2013 Presidential Medal of Freedom Recipients

[No Elephants]

Ernie Banks
Ben Bradlee
Bill Clinton
Daniel Inouye
Daniel Kahneman
Richard Lugar
Loretta Lynn
Mario Molina
Sally Ride
Bayard Rustin
Arturo Sandoval
Dean Smith
Gloria Steinem
Cordy Tindell "C.T." Vivian
Patricia Wald
Oprah Winfrey


http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/08/09/announcing-2013-presidential-medal-freedom-recipients

[No Elephants]

1. P.S.. Kennedy established this award, apparently in 1963. So, they are all going to his grave after

the ceremony.

Seems like a lot of good things happened 50 years ago.

Or more.

I don't know if all the recipients can handle two back to back ceremonies. Some of them look pretty frail.

[No Elephants]

2. Ooops. In calling Gloria Steinem forward to receive her medal of freedom,

Obama (actually reading from prepared comments, no less), spoke of Steinem, coming to work in New York as a girl.

Wasn't Steinem among the first in the Sixties to insist that adult women be called women, instead of the partriarchal and minimizing "girl"? What irony, to be called forward for what is probably the highest public honor she will ever receive, with a "girl" reference.

[Enthusiast]

3. I doubt the President

was even aware that Gloria could perceive that as a slight. He's just a bit out of touch.

[No Elephants]

4. I don't know who wrote the remarks he was reading, him or someone else.

But, jeez, a bell should have gone off when he saw the word "girl." I'm not saying it's in the same ballpark with calling an African American male a boy. Maybe the same league, though.