It is inspiring to see Malala Yousafzai win the Nobel Peace Prize. The young activist stood up to the Taliban and as a result was shot in the head, only to survive, despite their hate, and inspire people with her message of peace. This is a prize that had eluded one of the greatest peace advocates (Mahatma Gandhi), signified the emergence of a new power in the world (President Teddy Roosevelt) and commented on the role that the United States should play in world affairs (President Barack Obama). Yousafzai is especially great as she is, at seventeen years old, the youngest person to ever to receive the prize. She shares the prize with Mr. Kailash Satyarthi, who is also a courageous fighter for children's rights.
The Nobel Peace Prize has attempted for years to influence international rhetoric and it is important to see who they recognize. Prior to Ms. Yousafzai the youngest person to the win the Nobel Peace Prize was an American. Fifty years ago, in 1964, Martin Luther King, Jr. won the prize. The thirty-five year old King said in his acceptance speech "Sooner or later all the people of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood." King was reflective, hoping with the world watching that the true message of the civil rights movement, which confronted the bitter racism that plagued this nation, was front and center. "If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love."
King and Yousafzai were both attacked for expressing ideals that they believed were righteous. King had been arrested, stabbed and his house bombed prior to the Nobel Peace Prize. Inevitably he would pay the ultimate sacrifice for his cause on April 4, 1968 when a gunman silenced him - yet his dream lives and continues to influence future generations.
History has been an indicator that in some cases the Nobel Peace Prize signified that change was on the horizon. I hope that this year's selection continues to elicit similar results. My dream, and I am sure it is the same for many others, is for my own children to grow up in world without hate - in a world that King dreamt of at the foot of Lincoln in 1963. A dream he shared with John and Robert Kennedy later that day.
King's message in 1964 is still relevant today. Love was at the heart of his philosophy of change through non-violence. He said in that same speech that "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." Indeed, we will hopefully see in the coming years that our dream becomes reality. I am hopeful as Yousafzai and Satyarthi, whose messages have peace at their core, accept the same award that one of the greatest Americans received fifty years ago.
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