All summer I've been quiet, so gloomed and enshaded by cloud and the rain, rain, rain of it that I didn't have the heart in me to give voice. However, events in the world are coming to the boil inside me, and I'm re-energised by fury. Obama has been given the Peace Prize -- and I'm furious! Furious at all the mean-spirited fuss and the missing-the-point stupidity of all those commentators who cry out that he hasn't ACHIEVED ANYTHING YET when the fact is he's already achieved more in the few months of his presidency than many other Nobel Prize recipients managed in their lifetime. I will name no names, but ....
What the hell did they all expect? What is it about humanity that they want a Messiah, a Saviour or God himself to wave a wand and bestow Peace upon us. Down the ages we cry,' Why doesn't God .... Why did He allow...? Why does no-one 'up there' save us from ourselves?' Has no-one heard about free will? God's gift to mankind has always been choice, and if Arafat, Hamas and Fatah, Netanyahu, Al Qaida, Mugabe or whoever, whatever choose not to hear they cannot be forced. And force is what they choose to wield. They are the force; they have the force, and by God they're going to hold on to it. And may I remind you that Bush believed in it too -- and Obama is not George Doubleyoo.
In this secular age we congratulate ourselves on no-longer believing fairytales about this thing we've called God - or for that matter Allah. Yet we seem to have inbuilt a childish longing to have Someone Up There fix it for us. With God dead, we fixate on having a World Leader to do the impossible for us, and we thought we'd found him in Obama. We sensed his visionary intelligence - felt him to be someone special - a breath of fresh air - someone New who could Be The Change we'd hoped to see. Well, maybe he is! but what he brings is the message that We too must be the Change, learning step by step as we go forward together, that we can no longer be bystanders at the game. We are the people and we're All in it together.
Peace is not a thing; it's a process. A long, patient arduous process of negotiation and often of compromise. It requires strength of purpose, hanging on, going on when all seems against you and you seem to be standing still - or worse - going backwards, but carrying your light, holding it high, maintaining your vision. Let's give him and ourselves a cheer. Full support - we're with you!
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