Hours after President Barack Obama received word on October 9th that the Nobel peace Prize committee had awarded him the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, he said in his initial response, "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by the prize." (Mr. President, I hope that after reading this essay you will change your mind and proudly say, "I deserve this award." Because you do.) He also said, "I accept the award as a call to action, a call for all nations to confront the challenges of the 21st century. This award must be shared with everyone who strives for justice and dignity." With that he promised to donate the $1.4 million dollars accompaning the award to charity. I hope that he will give at least $1.00 of the award to each of his two daughters as a remembrance gift. (Maybe they will frame it as I did a $100.00 bill I was given by a stranger who listened to me play the harmonica in an airport during a snow storm.)

Nobel Committee chairman Thorbjoem Jagland said of the award, "I hope it will help him. He is the right man at the right time, and that's why we want to enhance his efforts." The Nobel Committe in a powerful decision designed to build momentum behind his initiatives to reduce nuclear arms, ease tensions with the Muslim world and in the Mid-East and stress diplomacy and cooperation rather than unilaterlism and hegemony that have been pursued by America during the last half century.

The critics and pundits are attacking Obama as not being a worthy recipient for the Nobel Peace Prize have opposed everything he has done during his nine months as President. However, it is pathetic that in a time when Americans should be celebrating the fact that their President has won the Nobel Peace Prize critics of Obama and the Nobel Committee are garnering most of the news regarding this award. It also appears that a greater percentage of Americans are opposed to Obama receiving the Nobel Prize than people in other nations. This would be horrible were it not for the fact that those opposng Obama recieving this award are the same people who want him to fail, including their lead spokesman Rush Limbaugh.

OBAMA DESERVES THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE. Although he is not the first African American to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, having been preceded by Ralph Bunche for his peace initiative in the Mid-East and Martin Luther King, Jr., for his leadership in achieving civil rights for African Americans, Obama is the first African American  to be elected President of the United States. That is a distinction that no other Nobel Peace Prize recipient has achieved.

Take notice, African Americans were enslaved in North America for 244 years, discriminated against, segregated and disfranchised for nearly 100 years. Several years before Obama was born on August 4, 1961 I, a veteran of the Korean War, was fighting to  become a registered voter.

For 56 percent of Americans to have voted for Obama to be president is a feat, particularly given the history and legacy of racism in America, and the present evidence that there is a white minority of Americans who are no less anti-African Americans than were their grandparents. However, it is also true, that many whites rejected their grandparents' and some their parents' racist views and elected Obama President of the United States.

My analysis: I contend that 50 percent of the reason Obama deserve the Nobel Peace Prize is because he is an African American who succeeded in becoming President of the United  States. This says as much about white Americans as it does about Obama. The 21st century attitude of the majority of white Americans toward black Americans has become "humanized" or is in the process of "humanizing."

The other 50 percent of the reason Obama deserves the Nobel Peace Prize is because of his accomplishments during his nine months as president and his vision for America and the world. When Obama assumed the presidency the American economy was swiftly headed toward jeopardy, and the dubbed "to big to fail" financial institutions were on the brink of failing, and would not have existed without financial support from the Federal Government; America's financial situation had caused other world economies to follow the same deterioating course as America. Unemployment was higher than at any time since the Great Depression and America was engaged in a war in Iraq and a war in Afghanistan. Although these wars have not ended Obama has revealed a strategy that is promising and appealing to more nations. Hopefully, he will not allow the Generals and warmongers to cause him to continue these wars. Some people are saying "Listen to the Generals on the ground." It was NOT the Generals who authorized these wars (President Bush and Vice President Channey were not Generals) that have produced 4,351 casualties in Iraq and 867 casualties in Afghanistan. President Truman refused to follow the advice of Generals when he felt it was the wrong advice. Two cases make the point: when General Dwight D. Esienhower told the President that the military should not be integrated because it will be bad for the soldiers morale, President Truman issued an executive order integratring the armed forces; when General Douglas MacArthur told the president that we should continue to promote war in the Philippines after World War II, President Truman, in fact, replace the General. Obama is urged to not make words of Generals his final words, but instead follow Truman's practice, succinctly stated, "The buck stops here!" After all the President is the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces. One of the early instructions I received when I enlisted in the military was obey the orders of your superiors - orders come down and are to be obeyed.

My final message to the critics and pundits who decry awarding Obama the Nobel Peace Prize is: establish your own foundation and issue awards to whoever you want to have them. In the meantime, keep your disparaging ramarks and demagoguery about the Nobel  Peace  Prize Committee's award to Obama to yourself. Or, in two words, "SHUT UP!"

Copyright 2009 by Uriah J. Fields