Ed Wescott and Richard Cook sharing a Wescott beer at Crafter’s Brew in Oak Ridge, Tennessee
A Chance to Start Anew.
Thank goodness 2020 is behind us. As we enter 2021, if tradition holds, a new president will be sworn in at noon on January 20th.
This event should be celebrated by all Oak Ridgers for a small, but very important reason. With a new administration, the nomination of Ed Westcott to be awarded The Presidential Medal of Freedom can be resubmitted to the White House.
This would be round two for the nomination. In 2017 Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and Senator Lamar Alexander submitted the nomination of Ed to the White House. The nomination was problematic from the start. President Trump is a transactional politician. In 2016, Trump won Tennessee by 26 percentage points. There was no upside for Trump to give the award to Ed.
Rep. Fleischmann didn’t have enough pull in the Oval Office, so the nomination gathered dust in somebody’s desk drawer. Sen. Alexander didn’t endorse Trump in 2016, so even more dust gathered. Trump, evidently, was in no mood to do favors where he did not directly benefit.
As the White House changes administrations, the dusty Westcott nomination is in a huge trashcan somewhere, waiting to find a final home in a landfill on the outskirts of Washington, D. C.
All nominations are problematic. A second Westcott nomination would be no different. Rep. Fleischmann could sponsor it again, but circumstances have changed. Fleischmann signed onto the effort by the state of Texas to have the Supreme Court overturn the election results in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Georgia. He won’t be getting a Christmas card from the White House this year. Rep. Burchett won’t be getting a Christmas card either. He signed onto the attempted judicial coup too.
Sen. Blackburn doesn’t have much pull in the Biden White House. Senator-elect Hagerty might be a wild card, in a good way. He lived in Japan for a total of five years on two separate occasions. Hard to know if he would support or oppose a Westcott bid. He was Ambassador to Japan for two years.
Oddly enough, retired Sen. Alexander might play an important role this time around. He and Biden were in the Senate together for six years. Alexander has said nice things about Biden on the floor of the Senate. I certainly understand it is a very long way from complimenting a vice-president to asking a president for a favor, but compliments are a good start. If Alexander could get one or two Democratic Senators to co-sponsor the effort, the odds of an award increases too.
The unknown in all this is what Biden believes about Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In most public surveys about the bombings, Republicans (74% Pew survey 2015) generally support the decision to use the atomic weapons more than do Democrats (52% Pew). Biden would certainly get criticism from the left wing of his party for a Medal of Freedom award.
Ed has earned this award. As a 21 year old he tackled the job of recording the most important event of 20th century American history. He completed the most important photographic archive of our nation’s history before he was 24. The last photographer to win the Medal of Freedom was Ansel Adams in 1980.
It is time for Westcott to take his place with Adams. He has been ignored far too long. The only question is if we have a president-elect who can make the decision. I hope we know the answer very soon.