Evoking Martin Luther King's words "the arc of history is long but it bends toward justice", President Obama said today in Oslo:
I receive this honor with deep gratitude and great humility. It is an award that speaks to our highest aspirations -- that for all the cruelty and hardship of our world, we are not mere prisoners of fate. Our actions matter, and can bend history in the direction of justice.
As James Fallows observed this morning Obama characteristically expresses a sense of the contradictions that both limit us and define our opportunities. There is a Niebuhrian sense of sin, realism, and hope in his words:
But as a head of state sworn to protect and defend my nation, I cannot be guided by their examples alone. I face the world as it is, and cannot stand idle in the face of threats to the American people. For make no mistake: Evil does exist in the world. A non-violent movement could not have halted Hitler's armies. Negotiations cannot convince al Qaeda's leaders to lay down their arms. To say that force may sometimes be necessary is not a call to cynicism -- it is a recognition of history; the imperfections of man and the limits of reason.
Image: The Telegraph, U.K.
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