Posted on 07/30/2009 12:56:25 PM PDT by SmithL
The late San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk received the presidential Medal of Freedom award today with 15 other recipients ranging across the professional and ideological spectrum, from the late supply sider Jack Kemp to tennis star Billy Jean King to Sen. Edward Kennedy, whose absence from the health care debate due to brain cancer treatments has weighed heavily on the White House.
The medal is the country's highest civilian honor. President Obama said all the recipients "share one overarching trait: Each has been an agent of change. Each saw an imperfect world and set about improving it, often overcoming great obstacles along the way. Their relentless devotion to breaking down barriers and lifting up their fellow citizens sets a standard to which we all should strive."
Milk, celebrated in an award-winning film, became in 1977 the first openly-gay elected official in a major U.S. city. He and Mayor George Moscone were shot and killed by former supervisor Dan White in 1978. Then board of supervisors president Dianne Feinstein was among the first on the scene, leaving an indelible impression on her, while opening her path to becoming Mayor of San Francisco, one-time candidate for governor and now U.S. Senator.
The White House praised Milk for encouraging lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender citizens "to live their lives openly"
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
WTF is harvey milk?
White got off on a "Deminished Competency" defense based on excessive consumption of Twinkies and other high sugar foods.
Hmmm giving a medal to a dead guy. Guess he won’t be there to pick it up.
Please!
Milk and Monscone were loose ends that People’s Temple mad man Jim Jones had taken care of posthumously after the drinking of the Kool-Aide. They got killed a week after Leo Ryan. If not for the political cover they provided for Jones, he would not have been able to escape San Francisco and go to Guyana and kill 900 mostly African-American people.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.