- Home
- News Grid
- Local News
- Green Hawk
- Business
- Politics
- School Zone
- Nonprofits
- Missing Pets
- Multimedia
- Arts
- Movies
- Outdoors
- Sports
- News Releases
- Columnists
- Blogs
- Opinions
- Classifieds
- Advertise
- Donate
- Partners
Tam Hunt: The Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech Obama Should Have Given
Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Distinguished Members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Citizens of America, and Citizens of the World:
I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations — that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.
Justice and peace are irrevocably intertwined. Some would say they are synonymous. Too often in practice they are not, because of the imbalances of power that prevail in the world today. All informed and conscientious people would agree that peace is the preferred state of affairs, within nations and between nations. Nonetheless, we cannot ignore the fact that we, as human beings, come from an often brutish past, vestiges of a time when nature was indeed red in tooth and claw.
But times change. And people change. I stand before you, and the world, as a testament to change. I stand before you as a testament to the nonviolent struggles of my forefathers. It is only through the tireless, loving and peaceful actions of the civil rights movement in America and other countries that I could have earned the privilege to lead the world’s last remaining superpower. I will not — I cannot — forget the debts I owe to those who preceded me.
Martin Luther King reminded us that “Violence never brings permanent peace. It solves no social problem: it merely creates new and more complicated ones.”
There are many who say the nonviolent ideals of Martin Luther King or Gandhi are simply not practical in a world where the use of force is still so common, in a world where America clearly still has many enemies. They say that America must be willing to use force to protect our nation and to protect our ideals. What these critics miss is the reasonable middle ground that respects our ideals and allows us to survive and thrive in an often bewildering and dangerous world. We can follow a foreign policy that lives up to the ideals of King and Gandhi, while still remaining a strong nation. We can, and we must.
I offer today a hard truth. It is a truth that must be said and I can see no better stage upon which to say these words than this one.
America has over-reached. We have over-reached our ideals. We have over-reached the defensive mandate that 9/11 brought upon us. We have over-reached our economic strength in terms of our massive military expenditures that rival the combined spending of all other nations combined.
America, it is time to pursue a more humble foreign policy and to work vigorously toward a world of shared power and responsibilities.
With the arrival of China and India on the world stage of regional powers, we see the future. These great nations have joined Japan, the United States and Europe as thriving centers of commerce and culture. The 21st century will not be dominated by one country, as America dominated the 20th. The 21st century will be the century of international cooperation and mutual respect. This is the future, whether we like it or not.
It is time then — for moral, military, economic and geopolitical reasons — for America to correct our over-reach. This is why I ordered the responsible end to both the war in Iraq shortly after I took office and, just a week ago, the war in Afghanistan. There is no military solution in either of these nations. I repeat: there is no military solution in these nations.
We will, however, remain engaged in these nations. We will support our friends and work tirelessly toward creation of functioning democracies in these two nations. But we will no longer lead with the mighty but blunt hammer of military action, in these nations or elsewhere. We will, instead, lead with the power of our ideals and our example.
We will not leave our great nation open to attack. We will shore up our domestic defenses, using all legal tools within our grasp. We will remain vigilant and will vigorously pursue our enemies abroad, in cooperation with our allies. We will use existing law enforcement mechanisms and international treaties to achieve these goals, not the unilateral military or covert action we have too often practiced.
Is there a connection between the spiritually guided idealism of King and Gandhi and our foreign policy? I answer with a resounding “yes.” That connection is peace. By relentlessly striving toward peace, we live the universal spiritual teachings. There is no peace in the barrel of a gun, no matter how finely we rhetorically slice our arguments. There is only death in the barrel of a gun, which breeds more violence and more death. And so on.
Through the changes I have outlined, we will truly be putting King’s ideals into action. This is the reasonable middle ground that recognizes the better angels of our nature. This is the reasonable middle ground that we must adopt, for the many reasons I’ve described. This is the reasonable middle ground that will allow peoples of all nations to strive toward better and more just lives. This is the reasonable middle ground that is the path to peace.
— President Barack Obama, 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate
— Tam Hunt is a lecturer at UCSB.
Comments
Noozhawk's comments are moderated, but by posting here you accept your responsibility to follow our rules as part of Noozhawk's shared online community. Please keep your comments civil and helpful. Don't attack other readers personally, and do not use vulgar, abusive or discriminatory language. Use the "Report Abuse" link if a comment violates these standards or our Terms of Use.
» on 12.21.09 @ 06:15 AM
Terrific speech.
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
» on 12.21.09 @ 07:17 AM
So, One world unelected government?
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
» on 12.21.09 @ 08:00 AM
Words, just words.
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
» on 12.21.09 @ 11:29 AM
Words that are more powerful than bullets, as evidenced by the social, political and geo-political changes that came about as a result of the struggles led by Ghandi and Dr. King. In comparison, President Obama’s prize-accepting words were empty of meaning except to the chuckling corporate heads profiting from U.S. military interventions around the world. The fact is that, for all the words of warning given to by peace advocates and military veterans alike, Obama about the senseless and hopeless quagmires that characterize U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, encouraging new and enduring enemies of the U.S. is what elites in the U.S. government want, and have since WWI recognized as necessary, in order to justify otherwise unpopular policies - mainly massive, economy-crippling military expenditures, military interventions sought by U.S. corporate interests resulting in other people’s sons coming back in body bags, curtailment of civil rights at home, etc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-bandow/how-many-enemies-how-much_b_262509.html
In his speech, President Obama was just a high profile cog in the corporate-government propaganda machine, helping to “manufacturing consent,” as Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman have put it.
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710—.htm
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/chomsky03.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
» on 12.21.09 @ 11:37 AM
grammar corrected - please publish this comment instead of the comment I just sent - thanks. John Douglas
Words that are more powerful than bullets, as evidenced by the social, political and geo-political changes that came about as a result of the struggles led by Ghandi and Dr. King. In comparison, President Obama’s prize-accepting words were empty of meaning except to the chuckling corporate heads profiting from U.S. military interventions around the world. The fact is that, for all the words of warning given to the president by peace advocates and military veterans alike, about the senseless and hopeless quagmires that characterize U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq, encouraging new and enduring enemies of the U.S. is what elites in the U.S. government want, and have since WWI recognized as necessary, in order to justify otherwise unpopular policies - mainly massive, economy-crippling military expenditures, military interventions sought by U.S. corporate interests resulting in other people’s sons coming back in body bags, curtailment of civil rights at home, etc.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/doug-bandow/how-many-enemies-how-much_b_262509.html
In his speech, President Obama was just a high profile cog in the corporate-government propaganda machine, helping to “manufacturing consent,” as Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman have put it.
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/199710—.htm
http://evans-experientialism.freewebspace.com/chomsky03.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Propaganda_model
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
» on 12.22.09 @ 10:44 AM
Words may be powerful but what Obama has done so far has taken place without any words at all. Kind of like another figure in history. He came to power as a messiah, he worked the system, particularly at its weak points and before anyone knew it he was at the pinnacle of his country’s political power. He wasted no time in getting his cronies installed in appointed positions. Then when all were enthralled with the man he enacted legislation and decrees which worked against the democracy and for a new fascist state.
Now I’m not saying Obama is a Hitler. I believe Obama is a man of peace and has nothing but good intentions for the country he hates so much. But he is more than willing to alter the course of history and deliver our sovereign nation to the UN and the European continent as a weak and helpless dependant much like the members of the European Union. He is doing it much the same way Hitler did, using his persona as affront while his street wise mobster tactics are run behind the scenes. This is the aspiration of all left wingers in this country, to minimize sovereignty for one world government. Lefties get very emotional about this, probably from watching Star Trek episodes so often that they just naturally assume that a one world government where no one is really on top and all are sublimated to the “system” is the way to go. It isn’t but the left wing still can’t decipher reality from left wing run Hollywood fantasy. We as a nation have been fed this one world government notion from Hollywood for 40 years now so it is practically ingrained in the culture, well the left wing culture anyway.
This is not the Netherlands, Europe, Asia, Africa or Mexico. We are not China or Russia. We are The United States of America. We do things our way. Yes our way is an amalgamation of many different cultures blending TOGETHER. We are not multi cultural. This term is as close to “separate but equal” or “apartheid” as you can get. We are a melting pot. You come here to ESCAPE your former culture because it could not give you the freedom and opportunity to succeed as our culture does.
Now that we have that clear for all you guilt ridden white liberal elites who are ashamed of your own culture and constantly denigrate it while expressing your obsequious behavior for your European gods, let’s get something else clear. Here in America, the free market determines what products are available for us to use and/or consume. We don’t need a coddling, nanny state to nudge us in the right direction like they do in other less free cultures. We’ll do that on our own thank you very much. Those of you infected with the mentally disabling disease, liberalism, can go seek shelter from personal responsibility and adulthood in Europe. Please go there, enjoy your adult adolescence, bathe in your disabling intellectual narcissism and when you have your fill you can take another look back home, though I doubt you will. Do not mistake our solid principles for stubbornness, our rejection of adolescent indecision for lack of intellect, being thoughtful about situations that require decision is nothing more than being a coward.
We have seen quite enough of the leftist way of doing things. We have seen the incredible damage it has done to American families, children and our culture. Enough is enough. We are coming back and we are really sick of your narrow minded violent radical ways and we will hit hard. Your hypocrisy, lack of character and immaturity is your weakness and we will exploit it to bring you down. And down you will come. Party is over. The dope is gone and there is no more anesthesia left. The hippies had a good run and they have proven they were never up to the task. It’s time for the adults to get back in charge. Time for America to come back and be the leader of the free world again.
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
» on 12.22.09 @ 11:16 AM
Is this a speech that Tam wrote or a speech that Obama wrote that Tam for some reason thinks we need to read?
You don't have permission to flag this entry.
More Local News »
Tam Hunt: On Time and Free Will
Was Einstein wrong about the nature of time and determinism?
Tam Hunt: The Decline and Fall of the Oil Age
High oil prices and new technologies a driving force behind massive transformation
Tam Hunt: Is It Time for California to Phase Out Nuclear Power?
There may be no better time than the present to begin a more aggressive transition to alternative power sources
Tam Hunt: Wiki-Government As an Antidote to Corruption
Crowdsourcing government could take many different forms and is spreading as an idea
Tam Hunt: A Postmortem of America’s War in Iraq
As a country, we owe it to ourselves and to the world to never again abide an illegal U.S. war and military atrocities by our troops
Weather: Fair 44.0º
Search Noozhawk »
