Give it Back
Bruck’s message to President 0bama:
Give it back.
My first thought upon hearing that President 0bama had won the Nobel Peace Prize, or, I should say my first rational thought was, “couldn’t they find anybody who’s actually done anything for peace or human rights in the last year?” Well, of course there are many people working on various fronts, in the less sexy places of the world, toiling thanklessly against the ravages of poverty, genocide, human trafficking, and other scourges of the human condition.
Perhaps in a future column I could highlight some of our modern human rights warriors whose efforts are all the more thankless, having been overlooked in favor of a naïve and egotistical politician whose only real accomplishment to date has been to not be George W. Bush, but that’s not my point today.
Today I just want to say, give it back. That’s right, give it back. My curiousity was piqued when I heard that the president claimed to be “humbled” by the award. Humbled? Humble would be to realize that he didn’t deserve it, and that there are probably hundreds or even thousands of people who work actually does merit such an award. But that’s not why I’m suggesting he give it back.
The rationalization from the purportedly unanimous Norwegian committee was that our president has changed the atmosphere of negotiations for world peace blah blah blah to be honest I didn’t catch all of it – my internal BS siren drowned out the rest of their statement. But even the most ardent sycophants in the media concede that the president hasn’t really accomplished anything yet on the world stage, although they unanimously agree that he will someday.
Someday. Things will go as the Nobel Committee wishes someday. But not yet. So they give the prize in order to communicate and reinforce their wishes as to how diplomacy should be carried out, by giving a prestigious and world-reknown prize in advance. To all but the most hardened
I don’t expect our president to understand this; his grasp of subtlety seems to be profoundly lacking, and he seems to have stopped maturing politically and diplomatically at about his sophomore year of college. So I’m not expecting him to understand why; I’m just simply saying:
Give it back.
posted by Bruck @ 3:06 PM
3 Comments:
At 10:38 AM,
Unknown said…
I am astounded how little the Nobel Prize has come to mean, apparently. From what I had always understood of it, it was awarded for goals ACHIEVED, not goals aspired to. I sincerely hope Obama proves us wrong and actually does earn it in the future, but this was completely inappropriate. Truly a slap in the face for those who, as you said, work very hard to truly better our world, not just talk about it.
At 3:49 PM,
Anonymous said…
Naivete is something a president should outgrow. Hopefully our enemies will wait till this happens.
"Son, we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men with guns. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg?
I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.
You don't want the truth because, deep down in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall, you need me on that wall.
We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline.
I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said "thank you" and went on your way. Otherwise I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand at post. Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to."
At 11:09 AM,
Anonymous said…
Bruck,
What did you think of the acceptance speech?
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