Apologizing to the world?

Facebook is quite a forum for revealing the world you live in. You see aspects of your “friends” that you could not see any other way.

Today, I was quite dismayed to see that some people I have admired and respected, albeit disagreed with politically, were quite outspoken in their disrespect for the Nobel Prize awarded to President Obama. The remarks usually started with a statement of surprise, then went on to say he hadn’t done anything to deserve it. That all he’s done is apologize to the world. They point out that he had only been in office for about 11 days before the nominations were closed, so how could he get such an award.

“Give me a break! He’s done nothing worthy of the honor.”

“I think he should refuse the award and give it to someone who’s done much more … for peace.”

“If they had awarded it to Bush at any point in his tenure, people would have been screaming.”

One commented sarcastically that they’d heard “they’d also given him a Heisman award…”

“They are setting him up to do exactly what they want him to do …apologize to the world again! We are the USA and we owe no one any apologies!”

I can only guess that many of them have been listening to those superpatriots Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

According to Limbaugh, “Obama gives speeches trashing his own country – and he gets a prize for it.” He said this was “worse than losing the Olympics… Our President is a world wide joke”… and he purported that he and most Americans are all on the same side as the Taliban. (The Taliban said they should have called it a prize for violence.)

Glenn Beck cried “He has to turn it down… that’s the only way for him to make a win out of this. Only his arrogance will stop him from doing this.” He felt the prize should have gone to the Tea Party goers.

The Nobel Prize committee says they awarded President Obama not for what he WILL do, but for what he accomplished last year, although they hope it serves as momentum for his plans.

Getting elected with a platform of diplomacy and nuclear disarmament obviously impessed more than just the majority of Americans, but also most of the rest of the world.

Obama doesn’t feel he deserves to be in the company of former recipients, but he will go to Oslo to accept the award with gratitude and humility.

No doubt there are many people who have done wonderful, kind and
generous things in the world. But the prize is for encouraging
peace... though I realize many of my countrymen feel America should not
apologize to the world for anything, I can tell you that many, many,
many people in other countries, people of great intelligence,
education, spirituality and humanity, were thanking God when America
elected a President who views them as partners, as friends, and people
of dignity who deserve to be treated with respect and diplomacy.

What Obama haters see as apologies, I see as recognition of reality, admission of
imperfection, acknowledgement of shared hope for peace, happiness and
prosperity among nations. I believe in my heart that most of the world
heaved a sigh of relief when President Obama took the oath of office.
His dedication to ending the threat of nuclear armaments and war has
made many friends for America around the world. That will do more for
peace than any violent settlement of grievance we could undertake.

JM