J-Speaks: New Recipients of The Presidendial Medal of Freedom

In 1963, then President John F. Kennedy established through Executive Order 11085 right next to the Congressional Gold Medal the highest civilian award in the United States of America. It is award that since then has been bestowed by the Leader of the Free World himself recognizing individuals who have made “an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the country. In the eight years under our current President Barack Obama, 117 people have received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, including 21 new recipients earlier this week.

Those 21 that received this honor this past Tuesday were five-time NBA champion and Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; Blackfeet Tribal community leader Elouise Cobell; comedian and long-time talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres; Academy Award nominee and Oscar Award winning actor Robert De Niro; Richard Garwin; Bill and Melinda Gates; Frank Gehry; Margaret H. Hamilton; actor Tom Hanks; Grace Hopper; six-time NBA champion and owner of the Charlotte Hornets Hall of Famer Michael Jordan; designer Maya Lin; Creator and Executive Producer of NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” Lorne Michaels; World War II veteran and attorney Newt Minow; President of Miami Dade College (MDC) Eduardo Padron; actor Robert Redford; entertainment icon Diana Ross; legendary broadcaster of the MLB’s Los Angeles Dodgers Vin Scully; singer songwriter and leader of the E Street Band Bruce Springsteen and two-time Emmy Award and Tony Award winner Cicely Tyson.

Of all the aspects that President Obama has been tasked to do during his tenure in the highest office in the land, this has been his favorite of all. On this past Tuesday night’s edition of “The 11^th Hour” on MSNBC with Brian Williams, he had said that Mr. Obama has been personally involved in the selections. It is not surprising that he has awarded more Presidential Medals of Freedom than his 10 predecessors. He did admit though that the 2016 Class may be the best of all-time.

They are recognizable faces to all of us. We have seen them on the big or small screen. They have entertained, educated and encouraged us to reach for our dreams. To treat and respects others the way we would want to be treated and respected.

It was not a surprise when President Obama in his remarks about some of the recipients that it was crystal clear that it was a privilege and honor to congratulate and decorate the very best of us as Americans, particularly Americans who shaped him into the person that our nation saw for eight years of him as the leader of the United States.

“Today we celebrate extraordinary Americans who have lifted our spirits. Strengthen our union. Pushed us towards progress,” President Obama said.

“First we came close to missing out on a Bill and Melinda Gates incredible partnership because Bill’s opening line was do you want to go out two weeks from this Saturday. Fortunately, Melinda believes in second chances and the world is better for it.”  

In getting a laugh to the audience, Mr. Obama was talking about the first time when Mr. and Mrs. Gates first encounter, which could have gone in a different direction and we would have missed out on the establishment of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which began 16 years ago and has been a major factor in helping people lead healthier and more productive lives. Putting a focus in developing countries to improve the health of the people, which intern gives those individuals a chance to lift themselves out of extreme poverty and put a dent on serious hunger issues. Here in the U.S., the foundation, the mission of the foundation is to ensure that all citizens, particularly those at the bottom of the sphere access to opportunities necessary to get a great education and for the chance at an amazing life.

Mr. Obama mentioned that in 1976 Lorne Michaels implored one the greatest all-time bands in history “The Beatles” to reunite on his brand-new show “Saturday Night Live,” in exchange, he offered them $3,000.

“Which was early proof that Lorne Michaels has a good sense of humor,” Mr. Obama said.

Michaels used that sense of humor, drive and confidence that created one of the most successful and longest running shows that has been a stable on Saturday night for over 40 years and has given us some of the most amazing comedic talents. In addition to creating “SNL,” Michaels has also produced successful shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Late Night with Seth Meyers and 30 Rock to name a few. That amazing career also includes 13 Emmy Awards.

Since Sept. 8, 2003, comedian and actress Ellen DeGeneres came into our living rooms with her show The Ellen DeGeneres Show and brought a new flavor to our daily lives. A flavor that consisted of a trademark sense of humor that made her one of the very best comedians on every stage she performed on whether it was in a comedy club or a television special.

DeGeneres’s show also brought to viewers in the audience and those that watch on the small screen a sense of humility and optimism, something that she had to have a lot of at a very important time in her life in the late 1990s, which Mr. Obama spoke about during the ceremony.

“It’s easy to forget now just how much courage was required for Ellen to come out on the most public of stages almost 20 years ago,” Obama said about DeGeneres admitting that she was gay.

“What an incredible burden that was to bare. To risk your career like that. People don’t to that very often.”

Today, DeGeneres is at the top of her game as an amazing host of her show, which besides interviewing celebrities, has shined a light on those in the country who are making the lives of others better and who are achieving greatness despite the odds that are times stacked against them.

DeGeneres has also hosted The Academy Awards twice in 2007 and 2014 and in the acting world has endeared herself to young children in the role as the little fish named Dory in Finding Nemo, which came out in 2003 and she reprised the role earlier this year in the very successful movie Finding Dory.

In both in front of the camera and away from it, DeGeneres has been a passionate advocate for equality and fairness and it is because of her courage and spirit why our current president said in an interview a couple of years ago with ABC’s “Good Morning America” anchor Robin Roberts that same sex couples should have the right to marry.

It is one thing to be a great actor that can fill a movie theater and make a great deal of money for yourself, the studio that brings that motion picture to life and all those involved. It is another thing to be an actor that is involved in projects that have a lasting impact on those that watch. Tom Hanks is that actor and it has made him one of the very best.

He has been nominated on five occasions for The Oscar for Best Actor and won twice for his role in Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Some of Hank’s other memorable roles include Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan and Cast Away.

Away from the camera, Hanks has been a serious advocate for social and environmental justice for our veterans that serve in the military and their families.

“From a Philadelphia courtroom. To Normandy’s beach heads to the dark side of the moon, he has introduced us to America’s unassuming heroes,” Mr. Obama said of Hanks and what he portrayed on the silver screen.

“Tom says he just saw ordinary guys doing the right thing at the right time. Well it takes one to know one.”

Speaking of an actor who has made a lasting impression, that is exactly what actress Cicely Tyson has done in her brilliant and lovely career on the stage, television and movie screen.

The two-time Emmy Award recipient for “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” is also well known for her performances in “Sounder,” “Roots” and “The Help.” She returned to the stage three years ago in “The Trip to the Bountiful” and won the Tony Award for best leading actress. Two years later, Tyson received the Kennedy Center Honors.

Another actor who has shaped the cinema world as well as the show his hand in politics is seven-time Academy Award nominee and two-time Oscar winner Robert De Niro.

His film credits over a five-decade span consists of the sports drama “Bang the Drum Slowly;” Martin Scorsese’s crime film “Mean Streets;” the biographical film “Men of Honor” and his famed role as Jack Byrnes in “Meet the Parents,” “Meet the Fockers” and “Little Fockers.”

De Niro was a major supporter of President Obama when he ran in 2008 and showed that support at a rally at the Izod Center in East Rutherford, NJ on Feb. 4, 2008 before Super Tuesday.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, De Niro was one of many outspoken critics of our now president-elect Donald Trump calling him “so blatantly stupid,” while also stating, “I’d like to punch him in the face,” referencing a similar statement Trump expressed towards Democratic National Committee speakers at one of his rallies during the election.

Along with an amazing in front of the movie camera as an actor and behind the scenes as a director and producer, Robert Redford was just as good in business and as an environmentalist.

In 1981, the recent Academy Award winner for Best Director and a Lifetime Achievement recipient founded the Sundance Institute, which was created to advance the work of independent filmmakers and storytellers across the globe, that also includes its annual Sundance Film Festival.

It is because of this festival many works have made it to mainstream theaters and brought many great works to the eyes of those who got the chance to see.

When you say the name Michael Jordan, you say the name of the one of the best to ever play on the professional hardwood. A guy who whether it was practice or in the actual game played with a passion and determination that he was going to be great and leave an impression that you would never forget. Just ask the folks in Cleveland, OH.

His six championships he led the Chicago Bulls to in his nine seasons endeared him to the “Windy City;” his five NBA regular season MVPs and six NBA Finals MVPs put him in the class as one of the best of all-time. The current owner of the Charlotte Hornets, whose basketball journey in the public eye began at the University of North Carolina playing for the Tar Heels for the late Hall of Famer Dean Smith has become the one player that all others coming into the NBA are measured by.

“He’s more than just a logo. More than just an internet meme. There is a reason you call somebody the Michael Jordan off. Michael Jordan of neurosurgery. The Michael Jordan of Rabbi’s. The Michael Jordan of outrigger canoeing. They know what you’re talking about,” Mr. Obama said poking fun at Jordan while getting a few laughs from those in the audience. “Because Michael Jordan is the Michael Jordan of greatness. He is the definition of somebody so good at what they do that everybody recognizes him”

The President also mentioned that the greatness of the guy whose shoe has been a stable of Nike for a long time may not have come to being. At five years of age, Jordan he nearly cut off his big toe with an axe.

“If things had gone differently, Air Jordan’s might have never taken flight,” Mr. Obama said as he got a laugh out of the audience. “I mean you don’t want to buy a shoe with like one toe missing.”

The other basketball legend to receive the nation’s highest honor was the NBA’s all-time leading scorer who first led the Milwaukee Bucks to a championship in 1971 and helped the Los Angeles Lakers win five Larry O’Brien Trophies in the 1980s Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

During his playing career, the New York native garnered six NBA MVPs and was a 19-time All-Star selection. As a collegiate he helped the UCLA Bruins and then head coach John Wooden to three straight NCAA Basketball titles.

Since his days on the NBA hardwood, Abdul-Jabbar has been a best-selling author and cultural critic. His first book was an autobiography entitled Giant Steps, with co-author Peter Knobler. Another best-selling work of the former Laker captain was On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance, co-authored by Raymond Obstfeld, which became a movie that documented the tumultuous journey of the overlooked Harlem Renaissance professional basketball team at Science Park High School in Newark, NJ.

In November 2014, Abdul-Jabbar published an essay in Jacobin magazine which called for college athletes to be justly compensated writing, “in the name of fairness, we must bring an end to the indentured servitude of college athletes and start paying them what they are worth.”

Abdul-Jabbar had also become a regular contributor to discussions on the issues of race doing a column for the likes of Time magazine and appearing on shows like “Meet the Press” where on the Sunday, Jan. 25, 2015 edition talking about a recent column that he did about not blaming Islam for the actions of violent extremists.

When he was asked about being a Muslim, he said, “I don’t have any misgiving about my faith. I’m very concerned about the people who claim to be Muslims that are murdering people and creating all this mayhem in the world. That is not what Islam is about, and that should not be what people think of when they think about Muslims. But it’s up to all of us to do something about all of it.”

It is one thing to see the greatest athletes do what they do in front of our eyes. It is something else to hear someone give a description of those great acts of athleticism. That was the job of the likes of the legendary Vin Scully, who was the best of the best of when it came to broadcasting the greatness of the now Los Angeles Dodgers, who were before the Brooklyn Dodgers.

To put the how Scully, who retired at the end of this past MLB season was the sound of baseball for 67 great years into perspective, his voice became known to all of those that listen to him in Southern California from the early part of spring into the fall as the “soundtrack to summer.”

That soundtrack consisted signature moments in baseball history from the perfect game pitched by Sandy Koufax at Dodger Stadium versus the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 9, 1965; Kirk Gibson’s two-run game-winning home run off Oakland Athletics’ Dennis Eckersley that gave the Dodgers Game 1 of the 1988 World Series, which they won 4-1 and Henry “Hank” Aaron’s record-breaking 715^th homer breaking Babe Ruth’s 39-year-old MLB record.

In the history of music and entertainment, you are only as good as your last moment. The ones that can be present in front of an audience in an arena, stage or the big or small screen and leave a lasting impression with their performance are the ones that are legendary. Diana Ross is that kind of person, who has a career that spans over 50 decades in music, film, television, theater and even fashion.

That amazing career got her into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame; earned her the highest honor of the Grammy Awards, the Lifetime Achievement Award and becoming a recipient at the Kennedy Center Honors back in 2007.

 “Along with her honey voice. Her soulful sensibility, Diana exuded glamour, grace and filled stages that helped shape the sound of Motown,” Mr. Obama said of the proud mother of Ross Naess, Chudney Ross, Rhonda Ross Kendrick, Evan Ross and Tracee Ellis Ross, who currently stars as Dr. Rainbow Johnson on ABC’s Black-ish.

Being a boss is more than just having a title and giving orders. It is being the voice at times of a group; the epicenter of a team with a mission to accomplish and to be the inspiration of what is possible. These are the attributes of legendary singer, songwriter and bandleader of the E Street Band Bruce Springsteen, who used a guitar that he bought and taught himself how to make that guitar talk to those that saw him and his band play.

That guitar and his band through their play and their lyrics and out of this world concert performances stories that have helped shape the music landscape in the U.S. as well as given a challenge to all of that through a great work ethic and a clear focus we too can achieve the American dream.

“Bruce Springsteen has brought us all along on a journey consumed with the bargains between ambition and injustice and pleasure and pain. The simple glories and scattered heartbreak of everyday life in America,” Mr. Obama said of the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and Kennedy Center honoree, who also poked a little fun at himself saying, “I am the president. He is ‘The Boss.’”

Among those that were honored posthumous, meaning after they passed on were Elouise Cobell, who used her accounting prowess to become a champion in a lawsuit which resulted in one of the greatest settlements in our country’s history as tribal homelands were restored to the Blackfeet Nation and inspired the next generations of Native American tribes to fight for the rights of others.

Cobell not only help to find the Native American Bank, she served as the director of the Native American Community Corporation and became the inspiration for other Native American women to seek roles in leadership in their communities.

There was a time in our nation where the computer was not a major part of our lives as they are today. At the forefront of that technology movement was the late Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, who became known as “Amazing Grace,” as well as “the first lady of software.”

From the 1940s to 1980s, Hopper was at the forefront of programming development and her work was a major factor making coding languages more practical and accessible to the public. She created the first compiler, which translated source code from one language to another.

She was an associate professor at Vassar College in Arlington, NY where she taught mathematics. Hopper then joined the United States Naval Reserve as a lieutenant during World War II, where she would become one of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I computer and that started her lifelong role as a leader in the field of computer science.

Another person who served during World War II was Newt Minow, who eventually became an attorney and built a distinguished career in public.

After his service in the U.S. Army, Minow served as a Supreme Court clerk and counsel to the Governor of Illinois. At age 34, Minow was selected by President Kennedy in 1961 to serve as the Chairman of the Federal Communications Committee (FCC), where he helped shape the future of television and vigorously advocated for programming that promoted the interest of the public.

In a speech at Harvard University in 2011, Minow said that the news is the most important service to the public, but that the rest of the television landscape has fallen short in its service to those that watch.

“Too much deals with covering controversy, crimes, fires and not enough with the country’s great issues,” he said.

Minow also said in that speech that presidential campaigns are obsessed with the trivial, which is a perfect way to describe this past election cycle in a nutshell.

Since he left the FCC five decades ago, Minow has maintained a prominent private law practice and continues to devote to many public and charitable causes.

When you do not come from wealth or you are not blessed with an amazing gift like athletic ability that can take to the pros, the best way to make it in the world is to have a great education and no one has been a great fighter for the right to that than the President of Miami Dade College (MDC) Eduardo Padron.

Over his 40-plus years at the institution, President Padron has been a major voice for access and inclusion to higher education. He has been a tireless worker ensuring that all students at MDC have access to a quality, affordable higher education. Padron has been a champion for making the innovative ways of teaching students and strategies for making learning at MDC into the national model that all students at every university and community college can have.

Throughout the history of our nation has been built on creating and making things from scratch and one of the biggest forms of creating is that of buildings and sculptures that document the history of a place or of many places. They very often tell a story of something or someone. One person who has done such work of this nature is Maya Lin.

Among her most recognized works is the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial in our nation’s capital, which has allowed Lin to have a celebrated career in both art and architecture.

She is currently working on a multi-sited artwork/memorial entitled What is Missing? It is a project designed to bring awareness to our planet’s loss of habitat and biodiversity. 

Others that were presented the Presidential Medal of Freedom include former University of Chicago, Columbia and Harvard University professor Richard Garwin, who since earning a Ph.D. under Enrico Fermi at age 21 and has authored 500 technical papers; is a winner of the National Medal of Science; holds 47 U.S. patents and served as an advisor for numerous administrations.

One of the world’s leading architects Frank Gehry, who is best known for building the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA; the Dancing House in Prague and the Guggenheim Museum building in Bilbao, ES.

Margaret H. Hamilton, the leader, who used her skills as a mathematician and computer scientist to lead the team that created the on-board flight software for NASA’s Apollo command and lunar modules. She used those skills to begin her own software company as well as make major contributions to the concepts of asynchronous software, priority scheduling and priority displays and human-in-the-loop decision capability that set the foundation for the ultra-reliable software design and engineering that is used today.

You can call this class of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients the best of all and their credentials would make a serious argument for that. Above all of that though, each of these individuals has had a major impact on our lives and shown us that we all matter. That they put their best foot forward so that we all can become better. That we all can dream big and we can achieve whatever we desire through hard work, commitment to the task at hand and a courage to not allow those who would deter us from our goals.

“The Presidential Medal of Freedom is not just our nation’s highest civilian honor-it’s a tribute to the idea that all of us, no matter where we come from, have the opportunity to change this country for the better. From scientists, philanthropists, and public servants to activists, athletes, and artists, these 21 individuals have help push America forward, inspiring millions of people around the world along the way,” Mr. Obama said in a statement via the White House Office of the Press Secretary two weeks ago.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 11/22/16 11 p.m. edition of WABC 7’s “Eyewitness News,” with Sade Barderinwa, Bill Ritter, Lee Goldberg with weather and Ryan Field with Sports; 11/22/16 11 p.m. edition of MSNBC’s “The 11^th Hour with Brian Williams;” 11/23/16 4:30 a.m. edition of WABC 7’s “Eyewitness News This Morning,” with Ken Rosato, Lori Stokes, Bill Evans with weather and Heather O’Rourke with traffic; 11/23/16 6 a.m. edition of CNN Headline News’ “Morning Express with Robin Meade,” hosted by Susan Hendricks; report from Bleacher Reports’ Hines Ward; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_recipients; 11/16/16 press release of, “President Obama Names Recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom,” via The White House Office of the Press Secretary from www.whitehouse.gov; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ellen_DeGeneres_Show; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton_N._Minow; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_De_Niro; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kareem_Abdul_Jabbar.