... He, of course, was not dead. His brother had died, but a newspaper editor got the names wrong, and wrote his column expressing his opinion about the results of Alfred's life. The comments were less than flattering. But it did motivate Nobel to think about his own life. Seven years later, he signed his last will and testament, directing that the bulk of his estate would go to fund what we know today as the Nobel Peace Prize. In today's dollars, his estate was worth more than $100 million. Not all of it was from munitions, but plenty of it was. Some of his discovery was used to blow old stumps out of the ground to make farm fields like those in Silver Creek.
People wondered how, exactly, President Obama has accomplished Alfred's goals for peace. Frankly, I think he fits as well as some of the past recipients: Yasser Arafat (for his “courage” in shaking hands with Yitzhak Rabin), Mikhail Gorbachev (for apparently single-handedly ending the Cold War) and Al Gore (who let us know a hot summer we just suffered through is our own damn fault).
Consider a moment some of the folks who never were given the prize - including Gandhi, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II. Apparently the Nobel Committee considered the entire lot a batch of unworthy trouble makers. ...
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