Posted by: A_P October 10, 2009
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Humble Obama is a Transformational Figure
Many people are asking and wondering what has Barack Obama done to earn Nobel Peace Prize. People typically consider transformational figures and revolutionaries as deserving of such a prestigious recognition. I know the livid Rush Limbaughs and the Glen Becks will continue to fill the airwaves with petulant remarks, the cynics will continue to question the decision of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, and the fair-thinking, fair-minded among us will continue to debate.
I consider him as fully deserving the Nobel Peace Prize and I considered the following:
I consider him as fully deserving the Nobel Peace Prize and I considered the following:
- During your own life time and mine, not too long ago, black men, women and children in America could not go to same toilets as white Americans. They had to ride in the back seats of public buses, leaving the front seats for the whites. And when the bus was full and a young white man boarded the bus, black women (whether they were old or pregnant) had to stand up to make room for the young white man. Black children were segregated in school from white children. Black women didn't get to vote in elections. All that racial segregationist policy (yes, it was written into law) must have gone, but the feeling of insecurity and inferiority among the blacks is still pervasive. Nobody even imagined that a black man could some day be the President of the United States. Obama instilled hope in the minds of American people--black, white, brown and yellow. He convinced them that what was considered impossible could be done. He convinced nearly 70 million American voters to trust him in the election and choose his vision of hope. He changed the minds of the American electorate. That is a revolution, without marching in the streets. That's what he did. When he said he felt he did not belong to the company of "transformational figures" that won Nobel Peace Prize before him, he was only being humble. No great man would come forward and say, "I deserved it." Gen. Colin Powell (a Republican) said in his endorsement of Obama's Presidential candidacy that Obama is a transformational figure. I believe he really is a transformational figure because he has transformed the minds, which were molded for generations to believe otherwise, to think and believe that with determination and with good vision, good things are possible that were considered impossible just until recently.
- Obama could have gone to the world and blustered in the international stage, as his immediate predecessor did, for a coercive, unilateralist American foreign policy. He chose a different path, a higher path. He told the world America will abandon that unilateralist policy of "preemptive strikes", "strike first and talk later", "you're either with us or against us" and "preventive wars", and instead engage the world community of nations in respectful dialog. He believed and told the world that dialog is the basis of all understanding. Without understanding, there can be no lasting peace. He promised to enter into dialogs with all nations with respect. That alone is a great shift, a transformation in America's international policy. He convinced 70 million American people that America's security cannot be secured by creating a fortress around it, but by pursuing a respectful foreign policy. America is the most powerful country in the world. He transformed the minds of the Americans to believe that power without influence is dangerous. If that is not transformational, I don't know what is. That's what he did.