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October 10, 2009 at 16:31:07     Permalink All Eyes on the Prize Diary Entry by Margaret Bassett (about the author)

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How would I use the 1.4 million dollars which goes with the honor? Plant it and expect it to grow even more? Decide on a couple of "worthwhile" foundations and let them handle it? Ask school children to write essays (since the Obama girls will have to live with it)?

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How would I use the 1.4 million dollars which goes with the honor? Plant it and expect it to grow even more? Decide on a couple of "worthwhile" foundations and let them handle it? Ask school children to write essays (since the Obama girls will have to live with it)?

One thing is for sure. Just giving it to charity will not stifle armchair pundits from giving advice. And that can be a can of worms. The Limbaugh literati have already put their stamp on it. Too young and too inexperienced may be their litany, but it won't fly. The biggies of worker rights and women's needs are old stuff. Heading into the hornets' nest of competing national economic modes--isn't that the President's day job?

Please let's stay away from major non-profits, for to choose a couple would gum up the works for the others. That would let most NGOs off the hook. It's a bias I have, I confess, where well-intentioned Americans (mostly) hitting a particular hardship in a faraway place hardly realize its a drop in the bucket as far as peace is concerned. A peace prize should be ready to tackle what peace is. It must appeal to those who are shortchanged and eager to work for what they feel is needed.

I thought about a collaborative work of those who would each like to write a short suggestion, thus ready for compilation into one big online collection. Rather than having it just for a children's contest it could tap into the best ideas in adult thinking, world wide. For the sake of simplicity, all submissions should be simple narrative. Thus those without broadband or even the internet would have an equal chance. Email or snail mail. All entries would carry equal weight. A simple byline would be sufficient for attribution as long as residency is included. And equality would be enhanced by each contribution if a certain number of words were the limit. I thought of 600, equal to how I feel an OEN diary should fit. At this point I've achieved 390 words. And with that I ask for your suggestions which, in the comment section, would be as likely to contain only a general concept as it would to elaborate on the idea.

What say you?

 

Margaret Bassett--OEN editor--is an 87-year old, currently living in senior housing, with a lifelong interest in political conumbra. Bachelors from State University of Iowa (1944) and Masters from Roosevelt University (1975) help to unravel (more...)
 

 

 
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