A Nobel Laureate Message for Chicago?

Four weeks before the leaders of the City of Chicago roll out the red carpet for the leaders of the military alliance that dominates the world -- NATO -- they will be using a line-up of Nobel Peace Prize laureates to legitimize the way they are associating our city with the forces of power and violence.


The following Nobel Peace Prize laureates and laureate organizations have agreed to come to Chicago April 23-25 for the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates:

President Mikhail Gorbachev – Russia (@mgorbachev)
Professor Muhammad Yunus – Bangladesh (@yunus_centre)
His Holiness the Dalai Lama – Tibet (@dalailama)
President Frederik Willem de Klerk – South Africa
Mrs. Mairead Corrigan Maguire – Northern Ireland - DECLINED INVITATION - April 16, 2012
President Jimmy Carter – United States (@cartercenter)
President Óscar Arias Sánchez – Costa Rica (@oariascr)
Ms. Tawakkol Karman – Yemen (@tawakkolkarman)
Dr. Shirin Ebadi – Iran
Professor Jody Williams – United States
President Lech Wałęsa – Poland

American Friends Service Committee (@afsc_org)
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (@climate_science)
International Committee of the Red Cross (@icrc_english)
International Peace Bureau (@IntlPeaceBureau)
International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (@IPPNW)
United Nations/Dept. of Economic and Social Affairs
PUGWASH Conferences
Amnesty International (@amnesty)
International Campaign to Ban Landmines (@minefreeworld)
United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (@refugees)
Médecins Sans Frontières (@msf_usa)
United Nations Children’s Fund (@UNICEF)

(See original list on the 12th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates website.)

Chicago expects Nobel Peace Prize laureates to live up to the honor they have been given. (And Chicago is not afraid to tell a lapsed Nobel Peace Prize laureate to shape up.)

What message will the invited group of laureates bring when they come?

• Will they point out that NATO uses militarism as a basis for international relations, and it's time to put an end to it?
• Will they champion the cause of Private Manning, who has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, and is an example of how every citizen should act on their conscience?
• Will they applaud the demonstrators, protesters, and occupiers who are taking a stand against the range of injustice in our society -- from systemic impoverishment and inequality, to the program of mass incarceration, deportations, and suppression of civil liberties, to violence against the citizens of foreign country after foreign country?

Some people believe that the Nobel Peace Prize laureates should decline the invitation to come to Chicago, to prevent the leaders of the City of Chicago from using them to legitimize the NATO summit. I disagree. I believe that it is precisely by coming to Chicago and speaking out against militarism that they can make the greatest contribution.

What message do you think the Nobel Peace Prize laureates should bring to Chicago?