2 cents- spend them as you like

i learned of obama's nobel peace prize win from pablo as he perused his iphone that saturday morning. i thought he had seen a post on facebook and truly thought it was a joke. it literally took me a few minutes to even believe it.

since we were in hong kong and without my laptop i decided to hold full judgement until i could actually read about the committee's decision.

i've spent the morning reading news articles from all angles...unbiased, conservative and liberal. heck, i even read the philippine newspaper's article on it. i've read what some bloggers have to say both political and nonpolitical and even some posts from friends who blog. i've even caught up on all the facebook status updates.

so...what do i think????

i think we have a great president. i think obama's campaign was well run. i think he did incite hope not only in our nation but around the world. hope that we could get on a better path for a better tomorrow. i've met people from all over the world this year who when i tell them where i'm from say "obama!!". i have seen first hand how far his message has spread. the thing is, i do not disagree with anything the nobel committee cited him with doing.

i like our president. i respect him immensely. i voted for him and i support his decisions on many things. but, when i thought about him winning this award i couldn't help but make the comparison to his message for equal rights. our president swooned the gay community during his campaign with hope for equality. his speeches and interviews gave us a hope that we'd not even been able to dream of in prior 8 years.

as of yet, we've seen no real progress towards these promises of equality. and yes, i'm a skeptical person. but, i truly want to believe the day will come when he decides to use some of his ever dwindling political capital to make these hopes a reality. until then do i think he deserves an award for civil rights? i'm afraid not.

listen, in no way do i mean to downplay our president's ability to move and inspire. he is an incredibly intelligent and talented leader. one who i believe will have an extremely long list of achievements under his belt when he leaves office.

i think the real question is do you think the nobel peace prize is something that should honor accomplishments in peacemaking or encourage a message of peace?

gandhi, who although nominated numerous times but was never awarded the nobel peace prize said:

"every worthwhile accomplishment, big or little, has its stages of drudgery and triumph; a beginning, a struggle and a victory."

although i think obama is off to a great beginning, i, personally, believe it is the struggle and the victory that should be commended by this great honor.