Nobel Peace Prize?

On Friday, October 9, 2009 it was announced that President Obama would receive the Nobel Peace Prize. "For what?" you may ask. I am still trying to figure that one out. The official website of the Nobel Foundation states that Obama was chosen "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

There are numerous things wrong with this pick, and if I chose to go into them all, this would be the never ending blog...I don't think you'd like that very much. However, there is something inherently wrong with the explanation given by the Nobel Foundation. THAT, I will explore. Here we see the word "efforts." No, it's not just "efforts" it is "extraordinary efforts." Let's run with that...

President Obama is considered worthy of receiving such an honor because he has made an extraordinary effort to pursue a desired outcome. Fantastic! So, where are the results? I have yet to see them. Anyone can try to do something with all their might. Does that necessarily make them worthy of an honor? Or better yet, such a prestigious honor as the Nobel Peace Prize? I can make an earnest attempt daily for the rest of my life to shove my foot into a baby shoe, and I will never succeed. Does the mere fact that I tried so relentlessly make me worthy of honor? Actually, it may make me worthy of a mental institution, but that is beside the point.

I know the Peace Prize is a little more debatable that the awards for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine and Literature...the Peace Prize brings with it much more subjectivity than the others. So, let's just say it is okay to give the honor on account of efforts with no regard to results. I understand that there may be instances in which even I would agree with giving the honor based on efforts alone. So let's put that aside for now.

What's wrong with it now? I'm glad you asked.

I must go back to the beginning, where the Nobel Prize was born. Upon his death in 1896, Alfred Nobel stated in his will that 94% of his assets be liquidated (today's US dollar equivalent of $186 Million) and placed into safe securities. The interest accrued yearly would be "annually distributed in the form of prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind." He went on to say the interest is to be divided into five equal parts and awarded as prizes in each of the five areas we see it awarded today.

The key phrase here is "during the preceding year." Although it has been almost a year since President Obama was inaugurated, there are some issues here. We all know that a Presidential Candidate's sole purpose in life for approximately two years prior to Election Day is to campaign; from Election Day to Inauguration Day is time to prepare oneself to step into position as President; and Inauguration Day is January 20th. What we don't all know is that the deadline for Nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize is February 1st. With that being said, President Obama was in fact left to make an extraordinary effort for a whopping 13 days (that includes Inauguration Day and Nomination deadline) before he was nominated. Last time I checked, 13 days was a far cry from a year. Evidently, the Nobel Committee (responsible for evaluating nominees) doesn't have any regard for the rules. I can't say for certain what they have done in the past, but they are definitely going rogue with this one.

Even our own President and recipient of this prestigious prize knows he does not deserve it. In his acceptance speech he stated that he views the decision less as a recognition of his own accomplishments and more as "a call to action."

That leads me to my final thoughts...What's the agenda here? Who is behind this? What do they hope to accomplish?

Where were you when...?

History is full of "Where were you when's?" Where were you when Kennedy was shot? Or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.? Where were you when the first man walked on the moon? Or the morning of September 11th? There are more, and when people live through such events, they can tell you many years and even decades later exactly where they were when it happened, how they felt, what they said, or couldn't find the words to say. They can tell you who they were with, even what they were wearing or eating.

I just watched tens of millions of Americans elect a black man as the 44th President of the United States of America. This election transcended race! No...an election doesn't do anything on it's own...the people of America transcended race in this election. For generations, we have lied to our young people; we have taught them that in American anybody can be anything they want to be, and today that is no longer a lie. We have risen from a nation once wrenched with slavery into a nation where all men truly are created equal. It has been a long, hard journey to get here, but we have reached another milestone...one most of us never thought we'd live to see take place. What about our grandparents who are still with us? They have seen much, much worse times than we have...I'm sure not one of them thought they'd ever see it in their lifetime.


I never stopped believing in Barack Obama's ability to lead this nation to unity, but I did stop having faith in the people. But I watched people celebrate last night. All kinds of people, all together (maybe not a whole lot of Republicans, but I didn't see the bitterness I thought I would see). In the midst of all the celebration, I was reminded of how much "coming together" it took to make this happen. (I'm just going to throw party unity out the window because I don't know that that will ever really happen, although there were many Republicans that crossed over for Obama in this election). But I watched people, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, all crying and jumping for joy and hugging one another. In those moments, there was no demographic that mattered to any of them. I didn't see any fights, or smoke in the distance. All I saw was unity. I saw people put their differences aside and come together for a common purpose.


I've got to come clean and say that although I did vote in this election, I chose not to vote for a President. Choosing not to choose was not an easy conclusion for me to draw. Policy-wise neither candidate had my full support, and that's the only way I, in good conscience, can vote. But my heart always wanted to see Obama stake his claim for America.


This country is forever changed...and we ARE headed in the right direction. If you read my previous blog, right now you are probably thinking I'm bi-polar; I assure you I am not. I just see things happen sometimes, awful things that make me shudder, things that quake me to my core. And when I'm lucky enough, I get to see something that contradicts it, and calms me down reminding me that it doesn't have to be as I imagined. Last night I was lucky enough to watch people come together, and I listened to our President-elect talk about change one more time. And all the fear and turmoil festering inside of me subsided. I have complete faith that this man will change America for the better (he's already surmounted tremendous obstacles, therein starting that cycle of change) and I once again have faith that the people will do what they can, too. I know we have to take it one baby step at a time, but we have just made a huge leap forward. I don't know how there can be anyone that isn't excited about that!


Many times I have expressed my gratitude to God for choosing this country and this period in time for me to be born into. I don't think I could have made it in any other time or place. I'd be too "soft" or too "rogue" or too any number of other things. And I have even more reason to be thankful today. I was born with this strong desire to see true racial equality. I can't even explain it. It wasn't something I had to be taught, I just knew what was right and what was wrong, I knew what should matter about a person and what shouldn't. And today a piece of that desire was satisfied. This is not only an important event for Americans in general, but this is an especially important event for black Americans. I could never begin to explain the depths of it's significance for black people in America because I will never be able to fully understand their struggle. And I would never cheapen it by pretending.


So, where were you when the people of America voted the first black man into the Presidency of the United States of America? For me, it was 8:01 PM PST on November 4, 2008 when Keith Olbermann announced the winner. I sat on the couch in my living room next to my husband, with a laptop in my lap and tears streaming down my cheeks. I wore a pink shirt with pink tweety bird pajama pants and stared at the television in awe, in disbelief, in amazement and pride and joy and hope. I could hardly speak; all I could say was, "America did it." Then I watched Barack Obama walk across the stage like he was born for this very purpose; he was born to break the barrier. This is a story I look forward to telling my children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And I hope that as I tell them this story that it will blow their minds to even imagine that we once lived in a world where the color of a person's skin was such a big deal. Now, someday I will be able to tell my mulatto children that with dedication and hard work, they can be anything they want to be...even President of the United States. And it won't be a lie.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/27546437#27546437 (Obama's victory speech)

A Nation Divided?

Here we sit, on the eve of one of the most important, history-making Presidential elections...I would say THE most important one in my lifetime. I'm pretty certain about who our next President will be; if it turns out that I'm wrong, I already have several theories about how and why the numbers would swing in the other direction, but I'm not going to get into that. What I really wanted to talk about today is what this election has done to our country.

I feel like we have been divided during this race. Republicans hate Democrats, Democrats hate Republicans. There never has been unity between the parties, but at least we used to be somewhat civil towards each other. All decency and tact has now been thrown out the window. So much hate with regard to party affiliation, race and religion has surfaced and escalated.

Towards the beginning of the Primaries, both McCain and Obama advertised themselves as agents for change. Obama talked about change in many different areas, but the one I particularly liked was for party and racial unity. It just struck a chord with me; it's something I'd really like to see happen. Because of his background and his way with people, I thought that if anyone could do it at this point in time, HE could. But as I've watched this Presidential election unfold, I see that we are running full speed ahead in the opposite direction. I see a divide much greater than the one previously there. A divide between parties, races, religions, socio-economic classes...Maybe it was always there and it's just been masked or maybe I've just been blind, REALLY blind. But has it always been this bad? Have I been naive? Living in a fantasy world? Or has it gotten much worse, as I suspect?

It's great that this election has inspired so many; that so many have found their passion because of it, but how did that passion cross over into hatred? Have you ever heard of a group of little old ladies ganging up on young men and beating them down for supporting the opposite ticket? Well, it happened. And that doesn't even begin to tell the story of the past year. I don't even want to get into it in detail.

This country is not coming together at all. Will that POOF! just change overnight when we finally know who our next President will be? I doubt it. Tomorrow we find out which man that will be, and I could bet that no matter who it is there will be riots and fights in the streets all across this nation. There will be fires and vandalism and chaos. And there will be hate run rampant. There will be hate and there will be no such thing as being too naive to see it. It will be like the red koolaid stain on your new white carpet. Not only is there no possible way of missing it when you walk into the room, but when you close your eyes and try to pretend it's not there, you still see it, etched in your mind's eye. Even when you blot it up, soak the carpet in club soda and stain remover and everything else that you can think of, the stain remains. There is no way of going back to the pre-koolaid stain days...your carpet is forever changed. And so will be our country. No missing it, no ignoring it, no fantasy worlds. That's change alright, but not the type of change I wanted to see.

All I have left to say at this point is that I sincerely hope that I am wrong...REALLY wrong.