Now that President Obama has won the Nobel Peace Prize for his relentless rhetorical dream to achieve peace on earth, I am hoping he spends the rest of his presidency actually earning the esteemed award.

Obama has talked about a world without nuclear weapons, so I hope that he now leads by example by beginning to systematically dismantle America's arsenal of over 5000 nuclear weapons on 'high alert'. In fact, this moment would be a good time for the President to champion the Nuclear Disarmament and Economic Conversion Act (H.R. 1653) that DC Representative Eleanor Holmes-Norton has been submitting to Congress since 1994. I agree with you, President Obama, now is the time for a "world without nuclear weapons." I think it is a reasonable expectation that a Nobel Laureate should walk his talk, and turn his rhetoric into reality.

Obama has talked about closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility, but he has not made real progress toward that goal. It seems he may have given up on his promise to make that happen in the near future. I feel that a Nobel Peace Prize honoree with the political power of the President of the United States would take action immediately to either allow the detainees to stand trial for charges against them or to release the prisoners. Those human beings in Camp X-Ray have been detained without due process for nearly 8 years!!! Continuing to hold them in endless detention is both immoral and unconstitutional.

Obama has talked about peace in the Middle East but US military escalation in Afghanistan and Pakistan is not going to achieve this goal. Although the President's scaling down of the Iraq War seems like a good thing, there are apparently no plans to turn over US military bases in the country to the Iraqis; unless things change, we can expect 50,000+ troops to remain in Iraq throughout the Obama Presidency. Not to mention the fact that the Obama Administration has apparently backed off from demands for Israel stop expanding settlements into Palestine. I would hope that a Nobel Peace Prize honoree would cease using military occupation as a tool for nation building.

This list of rhetorical peace efforts on the part of President Obama goes on and on. Why are the US taxpayers still spending 30 times the amount on oil and coal exploration than we spend subsidizing renewable energy sources? Why does Obama try to pass off nuclear power and 'clean coal' as green energy alternatives? How come the president is not promoting a single-payer health care system that would put people before profit and save countless lives? Why isn't the President attempting to change the US prison system's current role of providing forced labor for corporations including IBM, Boeing, Motorola, Microsoft, AT&T, Honeywell, Hewlett-Packard, Revlon, Macy's, Target Stores, and many more? Check out Obama's campaign donation information on http://opensecrets.org and you will see the answer to that question. How is it that a leader who is the Commander-in-Chief of a military complex that still spans the globe, including military bases in over 100 countries, can be characterized as the person most worthy of receiving the honor of being named the most effective peace maker on planet Earth?

I truly hope that President Obama lives up to the expectations of the Nobel Foundation. Time will tell if the rhetoric of peace that earned him this honor will be followed by clear decisive action. Now is the time for the President of the United States to walk his talk.

Midge Potts
Springfield, MO
Co-Chair of the Progressive Party of Missouri
2010 US Senate Candidate in Missouri
midgepotts4congress@gmail.com