President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize – But will he live up to it?

Photo Credit: LA Progressive.Com

After nine months in office as President of the United States, President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, October 9, 2009 by the Norwegian Nobel Committee. The Committee recognized him for “his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.” The award, named after Swedish industrialist and inventor, Alfred Nobel, is awarded to those who “have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.” [SOURCE]

The award couldn’t have come at a better time for President Obama who has had an interesting week in terms of job performance perception and upcoming decisions regarding the military occupation of Afghanistan.

Saturday Night Live may have signaled a shift in American perception of the 44th President of the United States last weekend with a skit which presented Obama as a president who has accomplished none of the big goals that many feel swept him into office. Questions about whether President Obama over-promised during the campaign and has under-delivered as Commander-in-Chief are now being raised.

In addition, while the Nobel Peace Prize is reserved for those who work toward peaceful aims between nations, the spokesman for the White House announced last week that President Obama is not considering troop withdrawal among the many options being currently set before him by those who would make for war. A decision that comes as the Senate Armed Services Committee has authorized more than $630 billion in funding for the expansion of the United States’ military to no doubt support the ongoing occupation of foreign lands and the spreading of misery the world over.

However, the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize just may serve to remind President Obama of the hope he instilled in not only the peoples of the United States, but even in fact the peoples of the world. That hope was founded not in military expansion, not in fearful silence in the face of human rights abuses in the Middle East, and not in expanding the coffers of health insurance companies at the expense of the poor. The hope that helped usher Barack Obama into the White House was founded on “change we could believe in” – a turning away from the wicked ways of war, a reconciliation among people in this country who’ve grown weary with engaging each other with an “I-It” mentality, and a recognition of our responsibility to be in right relationship with our neighbors in the world.

Perhaps the Nobel Peace Prize is a political fork in the road for President Obama. As many express concern that he’s drifting into the dark embrace of old policies with a new melaninized face; perhaps this nobel prize can be a lamp unto his feet and a light unto his path clearing his way as the forces of spiritual wickedness in high places hovers near.

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