Opportunity knocks... Let's seize it!

Opportunity knocks... Let's seize it!

First Lady, Michelle Obama, released a message from the White House for all Americans to offer input into the president's search for an appropriate honoree to receive our nation's second highest award for citizenship, the Citizens Medal.  Her question was simple: "Who inspired you?"

For over 40 years, the President of the United States has awarded the Citizens Medal -- the second highest civilian honor in our nation -- to Americans who have "performed exemplary deeds of service for their country or their fellow citizens."
Now for the 2010 Citizen's Medal, the White House is opening up the process to include an exciting source of nominations: you.  President Obama is inviting the American public to nominate candidates he should consider for the Presidential Citizens Medal -- truly making this an honor of, by, and for the American people.
Who has inspired you?  Whose selfless dedication to service has touched your life or the lives of others?
Watch the President explain the program in this web video and then nominate an unsung hero from your community...
Who inspired you?

As an atheist and a devoted citizen of my country, and a modern-day patriot, in fact, my thoughts immediately turned to the nation's founding fathers.  But as great as they were, they won't do.  Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams and the like, Einstein, Kinsey, Sagan and their kind, and Madeline Murray O'Hare, a truly unsung heroine, are all long gone.  Yet these were people who stood for the America I stand for, a secular America, and consequently my recommendation to President Obama of an appropriate candidate for the nation's Citizens Medal will have to live up to the standard these great people set.

Again, thinking as an atheist and as patriot of our country, I see an opportunity for the atheist community to join together and act as one in making a recommendation.  Consider it... Which living American has been least selfish in their efforts to build a better America, a secular minded America, and a better world for everyone?

I have my own short list.  It begins and ends with Paul kurtz - the man given credit for being the father of Secular Humanism.  What could be more American that that?

Can you agree?  If not, then who? 



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