So Much for the Prestige of the Nobel Peace Prize

I was horrified this morning when I went to check my email and saw the headline that Obama had been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I'll be the first to admit that I have a very low opinion of the man. But seriously, putting that aside, I still cannot believe that anyone really thinks that he is deserving of this prize.

The President was nominated for this award 10 days after he took the office of President. Clearly, he had not even had the opportunity to have done anything to merit such an honor. He makes eloquent speeches about how he wants the world to change, how he wants the world to hope. Give me a break! These speeches are written FOR him not BY him. Apart from giving speeches he has not actually DONE anything to promote peace. In his will Alfred Nobel stipulated that the Peace Prize should go, "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses." The key here is action...past action...not future action. Obama may have lofty goals, but he has yet to do anything concrete to promote world peace.

I suppose that part of what makes this so disgusting to me is that there have been previous recipients of the award who I truly admire. One such person is Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar. She has dedicated her life to bringing democracy to her nation at great cost to herself. She has spent much of her life in deplorable prison conditions and under house arrest. She has faced government sponsored mob attacks-and for what-to see her people free from the military junta that oppresses them. So forgive me, if I just cannot even fathom how anyone can put President Obama and someone like Aung San Suu Kyi in the same category. It is an insult to people like her, who truly deserved such an honor. If the President has any respect for what the Nobel Peace prize stands for he will respectfully turn down the honor.