Nobel Peace Prize

Dear Alice,
Me too.

It will have to come to nation does not matter, religion does not matter, race does not matter, money does not matter, a blanket equality that is recognized world wide for peace to be.

I am there.


Love,
Betty

Quote :

Phillip, you're full of it.

All I'm full of is an opinion different than yours. I speak of my feelings toward the President not toward you! You speak to me in an insulting personal manner which makes less of you. Be a man and keep the personal stuff to yourself.

Why can't there be a difference of opinions without your inflamatory remarks? Why do you have to discount my opinions, they weren't directed to you.

I dislike Obama less than I did Bush so I'm not a member of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy that Clinton finds under every bed and says tried to "get" him and is now after Obama.

Sorry I ever posted and will never again differ from the majority opinion.

I've changed my mind so I can fit in.

President Obama is a great man and fully deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. I think he will usher in a new era of global peace.

Thank you, Betty,

It is nice to be acknowledged and agreed with.

Phil,

Why not post under your name?

Phillip wrote:

I'm sorely disappointed in the deeds of our President. I read the award and it seems to have been given to a world leader who speaks of diplomacy instead of threats, insults and refusal to speak to our enemies. Quite a difference from the previous President. It just seems to me that speeches without actions would not be enough to win such an award.]

Phillip, I don't understand what you have said. I think it is good to speak to our enemies, to speak of peace, not to insult. What kind of actions are you thinking of here?

In 1962, two enemies wrote letters and ended up making the decision to save the world. Without those letters, perhaps we would not be here.

Dealing with the Taliban, a group who do not believe in the education of women, who have so many rules adverse to our values of freedom, is a tough job.

We have the power to destroy any enemy we want, if that is what you would like to see happen.

I am not sure you are speaking from your own heart, but only repeating what you have heard from others.

Carol

There was a poll on Facebook asking people to vote yes or no if they thought Obama deserved the peace prize, and why they voted the way they did. Many voted no. My vote was yes, and my comment was: "He has done much in his short time in office to ease world tensions caused by his predecessor. His efforts for peace have been rewarded."

In reality, the President has been boxed in. He must stay the course. They did him no favor by awarding him the prize. It was an effort to continue the process for peaceful solutions with the ongoing conflicts. He will ultimately be judged by results.

Alice, my name is Phillip. Phil is but a nickname. I posted without logging in, so what.

Quote :

I am not sure you are speaking from your own heart, but only repeating what you have heard from others.

I've obviously been brainwashed by the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy and can't speak for myself. But I did post my opinion with the expectation of not being insulted because I was speaking of the subject not to Dick, Betty, Alice or Carol.

Don't you see that directing remarks to me re my opinion is discounting me as a real person with real thoughts and feelings. I believe that you may be far too self-righteous to see your quote here as a hateful thing to say to someone you don't even know but it is.

Insults breed insults they don't contribute to any discussion. You need total agreement with your position or out come the fangs. Where is the right in that? It is a learned condition and you could learn to just read someone's post without turning it personal unless your mind is so closed... Oh, who cares? Nevermind, it isn't worth it.

Phillip wrote:

I've changed my mind so I can fit in.

President Obama is a great man and fully deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. I think he will usher in a new era of global peace.

I would never say anything on this board to fit in. Betty said what is needed in this world.

How about, "I HOPE he will usher in a new era of global peace?" Wouldn't that be a great thing or would it just make all those who thought he couldn't do it angry because then they weren't right. One of my daughters said to me once when I was in a disagreement with another family member. "Mom, what is more important, to be right or to be at peace?"

No one here ever said he "fully deserved the Nobel Peace Prize." No one here was on the committee to make the decision and knows what went into their decision making.

I heard a man speak of a book he had written and lectures he gave regarding justice. He spoke of whether any of us really deserved what we received, that many students who had worked hard had also gotten to the university because of other influences than hard work. Do I deserve to get a book published? Perhaps. Will that happen? Maybe, maybe not.

We can't address problems with agreement, only with conversing. I was not discounting you Phil or your opinion or insulting you. I just did not understand what you thought the actions should be. I asked what you meant by your sentence. You do not have to respond. There was an article that said perhaps Obama's nomination was because he was not Bush and he brought a new global view.

Sometimes we come to agreement here and it feels good, that perhaps there is hope for peace, for some kind of unifying principles in a society of unique individuals with varying opinions. Those times bring peace to me. To me it is a lot about words, and if I speak words that are insulting I chose the wrong ones because they were not meant to be.

Carol

Some people believe he should not take the peace prize:

[Snipped]

Receiving the peace prize is an honor. To give it back, as suggested in this video, would be a slap in the face to those who made the award. The Norwegians have not been fans of America, and that makes this award highly significant. America is still the driving force in world affairs and the American President plays a key role. To find solutions, talking to the opposition instead of threatening them, is a major step. Tensions have already be eased so that progress can be made.
The opposition will criticize any victory attributed to Obama and want to see him fail. These same people call themselves Americans. They don't want what's best for America and the world but what is best for their party. Party politics stink!

Abe, the guy sounded REAL serious in that video!!!



As if Barack would take any notice of him...

I do not consider myself knowledgeable enough to overrule the opinion of the Nobel Prize Committee. This prestigious group had plenty of time to make their decision; and they are respected around the world. To even suggest that a person would "refuse" the award is an amazement to me. As Abe so thoughtfully pointed out, that would be an insult to the committee of major consequences. Even though some information "leaks," the committee has a policy of confidentiality such that even the recipient will not know all of the considerations that led to the selection.

This is an honor not only to the President, but also to the citizens of the U.S. We have elected a person who has received international recognition of major importance. That gives the U.S. an even stronger position for good in the world.

I don't dismiss the discussioon around the honor, just as any award of merit engenders lively discussion. To suggest that such an honor to the President and to our country be refused is beyond the pale.

Also, a word about forum postings. I don't do it often enough, but quoting the person to whom a response is made and even directing that post to a specific person is actually a courtesy. That way new people looking at the forum can pick up the thread more easily. Using names and directing posts to specific individuals does not indicate any negatives.

It is also better to communicate with registered members of a forum over time; sometimes there are people whose goals for participating in forums unregistered are not in the best interests of all concerned. For this very reason, many forums do not allow guests for more than a certain number of posts or not at all, and most newspapers will not allow people unregistered to post.

... yes, but here we have a useless administrator and no moderators. Anyone might think that freedom of speech rules here. Sheesh.

I'm with D.K. on this. To post, one should register first.
I have also made posts in response to newspaper columns, and without exception, I was required to register. It is a form of monitoring. In many instances, someone will review the comment before it is published. Censorship? I'm sure that in some cases it is the intended purpose. Monitoring profanity for example.

I was just responding to Phil's concern that remarks were being directed specifically to one person.

Also, I was explaining why some people on a forum would prefer to communicate with persons who are registered members.

My comments did not incorporate a recommendation to change anything on this forum nor were they intended as an evauation of anything or anyone related to this forum. It provides a great opportunity for colleagues to test their thoughts and ideas and share their triumphs and struggles.

The truth is that I'm too lazy to moderate properly. Members forget passwords and usernames and contact me to get back onto the forum. It is much easier to allow guests to post. The fact that they cannot add links or edit their posts encourages members to log in but infrequent posters often forget to log in.

Also, I don't view the Internet as a real place that can be divided up into private segments. Membership here is for the benefit of the members not for the exclusion of visitors to this website (a virtual place).

The poor students at university take up 90% of faculty staff's time. The good students find their own way to resolve their problems and take up far less time. This applies to forum members too.

Phillip,

I don't see anything hateful about anything anyone said to you.

Carol is not hateful, neither is Dick, Betty, or myself.

Are you projecting your feelings on us? I think so.

Would you have preferred to be ignored?

You were the minoirity opinion so who were we to direct our remarks to?

Shelagh,
sometimes we make comments of a preferred situation without considering the work involved. You have done an excellent job with this forum. It is expected that there will be those who make an appearance from time to time with the intent of creating problems, and they have, but you have dealt with it.
They just don't realize that when they get your dander up, they're in trouble.

Shelagh does a great job. Thanks, Abe for the reminder.

She should have the Peace prize next year.

Amen to that one!

Ann

Don’t you see? the question is not finish the war immediately, nor makes the America rich and peaceful at once filled with well off people, but the fact the new era has began and the President Obama is just the embodiment of the new era, and - in actually the Nobel Prize is addresssed for the American nation - to the people who have made the new era possible.

Harry,

I like that way of putting it.

Thank you.

Harry,

That was beautiful!!!

Carol

I told my family tonight at dinner about Harry's comment. They agreed it is the best comment anyone has made that we are aware of. My daughter's father-in-law was particularly pleased by it.

Thanks, Harry.

Ann

It's my opinion that the award committee is in charge of the criteria and it's their prerogative to choose or not choose whom they wish for whatever reasons they set. It is a historical process as Shelagh researched.

I make no contributions to Norway, to their government or to the monetary award. I receive no benefit other than in this case, the President of my country was given the award and the honor brings honor to the citizens that his administration leads.

People can have many opinions about the choice for the award just as we do for the Academy awards (about which the members of the Academy make the decisions) or any other honor civilian or military. The bottom line, however, is that this award was made by a committtee appointed by a foreign government in a developed country that solicited potential recipients from throughout the world. It is not my place to say whether my President is deserving or not. He was obviously considered deserving by the people who bestowed the honor, and that's good enough for me.

I'm actually pretty disgusted with the whole negative piece of the discussion. I wouldn't be president of this country at any price. Let the man and his family have something for spending every waking moment working for my benefit. What has he done that's so horrid? Not been fast enough to change everything? Let's be grateful he has not rushed to judgment in every decision he needs to make.