Seeger

RIFTON – Nothing against President Obama, but a pastor with the Bruderhof in Rifton says folk singer and pacifist Pete Seeger of Beacon should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Obama was named this year’s recipient last week. Pastor Johann Christoph Arnold, who knew and marched with Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., said people like him, who gave his life for peace, should be honored with the award.

“To me it’s sad that the requirements have been so diluted that now it’s mostly politicians getting the prize instead of people like Pete Seeger,” he said. “Pete has given his entire life to peace. If anyone should deserve the Peace Prize in my eyes, it would be Pete Seeger.”

President Obama has fostered a “new climate of diplomacy and openness in Washington and in the world, a vast improvement over his bomb-first, ask-questions-later predecessor,” said Pastor Arnold. “But, campaign promises and political realities aside, he has yet to demonstrate a commitment to a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Afghanistan.”