Obama and the Nobel

I believe I am a minority of one here, but I am overjoyed that Obama got the Nobel Peace prize. I only had one working eye on Saturday morning when I saw the paper, but with my one functioning eye, I wept.

I know I know--he hasn't done anything yet. The Republicans will just use it to bring him down. He is all oratory and no action.

I have read every criticism from the right and the left. I have read about how he is skewered by the late night talk show hosts. I have read New York Times columnists writing the acceptance speech they think he should give when he goes to Oslo. I have argued over brunch with a man I barely met who swears he is an Obama supporter but still says this is wrong.

And I disagree. I know I am earnest, and alone. But here is why I think the way I do. I am not a blind Obama supporter. I think he is moving too slowly. I think he has compromised too much with the insurance companies, the Republicans and every other opponent on health care and I feel disappointed. But this is why I believe he deserves the prize.

At a time when this country feels devoid of hope, he is trying on all fronts. He is not trying to pass easy-to-get-concensus-on, everybody-can agree-with-me-on-this, let's-lock-up-the-molesters type legislation. He is tackling head on the most difficult issues of our time. And they have been waiting there for a long time, and no one so far dared to take them on. He is not focusing all his energy on one thing, so that he can assure himself a legacy and a place in the history books. He is not just trying to satisfy his crony friends in corporate positions. He is not blaming others for problems his administration was handed that he had no part in creating. He is simply doing what MUST be done. And there is a lot. Our world is pretty fucked up right now.

He is doing his best. He is trying to help the world disarm nuclear weapons and he is trying to move on climate change. He is trying to get us out of Iraq and he is trying to settle Afghanistan in a way that is sustainable and does not let that country dissolve into civil war again. He is trying to get kids to eat better and people to plant organic gardens. He is trying to improve public education. He is trying to reform health care and make it fairer, more available, and economically ustainable for our nation. He is trying to inspire people to graduate from community college. Some say he is doing too much. And maybe he is. But this is his moment. He is not thinking only of himself and how he will be perceived. He is not bending and playing the game of partisan politics and trafficking in hate, in a political environment that has deadlocked our nation for the last 12 years.

He is really really trying. This doesn't give the Republicans more ammo. They turn everything into ammo. This will not handicap him. It will encourage him to try harder and let him know that at least the world is on his side, even if half his country isn't. He has given me hope, in an era where hope is out, and everything is about small, petty victories that move you nowhere. He is daring to have vision, and to fight for it. Whether he succeeds or not, the very fact that he dared to try to lay out a vision when no one else does, gives him my vote, my heart, my support.

I am so happy that what he is doing--and what he is desperately trying to do -- is being recognized by the Nobel Prize board.