Whom do you admire?

[Inanna]

Folks, its not "Ghandi" its "Gandhi" - Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Just thought I will correct that.

And he is one of the people I really do admire. And not only because he is the "Father of the Nation" for India, but because he has the strength, the moral courage to live by his beliefs, always in his "experiments for truth" (as he put it himself). He did not send people out to die while he stayed hidden in a bunker, he was the first to stand in line and say, "Slap me, and I will turn my other cheek".

That's why I admire him. And I totally agree that this because he was not responsible for killing others.

As for war, I don't think I can ever admire the instigator of the war.

[Primula Baggins]

Thanks, Mahima. Now just tell the rest of the American media how it's spelled, okay?

—Anonymous copyeditor

[truehobbit]

Eep - sorry, Mahima! Thanks for pointing it out!

I read up on Bonhoeffer a bit before I posted (basically, I had to look up how his name was spelled and kept reading), and found this quote by Gandhi that I'd not known before, which said: "There is no way to peace. Peace is the way."

[anthriel]

Can ANYONE tell me why Jackie Onassis is on this list?

[yovargas]

Fashion sense?

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Anth, I just spent the last ten minutes trying to write a coherent answer to that question. I have failed. Nothing that I say makes any sense, even to me (who is famous for claiming that "sense is what you make of it").

Which seems to make the question take on more significance for me, somehow.

Edit to add: Crossposted with yov. That was one of the things that I came up with too, yov, but how can that possibly be considered admirable on the scale of the other people on the list. Even the ones that some people disagree with at least accomplished something. What did Jackie O accomplish other then look chic?

[Primula Baggins]

I wonder who they polled. When she was First Lady she was, I hear, tremendously popular with women. Maybe it's the same ones.

(Don't look at me—I was five in 1963.)

I don't know of anything bad about her. She was apparently a well-respected book editor later in life. Though I don't think that gets you sainthood, as a rule.

[anthriel]

Well, I don't know of anything bad about her, either. I'm sure she was a good person. And she faced a pretty brutal loss, with a lot of grace, in a pretty public venue; she had my utmost sympathy for that.

Other than that, however, her biggest assets were yes, her fashion sense, and the fact that she REALLY knew how to marry well.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

Yes, those are the three things that I touched on in my abortive attempt to answer your question. I just don't see how they add up to including her on the list.

[axordil]

Admired may mean for some "would like to be."

[vison]

Well, Laura Bush is much admired, too. Polls often put her at the top, or near the top, of lists of "admirable women". Somehow Americans seem to canonize the woman married to the President, it goes with the job. Within weeks of the election, too. I never understood that and never will. Canadians don't have any such feeling for our PM's wife and by and large they lead private lives and seldom attract publicity. (With the exception, I admit, of the lamentable Margaret Trudeau.)

I was never a Jackie fan, although I do remember her very well as Mrs. JFK. She dressed well, she was graceful and attractive although not beautiful. She spoke French and was "cultured". After Mamie Eisenhower, she was like Spring after Winter, I remember reading. But really and truly, she had the same kind of quality as Diana Princess of Wales: that "star" thing that some have and some don't.

Unlike Diana, Jackie kept her mouth shut. She was discreet. Think of the stories she could have told, had she chosen to!!! By all accounts she was a devoted and loving mother. And, as was mentioned above, she conducted herself with dignity and calm class after the assassination of her husband.

Are these sufficient reason to put her on a list of "admired women"? Not really, but on the other hand, I personally prefer her to Mother Theresa.

[truehobbit]

Think of the stories she could have told, had she chosen to!!!

Her husband would not have ended up on the list if she had, I guess.

Anthy, I asked the same question. I agree with Ax that people read "admire" as "who are you a fan of", and I do realise that Jackie had quite a following - the comparison to Lady Diana is apt, I think.

[axordil]

Being a fan generally implies that you follow someone's activities in the relevant niche (sports, music, entertainment, etc) press and take an interest in their doings in their field, and perhaps (especially for entertainers) their personal life as well. I think a lot of women were like that with Jackie O and Diana, but I also think there was a certain amount of wish-fulfillment fantasy involved in both cases. Thus the emulation of fashion sense...heck, I remember in the LATE 60s women still wearing little Jackie O Chanel-knock off hats.

By way of contrast, I don't think a lot of people used cigarette holders because FDR did. And I don't think a whole lot of people wanted to be him, either.

[Cerin]

I think people admire Jackie O because of the way she raised her children (keeping them largely out of the public eye and steering their course toward relative normalcy), and because of the dignity with which she carried herself throughout her life while living under such constant scrutiny.

[Primula Baggins]

Her dignity after the assassination and during all the funeral events was admirable, I have to admit, especially considering that she witnessed her husband's death in such a dreadful way.

[JewelSong]

People might want to peruse the Wikipedia article about Jackie O.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Kennedy

The comparison with Princess Di is not completely inaccurate...but Jackie was much more than simply a fashion plate and the wife of two famous men.

I do believe that she is on that list because she faced several kinds of adversity with great dignity and courage. I didn't know, for instance, that she had lost not one, but two babies, in addition to a miscarriage.

As a native New Yorker, I will always be grateful for her involvement in the preservation and restoration of Grand Central Station - once slated for demolition. It is now seen as one of the jewels of the city.

I think she was a very strong woman in many ways.

[vison]

One never had the sense that she sought publicity for herself. She was a "star" but she didn't court public opinion in the way Diana did.

She didn't have an easy life and as far as I know, she never complained. Good qualities, and worth admiring, when you get right down to it.


The thing is, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once observed: "No one feels sorry for a girl on a yacht."

[JewelSong]

My own list...drawing only from people in the 20th century.

Admire:
1. To regard with pleasure, wonder, and approval.
2. To have a high opinion of; esteem or respect.
(From the American Heritage Dictionary)

I have chosen people whom I feel have made a positive and lasting contribution in their field...and/or who have touched the lives of others in a postive and lasting way. None of them were saints...all were human beings with flaws.

In no particular order - and some have been already listed:
Jim Henson
Charlie Chaplin
Beverly Sills
Fred Rogers
Yo-Yo Ma
Bobby Kennedy
Jackie Robinson (the only sports figure on my list)
Martin Luther King
Mahatma Gandhi
Margaret Sanger
Rachel Carson
Teddy Roosevelt
Helen Keller and Annie Sullivan (can't really separate them)
The Dalai Llama
Nelson Mandela
Lech Walesa
Desmond Tutu
Albert Schweitzer
Oskar Schindler
Anne Frank
Helen Caldicott
Amelia Earhart
Marie Curie
Stephen Hawking
Gene Roddenberry
Christopher Reeve
JRR Tolkien

[Angbasdil]

Who was it again who said that the first to bring Hitler into a discussion loses?

That would be Mike Godwin.

[Inanna]

Going along with Jewel's definition, here is MY LIST:

• 1) Mahatma Gandhi
  2) Nelson Mandela
  3) Albert Einstein
  4) Thomas Edison
  5) Van Gogh
  6) JRD Tata and Ratan Tata (Founder and current Chairman of TATA Group)
  The Dalai Lama
  9) Kabir Bedi (India's first woman Super Cop)
  10) Narayan Murthy (Founder of Indian firm Infosys)
  
  MAYBEs:
  1) Indira Gandhi (somewhat - and she is actually Ghandi )
  2) Bhagat Singh
  3) Steve Jobs
  4) Bill Gates

And Read this:

Here is a dramatic change in the mindset of the younger generation of India. They admire bill gates more than the ‘Father of the Nation’ Mahatma Gandhi. The Economic Times has conducted a poll on the top chief executives and management students in India.

The poll showed that Bill Gates is the most ideal personality among maximum number of respondent. Mahatma Gandhi was pushed into the second spot after Bill gates. Mother Teresa placed at number three spot.

...

Mahatma Gandhi had topped in every poll or survey done earlier as the most admired person by Indian people. This has happened for the first time as the new-age generations has changed their thinking and went beyond the boundary to search their ideals.

The Economic Times asked the top chief executives and management students to choose the greatest icon, 37 per cent polled for Bill Gates and 30 per cent polled for Mahatma Gandhi.

According to the poll, majority of the people said that they had no time for to remember Gandhi. 74 per cent of the chief executives and 61 per cent of the management students has confirmed that they are unable to co-relate Gandhi with their generation.