U.S. Sens. Carl Levin and Richard G. Lugar will jointly receive the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute Four Freedoms Medal.
The Freedom Medal is being awarded Nov. 6 in New York City to Levin and Lugar in recognition of their bipartisan efforts to reassert the role of the U.S. Senate in critical issues of foreign and military policy as well as in recognition of their long and distinguished service to our country.
The annual awards, given on an alternating annual basis in the United States and the Netherlands, the Roosevelts”™ ancestral home, are presented to national and world citizens of extraordinary achievement whose words and deeds best exemplify the ideals proclaimed by President Roosevelt in 1941 as necessary for flourishing democracies everywhere in the world: “Freedom of Speech and Expression, Freedom of Worship, Freedom from Want, and Freedom from Fear.”
Joining Levin and Lugar in receiving medals reflecting specific freedoms are:
n Freedom of Speech and Expression: Bill Moyers, “whose long career in both politics and communications as both defender of and user of the First Amendment, and whose probing analyses of issues is vital to the health of our democracy.”
n Freedom of Worship: The Rev. Peter J. Gomes, a Harvard University professor, theologian and author whose “brilliant sermons and widely read books have inspired members of the Harvard community for over 30 years and illuminated for everyone the meaning of the religious life.”
n Freedom from Want: Barbara Ehrenreich, journalist, writer and political activist, whose widely read books, “Nickel and Dimed” and “Bait and Switch,” have “illuminated the landscape of class in America and shown how tenuous daily existence is for many people in this land of plenty.”
n Freedom from Fear: Retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, former National Security adviser whose “wise counsel and strategic thinking helped steer the nation through troubled waters in the past and remains much needed in our own day.”
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Christopher N. Breiseth, president and chief executive officer of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, said, “This year”™s medalists are united by their outspoken courage, their willingness to make other people”™s struggles their own, and their longevity of service to their fellow Americans.”
Past recipients of the Four Freedoms Medals include: Presidents Truman, Kennedy, Carter and Clinton; Robert J. Dole; Mary McGrory; Katharine Graham; Robert C. Byrd; Justice Thurgood Marshall; the Dalai Lama; Mikhail Gorbachev; Shimon Peres; Nelson Mandela; Kofi Annan and Aung San Suu Kyi.
Based at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, Â the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute is committed to informing new generations of the ideals and achievements of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt.
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Carl Levin
In an editorial about Carl Levin, the Detroit News wrote, “He has been above reproach personally and has stuck to his principles, even when they were unpopular. Principled leadership, no matter what political ideology it comes from, is sorely needed in Washington.”
The Michigan Democrat is the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, where he has earned a reputation as a strong supporter of national defense and an effective waste fighter. He was an early and consistent advocate of efforts to prepare the American military to combat terrorism and other emerging threats.
In 2002, Levin lead an in-depth examination into the Enron collapse exposing the deceptive accounting and tax transactions. He has investigated and led legislative responses regarding gasoline price spikes, protection for whistleblowers, ethics reform, taxpayers”™ rights and reforms in corporate reporting and accounting.
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Richard G. Lugar
Richard Lugar is a fifth-generation Hoosier and the longest serving U.S. senator in Indiana history. He is the Republican leader of the Foreign Relations Committee and a member and former chairman of the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee.
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Lugar has been a leader in reducing the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, forging a bipartisan partnership with Sen. Sam Nunn in 1991 to destroy weapons of mass destruction in the former Soviet Union. To date the Nunn-Lugar program has deactivated more than 6,800 nuclear warheads that were formerly pointed at the United States. Lugar manages his family”™s 604-acre corn, soybean and tree farm. He initiated a biofuels research program to help decrease U.S. dependency on foreign oil. Lugar has been awarded 40 honorary degrees from colleges and universities.
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Bill Moyers
During his three decades in broadcasting, Moyers has pursued a broad spectrum of journalism. The International Conference on Thinking, an annual gathering of scholars and researchers dedicated to improving critical and creative thinking, honored Moyers as a broadcaster “whose contributions to public awareness of the value and processes of thinking span multiple areas: helping the American public understand how we think, the influences that impact our thinking, and the joy and contributions that result from thinking effectively.” In 2005, Moyers received the PEN USA Courageous Advocacy Award for his outspoken commitment to freedom of speech and his dedication to journalistic integrity.
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The Rev. Peter John Gomes
Born in Boston in 1942, the Rev. Peter J. Gomes is an American Baptist minister ordained to the Christian Ministry by The First Baptist Church of Plymouth, Mass. Since 1970 he has served in The Memorial Church, Harvard University; and since 1974 as Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in The Memorial Church.
Widely regarded as one of America”™s most distinguished preachers, Gomes fulfills preaching and lecturing engagements throughout America and the British Isles.
Named Clergy of the Year in 1998 by Religion in American Life, Professor Gomes participated in the presidential inaugurations of Ronald Wilson Reagan and of George Herbert Walker Bush.
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Barbara Ehrenreich
Journalist, historian and social critic Barbara Ehrenreich is the author of 14 books. Â In 2001, Ehrenreich’s “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America,” became a New York Times bestseller, and has since sold more than 1 million copies. Â The book chronicles Ehrenreich’s own attempt to live on minimum wage and is now required reading at more than 600 colleges and universities.
In 2005, Ehrenreich’s “Bait and Switch,” also a bestseller, exposed the ever more prevalent phenomenon of white-collar unemployment.
Ehrenreich’s latest book, “Dancing in the Streets,” is a history of the celebration of communal joy.
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Brent Scowcroft
Retired Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft is a president of The Scowcroft Group Inc., an international business consulting firm. He is also the founder and president of The Forum for International Policy, a nonprofit organization providing independent perspectives and opinions on major foreign policy issues.
Scowcroft served as assistant to the president for national security affairs to Presidents Gerald Ford and George Herbert Walker Bush. He also served as military assistant to President Nixon and as deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs to Presidents Ford and Nixon. He serves as a director on the boards of Pennzoil-Quaker State, and Qualcomm Corporations and the American Council on Germany.
Scowcroft received his undergraduate degree and commission into the Army Air Forces from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.
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