Transcript: Lonnie G. Bunch III on "Face the Nation," June 20, 2021
CBSN
The following is a transcript of an interview with Lonnie G. Bunch III, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, that aired Sunday, June 20, 2021, on "Face the Nation."
SMITHSONIAN SECRETARY LONNIE BUNCH III: Juneteenth is really a special moment. It's a moment that is really the first holiday we have that celebrates freedom, that is really about helping us understand the fragility of freedom, the importance of freedom and the struggle for freedom. There's always been this moment. But to suddenly say this is really about helping a nation remember something that it often doesn't want to remember. And helping a nation honor those people who were enslaved, but they believed in an America that didn't believe in them. This is a special moment for me. I'm very emotional about Juneteenth and.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.
The knock at the door came at nighttime on Mother's Day 2008 in Oregon, where Jessica Ellis' parents lived. It was around 9:20 p.m. and his wife, Linda, was already in bed; her father Steve Ellis told CBS News, that he thought someone let their animals out — but two soldiers in Class A uniforms were standing at the door.