Vote: Iraqi Kurdish president among TIME 2014 Person of the Year finalists. Who from this list should win?

CPT Aaron Kletzing — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 19:46:54 -0500

TIME Magazine announced the final 8 nominees for 2014 Person of the Year. Below is a list of all the nominees. Who do you think should win, and why? Note: RallyPoint's survey feature only gives me 5 total options, so I took out a few. Sorry (but not sorry) to Taylor Swift, Roger Goodell, and Putin.

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-- The Ferguson protesters, who took to the streets in August following the fatal shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old by a white police officer, and again in November when a grand jury declined to indict the officer in the killing.

-- The Ebola caregivers, who are still fighting the biggest Ebola outbreak in history, that has so far taken the lives of nearly 7,000 people in West Africa.

-- Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who has remained in the headlines throughout this year, from his country’s stewardship of the Winter Olympics in Sochi to its annexation of Crimea, and its role in the ongoing civil strife in eastern Ukraine.

-- Taylor Swift, one of the world’s top-selling pop artists, who this year shook up the music industry by pulling her music from streaming service Spotify, which she believes should compensate artists more.

-- Jack Ma, an English teacher turned founder and CEO of Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant which debuted a $25 billion IPO.

-- Tim Cook, who introduced Apple’s iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, Apple Watch, and Apple Pay this year, and whose decision to come out made him the first openly gay Fortune 500 CEO.

-- Masoud Barzani, the acting president of the Iraqi Kurdish Region since 2005, who has deftly threaded the region’s push for independence with the ongoing fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria.

-- Roger Goodell, the National Football League commissioner whose leadership has been under great scrutiny this year as the league dealt with public incidents of domestic abuse by players such as Ray Rice, among other controversies.

Response by Capt Richard I P. made Dec 9 at 2014 8:16 PM

Capt Richard I P. — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 20:16:54 -0500

Ebola Caregivers, hands down.

Response by SGT Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 9 at 2014 8:52 PM

SGT Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 20:52:39 -0500

Voted for the ebola caregivers. If the ferguson protesters win I'll be voicing my disapproval to Time and to all others who'll listen.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Dec 9 at 2014 9:33 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 21:33:40 -0500

Honestly I was quite unimpressed with some of the choices this year. The Ebola caregivers would be my vote, but even then you had some problem children among them here in the US which made one go Hmmm?

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Dec 9 at 2014 9:36 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 21:36:42 -0500

I'm holding out hope that maybe next year our esteemed RallyPoint co-founders CPT Aaron Kletzing and LTC Yinon Weiss will get their just reward!

Response by CPT Aaron Kletzing made Dec 9 at 2014 10:24 PM

CPT Aaron Kletzing — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:24:39 -0500

I voted for the ebola caregivers.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 9 at 2014 10:31 PM

CW5 Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:31:29 -0500

My goodness. I'm voting for the Ebola caregivers. I almost can't believe some of the folks on that list. The world is going to hell in a handbasket.

Response by MSgt Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 9 at 2014 10:35 PM

MSgt Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:35:35 -0500

Ebola caregivers without a second thought.

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 9 at 2014 10:48 PM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 22:48:50 -0500

I was split between Masoud Barzani and The Ebola Caregivers. The others include a couple of profiteering industrialists, an Entertainer who thinks she needs more money, a crook running a pro sports league full of over-paid, over-grown boys, and a bunch of thugs that think that resorting to violence and willful destruction of private property is the best way to "protest" an injustice; perceived or real.

I gave slight edge to the Ebola Caregivers because of the personal risk that they take to try to care for those infected with this terrible disease.

Response by Sgt Packy Flickinger made Dec 9 at 2014 11:29 PM

Sgt Packy Flickinger — Tue, 09 Dec 2014 23:29:04 -0500

Whoever wins, they'll be in good company with former winners such a Obama and Hitler.

Response by Sgt Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 10 at 2014 2:11 AM

Sgt Private RallyPoint Member — Wed, 10 Dec 2014 02:11:06 -0500

Vladimir Putin is a former winner. I remember reading '...the person of the year is not necessarily the greatest person, but the person that has influenced the world the most[for that year]. Good or bad.'
This doesn't explain how a group of people can get nominated for PERSON of the year, but they have done this before, and I have not read their justification for it.

I would be very impressed if the Times Person of the Year for 2014 sported a giant NO ONE on the cover, but that would be setting a bar on how influential someone would have to be to win, and so I don't see this happening.

Response by SSG Tim Everett made Dec 12 at 2014 8:15 AM

SSG Tim Everett — Fri, 12 Dec 2014 08:15:09 -0500

If we vote for the Ebola caregivers, there's no risk of catching Ebola, right? Because that's who I voted for...

/tongue_in_cheek.exe