ripped the hair right off his chest!

Who is your Greatest American Hero?
 

I wanted to make a new thread asking TFPers to list their greatest heroes and why. So I did a seach in good TFP practice and found this great tribute to Bruce Lee:

So now I am hoping to revive these feelings by asking:

Who is your Greatest American Hero and why?

Doesn't have to be an American; include a picture if you have one. I'll go first:

My greatest American Hero is Burt Rutan.
(Please note that this posts includes links to Wikipedia)

In my opinion he is one of the greatest aeronautical engineers ever and also a great entreprenuer.
He will go down in history as one of the main contributors to the opening of outer space for private exploration/exploitation.

He is now working on what I think could be his greatest accomplishment:

SpaceShipTwo and his joint venture with Sir Richard Branson that may begin a historic lowering
of the barriers to space for all of us ordinary human beings.

http://www.sense-datum.org/tim/images/burtrutan.jpg

Burt Rutan is an American aerospace engineer noted for his originality in designing light, strong, unusual-looking, energy-efficient aircraft.
He is most famous for his design of the record-breaking Voyager, which was the first plane to fly around the world without stopping or refueling,
and the sub-orbital spaceplane SpaceShipOne, which won the Ansari X-Prize in 2004 for becoming the first privately funded spacecraft to enter
the realm of space twice within a two week period.

Bruce Lee was the man, but sorry to burst your bubble. America is about anything but excellence and diversity. If by excellence you mean being solely responsible for the death of millions in the last hundred years on foreign shores, yes that is excellence. If by diversity you mean white people, then yes America is about diversity.

America spent 300 years enslaving Africans, only to lynch them once they were freed. America spent just as many years killing, raping, and destroying Indian lives and culture. Only to put them on reservations and introduce them to capitalism without giving them the education to adjust. The problem with America is that since we haven't been land locked we don't have the "turbulent" past of many other continents so we think that holds us up to some higher standard. Raping enslaving, and killing "inferior" people does not promote diversity. Nor does modern Jim Crow laws like drug sentences like the difference in punishment for crack vs. coke.
If you go down to Jena Louisiana America is not about diversity, and thats a place where it is publicly not about diversity. Last hired, first fired, what about institutional racism that is everywhere?
We invaded another country so that we could "give" them the gift of democracy. We impose our will on other people. The way we "give" democracy is the same way Hitler "gave" the Jews summer camps like Auschwitz.

Democracy is not the best option, capitalism is not the best option, America is not the best option. I'm not saying i know what is but just because your whole life you have been told this is the land of opportunity doesn't make it true. I don't care who tells you it is, the idea that the United States is a meritocracy is a lie. The exception does not prove the rule.

Funnel,

Maybe you can find a different thread for your post. Or maybe since you feel so strongly about your opinion of America you should start your own thread on the subject. If you do start a new thread based on your post here then I will be happy to join you there in a debate on whatever issues you want aired.

The purpose of this thread is clearly stated and you'll note that I stated that your greatest hero does not have to be an American. Maybe you will consider posting a reply about a hero from a different country or maybe choose a famous Native American.

Having said that now all I have to say is:
Stick to the topic raised or stay out of the post!

Asked and answered in the first sentence, I'd say...

hero is a picture that seems to be persisting.
to wit:


william s burroughs and brion gysin did that.

la monte young has gone further than you:



sun ra was from saturn but he stayed in the states for a while:





o yeah. james brown was from here too.


so's ornette coleman (just listen...)


harry smith as well


bugs bunny


and then there is this, the culmination of all things american:

dammit. . I thought you guys were talking about this guy:
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/c...rican-hero.jpg

http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=118465