Not the way I imagined he would fulfill his promise

He promised in his campaign that he would bring together disparate groups, that he would bridge vast divides and create new coalitions our of old enemies.

Who knew it would be the Republican National Committee and the Taliban?

Today they are one mind in their criticism and condemnation of the President Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. As if it was his fault that the Nobel Committee chose to give him the award. As if there is something negative about an American President winning an award, or an American city being honored to host an Olympic games.

Was there someone else who was supposed to win?

This is the world where we live now, a world of institutionalized enmity with 24-hour-a-day cable news coverage. A world where we cheer our opponents losses and scoff at their victories. Not just civility, but basic sportsmanship, even humanity itself, has become an unaffordable luxury, an unprofitable lost art that will come to exist only in museums and old, old memories.

Which I think is exactly what this award is going to be a good thing.

I came late to the news this morning, having been up far too long into the night watching a football game. A hard fought game in ridiculous conditions with a stunning ending. But maybe the best moment for me wasn’t during the game, but right after, when the TV cameras caught the players of the teams crossing the field to shake a hand, pat a helmet, speak a small and gracious word. Which was why they played the game, after all.

I think it’s easy to miss the amazing importance of that. For 60 minutes they fought hard, hit hard, tried with every effort to defeat one another. But when the game was done these young men remembered their shared humanity, that they could be opponents without being enemies, that they could battle without hate.

I doubt that scene will make the ESPN highlights, which is too bad. Too bad for us. Too bad for our children. Where are they going to see that kind of example?

The news tells me of a recent political event, where attendees took turns shooting guns at a variety of targets, including one in the likeness of their political opponent who is, yes, a member of Congress. Yes, they shot guns at an effigy of a member of the United States Congress. Not a bunch of rednecks or hoodlums in some backyard or back alleyway, but elected officials and political figures and the person who believes themselves worthy of being in Congress themselves. I don’t think I’m ok with that. Are we replacing debate and dialog with gunplay? Yes, “pretend” gunplay. At least for now.

We have come to this point, that lacking real interest or efforts for peace or harmony or even adult conversation in our world, we are left only with those who have the vision and courage to at least hope for it. And if the Nobel Peace Prize committee has the wisdom to recognize that very rare hopefulness and the will to reward it, then I say good for them. The first step toward any goal, after all, is to desire it. And if this President has done nothing else than to truly desire a different politic, an open dialog with friend and enemy alike, a more civil society and a more peaceful world, then he has done much. Much worthy of great recognition.

Given that so few seem to desire the same thing, I await a more deserving winner.