Growing up in Chicago and watching year after year the ever-reliable Cubs collapse in the beginning of the season, spectacularly at the end or anywhere in-between I grew accustomed to the grimly hopeful prayer of believing Cubs fans everywhere, "Wait til next year." When next year came the inevitable cycle began anew.
With that realistic attitude in mind, and acknowledging that obviously the choice of Al Gore as this year's Nobel Peace Prize winner is several steps up from the warrior/murderer/hater honoree Yasser Arafat several years ago, perhaps the Scandinavian Nobel Prize Committee members will want to do some serious thinking to refurbish the Nobel's image now that they won't have Bush to kick around anymore. Of course, there is always the entire US. And Israel.
Here are some diverse, multi cultural suggestions from the Wall Street Journal of people and groups who haven't won; there are more worthy names in the article, more out there in the real world that most readers could suggest. the Burmese monks whose defiance against, and brutalization at the hands of, the country's military junta in recent weeks captured the attention of the Free World.
The prize was also not awarded to Morgan Tsvangirai, Arthur Mutambara and other Zimbabwe opposition leaders who were arrested and in some cases beaten by police earlier this year while protesting peacefully against dictator Robert Mugabe.
Or to Father Nguyen Van Ly, a Catholic priest in Vietnam arrested this year and sentenced to eight years in prison for helping the pro-democracy group Block 8406.
Or to Wajeha al-Huwaider and Fawzia al-Uyyouni, co-founders of the League of Demanders of Women's Right to Drive Cars in Saudi Arabia, who are waging a modest struggle with grand ambitions to secure basic rights for women in that Muslim country.
Or to Colombian President Àlvaro Uribe, who has fought tirelessly to end the violence wrought by left-wing terrorists and drug lords in his country.
Or to Garry Kasparov and the several hundred Russians who were arrested in April, and are continually harassed, for resisting President Vladimir Putin's slide toward authoritarian rule.
Maybe next year......Hey, I can dream can't I?
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