This isn't right.

[Pure Kustom]

I'm pissed, and saddened for all Americans.

I just watched the movie "The Great Raid "This past weekend, Its True story about the largest and most sucessful American rescue operation in history. Over 500 American POW'S were rescued by American troops and Phillipino underground.

The medal of freedom was givien to Margaret Utinsky for helping American POW'S in the Cabanatuan prison camps before the raid.

Margaret Utinsky - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Margaret was born in St. Louis, Missouri and grew up on a wheat farm in Canada.[1] In 1919, she married John Rowley. He died the following year, leaving her with an infant son, Charles.

On a sojourn to the Philippines in the late 1920s, Margaret met and fell in love with John "Jack" Utinsky, a former Army captain who worked as a civil engineer for the U.S. government. They married in 1934.[2]
Margaret and Jack settled into life in Manila.

As the likelihood of a Japanese attack grew in the Far East, the U.S. military ordered all American wives back to the United States. Unwilling to part from her husband, Margaret refused to obey the order and took an apartment in Manila while Jack went to work on Bataan. In December 1941, the Japanese invaded the Philippines.
When Japanese troops occupied Manila on January 2, 1942, Margaret hid in her apartment rather than go into internment. She wrote in her book, "To go into an internment camp seemed like the sensible thing to do, but for the life of me I could not see what use I would be to myself or to anyone else cooped up there....
For from the moment the inconceivable thing happened and the Japanese arrived, there was just on thought
in my mind—to find Jack."[3]

Undiscovered after ten weeks in hiding, Margaret ventured out and sought help from the priests at Malate Convent. Through various contacts, she obtained false papers, secured a position with the Red Cross, and went to Bataan
to search for her husband.[4]

As cover, she created the identity of Rosena Utinsky, a Lithuanian nurse - Lithuania then being a nonbelligerent country under armed occupation by Nazi Germany. Traveling with a Filipino Red Cross medical team, she was shocked by the carnage of the Bataan Death March (the brutal forced march of tens of thousands of U.S. and Filipino soldiers after their surrender to the Japanese army on Bataan). She resolved to do all she could to help the POWs that still lived. Beginning with small actions, she soon built a clandestine resistance network that provided food, money, and medicine such as quinine to the thousands of POWs at Camp O'Donnell, and later at the Cabanatuan prison camp. After she learned that her husband had died in the prison camp, she redoubled her efforts to save as many men as possible.[4] Her code name was "Miss U," which is also the title of her 1948 book, the cover of which can be seen at the Medal of Freedom website.

Suspected of helping prisoners, the Japanese arrested her, held her at Fort Santiago prison, and eventually released her, feverish and battered. She spent six weeks recovering from injuries and gangrene at a Manila hospital. Soon afterwards, she escaped to Bataan and served as a nurse with the Philippine Commonwealth troops and the Recognized Guerrilla forces, moving from camp to camp in the mountains until liberation in February 1945.[5]

Today the prez was giving the Medal of Freedom out like candy.

actors
activist
a tennis player
a gay politician
a politician
a judge
and a bunch of other people that did good for themselfs. But to be given this honor.

To me dissrespects the people who truely deserved it.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[TucAzRider]

Welcome to todays America.... hmmmmm

[AZ Husker]

It really does cheapen the meaning of the honor when Billie Jean King is awarded one.

[Hopyard]

Pure Kusom,
I too had wondered about some of the folks given the medal. With regard to Rosena Utinsky, I do not know what other accolades she may have been given, and in a more timely manner. Is she still alive?

For the younger people here, the events in Manila and the Philippines are not ancient history. The other night my wife, as she was in the twighlight zone of falling asleep, woke and said to me, "I don't think my brains are wired right. I've know that since I was a little girl." So, I asked her why she thought that was the case and what did she think caused it (because they aren't wired right). She answered, "the Japanese bombs."

I knew a woman with a similar history to the lady Pure Kustom mentioned. The daughter of an American engineer working in the Philippines, she and her parents were interned in the infamous internment camps at the U. of Santo Thomas.

For history buffs, try--Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror
by Frank Ephraim, Stanley Karnow

It is slow going at first but as the story builds it eventually ends with one of the best descriptions of the battle for Manila from the perspective of those living there when the fighting raged.

[ExactlyMyPoint]

Elections have consequences.

[AZ Husker]

Rocky...list some of the recipients names so we can judge their courageous merit.

[Patti]

2009 Recipients:

* Nancy Goodman Brinker is the founder of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world’s leading breast cancer grassroots organization.

* Pedro José Greer, Jr. is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Florida International University School of Medicine. He is also the founder of Camillus Health Concern, an agency that provides medical care to over 10,000 homeless and low-income patients each year in Miami.

* Stephen Hawking is an internationally-recognized theoretical physicist, and is the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University.

* Jack Kemp was a U.S. Congressman, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, and Republican Nominee for Vice President in 1996. He died in May, 2009

* Sen. Edward Kennedy is one of the longest-serving and greatest Senators of all time. He has worked tirelessly for health care reform over the last five decades.

* Billie Jean King is known for winning the famous “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, and championing gender equality issues not only in sports, but in all aspects of life.

* Rev. Joseph Lowery has been a leader of the civil rights movement since the 1950s, and co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. Martin Luther King.

* Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow is the last living Plains Indian war chief, and author of works on Native American history and culture who has served as an inspiration to young Native Americans across the country.

* Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, and encouraged LGBT citizens to live their lives openly.

* Sandra Day O’Connor was a Supreme Court Justice from 1981 until her retirement in 2006. She was the first woman ever to sit on the Supreme Court, and has received numerous awards for her outstanding achievements.

* Sidney Poitier is an actor known for breaking racial barriers. He is the first African American to be nominated and win a Best Actor Academy Award.

* Chita Rivera is an actress, singer and dancer, who has broken barriers and inspired a generation of women. In 2002, she was the first Hispanic to receive the Kennedy Center Honor.

* Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Since 2002, she has been the President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.

* Janet Davison Rowley, M.D., is the Blum Riese Distinguished Service Professor of Medicine, Molecular Genetics & Cell Biology and Human Genetics at the University of Chicago. She discovered the first consistent chromosome translocation in a human cancer.

* Desmond Tutu is widely regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience,” and was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa.

* Muhammad Yunus is a global leader in anti-poverty efforts, and pioneered the use of “micro-loans” to provide credit to poor individuals.

[Patti]

Obama lauded them because these recipients are "agents of change".

[Siafu]

2009 Recipients:


* Pedro José Greer, Jr. is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Florida International University School of Medicine. He is also the founder of Camillus Health Concern, an agency that provides medical care to over 10,000 homeless and low-income patients each year in Miami.

* Sen. Edward Kennedy is one of the longest-serving and greatest Senators of all time. He has worked tirelessly for health care reform over the last five decades.

* Billie Jean King is known for winning the famous “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match, and championing gender equality issues not only in sports, but in all aspects of life.

* Rev. Joseph Lowery has been a leader of the civil rights movement since the 1950s, and co-founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference with Dr. Martin Luther King.

* Harvey Milk was the first openly gay elected official from a major city in the United States. He was elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in 1977, and encouraged LGBT citizens to live their lives openly.

* Sidney Poitier is an actor known for breaking racial barriers. He is the first African American to be nominated and win a Best Actor Academy Award.

* Chita Rivera is an actress, singer and dancer, who has broken barriers and inspired a generation of women. In 2002, she was the first Hispanic to receive the Kennedy Center Honor.

* Mary Robinson was the first female President of Ireland and former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Since 2002, she has been the President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative.

* Desmond Tutu is widely regarded as “South Africa’s moral conscience,” and was a leading anti-apartheid activist in South Africa.

* Muhammad Yunus is a global leader in anti-poverty efforts, and pioneered the use of “micro-loans” to provide credit to poor individuals.

[Pure Kustom]

Pure Kusom,
I too had wondered about some of the folks given the medal. With regard to Rosena Utinsky, I do not know what other accolades she may have been given, and in a more timely manner. Is she still alive?

For the younger people here, the events in Manila and the Philippines are not ancient history. The other night my wife, as she was in the twighlight zone of falling asleep, woke and said to me, "I don't think my brains are wired right. I've know that since I was a little girl." So, I asked her why she thought that was the case and what did she think caused it (because they aren't wired right). She answered, "the Japanese bombs."

I knew a woman with a similar history to the lady Pure Kustom mentioned. The daughter of an American engineer working in the Philippines, she and her parents were interned in the infamous internment camps at the U. of Santo Thomas.

For history buffs, try--Escape to Manila: From Nazi Tyranny to Japanese Terror
by Frank Ephraim, Stanley Karnow

It is slow going at first but as the story builds it eventually ends with one of the best descriptions of the battle for Manila from the perspective of those living there when the fighting raged.

She died on August 30, 1970. To me she was a True American Hero, She did what she wasn't asked to do, She did what she felt was right, She put her life in danger for others.

If anybody hasn't seen the movie, I recommend it. It's our history. Our American history.

Here is another artical on her.
WWII Remembered - Margaret Elizabeth Utinsky
WWII Remembered - Margaret Elizabeth Utinsky

Thanks for the suggestions Hopyard, I am very interested in our history.

Thanks Patti for the list and Thanks Siafu for the picture editorial.

[rodc13]

The Presidential Medal of Freedom is designed to recognize individuals who have made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors." The award is not limited to United States citizens and, while a civilian award, can also be awarded to military personnel and worn on the uniform.

I'd suggest taking a closer look at the list of recipients before going off half-cocked on ill-conceived judgements.

Architecture
Buckminster Fuller
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1963)
I.M. Pei (1993)[3]

Art
Norman Rockwell
Georgia O'Keeffe
Andrew Wyeth
Alexander Calder

Dance
George Balanchine
Martha Graham
Chita Rivera (2009)[2]

Film
Lucille Ball (1989, posthumously)
James Cagney (1984)
Bebe Daniels
Doris Day (2004)
Olivia de Havilland
Marlene Dietrich
Walt Disney (1964)
Kirk Douglas (1981)
John Ford
Samuel Goldwyn
Helen Hayes
Audrey Hepburn (1992)
Charlton Heston (2003)
Bob Hope (1969)
Danny Kaye
Carole Lombard (1942, posthumously)
Rita Moreno (2004)
Gregory Peck (1969)
Sidney Poitier (2009)[2]
Martha Raye (1993)
James Stewart
Lew Wasserman (1995)
John Wayne (1980, posthumously)

Literature
Jacques Barzun (2003)
T. S. Eliot
Ralph Ellison
Eric Hoffer
Louis L'Amour
Harper Lee (2007)
James Michener
Carl Sandburg
John Steinbeck
Eudora Welty
Elie Wiesel
Thornton Wilder
Edmund Wilson
Tennessee Williams
E.B. White

Music
Marian Anderson
Pearl Bailey
Irving Berlin
James "Eubie" Blake
Pau Casals
Van Cliburn (2003)
Aaron Copland
Plácido Domingo (2002)
Duke Ellington (1969)
Ella Fitzgerald
Aretha Franklin
B. B. King (2006)
Vladimir Horowitz
Frank Sinatra
Kate Smith
Isaac Stern

[edit] Photography
Ansel Adams (1980)
Edwin H. Land (1963)

Journalism
Robert L. Bartley (2004)
Herbert L. Block (1994)
William F. Buckley, Jr.
Walter Cronkite (1981)
Katharine Graham (2002)
John H. Johnson (1996)
Paul Johnson
Edward R. Murrow
A. M. Rosenthal (2002)
Vermont C. Royster (1986)
William Safire

Radio
Paul Harvey (2005)
Lowell Thomas (1976)

Television
Lucille Ball
David Brinkley
Carol Burnett (2005)
Johnny Carson (1992)
Peggy Charren (1995)
Julia Child (2003)
Joan Ganz Cooney (1995)
Bill Cosby (2002)
Andy Griffith (2005)
Brian Lamb (2007)
Fred Rogers (2002)

Philanthropy
Brooke Astor (1998)
Zachary Fisher (1998)
Eugene Lang (1996)

Activists
Arnold Aronson (1998)
Roger Nash Baldwin
Oscar Elias Biscet (2007)
Nancy Goodman Brinker (2009)[2]
César Chávez (1994)
Justin Whitlock Dart, Jr. (1998)
Evelyn Dubrow (1999)
Marian Wright Edelman (2000)
James L. Farmer, Jr. (1998)
Dorothy Height (1994)
George G. Higgins (2000)
Benjamin Hooks (2007)
Jesse Jackson (2000)
Millie Jeffrey (2000)
Helen Keller (1964)
Martin Luther King, Jr.(posthumously)
Fred Korematsu (1998)
Rev. Joseph Lowery (2009)[2]
Harvey Milk (2009) (posthumously)[2]
Mario G. Obledo (1998)
Rosa Parks (1996)
Ginetta Sagan (1996)
Natan Sharansky
William C. Velasquez (1995)
Lech Wałęsa
Andrew Young

Diplomacy
Ryan Crocker (2009)[4]
John P. Davies
Nathaniel P. Davis (1946)
Philip Habib (1982)
George F. Kennan
Jeane Kirkpatrick
Sol M. Linowitz (1998)
Gerard C. Smith
Robert Schwarz Strauss

Environmentalism
Rachel Carson (posthumously)
Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1993)
Gilbert Melville Grosvenor (2004)
Margaret Murie (1998)
Roger Tory Peterson
Edgar Wayburn (1999)

Espionage
Moe Berg[5]
Whittaker Chambers (1984)
William Stephenson (1946)
George Tenet
Claire Phillips
Andrée de Jongh
Nancy Wake
Henry Rigby (1947)

Foreign heads of state or government
Don Luis A. Ferré
Václav Havel (2003)
John Howard (2009)
Helmut Kohl (1999)
Nelson Mandela (2002)
Wilma Mankiller (1998)
Luis Muñoz Marín
Mary Robinson (2009)[2]
Margaret Thatcher (1991)
Pope John XXIII
Pope John Paul II (2004)
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (2007)
Álvaro Uribe (2009)

Law
A. Leon Higginbotham, Jr. (1995)
Oliver White Hill (1999)
Frank Minis Johnson (1995)
Joseph L. Rauh, Jr. (1993, posthumously)
Cruz Reynoso (2000)
Laurence Silberman (2008)
John Minor Wisdom (1993)

Supreme Court Justices
Associate Justice William J. Brennan, Jr. (1993)
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger
Associate Justice Felix Frankfurter
Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall (1993)
Associate Justice Sandra Day O'Connor (2009)[2]
Chief Justice Earl Warren
Associate Justice Byron White (2003)

Military
Frank Berryman (1948)
Omar Bradley
Andrew Berry (1946)
General Wesley Clark (2000)
War Chief Joe Medicine Crow (2009)[2]
Admiral William J. Crowe (2000)
Jimmy Doolittle
Tommy Franks
Andrew Goodpaster (1961: military); (1984: international affairs)
General Lyman Lemnitzer (1987)
Richard B. Myers
Jan Nowak-Jeziorański (1996)
Peter Pace (2008)
Colin Powell (1993)
Hyman Rickover
H. Norman Schwarzkopf
General John Shalikashvili (1997)
Gunnar Sønsteby
John Paul Vann
Brett Van Arsdale
Nancy Wake
Chuck Yeager
Admiral Elmo R. Zumwalt, Jr. (1998)
Lieutenant Colonel Théodore-Lafleur Bullock (1946)[6]
Chief of Naval Operations Elmo R. Zumwalt Jr. (1998)
Women Airforce Service Pilots (2009)

U.S. Cabinet members
Dean Acheson (awarded with Distinction)
James Baker
Zbigniew Brzezinski
Richard Cheney
Warren Christopher
William T. Coleman, Jr. (1995)
C. Douglas Dillon
Henry Kissinger
Robert S. McNamara (1968)
Norman Mineta
Averell Harriman
Secretary of Defense William Perry (1997)
Colin Powell (twice)
Elliot Richardson (1998)
Donald Rumsfeld
Donna Shalala
George P. Shultz
Caspar Weinberger (awarded with Distinction)
Melvin Laird

U.S. First Ladies
Lady Bird Johnson (1977)[7]
Rosalynn Carter (1999)
Nancy Reagan (2002)

U.S. members of Congress
Senator Lloyd M. Bentsen (1999)
Senator Edward W. Brooke (2004)
Senator John H. Chafee (2000)
Senator Bob Dole (1997)
Representative Dante B. Fascell (1998)
Senator William Fulbright (1993)
Senator Barry Goldwater
Representative Henry Hyde (2007)
Senator Henry M. Jackson
Representative Jack Kemp (2009, posthumously)[2]
Senator Edward Kennedy (2009)[2]
Representative Barbara Jordan (1994)
Representative Clare Boothe Luce (1983)
Senator George McGovern (2000)
Representative Robert H. Michel (1994)
Senator George J. Mitchell (1999)
Representative G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery
Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan (2000)
Senator Gaylord Nelson (1995)
Representative Tip O'Neill
Senator Margaret Chase Smith
Senator Strom Thurmond
Representative Mo Udall (1996)
Representative Carl Vinson (awarded with Distinction)

U.S. presidents

35th President John F. Kennedy (1963, posthumously)[8]
36th President Lyndon B. Johnson (1980, posthumously)[9]
38th President Gerald Ford (1999)
39th President Jimmy Carter (1999)
40th President Ronald Reagan (1993)[10]

U.S. Vice Presidents
Hubert Humphrey
Nelson Rockefeller
Dick Cheney

Other political figures
Gero von Schulze-Gaevernitz (1945)
Homer Morrison Byington (1946)
Jean Monnet, statesman of the world, 1963
James J. Caffrey(1977)
Sargent Shriver (1994)
Arthur Flemming (1994)
James P. Grant (1994)
James Brady (1996)
Albert Shanker (1998)
Max Kampelman (1999)
Simon Wiesenthal (2000)
Aung San Suu Kyi (2000)
Irving Kristol (2002)
Norman Podhoretz (2004)
Paul Bremer
Ella T. Grasso
Paul Nitze
Whitney Young

Religion
Walter Hubert Baddeley
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin (1996)
Horacio de la Costa (1946)
Sor Isolina Ferré (1999)
Billy Graham
Gordon B. Hinckley (2004)
Reinhold Niebuhr (1964)
Hugh O'Flaherty
Norman Vincent Peale
Gardner C. Taylor (2000)
Mother Teresa
Archbishop Desmond Tutu (2009)[2]
Archbishop Iakovos of America
Pope John XXIII
Pope John Paul II (2004)

Sports
Ali Hank Aaron (2002)
Muhammad Ali (2005)
Arthur Ashe (1993)
Earl Blaik
Paul "Bear" Bryant
Roberto Clemente (2003, posthumously)
Joe DiMaggio
Billie Jean King (2009)[2]
Jack Nicklaus
Jesse Owens
Buck O'Neil
Arnold Palmer (2004)
Richard Petty
Frank Robinson
Jackie Robinson
Ted Williams
John Wooden (2003)

Humanitarian
Margaret Utinsky (1946)
Norman Borlaug (January 10, 1977)
Eunice Kennedy Shriver (March 26, 1984)
Mother Teresa (May 23, 1985)
Leon Sullivan (November 18, 1991)
Willie Velasquez (1995)
Millard Fuller (September 9, 1996)
Simon Wiesenthal (2000)
Paul Rusesabagina (November 3, 2005)

[Pure Kustom]

Hell maybe I can get one for supporting the 2nd amendmant. Because alot of people on that list shouldn't be. Looks more like a popularity award.

Forgive me If I am wrong, But doing your job and doing it well, Doesn't deserve the highest honor a civilian can get.

Doing extraordinary work, doing what you were not asked to do is worthy.

[rodc13]

Hell maybe I can get one for supporting the 2nd amendmant. Because alot of people on that list shouldn't be. Looks more like a popularity award.

If you can show you've made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Why don't you list your meritorious contributions for us? Maybe someone will nominate you.

Now I'd certainly get behind nominating Bumper, for providing this forum, which I consider one of the finest anywhere.

[Hopyard]

If you can show you've made "an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, world peace, cultural or other significant public or private endeavors."

Why don't you list your meritorious contributions for us?

Uh, maybe Pure Kustom can be deemed "meritorious" and get in there with the "arts" awards guys for his fine holsters; seems a pretty good contribution to American culture. No?

:)))

[M203Sniper]

They gave one to both Jimmy Carter and Dick Chaney.

Obviously it means nothing, just handshaking and politicking.