Let me first to suggest that President Barack Obama announce he is donating the million dollars he will receive for winning the Nobel Peace Prize to groups helping homeless veterans and urge other Americans to show generosity to those in need during the holiday season.
You did read it first here in The Hill, in my column in March putting the president's name forward for the prize, for his efforts to achieve breakthroughs in reaching out to nations of the world for common action serving American interests, and theirs. The Nobel Prize will strengthen the president's hand from NATO to the Middle East and from climate change to nuclear proliferation.
This was a prize based not on hard achievements but on a new direction for America by a new president, the aspiration that he will succeed in great endeavors, and great admiration throughout the world for the president and the United States.
Every one of these goals is advanced, to some degree, against great odds, by the Nobel Prize. Major American goals are served, to some degree, by this prize. As I wrote in my March column, there is a time and place for great aspirations to be recognized and empowered and this is the time and place.
Already the voices of the angry right are out attacking this. Already the "talk America down" wing of the Republican Party has begun to emerge before the sun has risen this morning. Shame on them, again. Shame on them, because this is good for America and good for the world and they should applaud what is good for America and good for the world.
I will say, because this is a prize awarded for aspiration rather than achievement, the president needs to show profound modesty and leadershp at this moment. So I would strongly urge him to donate his prize money to the homeless vets and use this holiday season to urge all who have to help all who have not, here and around the world.
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