Was Oslo Loony to Award Obama? Maybe Not -- Politics Daily
as one of my dearest mentors told me, perhaps the esteemed Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo was awarding a leadership trait that stands apart from epithets, threats and generally self-centered, Wild-Wild-West diplomacy. While many of us strain to hear the chords of peace, perhaps Oslo has picked up on its faint sounds. Peace, as my mentor reminded me, starts with the person who attempts to diffuse the tension and backs away from the inflammatory rhetoric. Peace-making amid rage is a peculiar strength and does not mean the process of peace is done. But because we often link might with war, our perceptions of strength and peace are skewed. Verbal muscle is determined by skirmishes of raw words. Peace, like the 100-pound weakling we love to taunt, is shoved into the corner with fists.
Although not its first controversial selection, as Newsweek.com points out, the Nobel Committee risked its prestige to acknowledge the leadership of a sitting president shifting the tone of a global dialog, even when his administration has hardly begun. The award may embarrass Obama, who accepted it humbly, but my guess is that the Nobel Committee understands that prophets of any generation can be without honor among their own, especially when their voices are first emerging.
Musing even further, I wonder if by awarding Obama, was the Nobel Committee inviting the world to celebrate a leadership style that tries to resist the rant factor? Dr. Ellen Weber, president of the MITA International Brain Based Center, tapped into this on Twitter when she shared her blog post, "Obama Leads Peace with Brain in Mind." She cited Obama's leadership approach as "valuing differences," "emulating teachability," "taking risks," and "caring for people more than cold programs or rigid policies." And President Shimon Peres of Israel said in a letter to Obama on Friday: "Very few leaders if at all were able to change the mood of the entire world in such a short while with such a profound impact. You provided the entire humanity with fresh hope, with intellectual determination, and a feeling that there is a lord in heaven and believers on earth."
Apparently, Obama's eligibility for the prize did not hinge on launching a movement to ensure workers' rights to organize, as did Lech Walsea; or challenging the racial barriers of the South, as did Martin Luther King, Jr.; or ministering to the poor in Calcutta, as did Mother Teresa. Maybe Obama was given the prize simply because so far he has sought the words of peace, not because he has single-handedly implemented a full manifestation of its presence.
How we do achieve peace on earth is up to all of us.
