By Janice S. Ellis, Ph.D., Kansas City, MO –

The Presidential Medal of Freedom’s 2010 recipients represent the great racial, ethnic, and cultural combination that make up America. As President Barack Obama presented a snapshot of each receiver’s remarkable achievement, despite circumstance and their personal challenges, of enhancing the lives of others, it turned out to be a seminal moment of what this great country is and may continue to be.

These recipients, in whatever circumstance they discovered themselves, took activity, developed their skills and talents across an array of disciplines, and make the lives of others better. Make America better. Make the world better. The recipients reached great things irrespective of oppressive states they were faced with because of their race, ethnicity or the privilege, or the environment by which they found themselves. They dug deep within themselves, faced difficulty, and stayed the course to attain and make a difference in others’ lives.

If we do not purchase the consequences of the findings of the Human Genome Project, that all of us the DNA of human beings are 99.99 percent the same, then merely pause and look at the accomplishments of this small group of Americans, and lets open our thoughts. Watch today’s speech where President Obama Honors the Medal of Freedom Recipients on MSNBC.

What this group of receivers signifies is how we all share human characteristics that are remarkable, irrespective of our race, faith or ethnic origin. When we just go through the faces, how do we continue to hang on to superficial images, stereotypes that lay claim to the bogus views that there are intrinsic or irreconcilable differences among us? There’s no inferiority or superiority here!

The recipients of the award of today:

A.John H. Adams

Maya Angelou

Warren Buffett

George Herbert Walker Bush

Jasper Johns

Gerda Weissmann Klein

John Lewis

Tom Little

Yo Yo Ma

Sylvia Mendez

Stanley Stan Musial

William Bill Russell

Jean Kennedy Smith

John Sweeney

Angela Merkel

USARiseUp joins the chorus and congratulates this exquisite portrait of Americans and their life’s work, which can be affirmation for us all.

Edited and Reprinted with Permission of USAonRace.com