Obama's Nobel Prize and Political Segregation

More than a century after Teddy Roosevelt did it, Barack Obama has accomplished it as well. Of course I'm talking about winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Today president Barack Obama became the fourth United States' president to receive the Nobel Peace prize.

What he couldn't do in Copenhagen he made up for in Oslo. But what is the price for fame?

There is little doubt that conservative hyenas will attack Obama for his victory. Dick Cheney, for one, criticizes president Obama's peace-seeking efforts and diplomacy around the world. He believes that peaceful discussions with known terrorists will only lead to more terrorist attacks on America.

Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, is quoted on doubting the president's abilities stating, "The real question Americans are asking is, 'What has President Obama actually accomplished?' It is unfortunate that the president's star power has outshined tireless advocates who have made real achievements working towards peace and human rights."

The Internet lends itself to the most chimerical criticisms. For example, a quote from the comment board on a Huffington Post article stated, "Now Obama can do the worst things he's ever thought of and then just wave the peace prize like a get out of jail free card."

We live in a time when people applaud congressmen that shout playground insults at our president while he gives a speech about the need for cooperation. We live in a time when people are happy to see the president fail to bring the Olympics to an American city. We live in a time when educated people stand up at town hall meetings and compare our president to Hitler with absolutely no moral regard for whom they offend in the process.

Everywhere we look there is separation-in politics, in ideals, in wealth. And that's fine. Competition breeds progress: that's the basis of capitalism, is it not? The spectrum of difference isn't the problem; it's the blocks of spite we put between the two ends of the spectrum that is bringing progress to a standstill.

The Mason-Dixon line no longer exists on maps dividing the north and the south, but it lives on in our minds dividing the familiar and the foreign, the pro-this and the anti-that, the Democrat and the Republican.

It seems like this nation is truly divided along partisan lines. There are no more ideals; there are only allegiances. Whether you pledge allegiance to Republicans or Democrats it doesn't really matter. Once you're in, you're in. It's like a political gang and the only way out is through endless ridicule and ostracism at the hands of party purists.

We used to pledge allegiance to a flag, to one nation. Now we pledge allegiance to Ann Coulter or Michael Moore, Bill O'Reily or Bill Maher. And their fingers always point in the same direction: towards someone else. Everyone is always saying, "It's not us; it's them." I think it's about time someone said it right: "It's not them; it's us."

Let me be the hundred-millionth to congratulate president Barack Obama on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. But let me be the first to ask this: What does it say about our progress as a nation when our own president, the leader of this country, is ridiculed for inspiring peace?

Sources:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/obama-wins-nobel-peace-pr_n_314907.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/10/world/10nobel.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&hp