Thirteen people received the highest civilian honor awarded, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in a recent East Room ceremony at the White House. President Obama continued the tradition that was established by President Harry Truman to honor World War II activities.
Throughout the years, the criteria for recipients of this prestigious award have changed. Those presented with the Medal of Freedom during the 1940s and 1950s were figures who were involved in America's security and diplomacy.
Through an executive order President John Kennedy made significant changes in the selection criteria in 1963. The "especially meritorious contribution" was expanded to include not only "the security or national interests of the United States" but also of "cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."
Previous recipients have included Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, General Norman Schwarzkopf, Pope John Paul II, Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren, former President Ronald Reagan and, more recently, former astronaut-turned Sen. John Glenn and Tennessee's own legend of leadership, Pat Summitt.
The decision of those selected as recipients lies solely with the president.
Among the most recent recipients, an individual devoted to the antithesis of freedom was adorned with the blue ribbon holding the red and white enameled badge featuring a golden star framed by American eagles with wings spread.
Dolores Huerta, a current honorary chairwoman of the Democratic Socialists of America, the largest socialist organization in the U.S., was chosen by the president. She is the namesake of the Dolores Huerta Foundation, the mission of which is "to create a network of organized communities pursuing social justice through systemic and structural transformation."
Huerta also is a co-founder, with Cesar Chavez, of the National Farmworkers Association, now the United Farm Workers union.
President Obama alone made his selection of Medal of Freedom recipients. Disgustingly, one of his choices has turned an honor into a token.
related articles »
Retired boxing great Muhammad Ali will visit Philadelphia to receive the Liberty Medal, an award recognizing his longtime role as ...
President Barack Obama is honoring a diverse group of political and cultural icons, including former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, ...
Pat Summitt will visit the White House on Tuesday to receive the President Medal of Freedom.
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama recognized one former president and 14 artists, athletes, civil rights activists, humanitarians and others Tuesday ...
Can you explain why Dolores Huerta is less deserving than Carol Burnett or Gilbert Melville Grosvenor? Or any of the numerous sports figures who received the award?
No?
I think the only reason you're upset is your partisan bias. You don't approve of her politics.
Get over yourself. Your arrogant presumption only degrades yourself, nobody else. We get it, you hate left-wingers, socialists, communists, Marxists, and whatever else you call liberals.
This is why your criticism is useless. You'd say the same things regardless.
Stop and realize what you're doing to your own image.
Huerta has done A LOT of great things for immigrants and women. But I guess the author didn't read her bio.
http://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/dolores-fernandez-huerta/
She was also inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame and received the United States Presidential Eleanor D. Roosevelt Human Rights Award. I didn't hear anyone complaining then. But I guess anything Obama does is evil.
If you say the word "socialist" around a Republican they piss themselves. They are still afraid of the Russians. The Cold War ended long ago. Grow up.
Disgustingly, this paper has turned into a Republican propaganda machine. And that's a terrible shame.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom was also given by President George W. Bush to Alan Greenspan: a man who went out of his way to not do his job as a central banker. The result of Greenspan's actions was disaster. "The marketplace will take care of the fraudsters."
If you're going to point out who received the Medal of Freedom, in a way that makes the award disgusting, you should lead with Greenspan's.
If it weren't for his idiocy and obstinacy, we might not be in this mess.
Thanks above posters for uncovering a right-wing spin that only the gullible would swallow, which is too often the case.
What a hoot! The FP editors can properly use the term "democratic" when it is part of the name of a socialist organization, but stub their grammatical toe when it is used to describe the Democratic Party. The brain-dead right wing extremists probably think turning the word "democrat" into a slur somehow elevates their arguments but all it does is coarsen discourse and expose them as disgruntled curmudgeons and simpletons.
So one Godless Socialist honors another Godless Socialist.
You're an idiot.
As the nation wallows in the offal of capitalist malfeasance, we must remember that Ronnie Raygun gave the medal to Milton Friedman - I'll leave you all too develop your own characterizations of that little circus.
The editorial writer thinks honoring a woman who has devoted her life to improving the working conditions of the poorest among us has turned "the honor into a token." I think that says a great deal about the writer.
I would add that in addition to the honors Easy123 listed, Ms. Huerta was also named one of the 100 most important women of the 20th century by the Ladies Home Journal, a very mainstream magazine and received the Trumpeter Award from Consumer's Union.
Or login with:
New Account