Thursday, August 13, 2009 WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama Wednesday conferred America's highest civilian honor on 16 examples of unshakeable human spirit, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and British scientist Stephen Hawking.Former Irish president Mary Robinson, screen legend Sidney Poitier and Bangladeshi economist and Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus were also honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony in the White House."No barriers of race, gender or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit, and that the truest test of a person's life is what we do for one another," said Obama, as he introduced the 2009 honorees."There are many honors and privileges bestowed on the occupants of this house. But few mean as much to me as the chance to award America's highest civilian medal to the recipients that are here today."Before placing the blue-ribboned medal around the neck of wheelchair-bound scientist Hawking, Obama joked he was a "brilliant man and a mediocre student.""From his wheelchair, he's led us on a journey to the farthest and strangest reaches of the cosmos. In so doing, he has stirred our imagination and shown us the power of the human spirit here on Earth."Obama lauded Tutu for preaching amid tear gas and police dogs during the horror of apartheid South Africa."Later, when a free South Africa needed a heart big enough to forgive its sins, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was called to serve once more," Obama said, praising him as a "voice of the oppressed, cantor of our conscience."Obama's selection of Robinson to receive the medal sparked anger among some pro-Israel lobby groups, who accused her of bias against the Jewish state.
Thursday, August 13, 2009 WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama Wednesday conferred America's highest civilian honor on 16 examples of unshakeable human spirit, including Archbishop Desmond Tutu and British scientist Stephen Hawking.Former Irish president Mary Robinson, screen legend Sidney Poitier and Bangladeshi economist and Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus were also honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in a ceremony in the White House."No barriers of race, gender or physical infirmity can restrain the human spirit, and that the truest test of a person's life is what we do for one another," said Obama, as he introduced the 2009 honorees."There are many honors and privileges bestowed on the occupants of this house. But few mean as much to me as the chance to award America's highest civilian medal to the recipients that are here today."Before placing the blue-ribboned medal around the neck of wheelchair-bound scientist Hawking, Obama joked he was a "brilliant man and a mediocre student.""From his wheelchair, he's led us on a journey to the farthest and strangest reaches of the cosmos. In so doing, he has stirred our imagination and shown us the power of the human spirit here on Earth."Obama lauded Tutu for preaching amid tear gas and police dogs during the horror of apartheid South Africa."Later, when a free South Africa needed a heart big enough to forgive its sins, Archbishop Desmond Tutu was called to serve once more," Obama said, praising him as a "voice of the oppressed, cantor of our conscience."Obama's selection of Robinson to receive the medal sparked anger among some pro-Israel lobby groups, who accused her of bias against the Jewish state.
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