2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom
Posted by Pellora in Current Events, President Obama, Relaxed Politics
Beyond Good. Beyond Genius. Beyond Talented. Beyond Gifted. Beyond Tireless. Beyond Passionate.
Nancy Goodman Brinker
Nancy Goodman Brinker is the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s leading breast cancer grass roots organization. Through innovative events like Race for the Cure, the organization has given and invested over $1.3 billion for research, health services and education services since its founding in 1982 and developed a worldwide grassroots network of breast cancer survivors and activists who are working together to save lives, empower people, ensure quality care for all and energize science to find cures.
Pedro José Greer, Jr.
Dr. Pedro Jose Greer is a physician and the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Florida International University School of Medicine, where he also serves as Chair of the Department of Humanities, Health and Society. Dr. Greer is the founder of Camillus Health Concern, an agency that provides medical care to over 10,000 homeless patients a year in the city of Miami.
Stephen Hawking
Stephen Hawking is an internationally-recognized theoretical physicist who has a severe physical disability due to motor neuron disease. He is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University, a post previously held by Isaac Newton in 1669.
Jack Kemp
Jack Kemp, who passed away in May 2009, served as a U.S. Congressman (1971 – 1989), Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (1989 – 1993), and Republican Nominee for Vice President (1996). In Congress and as a Cabinet Secretary, Kemp was a self-described “bleeding heart conservative” who worked to encourage development in underserved urban communities. In the years leading up to his death, Kemp continued seeking new solutions, raising public attention about the challenge of poverty.
Sen. Edward Kennedy
Senator Edward M. Kennedy has served in the United States Senate for forty-six years, and has been one of the greatest lawmakers – and leaders – of our time. From reforming our public schools to strengthening civil rights laws and supporting working Americans, Senator Kennedy has dedicated his career to fighting for equal opportunity, fairness and justice for all Americans.
Billie Jean King
Billie Jean King was an acclaimed professional tennis player in the 1960s and 1970s, and has helped champion gender equality issues not only in sports, but in all areas of public life.
Rev. Joseph Lowery
Reverend Lowery has been a leader in the U.S. civil rights movement since the early 1950s. It was in Mobile, Alabama, at this time –that he headed the Alabama Civic Affairs Association; the organization which led the Movement to desegregate buses and public accommodations.
Joe Medicine Crow – High Bird
Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian war chief, is the author of seminal works in Native American history and culture. Medicine Crow was the first member of his tribe to attend college, receiving his master’s degree in anthropology in 1939, and continues to lecture at universities and notable institutions like the United Nations.
Harvey Milk
Harvey Milk became the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States when he was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977. Milk encouraged lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) citizens to live their lives openly and believed coming out was the only way they could change society and achieve social equality.
Sandra Day O’Connor
Justice O’Connor was the first woman ever to sit on the United States Supreme Court.
Sidney Poitier
Sidney Poitier is a groundbreaking actor, becoming the top black movie star in the 1950s and 1960s. Poitier is the first African American to be nominated and win a Best Actor Academy Award, receive an award at a top international film festival (Venice Film Festival), and be the top grossing movie star in the United States.
Chita Rivera
Chita Rivera is an accomplished and versatile actress, singer, and dancer, who has won Two Tony Awards and received seven more nominations while breaking barriers and inspiring a generation of women to follow in her footsteps. In 2002, she became the first Hispanic recipient of the coveted Kennedy Center Honor.
Mary Robinson
Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland (1990 – 1997) and a former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997 – 2002), a post that required her to end her presidency four months early. She continues to bring attention to international issues as Honorary President of Oxfam International, and Chairs the Board of Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunizations (GAVI Alliance). Since 2002 she has been President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative
Janet Davison Rowley
Janet Davison Rowley, M.D., is the Blum Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics at The University of Chicago. She is an American human geneticist and the first scientist to identify a chromosomal translocation as the cause of leukemia and other cancers.
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu is an Anglican Archbishop emeritus who was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. Widely regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience,” he served as the General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches (SACC) from 1978 – 1985. He received a Nobel Peace Prize for his work through SACC in 1984.
Muhammad Yunus
Dr. Muhammad Yunus is a global leader in anti-poverty efforts, and has pioneered the use of “micro-loans” to provide credit to poor individuals without collateral. Dr. Yunus, an economist by training, founded the Grameen Bank in 1983 in his native Bangladesh to provide small, low-interest loans to the poor to help better their livelihood and communities. Dr. Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work.
Entries (RSS)
Wow. I did not realize that all those folks had won the Medal of Freedom this year. Shows ya what only listening/watching msm will do, rather than reading.
I’ve been wondering about this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. It is fall – getting close to that time. I was thrilled when Dr. Yunus and Grameen Bank won. His work has been so ground breaking. I am hoping that Greg Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute, of Three Cups of Tea fame gets it this year or in another year or two for his work in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Good stuff never makes the news
Only the crazies 
do.
I agree on Greg Mortenson, he’s done phenomenal work. And it seems that the example he has set is being attended to my military as well as civilian powers here in U.S. ’bout damn time someone recognized it can’t always be fixed by war. stoopids.
Announcements of the 2009 Nobel Prizes Dates and times listed per prize.
Hi honeys I’m home.
MM gave me her headache. And I thought she was my friend.
Lea, she thought she was handing down boy clothes….
Boy clothes carry headache cooties
Girl clothes carry headache cooties of an entirely different sort.
Baby clothes carry cuties.
@ Lea:
I’m sorry you got my headache, I wouldn’t wish that misery on even Glen Beck *spits*
Been on email and phone with the family in Memphis, looks like the service is set for Thursday instead of the weekend. Which means I won’t be able to attend after all. I don’t want to take the kids out of school, and I don’t think they’re ready for it anyway. The big kid knows what happened, but it’s been a while since they’ve seen her and he can’t remember her very well. Mom is going, and one of my brothers is going to be up there on business and will be able to attend.
Boy clothes carry headache cooties? And here I thought that by the time both boys had worn and outgrown them any cooties would have worn slap off!!
I keep seeing on facebook that Patrick Swayze has just died. Anyone see it in a credible news source?
Huffington Post is reporting it too. Patrick Swayze has passed away today
Helped a little bit
Texteen needs to thank his lucky stars that we’re both still alive. He let himself into the house two days before I expected him, using a key and not knocking. I assumed it was an intruder. He is VERY lucky that (A) I didn’t beat him senseless with a cane; and (B) that I didn’t have a heart attack.
By the way, this is yet another reason why we don’t own a gun.
Come on over!
I don’t own a gun because I would be too tempted to shoot stupid people.
TexTeen and you are lucky!
That could have been ugly.
@ Lea:
“Nobody puts Baby in a corner!”
This movie of his is full of win. Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swaze and John Leguizamo in “To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything-Julie Newmar”
Pellora post upstairs. More health care.
Love me some Patrick in drag, dancing, ghost, whatever. I’ll miss him. Good guy.
To Wong Fu is one of my favorite movies.
There’s something you need to know about Vita.
What?
Vita works out.
@ Lea:
And Auntie Noxie definitely works out!! Wesley Snipes as a drag queen just cracks my shit up. Swaze, OTOH, is fucking gorgeous!! So not fair
Are we resisting the idea of another health post? Do we want to put it back in the cupboard until tomorrow?
It is hard to go from drag queens to health care. But then there’s this.
Shit.
I loved when they hid in the room and Wesley Snipes stood up with the bed on his back.
To Wong Fu was awesome.
Road House, with Sam Elliott, was a guys movie.
Patrick was a fine actor, with lots to his credit.
He was lost too soon. He was good, and should have had better than his time with us.
Bless him, for what he gave us.
And aside from us, his family should have had him much longer.
Their loss we can’t fix. And bless them, one and all.
I’m showered, dressed in clothes other than the jammies I wore all day to work in my home office, fed, and now back in my jammies to work some more and comment. :waves:
Patrick Swayze was a talented dancer. His mother owned a dance studio, so he grew up around dancing. He wanted to be a professional dancer, but was injured. So he went to other performing arts, and acting. Which he was very good at. I didn’t know anything about his wife until now. Here is a UToob of them. She is quite a dancer herself.
Patrick and Lisa