Honors

Obama Accepts Nobel Peace Prize

“I will accept this award as a call to action.”

“I will accept this award as a call to action,” President Obama said on Friday morning, after he was announced as the winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. “I am most surprised and deeply humbled by the decision of the Nobel commission. I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments but as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations. To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who have been honored by this prize. But I also know that this prize reflects the kind of world that those men and women and all Ameicans want to build, a world that gives life to the promise of our founding documents.” He used his acceptance speech to discuss nuclear disarmament, global warming, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, among other issues.