It’s a Great Day for Noblesse Oblige. And Another Reason To Bash Al Gore
It was March of 1991 and John and Theresa Heinz stood on either side of me in my small office in the bustling newsroom of the Philadelphia Daily News. I was showing them page proofs from a forthcoming special section that I was directing on single mothers who had overcome poverty, abuse, addiction and other travails to lead successful lives.
Women’s issues, especially those affecting disadvantaged women, were of special import to Heinz, a liberal Republican U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, and his wife. What could have been reasonably expected to be a brief “Isn’t that nice†walkthrough stretched into an hour-long chat, including a passionate soliloquy from the senator about how difficult it was a raise awareness in Congress about helping have-not women.
This meeting came to mind as I heard the news this morning that former Vice President Gore and the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change had won the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to spread awareness of global warming.
Heinz, an heir to the H.J. Heinz ketchup fortune, was born with a gold spoon in his mouth and never had to work a day in his life. Gore was born into power if not exactly wealth, but had become well to do and also could have chosen a less noble pursuit — or done nothing — when he returned home to Tennessee from Washington.
As it is (or in Heinz’ case was because he was to perish two months later in a helicopter-airplane crash), both are worthy examples of noblesse oblige — the concept that with wealth, power and prestige come social responsibilities.
After all these years, Gore still can seem like a caricature of himself, although his sincerity and the influence of his good works, including An Inconvenient Truth, his Oscar-winning documentary, cannot be doubted. But will because he is a lightning rod in the debate between people like myself who have concluded that the best available scientific evidence shows that the precipitous rise in global temperatures is man made and the shrinking minority of people who are still singing from the George Bush hymnal and have alternative explanations.
Gore, in a statement after the prize announcement was made, noted that:
“The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.”
But this will be quickly lost as the rhetoric in the blogosphere . . . uh, warms to global proportions a la the debate over expanding the S-CHIP program and health-care reform in general being drowned out in the hysteria over Graeme Frost.
So while you still have an opportunity, please bless Al Gore – and while you’re at it say a prayer in John Heinz’ memory.
* * * * *
Gore’s honor inevitably begs the question of whether he will run for president.
While that would seem to be a logical consequence, that outcome breaks down under scrutiny:
Winning the Nobel Peace Prize in and of itself does not qualify Gore for the highest office in the land. He already was qualified and should have won in 2000 had he not run such a lackluster campaign. Besides which, the peace prize has lost much of its luster since it has been awarded to thugs like Henry Kissinger and Yasser Arafat.
Finally, I take Gore at his word when he says he doesn’t want to be president. And that’s just fine with me.
Incidentally, Gore is the first almost-U.S. president to win the prize.
Presidential winners have included Jimmy Carter (2002), Woodrow Wilson (1919) and Teddy Roosevelt (1906). I’m sure it’s a coincidence that all but Roosevelt were Democrats and Roosevelt acted like one.
Click here for a complete list of winners.
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25 Responses to “It’s a Great Day for Noblesse Oblige. And Another Reason To Bash Al Gore”
Upside Down…
Inverting the Gore story, a man rakes in 100s of millions of dollars pitching fear and it gets interpreted as noblesse oblige, charity at The Moderate Voice…….
[...] Inverting the Gore story, a man rakes in 100s of millions of dollars pitching fear and it gets interpreted as noblesse oblige, charity at The Moderate Voice. [...]
LOL – Are we talking about Bush 43 and his future speaking tours?
The Right will “stroke out” on this, Gore (yes) and Reagan (no).
[...] Clark It’s a Great Day For Noblesse Oblige » This Summary is from an article posted at The Moderate Voice » Domestic and international news [...]
He would have won in 2000 if SCOTUS had not taken it upon itself to supercede the Florida Supreme Court ruling. He lost by about 500 votes, and was entitled to the recount. The decision came down by partisan breakdown, with Sandra Day O’Connor the swing vote. Also there were many minority voters whose votes were suppressed in the state.
Gore did not run a perfect campaign, and couldn’t overcome the awkwardness of the Lewinsky scandal. He was told to avoid campaigning with Clinton, which imo, was terrible advice.
BTW, Shaun – major congrats for getting mentioned (and TMV of course!) by EJ Dionne in WaPo for your blog entry about Graeme Frost.
An excerpt:
‘Shaun Mullen, who blogs at The Moderate Voice- yes there are moderate blogs-is right to generalize when he says that the targeting of the Frost family reveals “the vicious underbelly of the blogosphere”.’
Woooohoooo!
krit:
Thank you.
Shaun-
Congratulations on the WaPo mention.
Attention can be a dangerous thing on the blogosphere, Watch your back as you take your bows.:)
(Sound of Rush Limbaugh pounding on my door.)
The Nobel Peace Prize is a joke this year.
DLS- Any year a Gore or a Carter wins, the prize is a joke right?
Any time the prize is awarded for political purposes rather than to reward the achievement of peace, it is a joke.
Is Gore planning to address the UN General Assembly next? *snicker*
DLS-Why is global warming a political phenomena instead of a scientific one? It is seen here that way in this country because of global warming deniers and the suppression by the Bush administration of government scientists’ opinions who agreed with worldwide consensus. Alternate research bought and paid for by the oil companies purposely created doubt which fed the deniers- who were suspicious that the whole thing was some kind of liberal conspiracy. Sounds like you fit in that category.
It’s amaxing!
An American won a prize.
In some countries, the whole nation celebrates when a sports team or an individual athlete wins a prize.
In the US, when an American wins a prize, some find that an apt occasion to display rancour and sour grapes.
Talk about anti-Americanism!
It’s evident right here,
You would be dishonest if you were to do that.
The objectives and motives as well as the arguments have been political far more than they have been scientific.
DLS:
You and Michelle Malkin have been appointed to co-chair a committee to exhume the body of that liberal-leftie Mother Teresa so that her Nobel Peace Prize medal can we wrested from her cold fingers and returned to Sweden for future use by a more worthy recipient. Please let us know how it goes.
Shaun.
Yours is the last word on the subject in my book
.
Doma- you know perfectly well Democrats, especially international figures like Al Gore, are really the “phony” Americans- the ones with a Marxist agenda. And no prize once its been won by one of them is worth a slug of warm spit!
In fact, the prize has been tainted for many years. But for those who don’t want to reason, it may not be worth trying to press the issue. Just don’t be so foolish as to believe that this prize in any way makes Gore more deserving of the US Presidency.
DLS- I thought Gore deserved the presidency back in 2000, which is why I voted for him. I thought he was cheated out of the recount by a politicized Supreme Court.
Winning the Nobel Prize DOES elevate him in my eyes, because unlike you, I think it means a lot, but I would vote for him tomorrow if he were exactly who he was in 2000. The seven years of division and failed policies under W, have only validated that decision for me. Gore was right about the environment, the future of the internet and the war. I would vote for him because he’s a smart man who makes decisions based on facts and reason- and not on his faith and gut.
He wasn’t a good campaigner-because he was always more of a policy wonk. So, I doubt he’ll run- even if the Dems try to draft him.
No, but he was almost given what he wanted by the Florida court, which many saw as politicized.
If I thought that DLS knew one thing about the science or was willing to learn anything about it from anyone other than those who work for self-interested corporations and those who agree with them his opinion might count on the subject of global warming. But he doesn’t and he isn’t so it doesn’t.
DLS- Where was the precedent for SCOTUS taking authority away from the state court? Sounds like activist judges to me. BTW, the 5-4 decision broke down along partisan lines, with the usual suspects voting for Bush.