The world’s most shining award, the Nobel Peace Prize, has gone to President Barack Obama.

 Predicatably, American right-wingers dismissed it and found every way to diminish the honor.   We have already shown that Obama can do nothing to please the extreme right whose only goal is to bring him down no matter what good the president might bring to America and beyond.

 They are like the surly dogs that bark and howl at everything. It has become laughable now to watch these  goons:  how they condemned Obama a month ago for wanting to address school children about excellence and staying in school; how the president made a well-meaning trip to Copenhagen, Denmark, to tout Chicago’s bid for the Olympics (when heads of state of other countries had done the same); and now their knee-jerk clamoring to deprecate the Nobel Prize, saying Obama had no accomplishments to merit it.

The Nobel Committeee  cited Obama for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”   Much is being made about how closely after the President’s inauguration came last January to the deadline for nominating candidates.  “How could so new a president have done anything to justify such an award?, ” his critics say.

Yes, the committee, heavily weighted in Europe,  was heartened by the refreshing new attitude and tone that the world has been witnessing  in the White House.  Gone was George W. Bush,  whose reckless and bullying actions in international relations, had sullied America’s reputation for eight years.  So Obama’s statements calling for multilateral global inititatives, a strong push to reduce nuclear armaments, efforts to get Israel and Palestinian talks going and his using  less hostile language in all levels of diplomacy set well with the rest of the world.  Not to mention his speaking skills and ability to project hope.

I had the chance to meet three Nobel Peace Prize winners through the years:  Norman Borlaug (1970), the agronomist who was the architect of the Green Revolution;  Mother Teresa of Calcutta  (1979); and the Dalai Lama (1989).  Once I received a short personal note from Holocaust writer Eli Wiesel, the 1986 winner.

The Nobel Prize group is so impressive. Some of the most famous names:  Albert Schweitzer, Ralph Bunche, Lech Welesa, Bishop Desmond Tutu, Anwar Sadat with Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King, Mikhail Gorbachev, Linus Pauling, Elihu Roo, Henry Kissinger, Al Gore and Theodore Roosevelt.

Obama was humble and reserved about the award, cognizant that his critics would say he did not deserve it — certainly not yet.  He wisely used it to say the award is for all those in the world earnestly working for peace on the many fronts in which he was leading the U.S.  He was wise to announced his financial prize was going to charity.

Such an award typically goes to old people whose body of work is clear.  The president has won the big one, so what is left?  Obviously, accomplising some of the major tasks that this nation and planet need accomplished.   Many who have earned awards  ”before their time” get a kick in the pants from winning it, and it gives them the license and go ahead to do great things to live up to their prize.

Posted in: Uncategorized |

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.