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A nation's thanks
Associated Press
Published November 10, 2005
WASHINGTON - Aretha Franklin couldn't hold back the tears. Carol Burnett pranced coquettishly for the cameras. Muhammad Ali, though unable to walk unassisted, mimed boxing jabs with President Bush.
Having the president fasten the Medal of Freedom around your neck apparently does something even to those accustomed to fame and fortune.
"All who receive the Medal of Freedom can know that they have a special place in the life of our country, and have earned the respect and affection of the American people," Bush said Wednesday as he gave the awards.
This year's 14 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the government's highest civilian honor, included sports and entertainment celebrities and prominent figures from the more sober worlds of economics, science, letters and policy.
They ranged from Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn, who designed a language for data transmission that gave rise to the Internet, to golfer Jack Nicklaus and actor Andy Griffith.
The other winners were Gen. Richard Myers, the recently retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, baseball great Frank Robinson, radio personality Paul Harvey, former Rep. Sonny Montgomery, Soviet historian Robert Conquest and Paul Rusesabagina, the hotelier whose shelter of hundreds of people from the 1994 Rwandan genocide was the subject of the movie Hotel Rwanda.
MEDAL OF FREEDOM
The Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian award, is designed to recognize individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, or to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." The medal was established by President Harry S. Truman in 1945 to recognize notable service during World War II. In 1963, President John F. Kennedy reintroduced it as an honor for distinguished civilian service in peacetime. The Presidential Medal of Freedom can be awarded to non-U.S. citizens, can be awarded to an individual more than once and may also be awarded posthumously.
[Last modified November 10, 2005, 01:22:04]
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