WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama awarded the nation's highest civilian honor to 21 groundbreaking actors, musicians, athletes and innovators who inspired him over the years and "helped make me who I am."
"Everybody on this stage has touched me in a very powerful, personal way, in ways that they probably couldn't imagine," Obama said in concluding an hour-long ceremony Tuesday in the White House East Room.
If you spend any time on social media, it is easy to see the divisions in our country, in our communities, in our families. Although every four years, emotions run high and partisan tempers flare, this year did seem different. I have had good friends literally suffer physically from their profound psychic stress at the outcome of the presidential election.
It is tempting to chuckle at the seemingly overwrought suffering of these "snowflakes" (many of whom are quite well-off from a financial perspective), whose Facebook postings in the wake of the election alternated between angry, despondent, and apocalyptic. But their pain is real. And yet, it is hard to begrudge the victors, many of whom had their sanity, morality, and intelligence questioned, their "I told you so" moment and social media victory lap.
