There were 205 nominees for the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, consisting of 172 individuals and 33 organizations.  French President Nicolas Sarkozy, US President Barack Obama and Tom’s Shoes were among some of the nominees.  The result was shocking to most, including Obama supporters, when he was given this esteemed prize.

            Now, I know some of you may think I am writing another article bashing Obama, but not this time.  Even though I am not an Obama fan, I still want him to do well since he is the leader of my country. My point is that he has only been in office for 9 months. Furthermore, it has been said that the choice for the award was made in February.  Obama had only been in office for two weeks when the decision was made to give him the award. Obama has peaceful ideas; these ideas won him this award. However, none of them were put into action in his first two weeks of office.  

Here are the plain and simple facts about the results.  The reasons why Obama won the award are "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples, and his efforts to promote nuclear nonproliferation and a new climate.”  See a trend in this pattern? The reasons are all of his efforts, nothing that has actually happened; this is not to say that his ideas will not be placed into effect, but as of right now they have not.

There are other nominees who are more deserving of the award, because they have put their ideas into action.  Tom’s Shoes is an organization that sells shoes and for each pair bought, another pair is donated overseas to children who are in need of shoes. In addition, all the employees are volunteers. They make no money passing out the shoes, but do so because they enjoy seeing the smiles on the children’s faces.  The organization donated over 150,000 shoes in 2006, the first year of the organization.  Now, they are well on their way to reaching their goal of over 300,000 shoes donated in 2009. That is something peaceful that has been done, and it took three years to accomplish.

Sarkozy, the French president, has made peace lines and monumental steps in the Georgia-Russia debate. He has made peace agreements with the Middle East. He has put his peaceful ideas into action and has something to show for it. He has also been working on these ideas for almost two years.

I am not trying to attack President Obama by saying he is undeserving of the award. Maybe one day he will have implemented his ideas into action and will have proof of contributing towards peace.  However, there were other nominees who worked longer and were more deserving of the award because of their accomplishments. They are the ones who deserve the spotlight.