WP: Limits May Be Imposed on Honor Medals

[kskiska]

About 300 people have received the Congressional Gold Medal since George Washington got the first one -- recent honorees include Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Nelson Mandela, and Peanuts creator Charles M. Schulz -- but some lawmakers say too many are being handed out.

The House voted yesterday to slow the gold rush by restricting the medal, its highest award, to two a year.

Groups could no longer be honored -- that would have excluded the Navajo code talkers of World War II, winners in 2000 -- and posthumous medals could be presented only during a 20-year period beginning five years after a person's death.

The rule changes, approved 231 to 173, arose from concern that the distinction was being diluted by overuse.

The changes could mean an end to joint awards such as those given to the Reagans and to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his widow, Coretta Scott King. Jackie Robinson, who broke the color line in baseball, would have been dead too long when he got the award in 2003. House Speaker Sam Rayburn, honored a year after his death in 1961, would not have been dead long enough.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39771-2005Jan26.html

[Massacure]

1. Sounds like Bull to me.

If you do something deserving you should get a fricken metal. I hate people who compare you against others.