In Defense of Aspirational Peace Prizes

Based on the reaction to President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize, you’d think the man snuck into Norway, made hot love to Freyja, and absconded with the Peace Prize before Brigade Nord could react.

Of course, the reaction just means that Barack Obama now joins a long line of African-American Nobel Peace Prize winners whose award is condemned by certain people in his own country. Okay, well, not maybe not a “long line.” African-Americans don’t get this award very often. But if Martin Luther King was still alive, I’m sure he’d tell the President not to listen to the people that mock his accomplishments.

When MLK won the award in 1964, portions of white America lost their collective minds. This quote that was printed in the New York Times from Birmingham police commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor (you’ll remember him as one of the guys not holding back attack dogs in your Eyes on the Prize home DVD collection):

It’s awarded over there, not over here. They don’t know him … They’re scraping the bottom of the barrel when they pick him. He’s caused more strife and trouble in this country than anyone I can think of.

So was this quote from St. Augistine, FL police chief Virgil Stewart:

I consider it one of the biggest jokes of the year. How can you win the peace prize when you stir up all the trouble he did down here.

Does any of this sound familiar from the last 24 hours of the news cycle? Want one more?

In New Orleans, Leander H. Perez Sr., prominent segregationist, said of the award: “That only shows the Communist influence nationally and internationally. Shame on someone.

I know, I know you can’t compare racist white southerners from the sixties with today’s more reasonable conservatives. I mean, even Media Matters points out how different a guy like Rush Limbaugh is from the people quoted above.

LIMBAUGH: I think that everybody is laughing. Our president is a worldwide joke. Folks, do you realize something has happened here that we all agree with the Taliban and Iran about and that is he doesn’t deserve the award. Now that’s hilarious, that I’m on the same side of something with the Taliban, and that we all are on the same side as the Taliban.

No. You’re right. The kind of hate Obama is getting today is totally different than what Dr. King went through. This has nothing to do with race, this has everything to do with with the man’s accomplishments! See, it’s important that our Peace Prize winners earn the award through a lifetime of peaceifying, not speechifying.

But for the sake of the argument, let me at least suggest that there is one accomplishment President Obama has to his name that might just justify his inclusion with greats like King and Nelson Mandela.

President Obama himself recognizes that he received the award because of the promise of American leadership:

I am both surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel Committee. Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations.

Hope is a powerful thing. And while I know that Obama has been in office for nine whole months, some of us still remember the guy who preceded him. Some of us still remember suffering from a deficit of hope during eight years of incompetent, warlike, and economically ruinous leadership. People throughout the world can still remember that. For Obama to come in with such energy on the heels of that enervating time is pretty damn impressive. It is certainly praiseworthy.

The people who best explain how rewarding it is to have purely aspirational achievements are: Andy Sandberg, Akiva Schaffer, and T-Pain. Bear with me.

If you haven’t seen the SNL Digital Short, On a Boat, I suggest you watch. The premise is simple: Sandberg wins a boat cruise and takes two of his friends along. But the song is so much more. It’s about the achievement of long held dreams, and the belief that henceforth, everything will be better. T-Pain masterfully puts it this way:

Yeah, never thought I’d be on a boat
It’s a big blue watery road
Poseidon look at me,…

Believe me when I say
I f***** a mermaid

Preach on, Brother Pain. How many people were at Hyde Park on election night who never thought they’d be there? I don’t think I’m the only person who believes that with Obama in charge, I too could one day have sex with a mermaid. That is (so far) Obama’s signature accomplishment: restoring a belief that anything is possible. Is that enough to win a Nobel Peace Prize? I don’t have a vote. But I don’t see why people are so quick to say that restoring hope means nothing. It means everything to a person that has lost it.

And in any event, Obama plays for “Team America.” Can’t we at least be happy that after eight years of GWB Americans can travel abroad without being slightly embarrassed when the subject turns to foreign policy?

When my team wins the Superbowl, I feel like I won the Superbowl. I feel like this even though I didn’t play a down or a call a play or miraculously catch a ball with my head. When Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize, I felt like I won a little peace prize too. It made me happy at least. I’m really sorry if the resume police weren’t able to share in that joy. They really missed out on a nice day.

Related articles by Zemanta

• President Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize (cbsnews.com)