The loudest American who had been vying for the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize was U.S. President Donald J. Trump himself. But Trump is first and foremost a braggart, more brass than class. [That’s a turn off to the international Nobel Peace Prize selection committee.] Compared to past recipients—Americans and others around the world, individuals and organizations—our current president lacks a certain … humbleness … selflessness … humanitarian empathy … quiet dignity … grace … compassion … wisdom. In short, Trump’s no Albert Schweitzer, who earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952.
A list of past recipients sheds light on certain shared qualities among those chosen for the esteemed Nobel Peace Prize: 2017, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (a world policy still rejected and unsigned by the United States of America); 2014, Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani girl who was shot in the head by the Taliban for attending school yet survived to fight for girls’ education rights around the world; 2013, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons; 2009, Barack Obama, for his early order as U.S. president to end perpetual war in Afghanistan and Iraq; 2007, Al Gore; 2002, Jimmy Carter; 1999, Doctors Without Borders; 1993, Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk; 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev and not Ronald Reagan; 1989, the 14th Dalai Lama; 1985, the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War; 1983, Lech Walesa; 1973, Henry Kissinger; 1964, Martin Luther King Jr.
Reading this list brings to mind another human characteristic: bravery. Established in 1895, the Nobel Peace Prize recognizes academic, cultural or scientific advancements. It seems cultural advancement is an underlying reason for bestowing the international peace prize upon Dr. King, the Dalai Lama, Gorbachev, Walesa, Mandel and de Klerk, Presidents Carter and Obama, and VP Gore.
A loud-mouthed bully is usually not awarded a peace prize; it wouldn’t make a lick of sense among the cultured world intelligentsia. President Obama won because the world absolutely loved him. And the world doesn’t hold President Trump in the same esteem. Trump’s goading of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un to a High Noon nuclear showdown is not worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize and may not be the reason for North and South Korea possibly ending their decades-old war.
If anyone ends up deserving the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, it very likely could be Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in, president of the Republic of Korea. The world recently witnessed a meeting like no one could have fathomed between those two leaders. Yet they stood together with sincere smiles and mutual laughter, bonded by common language, culture and history, and talked about ending their countrymen’s long, long stalemate. It was as if neither man could remember what all the fuss was about. They are from a different generation that started the Korean War many moons ago in the last century.
Another brick in the wall
Trump can’t claim the Reagan route for insisting a nuclear nation change from communism to democracy. That’s because Reagan alone did not end the Cold War between the U.S. and the USSR. The East/West ‘war’ already was ending by a new generation, the product of changing times, people who readily admired American and Western way of life and harbored such feelings secretly for decades. Through the black market of the Eastern bloc, Soviets loved American blue jeans, watching TV shows like “Dallas,” and listening to good ol’ rock ’n’ roll especially riotous punk bands. In the 1980s Western entertainers were allowed to tour Soviet nations. But watching Western TV in the privacy of tiny cramped apartments is what really broke up the old Soviet Union. The people want to be free, live and speak freely, choose their leaders, and pursue their individual and unique passions in this one human life. American TV, movies and music—dominating the world while echoing freedom in every human thought, desire and need—brought down communism throughout Eastern Europe and finally Mother Russia Herself. And something else was happening, too: 24-hour cable news and personal computers. These world-conquering concepts and revolutionary inventions brought new meaning to putting the genie back in the bottle. Can’t be done. Gorbachev knew. He realized his fate and the future of the world, thank God. He let it happen.
Change of heart is another human characteristic worthy of the world’s attention and consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize. Why Kim Jong-un seemingly has had a public (and humbling) change of heart from his ambition to proceed toward nuclear war and annihilation remains unknown. But … we’re gonna find out. Communist Korea along with the rest of the world can’t keep anything secret anymore. Those days are gone. Can I hear an Amen?