Medals, Medals, Medals

The Government is asking for nominations for the Citizens Medal. Again I recall my former partners in Central and Eastern Europe and their boxes of medals from the old Soviet regimes. Medals were the substitute for economic success. Every one had some medal.

I am reminded of Admiral King who was head of the Navy in WW II, he hated medals, he saw it as some British affectation. The British Navy wore medals and the US Navy did not. King stressed that. This was the US and you were rewarded by a job well done not by having ribbons all over your body. But alas things have changed. Just look at any general who appears in public, they have more medals that anyone could count. A bit too much, they occupy the entire left side of their body, perhaps bod armor.

I am also reminded of one of my late Czech partners, who was a good Communist until the fall, educated in Moscow, and all the rest. One day in his attic study I came across a box filled with medals. It looked like hundreds. I asked what they were. His answer was that they were what a good Communist got instead of money. The UK has such rewards, the Queen's Honors List, a knighthood, a Lordship, an OBE, a KBE, whatever. It works in Boy Scouts but not in life, except for Hollywood and performers, there they have an award ceremony a week.

The US had a tradition of few if any medals. But now it seems if we cannot allow and foster American ingenuity and creativity then we hand out medals.