Americans are now burdened with a President who is not only going to hire people to stand between them and their doctors (his plan for solving this whole unemployment crisis) but who is also a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. His reception of the prize was a big blow to our nation’s pride and was especially staggering because we were completely unprepared for it. We were far too busy mourning Chicago’s lost bid for the 2016 Olympics. Now, those of you who are trapped in this suffocating little thing called “The Andover Bubble” might be astonished to learn that you should be mourning this occurrence. It’s okay. I fully understand. I, myself, was deeply perplexed until I had things cleared up for me by Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and all those nice folks down at Fox News. First off, awarding our president’s efforts the highest level of recognition available was, apparently, meant as a slap in our face. That doesn’t make sense to you? Bill Kristol from Fox News Sunday said, “It’s not clear to me that [the committee] speaks for the world. It speaks for five Norwegians. This is an anti-American committee.” Do you get it now? This is not a mark of approval towards America’s newfound image in the world, but a nod of the head from the “anti-American committee.” How embarrassing is it to have our president endorsed by such a committee? Furthermore, how dare they award our president such a prestigious award when he has done nothing? “Nothing” has been redefined, you see. “Nothing” now means: renouncing torture, setting a concrete deadline to end the Guantanamo fiasco, getting Americans excited about ridding the world of nuclear weapons and offering to engage Iran. To me, that’s not nothing. Granted, the president’s good will and hope for a peaceful world fall short of the achievements that would merit this award. But Obama’s quick acknowledgement of this fact and his graceful acceptance of the award should absolve him of the blame. The fact that he never asked for the award should as well. Reality check. Was the award premature? Yes, and he knows it. To me, it would make sense to give Obama the award eight years into his presidency when he has actually delivered on his promises. But that’s beside the point. Let’s stop bickering about whether or not he deserved this award. Now that he has it, we have two choices. We could sit around, crossing our fingers and hoping he fails at everything he does. Or we can use this award to add momentum to our president’s causes. We can hope that it serves as a “call to action” and give him more confidence to step on people’s toes when it’s necessary. When I hear claims that Obama’s Nobel win was entirely undeserved, the result of a popularity contest and completely humiliating for the United States, all I can say is this—it would be truly humiliating if we were embarrassed of the successes of our country and didn’t use our president’s title to realize the goals we, or at least our parents, voted for last year. Tia Baheri is a two-year Lower from Plano, TX. tbaheri@andover.edu
