Al Gore receives Nobel Price for Peace

So good ol' Al receives the Nobel Prices for Peace 2007.

While we congratulate Mr. Gore to his success, we reflect on what it takes to receive such an award.

Gone are the days when guerillas like YASSER ARAFAT and SHIMON PERES could receive this distinction for merely stop fighting. Or, as in 1993, NELSON MANDELA and his long time foe, the President of the Republic of South Africa FREDRIK WILLEM DE KLERK shared the prize.

What, we wonder, would a laureate-colleague of Mother Theresa's stature, who spent decades caring for the sick and dying in Calcutta, think about a yuppie-guy travelling the globe first class with a lap top and a power point presentation under his arm? What, we wonder, does awareness about CO2 in the atmosphere have to do with world peace? Don't they have an ecology prize? Where are the mothers that resisted war in Chechna or the men and women who risked their lives to protect refugees in 'Hotel Rwanda' in this selection? Where are all the many brave and selfless people who stand up against tyranny and injustice?

Having received the prize myself in 1988, I feel unworthy of this honor in the company of those brave and selfless people who stand up against tyranny and injustice.

I just looked at a list of nobel prize winners on the web - they are nowhere to be found in the company of those who merely stop fighting their own wars. Why not go all the way and nominate Rumsfeld or Bush or Ghadaffi? Perhaps they haven't caused enough bloodshed yet, so a peacedefined as 'absence of war' would not weigh in enough with the Nobel Institute.

Only LE DUC THO of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam had the decency to decline the prize when he received it together with HENRY A. KISSINGER in 1973.

Now that's a man with integrity.