June 11, 2008

White House Honors Academics With Presidential Medal of Freedom

Washington — Several academics are among this year’s recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom, announced today by the White House. The medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, recognizes people who have made an especially “meritorious contribution” to the United States. President Bush will honor the recipients at a ceremony on June 19.

Donna E. Shalala, president of the University of Miami and a professor of political science, is being honored for two and a half decades of work as an educator and administrator, at Columbia University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, among other places. She also was secretary of health and human services in the Clinton administration.

Benjamin S. Carson Sr. has been director of pediatric neurosurgery at the Johns Hopkins University since the early 1980s. In 1987 Dr. Carson was the first doctor to successfully separate conjoined Siamese twins.

Other medal recipients with academic ties are Anthony S. Fauci and Laurence H. Silberman. Dr. Fauci, one of the world’s most cited HIV/AIDs researchers, has worked at the National Institutes of Health since 1968 and has been a visiting professor at medical schools across the country. Judge Silberman, a senior judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, has been an adjunct law professor at New York and Harvard Universities. He now teaches at Georgetown Law Center.

The other two honorees were the late U.S. Rep. Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor who advocated for human rights, and Peter Pace, a retired general in the Marine Corps and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. —Ingrid Norton

Comments

1. What a tragedy that these undoubtedly fine educators had to receive such an honor from this White House.

   — Revelator    Jun 11, 03:45 PM    #

2. What a tragedy that there are folks so politicized in their thinking that they cannot simply congratulate those honored at the White House.

   — Winston    Jun 11, 05:41 PM    #

3. It’s not “politicization”, it seems to me, but genuine regret that such accomplishments need be associated with a regime that has brought nothing but miserable failure.
   (I myself scanned through the names expecting to see a list of cronies and political hacks… because that is what the current White House has trained me to expect.)

   — d    Jun 11, 06:34 PM    #

4. Count me in with expectations of cronies, hacks, and perhaps folks who taught the “science” of creationism…I was surprised at the list that was there….

   — rbuck    Jun 11, 07:56 PM    #

5. As if the previous White House regime was any better. Let’s face it, power corrupts – almost always. Can’t we just congratulate these fine academicians for their service, and skip the editorial?

   — Profet    Jun 12, 12:41 AM    #

6. Congratulations to each of the honorees for their work, dedication to their disciplines, and their service to their institutions, their communities, and to the nation.

   — Dexter Alexander    Jun 12, 07:39 AM    #

7. A little too much vitriol. Let’s all congratulate the winners and the White House for a worthy selection.

   — Gustavo A. Mellander    Jun 12, 09:42 AM    #

8. A “medal of freedom” from the current president would be like a peace prize from Hitler.

   — Savage Detective    Jun 12, 06:21 PM    #

9. Greg: What the hell does that have to do with me?? I am not now nor never have been an administrator—- just a simple humanities prof trying to hold fast to my Trotskyist values.

   — Savage Detective    Jun 13, 11:41 AM    #

10. Greg: Oh. SD

    — Savage Detective    Jun 13, 05:04 PM    #

11. Sam… I think you missed the “humor” and “pun,” though I doubt seriously if there was really any humor to miss.

    — Savage Detective    Jun 17, 07:40 PM    #

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