| Harvey Milk, Mary Robinson most controversial of medal of freedom recipients Posted: 13 Aug 2009 02:42 PM PDT
Yesterday, President Obama awarded the nation’s highest civilian award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to late gay rights advocate Harvey Milk. "His name was Harvey Milk, and he was here to recruit us – all of us – to join a movement and change a nation," Obama said during of Milk during the presentation. “In the brief time in which he spoke – and ran and led – his voice stirred the aspirations of millions of people. His message of hope – hope unashamed, hope unafraid – could not ever be silenced.” Milk’s selection as a medal of freedom recipient comes on the heels of mounting criticism from gay rights organizations, who say that Obama has failed to fulfill campaign promises such as the repealing of the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” policy. Critics, such as Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, said that Milk didn’t deserve the award because he was a sex addict "who did dishonorable deeds and does not deserve a medal or a statewide ‘day of significance.” Another controversial medal recipient was former Irish President Mary Robinson. Pro-Israel groups, such as the AIPAC and the Anti-Defamation League, criticized Obama for choosing Robinson because of her failure to halt expressions of anti-Semitic hatred during the 2001 Durban conference over which she acted as the United Nations high commissioner of human rights. In addition to Milk and Robinson, other honorees included physicist Stephen Hawking, Sen. Ted Kennedy, retired civil rights leader Rev. Joseph Lowery, Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, Chita Rivera and Sidney Poitier, geneticist Dr. Janet Rowley, economist and micro financier Mohammed Yunus, Dr. Pedro Jose Greer, Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow, South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and Komen Foundation founder Nancy Brinker and former Tennis pro Billie Jean King. |
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