"Oh the pages are numbered, I can't see where they lead..."
For the record: The snark and mockery people are exhibiting towards Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award disheartens me greatly. Is hope of so little value, then?
~*~
I'm not quoting the start of the article here. Instead, I'm quoting the end. I'm quoting it purely because it is the Nobel Prize committee stating why they gave him the prize and their reasoning seems appropriate to quote.
And really? Also, before you all feel the need to dogpile on me to educate me about how wrong I am (I will feel perfectly free to delete those types of comments, you've been warned), please note the distinction I'm making here. I'm not arguing as to whether he was the best candidate or not - what I'm saying is that dragging someone down through the mud and/or being "wittily dismissive" isn't a reaction I can muster much enthusiasm for nor something I find any value in. Particularly not when the person in question is already a symbol - already represents so much hope, for so many people. Regardless of their country, nation or race.
So, if you think someone else should have won? Go make a post ABOUT that person. TELL ME about them in the comments. Give them their dues in glowing praise and without comparing them to anyone else - without bringing someone else down in the process. Go on and on about them and I promise you, I will listen. And I'll be perfectly happy to link ALL of those posts about which of the candidates you think should have won and why here.
But don't go dragging the winner down with petty mockery and supposedly clever and condescending witticism. (Hint: You're not being that witty. Or clever.) Acting that way accomplishes nothing and it belittles what Obama has managed thus far, which is pretty impressive when you consider the state of things for U.S. international relations before he was elected.
It's easy to sit there and point and think you sound smart - and do nothing. So if you don't agree, do something about it: write a post about your favored candidate. Do something.
Do it positively.
I'd love to see those posts. I really, really would.
~*~
In surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy
By WALTER GIBBS and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: October 9, 2009
(...)
Mr. Obama’s foreign policy has been criticized bitterly among neoconservatives like former Vice President Dick Cheney, who have suggested his rhetoric is naïve and his inclination to talk to America’s enemies will leave the United States vulnerable to another terrorist attack.
In its announcement of the prize, the Nobel Committee seemed to directly refute that line of thinking.
“Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics,” the committee wrote. “Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.”
Interviewed later in the Nobel Committee’s wood-paneled meeting room, surrounded by photographs of past winners, Mr. Jagland brushed aside concerns expressed by some critics that Mr. Obama remains untested.
“The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” Mr. Jagland said. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”
He compared the selection of Mr. Obama with the award in 1971 to the then West German Chancellor Willy Brandt for his “Ostpolitik” policy of reconciliation with communist eastern Europe.
“Brandt hadn’t achieved much when he got the prize, but a process had started that ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Mr. Jagland. “The same thing is true of the prize to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, for launching perestroika. One can say that Barack Obama is trying to change the world, just as those two personalities changed Europe.”
“We have to get the world on the right track again,” he said. Without referring specifically to the Bush era, he continued: “Look at the level of confrontation we had just a few years ago. Now we get a man who is not only willing but probably able to open dialogue and strengthen international institutions.”
President Obama is the third leading American Democrat to win the prize this decade, following former Vice President Al Gore in 2007 along with the United Nations climate panel and former President Jimmy Carter in 2002.
The last sitting American president to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Theodore Roosevelt was selected in 1906 while in the White House and Mr. Carter more than 20 years after he left office.
The prize was won last year by the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari for peace efforts in Africa and the Balkans.
The prize is worth the equivalent of $1.4 million and is to be awarded in Oslo on Dec. 10.
The full citation read: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
“Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the United States is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.”
~*~
"Good Morning Mr. President, You've Won the Nobel Peace Prize."
ABC News
By HUMA KHAN, YUNJI de NIES and KAREN TRAVERS
Oct. 9, 2009
(...)
"Only very rarely has a person, to the same extent as Obama, captured the world's attention and given his people hope for a better future," the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, said in a statement.
"His diplomacy is founded in the concept of those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitude that are shared by the majority of the world's population. For 108 years the Nobel Committee has sought precisely the international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The committee endorses Obama's appeal that now is the time for all of us to take a share of responsibility for a global response for global challenges," the statement said.
~*~
I'm not quoting the start of the article here. Instead, I'm quoting the end. I'm quoting it purely because it is the Nobel Prize committee stating why they gave him the prize and their reasoning seems appropriate to quote.
And really? Also, before you all feel the need to dogpile on me to educate me about how wrong I am (I will feel perfectly free to delete those types of comments, you've been warned), please note the distinction I'm making here. I'm not arguing as to whether he was the best candidate or not - what I'm saying is that dragging someone down through the mud and/or being "wittily dismissive" isn't a reaction I can muster much enthusiasm for nor something I find any value in. Particularly not when the person in question is already a symbol - already represents so much hope, for so many people. Regardless of their country, nation or race.
So, if you think someone else should have won? Go make a post ABOUT that person. TELL ME about them in the comments. Give them their dues in glowing praise and without comparing them to anyone else - without bringing someone else down in the process. Go on and on about them and I promise you, I will listen. And I'll be perfectly happy to link ALL of those posts about which of the candidates you think should have won and why here.
But don't go dragging the winner down with petty mockery and supposedly clever and condescending witticism. (Hint: You're not being that witty. Or clever.) Acting that way accomplishes nothing and it belittles what Obama has managed thus far, which is pretty impressive when you consider the state of things for U.S. international relations before he was elected.
It's easy to sit there and point and think you sound smart - and do nothing. So if you don't agree, do something about it: write a post about your favored candidate. Do something.
Do it positively.
I'd love to see those posts. I really, really would.
~*~
In surprise, Nobel Peace Prize to Obama for Diplomacy
By WALTER GIBBS and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
Published: October 9, 2009
(...)
Mr. Obama’s foreign policy has been criticized bitterly among neoconservatives like former Vice President Dick Cheney, who have suggested his rhetoric is naïve and his inclination to talk to America’s enemies will leave the United States vulnerable to another terrorist attack.
In its announcement of the prize, the Nobel Committee seemed to directly refute that line of thinking.
“Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics,” the committee wrote. “Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play.”
Interviewed later in the Nobel Committee’s wood-paneled meeting room, surrounded by photographs of past winners, Mr. Jagland brushed aside concerns expressed by some critics that Mr. Obama remains untested.
“The question we have to ask is who has done the most in the previous year to enhance peace in the world,” Mr. Jagland said. “And who has done more than Barack Obama?”
He compared the selection of Mr. Obama with the award in 1971 to the then West German Chancellor Willy Brandt for his “Ostpolitik” policy of reconciliation with communist eastern Europe.
“Brandt hadn’t achieved much when he got the prize, but a process had started that ended with the fall of the Berlin Wall,” said Mr. Jagland. “The same thing is true of the prize to Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990, for launching perestroika. One can say that Barack Obama is trying to change the world, just as those two personalities changed Europe.”
“We have to get the world on the right track again,” he said. Without referring specifically to the Bush era, he continued: “Look at the level of confrontation we had just a few years ago. Now we get a man who is not only willing but probably able to open dialogue and strengthen international institutions.”
President Obama is the third leading American Democrat to win the prize this decade, following former Vice President Al Gore in 2007 along with the United Nations climate panel and former President Jimmy Carter in 2002.
The last sitting American president to win the prize was Woodrow Wilson in 1919. Theodore Roosevelt was selected in 1906 while in the White House and Mr. Carter more than 20 years after he left office.
The prize was won last year by the former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari for peace efforts in Africa and the Balkans.
The prize is worth the equivalent of $1.4 million and is to be awarded in Oslo on Dec. 10.
The full citation read: “The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.
“Obama has as President created a new climate in international politics. Multilateral diplomacy has regained a central position, with emphasis on the role that the United Nations and other international institutions can play. Dialogue and negotiations are preferred as instruments for resolving even the most difficult international conflicts. The vision of a world free from nuclear arms has powerfully stimulated disarmament and arms control negotiations. Thanks to Obama’s initiative, the United States is now playing a more constructive role in meeting the great climatic challenges the world is confronting. Democracy and human rights are to be strengthened.”
~*~
"Good Morning Mr. President, You've Won the Nobel Peace Prize."
ABC News
By HUMA KHAN, YUNJI de NIES and KAREN TRAVERS
Oct. 9, 2009
(...)
"Only very rarely has a person, to the same extent as Obama, captured the world's attention and given his people hope for a better future," the chairman of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Thorbjorn Jagland, said in a statement.
"His diplomacy is founded in the concept of those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitude that are shared by the majority of the world's population. For 108 years the Nobel Committee has sought precisely the international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The committee endorses Obama's appeal that now is the time for all of us to take a share of responsibility for a global response for global challenges," the statement said.