Obama Wins Nobel Peace Prize

I woke up this morning with the news that President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.  Comments from previous recipients and from world leaders were pouring in.  Although some said the prize was “premature,” most respondents seem to receive the news as a harbinger of hope for our world.  I would agree.

It is true that Obama has been in office a scant 9 months, but he has not been given the Prize for what he has accomplished, so much as what he embodies.  With his election as our President, he became an iconic figure for the whole world, signifying a new day. 

–He says we need to work together in non-partisan ways to solve the enormous problems of our country.  (And he has tried to do so, in spite of no encouragement from the Republicans.)

–He says that everyone deserves to have health care.

–He says we should rid the world of nuclear weapons.

–He says it’s way past time for Israel and Palestine to work for a concrete solution to their ages-old conflict.

–He says that the United States can and should lead the way in the reduction of carbon emissions, but that we cannot solve this problem alone..

–He is not naive about defense, but will always hold out the olive branch for peace.

But it is more than what he says–it is what he is, that won the Nobel Prize.  He listens, respectfully.  He changes his mind sometimes, when the facts merit it.  His wish is to compromise, some say to a fault, but he keeps the vision of the good ever before him.  He is humble.  His life has never been his own, to gain riches or fame–he is a servant of the people.  He understands that the United States is not the only country, but one country among many.  He respects his wife as his peer and true partner–which says everything about his attitude towards women.  And he is a person of color in a world long dominated by white people, but a world that is mostly populated by people of color.  His very presence as head of state of our country says to the world, “This is a new day.  No longer will we do business as usual.”

So Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize.  What are the implications of his winning?  Undoubtedly, his voice will carry ever more authority when he speaks of peace.  His distractors–and they are many and they are shockingly effective–will have a tougher time convincing others that he is unworthy, for one reason or another.  His character will only become stronger as he grows into this new honor.

But Obama cannot bring peace to our world alone.  No one can.  What can each one of us do to make our world more peaceful?  I mean, personally, in addition to our political activities. 

I think peace has to be learned, like any other skill, and this skill is best learned by example.  It is learned first in the home.  Then in school and in the workplace.  It is learned in churches and universities and unions and non-profits.  What if wherever we have influence, we sought to bring caring and compassion to our words and actions?  What if we did not allow ourselves to be “hooked” by others’ anger or frustration?  What if we assumed the best of people?  What if resentment was released and forgiveness practiced?  I’m not arguing for Casper Milquetoast–it’s possible to be firm as well as kind.  

I have only one bumper sticker on my car–it’s a small one, on the left side of the back bumper, and it says “Nonjudgment Day Is Near.”  I’m trying to practice not judging–discernment, yes, but not judgment.  Just being present with what is.  I’ve begun noticing how much calmer I am when I can pull this off.  And how much more peaceful the world feels. 

 

From Slavery to the White House

Michelle Obama’s ancestry has been traced by genealogist Megan Smolenyak and the NY Times, and the study has revealed that Michelle’s great-great-great-grandparents were Melvinia Shields, a slave, and some unknown white man (NY Times 10/8/09, p. 1).  In 1850 as a little six-year-old slave girl, she was taken from her family and given as a bequest in a will to faraway relatives of the slave owner. She fathered four children, three of them mulattos, the first perhaps as early as 15.  The father of this child, this unknown white man, is the male ancestor of the woman who now resides in the White House as our First Lady. 

Who was he?  Was he the “master” of the household?  Was he one of the sons?  Was he one of the itinerant workers who passed through from time to time?  The surname the children were given was the name of the patriarch, but that was a common practice in those days, no matter who the father was. 

After freedom came, Melvinia stayed on an adjacent farm as a laborer.  One of her children was born four years after emancipation.  What does that fact suggest about the complexities of slavery and the difficulties of “freedom”?  Melvinia finally broke away when she was in her 30′s or 40′s, and was able to reunite with former slaves from her early childhood.  But so much remained unknown for Melvinia.  When she died in her 90′s, her 1938 death certificate, signed by a relative, states “don’t know” in the space where parents would be named. 

Melvinia’s first child was Dolphus T. Shields, who made his way to Birmingham, Alabama, and became a prosperous businessman and the co-founder of two churches, both of which later were active in the Civil Rights movement.  Dolphus’s carpentry shop was in the white section of town, a rarity for black businesses, and being of light color, he mixed easily with whites.  Dolphus died in 1950 at the age of 91.  On the very day that his obituary appeared on the front page of the Birmingham World, a black newspaper, the paper also ran a headline “U.S. Court Bans Segregation in Diners and Higher Education.”  Things change.

Things do change.  This is the truth I want to always keep before me when I despair of my country and the lack of progress we seem to make on so many crucial issues.  Things change.  They don’t change quickly or easily.  Things don’t change automatically, or just because time passes. Things change because it is right that they should change, and good people throughout time provide the leadership for those changes.  Things change because people keep at it, keep working for years, often with little success, but keeping the vision before them always. 

Michelle Obama, whose ancesters were slaves, is in the White House.  When we would become discouraged in our labor, let us remember: things change.