Greg Mortenson with Jafarabad community
schoolgirls in northern Pakistan in 2003.
(Courtesy Greg Mortenson -- Central Asia Institute)
A Peace Prize to Share
By Tom Brokaw
Thursday, October 15, 2009
In one way or another, President Obama's critics will dog him all the way to Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony, and even his admirers will continue to have doubts about his accomplishments if not his promise.
He's getting a lot of advice on how to handle the moment when he accepts the prize, so here's an idea that may lift this discussion out of the partisan soup that is now the main course on our national agenda, whatever the issue.
The president should invite a high-profile and wide-ranging delegation of interests to accompany him. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, representing diplomacy and arms in pursuit of peace. Greg Mortenson, the author of "Three Cups of Tea," who has spent years working for education and literacy (especially for girls) in mountainous parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Field representatives from organizations such as Refugees International, the International Rescue Committee (where I am a volunteer overseer), CARE, Save the Children and other groups doing the hard work of caring for the victims of war. Bill and Melinda Gates should be in his delegation, as well as Republican Sam Brownback, the senator from Kansas, who's been a tireless advocate of greater U.S. involvement to stop the genocide in Sudan.
Tom Brokaw is a special correspondent and former "Nightly News" anchor for NBC.
