Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Medal of Freedom awards
Topic Started: Sep 27 2009, 10:33 AM (240 Views)
Hello again
Member Avatar

At a ceremony in the White House's East Room on August 16, President Obama awarded the Medal of Freedom, America's highest civilian honor, to sixteen pioneers in politics, science, and the arts. Obama told those gathered that this year's recipients are united in their belief that "our lives are what we make of them; that no barriers of race, gender, or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit; and that the truest test of a person's life is what we do for one another."

Interesting to note two white guys were honors (one dead Jack Kemp and the other Ted Kennedy - almost dead at the time). Obama gave the awards to two homosexuals, one Native, one non-American, one middle easterner, a liberal Supreme Court judge, and several white women.

Who's the discriminating racist bigot? Two dead (or soon to be dead) white guys (Kemp and Kennedy) and both political officials?
Edited by Hello again, Sep 27 2009, 10:35 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Rules
 
NoorAnisa
Member Avatar

Perhaps there were no significant accomplishments by white middle aged men this year.
Offline Profile Quote Post Rules
 
dumblonde
Member Avatar

A distinguished list- in spite of RTs homophobic/racist/sexist response. Do you honestly feel only old white guys are qualified? (BTW- Hawkings a white guy, or does being disabled kick him out of your club?{I know Milk is kicked out because he is gay}) So, 4 out of 16 are white males, five are white females. More than half are white. Isn't that enough for you?

• Nancy Goodman Brinker: The death of her sister from breast cancer prompted Brinker to found Susan G. Komen for the Cure, which has grown to become the world's leading breast cancer grass-roots organization.

• Pedro José Greer Jr.: Among the many hats Greer wears, he is the founder of Camillus Health Concern, an agency that provides medical care to more than 10,000 homeless patients every year in Miami, Florida.

• Stephen Hawking: The internationally recognized theoretical physicist has spent his career making complex scientific concepts accessible to the layman, including penning the best-selling book "A Brief History of Time" and its updated version, "A Briefer History of Time."

• Jack Kemp: The quarterback-turned-politician was honored posthumously for the years he spent, leading up to his death in May, raising awareness of and encouraging development in underserved communities. Photo See photos of this year's winners »

• Sen. Edward Kennedy: During his 46 years as a lawmaker, Kennedy has called health care reform the "cause of his life," championing nearly every health care bill enacted by Congress in the past five decades. However, Kennedy missed Wednesday's ceremony because of his ongoing battle with brain cancer, the White House said. His sister Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who died Tuesday, received the Medal of Freedom in 1984 from President Reagan.

• Billie Jean King: With her victory over Bobby Riggs in the "Battle of the Sexes" tennis match in 1973, and in the years since, King has champion gender equality not only in sports but in all areas of public life.

• The Rev. Joseph Lowery: With the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights icon co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a leading civil rights organization, and has continued to highlight the cause worldwide, including speaking out forcefully against apartheid in South Africa until its end in 1994.

• Joe Medicine Crow-High Bird: The last living Plains Indian war chief and author of seminal works in Native American history is also the last person alive to have received direct oral testimony from a participant in the Battle of the Little Bighorn: his grandfather, a scout for Gen. George Custer.

• Harvey Milk: The first openly gay person elected into office in a major U.S. city, Milk is revered as a pioneer of the lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender civil rights movement. He was honored posthumously.

• Sandra Day O'Connor: At a time when women rarely entered the legal profession, O'Connor graduated Stanford Law School third in her class and went on to become the first woman ever to sit on the U.S. Supreme Court.

• Sidney Poitier: The first African-American to win a Best Actor Academy Award, Poitier also broke ground by insisting that the crew in one of his films be at least 50 percent African-American and by starring in the first mainstream movie portraying interracial marriage as acceptable.

• Chita Rivera: The winner of two Tony Awards, Rivera was also the first Hispanic to receive the Kennedy Center Honor, awarded annually for exemplary lifetime achievement in the performing arts.

• Mary Robinson: Since ending her term as the first female president of Ireland, Robinson has headed Realizing Rights, an initiative that ensures that human rights is not forgotten as nations chart a course toward globalization.

• Janet Davison Rowley: Her work on chromosome abnormalities in human leukemia and lymphoma has led to dramatically improved survival rates for previously incurable cancers.
advertisement

• Desmond Tutu: An Anglican archbishop and a leading anti-apartheid activist, Tutu is widely regarded as "South Africa's moral conscience" and chaired the country's Truth and Reconciliation Commission when it was created in 1995 to discover and reveal past wrongdoing.

• Muhammad Yunus: A Bangladeshi economist and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, Yunus pioneered the use of micro-loans to provide credit to the poor without collateral, a successful model that has been emulated worldwide.
Offline Profile Quote Post Rules
 
Hello again
Member Avatar

Hawking is not even an American.

Milk got the medal because he was gay murdered by a mad man who wanted to kill the Mayor and Milk happento intercept - other than that...he didn't contribute anything to society. If claiming being an open pervert is a reason for a Medal of Freedom then

Why didn't Hollywood make a movie about Moscone? Mascone did more for SF than Milk.



Edited by Hello again, Sep 29 2009, 11:43 AM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Rules
 
dumblonde
Member Avatar

Not only a hateful post RT, but an ignorant one. The Medal of Freedom is not restricted to US citizens. You might want to read up on it.
Offline Profile Quote Post Rules
 
NoorAnisa
Member Avatar

Maybe white people have not contributed enough to freedom this year.


whoa.. I already said that!....


at least I am consistent.
Edited by NoorAnisa, Sep 29 2009, 12:51 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Rules
 
Hello again
Member Avatar

dumblonde
Sep 29 2009, 12:07 PM
Not only a hateful post RT, but an ignorant one. The Medal of Freedom is not restricted to US citizens. You might want to read up on it.
Moscone did more than Milk.... what's the difference?

Moscone was NOT gay and Milk was. Got Milk?
Edited by Hello again, Sep 29 2009, 01:19 PM.
Offline Profile Quote Post Rules
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Join the millions that use us for their forum communities. Create your own forum today.
« Previous Topic · General Discussion · Next Topic »
Add Reply