The University News

Issue date: 11/2/09 Section: Forum

Media Credit: Alexia Lang

I love words.

I love the vast ways I can express myself or describe the world around me, even with a small vocabulary.

Becoming an avid reader at a young age, I have a rather unusual appreciation for the building blocks of human communication.

While many people dislike long words and often peg them as the discourse of the elite or stuck-up, I, by far, prefer "big words" (as they are called).

Think about it.

Encouraging, conciliatory, affectionate, propitiation and so on don't scare me.

War, kill, die, lie, cry, but, if, how, why - these are short words. But they are nothing if they are not loaded, my friends.

Another relatively small word is so complex few of us have any real idea of what it means - peace.

Peace is a five letter word that has vexed humankind for ages.

The United States does not often experience national conflict on our shores. However, that does not mean we are the world's leading experts on peace.

In fact, we have proven ourselves quite talented at creating conflicts with other countries, only adding to the horror of violence, death and destruction around the globe.

A number of people are outraged that President Barack Obama was awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize when one of the first things he did once in office was order more troops overseas.

He became one of 97 individuals to receive the Peace Prize between 1901 and 2009.

Despite the fact this is old news, people keep buzzing about it to the point of annoyance.

The fact is, each year thousands of invitations are sent out to men and women meeting one of seven categories qualifying them to nominate a candidate. Those who receive invitations are government officials, members of international courts, university professors and administrators, previous Nobel Peace Prize winners and others.

The nominators chose Obama "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

Since information about the nominators and the details of the nominations are not released until 50 years after the prize is awarded, everyone is just going to have to live with the decision.

However, I don't think it's such a bad thing. It's certainly not as ridiculous as former Vice President Al Gore receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for "efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change," considering his accomplishment had nothing to do with peace, despite how beneficial his movie was.

The honor bestowed on Obama will bring all eyes onto the United States and, hopefully, hold us accountable for our actions. Perhaps, the world will think twice next time troops are dispatched if the man giving orders is internationally acclaimed for peace acts.

Look, all I am saying is it's time for the American people to stop nitpicking and start worrying about important things like peace, truth, freedom and justice.

Let me put it in the words of John Lennon:

"Everybody's talkin' 'bout revolution, evolution, masturbation, flagellation, regulation, integrations, mediations, United Nations, congratulations," he crudely put it. "All we are saying is give peace a chance."

It doesn't get any better or more straightforward than that.

Let's get our heads on straight and figure out what we can do to make the world a better place.

The future is in our hands.

It only takes one person to start a revolution.

alang@unews.com

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