Yesterday I posted an item about the open letter from 15 past winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, calling on China's government to release the latest winner, the imprisoned civil-liberties activist Liu Xiaobo. I noted that two names were interestingly absent from the list: Al Gore (despite the presence of Jimmy Carter) and Nelson Mandela (despite his fellow South African Desmond Tutu's role in organizing the letter).
When I returned to my computer just now, after an hour away for lunch, I found several screens full of incoming emails all to the same effect. Here's a sample:
"I don't see the name of the 2009 Nobel peace prize winner either--namely Barak Obama."
And:
"The list seems to be missing someone else who might have an influence on the Chinese government, oh heay, where is our fearless leader's John Hancock? Was President Obama too busy playing golf to bother? Didn't Obama win one, too?"
I am sorely tempted to use the names of some of these senders, but... Many dozens of emails total, all with this same theme -- the hypocrisy of Obama in not speaking up for his fellow laureate, and the hypocrisy of me for not pointing that out. Here is what's interesting:
- Something must have happened to get a lot of people riled up about the same topic all at the same time. Was it mentioned on Fox? Did it get onto a right-wing site? I don't know. I just see what's in the inbox.