[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 42, Number 50 (Monday, December 18, 2006)]
[Pages 2162-2166]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks on Presenting the Presidential Medal of Freedom

December 15, 2006

    The President. Please be seated. Thank you all for coming. Welcome. 
Mr. Vice President, members of my Cabinet, Laura and I are please you 
could join us on this special occasion. We're delighted to welcome our 
distinguished honorees as well as their families and friends to the 
White House. Thanks for coming.
    The Presidential Medal of Freedom is our Nation's highest civil 
honor. The Medal recognizes high achievement in public service, science, 
the arts, education, athletics, and other fields. Today we honor 10 
exceptional individuals who have gained great admiration and respect 
throughout our country.
    Norman Y. Mineta personifies the terms ``public servant'' and 
``patriot.'' He served as an Army intelligence officer, the mayor of San 
Jose, California, 10-term U.S. Congressman, and a Cabinet member under 
Presidents of both parties. He was my Secretary of Transportation. No 
Secretary of Transportation ever served longer or confronted greater 
challenges than Norm Mineta.

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    On September the 11th, 2001, he led the effort to bring thousands of 
commercial and private aircraft swiftly and safely to the ground. Norm 
was calm, and he was decisive in a moment of emergency. He showed those 
same qualities in the months and years afterward, ably transforming his 
Department to face the dangers of a new era.
    Norm Mineta's whole life has been an extraordinary journey. At the 
age of 10, he was sent with his mom and dad to an internment camp for 
Japanese Americans. Such wrongful treatment could have left a person 
bitter, but not Norm Mineta. Instead he has given his country a lifetime 
of service, and he's given his fellow citizens an example of leadership, 
devotion to duty, and personal character. Mr. Secretary, you're a good 
friend and a great man, and our country honors you.
    With us today is Warren O'Neil, who will accept the Medal of Freedom 
on behalf of his brother, John Jordan ``Buck'' O'Neil. Buck O'Neil 
passed away in October, after a baseball career spanning more than seven 
decades. He joined the Negro League in 1938, as a first baseman for the 
Kansas City Monarchs. Buck O'Neil won two batting titles and played on 
nine championship teams, and as a manager, guided the Monarchs to four 
league titles. After finishing his playing career, Buck O'Neil joined 
the Chicago Cubs as a scout and later as the first African American 
coach in the major leagues. He never did slow down. For the rest of his 
life, he was active in baseball--not just from the stands or the dugout.
    In July of this year, he took a turn at bat in a minor league all-
star game in Kansas City. They wisely pitched around him--[laughter]--he 
drew a walk--at the age of 94 years old. [Laughter] Buck O'Neil is also 
remembered as one of the game's best historians and ambassadors. He was 
the driving force behind the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum; he was proud 
to be its chairman. But he once said: ``It never should have been a 
Negro League. Shouldn't have been.'' Buck O'Neil lived long enough to 
see the game of baseball and America change for the better. He's one of 
the people we can thank for that. Buck O'Neil was a legend, and he was a 
beautiful human being. And we honor the memory of Buck O'Neil.
    One day in 1961, Ruth Colvin of Syracuse, New York, read a 
disturbing statistic in the morning newspaper. She learned that more 
than 11,000 people in her hometown could not read. Ruth wondered, ``Why 
isn't somebody doing something about it?'' Ruth decided that she would 
do something. Working out of her basement, she formed a network of 
citizens willing to donate their time as reading tutors. Before long, 
that network reached beyond Syracuse and beyond New York, and it had a 
name: Literacy Volunteers of America. Over the years, the volunteers 
have helped hundreds of thousands of adults learn the reading and 
language skills they need to build a better life. Ruth rightly says, 
``The ability to read and write is critical to personal freedom and the 
maintenance of a democratic society.''
    Ruth's good influence has continued to grow. She travels the world 
promoting literacy with her husband and best friend, Bob. She started 
literacy campaigns on multiple continents. Ruth has also made many dear 
friends, including another great crusader for literacy--my mother. 
[Laughter] Ruth's children, Terry and Lindy, know what I know--that you 
better listen to your mother. [Laughter] Ruth has said, ``I am and 
always have been a volunteer.'' More than that, Ruth Colvin is a person 
of intelligence and vision and heart, and she has earned the gratitude 
of many and the admiration of us all. Congratulations.
    Like Ruth, Dr. Norman C. Francis has dedicated his life to 
education. He achieved early distinction as the first African American 
to graduate from the Loyola University College of Law. In 1968, he 
became president of his alma mater, Xavier University in New Orleans, 
and he is today the longest serving university president in the United 
States. Dr. Francis is known across Louisiana and throughout our country 
as a man of deep intellect and compassion and character. He's an Army 
veteran. He led the United Negro College Fund. He was chairman of the 
board of the Educational Testing Service, and he holds only 35 honorary 
degrees. [Laughter]
    Last year, after Hurricane Katrina did great damage to the Xavier 
campus, Dr. Francis vowed the university would overcome and reopen its 
doors by January, and

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he kept that pledge. Dr. Francis continues to help the people of 
southeast Louisiana as the leader of the Louisiana Recovery Authority. 
As they continue to rebuild from the devastation of the hurricanes, the 
people of the Pelican State will benefit from the leadership of this 
good man. And all of us admire the good life and remarkable career of 
Dr. Norman C. Francis.
    Joshua Lederberg has always seemed ahead of his time. He was 
researching genetics when the field was scarcely understood. He was 
studying the implications of space travel before there were astronauts. 
And even three decades ago, he was warning of the dangers of biological 
warfare. All of his life, people have seen something special in this 
rabbi's son from Montclair, New Jersey. Someone who knew him in college 
said, ``You could tell that Joshua was in the lab because you could hear 
the breaking glass.'' [Laughter] ``He was so young, bursting with 
potential.''
    He earned his Ph.D. in his early twenties. At the age of 33, he won 
the Nobel Prize. Dr. Lederberg has remained at the top of the scientific 
field as a professor, researcher, and writer. As a columnist and adviser 
to many administrations, he brought clear, independent thinking and 
wisdom to matters of public policy, especially in national security and 
nonproliferation. For his brilliant career, his high ethical standards, 
and his many contributions to our country, the United States thanks 
Joshua Lederberg.
    Americans first came to know Natan Sharansky as a voice for freedom 
inside an empire of tyranny. As a Jew applying to immigrate to Israel, 
he was refused and harassed by the Soviet regime. Natan Sharansky became 
a leading dissident and advocate for human rights. And after a show 
trial, he was sentenced to a gulag for 10 years. The authorities may 
have hoped the world would forget the name Sharansky. Instead, leaders 
like President Reagan and Ambassador Kirkpatrick spoke often of his 
persecution, and the case of Natan Sharansky became a symbol of the 
moral emptiness of imperial communism.
    Today, the Soviet Union is history, but the world still knows the 
name Sharansky. As a free man, he's become a political leader in Israel, 
winning four elections to the Knesset and serving more than 8 years in 
the Cabinet. He remains, above all, an eloquent champion for liberty and 
democracy. Natan reminds us that every soul carries the desire to live 
in freedom and that freedom has a unique power to lift up nations, 
transform regions, and secure a future for peace. Natan Sharansky is a 
witness to that power, and his testimony brings hope to those who still 
live under oppression. We honor Natan Sharansky for his life of courage 
and conviction.
    The struggle between freedom and tyranny has defined the past 100 
years, and few have written of that struggle with greater skill than 
Paul Johnson. His book, ``Modern Times: The World from the Twenties to 
the Eighties,'' is a masterful account of the grievous harm visited on 
millions by ideologies of power and coercion. In all his writings, Paul 
Johnson shows great breadth of knowledge and moral clarity and a deep 
understanding of the challenges of our time. He's written hundreds of 
articles and dozens of books, including ``The History of the Jews,'' 
``The History of Christianity,'' ``The Quest for God,'' and ``The Birth 
of the Modern.'' Obviously, the man is not afraid to take on big 
subjects. [Laughter]
    Eight years ago, he published ``A History of the American People,'' 
which Dr. Henry Kissinger said, was ``as majestic in scope as the 
country it celebrates.'' In the preface, Paul Johnson called Americans 
``the most remarkable people the world has ever seen.'' He said, ``I 
love them, and I salute them.'' That's a high tribute from a man of such 
learning and wisdom, and America returns the feeling. Our country honors 
Paul Johnson and proudly calls him a friend.
    One of America's unique gifts to the world is a music called the 
blues. And in that music two names are paramount--B.B. King and his 
guitar, Lucille. [Laughter] It has been said that when John Lennon was 
asked to name his great ambition, he said, ``to play the guitar like 
B.B. King.'' Many musicians have had that same goal, but nobody has ever 
been able to match the skill or copy the sound of the ``King of the 
Blues.''
    He came up the hard way in the Deep South, living alone when he was 
9 years old,

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walking miles to school and picking cotton for 35 cents a day. Barely 
out of his teens, he made his first trip to Memphis, Tennessee, with his 
guitar and $2.50 in his pocket. He made his name on Beale Street, and 
his studio recordings made him a national favorite. B.B. King has sold 
more than 40 million records. He won 14 Grammys. He has a place on the 
Hollywood Walk of Fame. He's influenced generations of musicians from 
blues to rock, and he's performed in venues from roadside nightclubs to 
Carnegie Hall. He's still touring, and he's still recording, and he's 
still singing, and he's still playing the blues better than anybody 
else. In other words: The thrill is not gone. [Laughter] America loves 
the music of B.B. King, and America loves the man himself. 
Congratulations.
    William Safire joined the White House staff nearly 38 years ago as a 
speechwriter to the President. President Nixon once introduced Bill this 
way: ``This is Safire, absolutely trustworthy, but watch what you say--
he's a writer.'' [Laughter] Writing has been at the center of Bill 
Safire's eventful life, going back to his days in the U.S. Army and as a 
PR man in New York. As a young speechwriter drafting remarks for a New 
York City official, he used the word ``indomitable.'' When they asked 
Bill to find a better speech-word, he suggested ``indefatigable.'' 
[Laughter] They fired him. [Laughter] We're a little more lenient about 
speechwriting here. [Laughter]
    From the White House, Bill moved to the New York Times, where he 
spent more than 30 years as a columnist who was often skeptical about 
our government but never cynical about our country. He always was 
committed to the cause of human freedom. His wit and style and command 
of English earned him another spot, his own page in the Times magazine 
every Sunday. Bill has said that his ``On Language'' column attracts 
more mail than any of his other work. People write me about my language 
too. [Laughter] Bill Safire has also written novels and a respected 
political dictionary. He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He's a 
voice of independence and principle, and American journalism is better 
for the contributions of William Safire. Congratulations.
    David McCullough has won the Pulitzer Prize twice--for ``Truman'' 
and ``John Adams,'' two of the most successful biographies ever 
published. In person and on the printed page, David McCullough shares 
the lessons of history with enthusiasm and insight. He has written 
definitive works on the Johnstown flood, the building of the Brooklyn 
Bridge, and the digging of the Panama Canal. His first book out came--
came out nearly 40 years ago; all of his books are still in print. David 
McCullough is also, for millions of Americans, the voice of history, as 
the narrator of Ken Burns's ``The Civil War'' and other films.
    For those who question the importance of history, David likes to 
quote Harry Truman, who said, ``The only thing new in the world is the 
history you do not know.'' David McCullough reminds us that ``the laws 
we live by, the freedoms we enjoy, the institutions that we take for 
granted are all the work of other people who went before us.'' He's a 
passionate man about our responsibility to know America's past and to 
share it with every new generation. He's fulfilled that duty in his own 
career with splendid results. This chronicler of other times is one of 
the eminent Americans of our own time. The Nation owes a debt of 
gratitude to a fine author and a fine man, David McCullough.
    Now the military aide will read the citations for the Presidential 
Medal of Freedom.

[At this point, Lt. Comdr. Robert A. Roncska, USN, Navy Aide to the 
President, read the citations, and the President presented the medals.]

    The President. Thank you all for coming. Congratulations to our 
honorees. Laura and I would like to invite you to a reception here to 
pay tribute to some of the finest citizens the Almighty has ever 
produced.
    God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 10:18 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House.

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