Outstanding Arizonans Gabrielle Giffords and the late John McCain had been amongst
the 17 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom introduced Friday
by the Biden administration.
Additionally within the group is Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father who rose to
prominence defending McCain in opposition to assaults by then-candidate Donald
Trump. Khan mentioned Friday that he was having a tough time explaining the
“gratitude and honor that I really feel that I’ll be in the identical ceremony” as
McCain.
“It’s a tremendous sentiment at this level that I’m nonetheless attempting to come up with,” Khan mentioned Friday.
Greater than 600 individuals have been awarded the medal, the nation’s highest civilian honor, because it was established
by President John F. Kennedy, however comparatively few seem to have been
from Arizona. They embrace former Supreme Court docket Justice Sandra Day
O’Connor and Annie Dodge Wauneka, who was honored in 1963 for her work
to enhance well being on the Navajo Nation.
The medal is introduced to people who’ve made vital
contributions to “prosperity, values, or safety of the US,
world peace, or different vital societal, public or non-public
endeavors,” the White Home mentioned in an announcement Friday.
Honorees embrace politicians and artists, athletes and activists. The
listing consists of iconic figures, akin to Martin Luther King Jr., Mom
Teresa, Stephen Hawking and Maya Angelou.
The 17 introduced Friday
are the primary for President Joe Biden – who was himself honored with
the medal by President Barack Obama. Biden is scheduled to current the
medals Thursday at a White Home ceremony.
The most recent batch of honorees consists of actor Denzel Washington,
athletes Simone Biles and Megan Rapinoe, Apple co-founder Steve Jobs and
Sandra Lindsay, a New York nurse and one of many first individuals to obtain
the COVID-19 vaccine.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., who’s married to Giffords, tagged McCain’s widow, Cindy, in a tweet Friday celebrating the glory and saying they “may be the proudest spouses in Arizona proper now.”
“I can’t consider two People extra deserving of this honor,” Kelly wrote of Giffords and McCain being named.
Giffords represented the Tucson space in Congress for 5 years
earlier than she was the goal of an assassination try throughout a
constituent occasion at a Tucson grocery retailer in January 2011. The mass
capturing killed six individuals and wounded 13, together with Giffords, who
practically died and nonetheless grapples with well being points from that assault.
Giffords, who subsequently grew to become an advocate for gun reform, mentioned she was “so very humbled and honored” by information of the award.
“Since I used to be shot greater than 11 years in the past, my private restoration journey
has taught me that it’s not the setback that defines us: it’s how we
reply to it,” Giffords mentioned in an announcement that referenced how she had
to relearn “how you can speak and how you can stroll.”
Giffords is the top of a self-named group – Giffords – that works to
finish gun violence in America by way of the Giffords Regulation Heart, Giffords
PAC and advocacy. The announcement of the medal comes simply days after
Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into legislation, the primary
main gun-reform laws to cross Congress in many years.
“President Biden signed into legislation the primary main gun security
laws in practically 30 years,” Giffords mentioned in her assertion Friday.
“It’s the honor of a lifetime to obtain this award. Mr. President, I
am exceedingly grateful for this recognition, and I sit up for
persevering with you on this battle.”
McCain, who died in 2018, shall be honored posthumously for his
service as a veteran who spent 5 years in a North Vietnamese jail,
and who represented Arizona in Congress, serving two phrases within the Home
and 6 within the Senate. Biden has typically talked about his particular
friendship with and admiration for McCain, who was the GOP nominee for
president in 2008 in a shedding bid in opposition to Biden and Obama.
McCain’s son Jack mentioned in an announcement Friday that the household was “extraordinarily honored” by the award.
“As a person who devoted his life in service of his nation, I do know my
dad can be very humbled to obtain the nation’s highest civilian
honor,” the youthful McCain mentioned.
Evelyn Farkas, government director of the McCain Institute, praised
the late senator as a person whose “persistent and principled pursuit of
his beliefs and his legacy of integrity-driven management stay an
inspiration to individuals everywhere in the world.”
“We sit up for persevering with to hold on Senator McCain’s legacy by
boldly defending democracy, human dignity, and safety across the
world,” she mentioned in an announcement.
McCain was a hero to Khan and his household. Khan mentioned one among his final
conversations along with his son, Military Capt. Humayun Khan, was about McCain’s
e book “Why Braveness Issues.” A short while later, Humayun Khan was killed
in motion in Iraq in 2004.
When Trump attacked McCain on the 2016 marketing campaign path, Khan, a lifelong Republican, landed a main talking slot on the Democratic Nationwide Conference to defend the Arizona senator.
“Senator McCain had meant so very a lot to us,” mentioned Khan, who’s
being honored for his work as founding father of the Structure Literacy and
Nationwide Unity Heart and as an advocate for rule of legislation and non secular
freedom on the U.S. Fee on Worldwide Non secular Freedom.
“I’m honored … and it means so very a lot to me and my household,” Khan
mentioned. “I’m nonetheless grappling to know the nice honor that this
Presidential Medal of Freedom brings.”