January 13, 2010
f t
M artin L uther K ing J r .
20 IO s p e c ia l e o i lion
Page I
Obama and King: Nobel Prize Winners
Prestigious
honors come 35
years apart
have included the founder of the
Red Cross, U.S. presidents,
peace activists, and a slew of
now obscure diplom ats and
statesman who worked tirelessly
for world peace.
by J ake T homas
But it also includes more con­
T he P ortland O bserver
troversial figures, like former
W hen P re sid e n t B arack S e c re ta ry o f S ta te H enry
Obama stood before a crowd in Kissinger who won the award in
Norway to accept the Nobel 1973 after illeg ally carp et-
Peace Prize last month, he made bombed Cambodia causing the
a point of acknowledging that deaths of maybe 800,000 civil­
Martin Luther King Jr.’s work ians.
When Obama was elected to
the nation’s top post, he reset the
U .S.'s image to a world that had
grown wary of a nation that was
perceived as arrogant and dis­
missive of the concerns of other
countries.
The Nobel Peace Prize Com ­
mittee had this to say about giv­
ing Obama the award:
"Thanks to Obama's initia­
tive, the USA is now playing a
more constructive role in meet­
ing the great climatic challenges
Martin Luther King Jr. was the
youngest recipient ever of the
Nobel Prize for Peace when he
was awarded it in 1964.
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paved the way for the young
president's historic rise.
Thirty five years earlier. King
was also in Norway to accept
the exact same prize that Obama
recently received. Both men
became part of a long line of
statesmen and activists that a
committee selected by the Nor­
wegian Parliament deemed to
“have done the most or the best
work for fraternity between na­
tions, for the abolition or reduc­
tion of standing armies and for
the holding and promotion of
peace congresses.”
But despite the crisp criteria
of who should receive the prize,
which Swedish chemist Alfred
Nobel laid out in his will, it’s not
clear what it means to receive
the Nobel Peace Prize.
Past recipients of the award
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When Barack Obama received the Noble Prize for Peace
last fnonth, he acknowledged that Martin Luther King Jr.
paved the way for his historic accomplishment as the
first black president.
the world is confronting. De­ people hope for a better future.”
mocracy and human rights are
But shortly after the announce­
to be strengthened. Only very ment, critics bitterly denounced
rarely has a person to the same the com m ittee's decision, assert-
extent as Obama captured the
continued ' W ' on page 17
world’s attention and given its
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