{"id":40336,"date":"2019-12-16T03:01:47","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T03:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40336"},"modified":"2019-12-16T03:02:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-16T03:02:18","slug":"just-wondering-why-not-medal-of-freedom-for-gary-sinise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40336","title":{"rendered":"Just wondering: Why not Medal of Freedom for Gary Sinise?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=MedalofFreedom%20%23LieutenantDan%20%23ForrestGump%20%23GarySinise%20%40GarySinise&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/gary-sinise.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-40337\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/gary-sinise-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/gary-sinise-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/gary-sinise-1024x682.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/gary-sinise-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/12\/gary-sinise.jpg 1484w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A cousin of mine posed the question on social media. He is in the Army. He&#8217;s been serving our country for more than a decade.<\/p>\n<p>He wonders why Gary Sinise, the actor and avid champion of veterans&#8217; rights, hasn&#8217;t yet been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, my family member poses an excellent question.<\/p>\n<p>The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the nation&#8217;s highest civilian honor. It has gone to many worthy recipients. It also has been bestowed to many who, um, haven&#8217;t done nearly the kind of work that Sinise has done for many years.<\/p>\n<p>Sinise portrayed a troubled Vietnam War veteran in the acclaimed film &#8220;Forrest Gump.&#8221; Since before that film&#8217;s release and surely after it came out, Sinise has been an outspoken advocate for veterans. He has argued on behalf of vets suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as those with debilitating physical wounds suffered in combat. He has raised money to benefit the families of veterans.<\/p>\n<p>And yet he has yet to be honored with the nation&#8217;s esteemed Presidential Medal of Freedom. Many presidents since Sinise&#8217;s veteran advocacy has become well-known and heavily reported.<\/p>\n<p>As one proud veteran myself, I want to carry that torch a little farther on behalf of my cousin who&#8217;s <em>still<\/em> defending this country.<\/p>\n<p>Gary Sinise has earned veterans&#8217; ever-lasting gratitude and deserves to be honored officially with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?hashtags=MedalofFreedom%20%23LieutenantDan%20%23ForrestGump%20%23GarySinise%20%40GarySinise&#038;via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A cousin of mine posed the question on social media. He is in the Army. He&#8217;s been serving our country for more than a decade. He wonders why Gary Sinise, the actor and avid champion of veterans&#8217; rights, hasn&#8217;t yet been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Indeed, my family member poses an excellent question. &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=40336\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Just wondering: Why not Medal of Freedom for Gary Sinise?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[8283,9098,3721,5116],"class_list":["post-40336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-news","tag-forrest-gump","tag-gary-sinise","tag-presidential-medal-of-freedom","tag-vietnam-war"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=40336"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40339,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40336\/revisions\/40339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=40336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=40336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=40336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}