Wishes are horses. All you have to do is give a few speeches saying you want peace, and you will ride like a king. You don't actually have to do anything to win the Nobel Peace Prize. And when you actually do something to bring about peace--you know, like Ronald Reagan negotiating peace with the Soviet Union at Reykjavik--there is no prize. Thank God Reagan knew that the real prize was actual peace.
All you have to do is run around the world telling people how bad America is and how you are going to make everything better, and someone in Oslo will hand you a check for a cool 1.4 million dollars. You can get a pretty nice horse for that kind of money. That's for sure!
But let's not give peace prizes to people who actually bring peace, people like the men and women working to reconcile the Hutus and the Tutsis in Rwanda. Or like the man who has made it his life's work to build schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. That is real work, resulting in real peace. And these are people who could actually use 1.4 million dollars.
What is President Obama going to do with his 1.4 million? Is he going to pay back the U.S. government for the money he spent flying around the world in Air Force One? Is he going to spend that money planting trees to offset his growing carbon footprint? How does he use that money to promote the "work" he is doing? Greg Mortenson, of the Central Asia Institute, could build a lot of schools for that kind of money. Christophe Mbonyibango, could do so much toward reconciliation in Rwanda with that kind of cash. It is a testimony to the greatness of these men that they do not pay attention to things like Nobel Peace prizes. They are too busy making the world a better place to live.
The prophet Isaiah said, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness; Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!" Woe to a world where beggars ride and those who have earned their horses walk.
I say, "Whoa!" to the horses that beggars have mounted. Throw off your wishful riders!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks for writing this, Kelli. It's an important distinction between desiring peace and making peace. As always, very thoughtful. Mind if I post this on my blog?
ReplyDeleteUpon further thought, it is to my advantage that beggars ride (spiritually--blessed are the poor in spirit). But in context, people who don't advance peace should not be awarded peace prizes.
ReplyDeleteGood thoughts, Kelli. I appreciate how you highlight "normal" people who do this not for personal advancement or self-gratification but for the good of humanity.
ReplyDelete