Attorney General Clark, Director Hoover, Dean Griswold, distinguished Members of Congress, ladies and gentlemen:
This morning we have come here to the Cabinet Room because it gives us an opportunity to honor courage--not, as often in these times, the courage of the battlefield, but the quieter courage that is exhibited by our finer citizens in their everyday life.
I am doubly pleased because these awards pay tribute to the idealism and the commitment of our American youth.
There is a great deal of ferment among many of our young people today. Some of it is foolish and some of it is self-destructive. But most of it represents power--power for good, power for constructive change. I think most of it is brave and most of it is selfless.
William Glynn is receiving the Young American Medal for Bravery. He was just 15 years old when he saved a drowning man off Long Island. For more than 2 hours, he battled 14-foot waves to keep the exhausted and the unconscious man from slipping away to a certain death.
Carmalita Capilla and Mary Lynne Donohue are receiving medals for service.
Carmalita devoted almost all of her free time to helping the less fortunate mentally ill at Hawaii State Hospital. One hospital official said, "You could follow Carmalita by the trail of smiles she left with the patients."
Mary Lynne was president of the Sheboygan Association of Youth. She directed more than 1,000 young people in fundraising for the March of Dimes and the USO.
She was a member of the Steering Committee of the Sheboygan Human Rights Association. Somehow, she still managed to finish in the top 5 percent of her high school class.
There were 70 other nominees--from 23 States, Guam, and Puerto Rico--who did not win medals. But we value them nonetheless.
In this period of our history, when we so often see on our screens and so often read in our newspapers the mistakes that have been made and the errors that have been committed, it is refreshing and stimulating to hear and to see some of the things that make our Nation the great nation that it is.
They--and you--are a credit to your generation. You are an inspiration to your President and to your country.
Thank you very much.
Note: The President spoke at 11:43 a.m. in the Cabinet Room at the White House. In his opening words he referred to Attorney General Ramsey Clark, J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Solicitor General Erwin N. Griswold, formerly Dean of Harvard Law School.
The President presented the gold Young American Medals to the following:
--William G. Glynn III, 16, of Westbury, Long Island, N.Y., who at the age of 15, while surfing off Fire Island, rescued a man who had fallen from a jetty and was being swept out to sea;
--Carmalita Capilla, 19, of Kailua, Oahu, Hawaii, who devoted her school holidays and vacations in 1966 to a wide range of volunteer services to mental patients at the Hawaii State Hospital and organized "Teens Against Mental Illness," a volunteer group of hospital workers; and
--Mary Lynne Donohue, 19, of Sheboygan, Wis., who as president of the Sheboygan Association of Youth directed more than 1,000 young people in fundraising projects for the USO, March of Dimes, muscular dystrophy, and other endeavors, and organized a Christmas party for 60 children in the Head Start program. Mary Lynne also served on the steering committee of the Sheboygan Human Rights Association, which sponsored lectures by human rights leaders and recruited volunteers for Head Start.
Winners were selected by the Young American Medals Committee, composed of Mr. Hoover, Solicitor General Griswold, and Clifton F. Sessions, Director of Public Information, Department of Justice. The awards, for the year 1966, make a total of 29 awarded for bravery and 14 for service since 1950 when Congress established the program under the Justice Department (Public Law 638, 64 Stat. 397).
Lyndon B. Johnson, Remarks Upon Presenting the Young American Medals for Bravery and Service Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/237515
Filed Under
Categories
Attributes
Location
