Originally published at: Dolly Parton turned down the Presidential medal of freedom twice | Boing Boing
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I haven’t followed Ms. Parton’s career, but everything I’ve ever read about her over the years indicates that she is a genuinely good, caring person.
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I suspect the award that would please Ms Partion the most is the Gershwin Prize for Songwriting since she identifies primarily as a “songteller.” Get Dolly the Gershwin Prize, please.
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A class act, as always. Including when she turns down an award that she knows will be presented by a walking orange garbage pile that represents everything she’s not.
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She’s consistently been an amazing person and philanthropist, constantly helping her community and others in need. She’s truly a national treasure
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We don’t deserve her.
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I’ve been on the Dolly needs a Medal of Freedom train for a while now, so it’s good to hear that even Biden admin has contacted her.
I do not want to talk down Dolly’s choices, but I have a counter argument to accepting the award: It would be super great to see more heroes in America. The award is not an achievement like winning a marathon, it’s a recognition that kindness to mankind is valued.
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I think we all know the reason he wanted to give it was lechery as well. The guy was POTUS but all he could think about was bragging later that he touched her breasts.
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I don’t like her music, just because it’s not my taste (there are a few gems she’s put out though). And I don’t think she needed the cosmetic surgery.
But damn. What I do like is her intelligence and integrity. We need more of that nowadays.
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She started a book giveaway in 1995, so kids get books from the time they are born, which means there are always books around the house.So they go from objects, no up or down, to pretty pictures, to a story read to them, to something they can read.
So I suspect there are lots of reasons to give her a medal.
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I’m sure she is a good person, but I think there is also an underappreciated reason why she attracts devotion from such a broad audience, which is that she is diligent about her privacy. There is a version of Dolly that brushes her teeth in the morning with no wig or makeup, but you never see that version, even when she is being open about her personal life through her Dolly persona.
So you get homos who love her as a drag queen, and Baptist housewives who see her as a virtuous Christian, and metalheads who believe she’s secretly covered in tattoos (apparently a thing), and all kinds of other people who think she belongs to their tribe because she’s so careful not to provide evidence to the contrary.
That in itself makes her a very relevant role model for today. If Dolly Parton can have a private life and not be pigeonholed based on identity stereotypes, then it must be possible for anyone.
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Can’t they mail it to her?
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This video from the Library of Congress is worth a watch – it’s the Imagination Library’s 100 millionth book, which went to the LoC.
Man I miss going to the LoC…
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So she will go to special ceremonies.
Dolly Parton does seem pretty cool, but there is that long running feud with that Jolene lady…
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She’s starting to sound like L.S. Lowry
Lowry twice declined appointment to the Order of the British Empire: as an Officer (OBE) in 1955, and as a Commander (CBE) in 1961, Lowry saying “There seemed little point… once mother was dead” (as seen in the end credits of the movie Mrs Lowry and son). He turned down a knighthood in 1968, and appointments to the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in 1972 and 1976. He holds the record for the most honours declined.
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It was pre-Covid-19.
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Maybe Dolly should be the one giving them out…
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