Letter to the Editor: A Petition to Honor Dr. Benjamin E. Mays with the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Dear Cascade Patch:

We want to make you aware of an effort that The Mays Family is undertaking to honor Dr. Benjamin E. Mays, teacher, preacher, mentor, scholar, author, civil rights activist and eponym of Mays High School and Benjamin E. Mays Drive. They have started a petition to seek a nomination for Dr. Mays for the Presidential Medal of Freedom to be sent to President Barack Obama. 

We think we have our facts correct concerning previous attempts/failures of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for Dr. Mays as follows:

On Oct. 6, 1983 the 96th Congress approved Georgia Rep. Wyche Fowler's resolution requesting that President Ronald Reagan award Mays the medal. Reagan did not approve the honor. On March 26, 1984 the White House honored 14 others for this prestigious award ….Dr. Mays died two days later on March 28, 1984 ……silently disappointed that he had not received this recognition.  

The 107th Congress passed the senate resolution November 30, 2001 but the award still has not been awarded to Dr. Mays. George W. Bush was our President at that time.

The time seems right to make this happen, in his honor. You are invited to join this effort: 

The petition is featured at this link:

http://www.thepetitionsite.com/63/a-petition-to-honor-the-late-dr-benjamin-e-mays-for-his-contribution-the-civil-rights-of-all-ameri/ .

It can also be found through Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/maysfamily and is mentioned on Mays’ Wikipedia site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Mays. 

Please forwad this information to others and feel free to contact in order to make THIS dream a reality.

—Sally and Clint Warner, Cascade Heights

Editor's Note: Dr. Clint Warner is one of the most influential surgeons and community leaders of the Cascade area, and a powerhouse during the 1970s and 1980s. His wife, Sally Warner is a former assistant to Dr. Benjamin E. Mays and credited with convincing President Barack Obama to invoke then 107-year-old Atlantan Ann Nixon Cooper in his election speech.