Western Courier

Issue date: 10/12/09 Section: Opinion

Skylar Patridge/cartoonist

Since 1901, the Nobel Prizes have been awarded in the fields of literature, physics, medicine, economics, and perhaps most notably for peace. According to nobelprize.org, founder Alfred Nobel's original intent in creating the prize, was to "honor men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements" in the aforementioned fields.

As many of you are aware, Barack Obama was recently awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." Though the WC does not want to denounce Obama for receiving the award, we have to agree with him to some extent in that he did not necessarily deserve it.

Obama himself said "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize - men and women who have inspired me and inspired the entire world through their courageous pursuit of peace."

Some of the transformative figures Obama is referring to include Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King lived in a time of social distress in a country where equal rights were unheard of and segregation was the norm. He led peaceful protests and marches, gave hundreds of inspirational speeches and accomplished huge leaps and bounds in the Civil Rights movement. President Obama has not had that opportunity yet. To be fair, he has only been in office for nine months - it took King years to achieve his numerous accomplishments. For any leader to make progress takes time.

Furthermore, the nominations for Nobel Prizes are made each year on Feb. 1. Obama had been in office for a few weeks at that point - he barely had time to walk up the White House steps, let alone make contributions and efforts to promote peace.

We realize Obama has made many inspirational speeches, not to brainwash the youth of our nation but to inspire them to succeed and to promote peaceful relations. He has flown to other countries to speak. He has called for a disarmament of nuclear weapons. Those are all positive first steps, but not ones that necessarily warrant an award. These are things he should be doing as a responsibility of his office, and awards should be for people who have long been going above and beyond their call of duty. To award Obama for doing these things is like awarding a kid for getting his/her homework done or for going to school.

We foresee Obama making strides in relation to peace. We simply think he was awarded his Nobel Prize prematurely.

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