President Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize and I heard some remarks about this. "What did he do," were the comments and thoughts I heard. I then read his own remarks at hearing of the news and they sounded right. It is not so much what he did do, but what America did in this election and in setting the platform for change that it has set with this administration that warranted such acknowledgement.
This administration is not getting everything right and perhaps in specific instances that can be disturbing. But I don't imagine anyone gets everything right, certainly not an entire administration... not by a long shot. What impresses me is the intention I hear beneath the rhetoric. The intention is right, in fact it is right on with what I consider all that is good and right. That is often hard to say much of the time when I hear words over the media. Now you and I may not agree with all that is on the platform, but you must give credit for effort. This President is trying really hard to get accomplished what he has said he would. Nine months in... you may not want him working on health care...but he said he would and he is. He appears to be working on the economy also.
Again, he may not get everything right.... but in my books he is getting an A for effort so far.
Is that what the Nobel is for.... no. I think the Nobel is not for great diplomacy either. I think the Nobel is for an amazing thing that happened in America recently that said something to the world about what was possible, but appeared impossible to the world. A man, born to an American woman but the child of a Kenyan man and an American woman, travelled to other countries, spoke other languages, learned about the world, worked very hard, and got himself educated, and sought to serve the public and ran for the senate and then for the presidency... and the American people chose their new leader based on merit, and that leader rose and keeps rising to the challenge and this must be acknowledged. I know I was stunned by it...as much as I hoped for it, because it makes possible for so many of us to do so many other things that we thought were denied to us because we are of color, or a woman, or any number of characteristics that may be used against us as a way to deny us the responsibility and power of our own merit.
There is no question that the world has gained from the example set by America and a new era has been ushered. We do not have many prizes to acknowledge this type of pathbreaking accomplishment... I guess the Nobel is one such.
GDK.
The people belittling Obama's accomplishments seem to foget that he (as black man) was elected president of the USA. A feat deemed impossible by many. That accomplishment alone and the way he did it is sufficient. He has done more to heal race relations in the US than any other man in history, including Lincoln or King.
ReplyDeleteThe people criticizing the Nobel committee seem to forget that Obama, a black man, was elected president of the USA. A feat deemed impossible by many of his critics. That alone is sufficient. His election and the way he accomplished it did more to heal race relations at home and abroad than anything done by Lincoln or King.
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