Student thinks that President Obama deserved Nobel Prize
CM Life’s editorial “A Nobel surprise” is a well written editorial, given the fact that the only sources have come from Fox News and right-wing talk radio.
According to nobelprize.org, they give the reason for Obama winning the Nobel Prize in Peace: “For his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.”
Nobel himself wrote that the prize should be given to someone who has “done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” There are many who are deserving of this prize and President Obama is one of them.
Obama spoke out against going to war in Iraq while still being a senator.
This war has cost billions of dollars that the American taxpayer will never see again, and tens of thousands of Iraqi and American lives.
Obama has spoken out against torture, is in favor of gay rights, is for the reduction of nuclear weapons and is for an increased role for the US in combating global warming.
These are issues that he has used his political power and clout to deal with.
Are these issues finished? No.
Many have said that it’s “premature” to recognize Obama for these efforts.
However, many Nobel Peace Prize winners hadn’t finished their work by the time they won their prize: Gorbachev in 1990 even though the USSR was still a totalitarian state, Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991 even though Myanmar is still under military rule, Jody Williams in 1997 even though there are still land mines out there, and Kofi Annan in 2001 even though the world doesn’t seem more peaceful now than it was in 2001.
The list goes on.
The Peace Prize has historically been given to leaders who have overcome racist and segregated societies, such as Archbishop Desmund Tutu of South Africa or Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Something profound happened in this nation on Nov. 4th.: We elected our first African American president.
That’s significant coming from a country that was founded on the genocide of Native Americans, the enslavement of African Americans, and whose federal and state governments enacted racist, segregationist policies until a few decades ago. And while de jure segregation ended during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, de facto racism continues to this very day.
I suggest that CM Life takes its editorial talking points from a multitude of reputable sources from now on instead of whatever the cable media talking point is for the week.
Matt Bridgewater Warren graduate student
