SALON

Thursday, Jan 17, 2013 8:02 AM UTC

Obama names 8 citizens to highlight his successes

By

Topics: From the Wires,

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is featuring eight Americans as “citizen co-chairs” of his inauguration, a new role created to highlight his first-term accomplishments with examples of lives that have either been improved by his actions or inspired his presidency.

Inaugural planners say the honorees include a woman with a brain tumor who no longer is denied health care for a pre-existing condition; an autoworker who got her job back after the General Motors bailout; and a gay pilot-in-training kicked out of the Air Force before the president repealed the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Inauguration officials said Wednesday that the president has met most of the eight individuals during his first term and their inclusion in inaugural events is meant to showcase his administration’s core values through real-life examples that people across the country can relate to.

It’s a time-honored presidential practice to illustrate policy ideas with such anecdotes, and Obama frequently does so. He had those who say they were helped by his priorities introduce him at campaign rallies, and he frequently sprinkled their stories throughout his speeches. On Wednesday he announced gun control legislation before families of those killed in the Connecticut elementary school shooting. But inaugural planners say this is the first time people affected by a president’s policies have been given such an official title at an inauguration.

The eight will participate in the National Day of Service on Saturday that kicks off the inaugural events over the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend. That’s the president’s call for Americans to serve their communities to honor King’s legacy. After Obama’s swearing-in ceremony Monday, the eight co-chairs will ride on an inaugural parade float highlighting the inaugural theme of “Our People: Our Future,” then attend the official balls that night.

“Every day, I’m inspired by the determination, grit and resilience of the American people,” Obama said in a statement provided by his inaugural committee. “The stories of these extraordinary men and women highlight both the progress we’ve made and how much we have left to do. They remind us that when we live up to the example set by the American people, there is no limit to how bright our future can be.”

The list of co-chairs and their descriptions by the Presidential Inaugural Committee are:

— Ida Edwards of Petersburg, Va., a retired nurse and advocate of Obama’s health care law who lived through the civil rights movement that inspired Obama’s career.

— Erica Chain of San Francisco, who was diagnosed at 27 with a life-threatening brain tumor and was denied coverage from every health insurance provider she applied to. She was able to get coverage because of the Affordable Care Act’s prohibition of denials of coverage due to pre-existing conditions and was able to get the surgery she needed to stay alive.

— Lily Griego of Denver, a single mother whose son has been able to attend college because of Pell Grants for low-income families for which Obama increased funding, other financial aid and her work at two jobs.

— Kenyetta Jones of Toledo, Ohio, a 27-year veteran of the General Motors Powertrain Plant in Toledo who was laid off for more than a year in 2009 but was called back to work because Obama approved a second auto industry bailout that year.

— Liz McCartney of New Orleans, who co-founded the nonprofit St. Bernard Project after Hurricane Katrina and has helped rebuild hundreds of homes for hurricane and tornado victims with the support of volunteers and AmeriCorps members. Obama met her when visiting New Orleans for the five-year anniversary of Katrina and promoted the work of the St. Bernard Project in his speech that day.

— Rob Hach of Alta, Iowa, who started a small renewable energy business called Anemometry Specialists and like Obama supports the extension of a wind energy production tax credit.

— David Hall of Washington, who was training to be an Air Force pilot but was kicked out for “homosexual conduct” in 2002 and went on to work for the repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

— Petty Officer 2nd Class Taylor Morris of Joint Base Charleston, S.C., a bomb disposal expert and native of Cedar Falls, Iowa, who became a quadruple amputee after stepping on a bomb while serving in Afghanistan. Obama met him on a visit to Walter Reed hospital last year and surprised him with the Purple Heart while on a White House tour over the summer.

___

Follow Nedra Pickler on Twitter: http://twitter.com/nedrapickler

More By Nedra Pickler.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 0 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
FBI reportedly joins Bachmann campaign finance probe
204 points205 points | 7 comments
vote
Jon Karl makes things worse: He regrets “inaccurate” Benghazi email but says his story based on it “still entirely stands.” Really. ABC News?
169 points170 points | 27 comments
vote
Paul Krugman’s right: Austerity kills. "In an economy where we’re all in the same boat, one person’s spending is another person’s income. So when the government cuts spending, it reduces people’s income, leading to less business, more unemployment, and a vicious spiral of slowing down the economy."
128 points129 points | 65 comments
vote
“Jodorowsky’s Dune”: The sci-fi classic that never was.
69 points70 points | 15 comments
vote
Doug Henwood: Capitalism Thrives on Class Exploitation
45 points46 points | 5 comments

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations