POP Culture…the Peace Sign is 50 Years Young!

We all know the Peace Symbol, which Americans of a certain age associate with the protests against the Vietnam War. Fewer know that the symbol is much older than that, dating back to ANOTHER protest across the sea in Britain. Richard Roth tells us all about it:

Fifty years ago on a cold, grim Easter holiday, a protest was meant to be a watershed: a global call to ban the bomb.

People marched from London to a factory in the countryside where Britain built its atomic bombs. Pat Arrowsmith was among those early campaigners for nuclear disarmament.

“It was quite clear that we were not just against the tests, and we were not just against the British bomb,” Arrowsmith said. “We were against the Soviet bomb and against the U.S. bomb.”

The nuclear weapons industry at Aldermaston is still very much alive. But so is the spirit of that protest fifty years ago. It lives on in a symbol born here that became an icon.

Gerald Holtom was the artist and textile designer who created it.

A conscientious objector during World War II, he was driven to the nuclear disarmament campaign, he said, by a feeling of despair.

Holtom’s daughter Anna Scott, also an artist, remembers the image of her father’s despair, in the paintings of Goya.

“He used the Goya painting of the despairing image of the person who was being shot, in Spain. I don’t know whether the despair was to do with his personal situation or whether it was to do with the world situation, and sometimes these can be muddled up, can’t they?”

Working in his West London studio, Holtom sought to transform that muddled despair into something tidy and neat: a symbol for the campaign for nuclear disarmament, based on the Naval sign language of semaphore.

Michael Randle was there in 1958 when Holtom explained his idea: matching the ‘N’ for nuclear & a straight up and down ‘D’ for ‘Disarmament,’ with a circle around it. “That’s the symbol, very simple and straightforward,” Randle recalled. “It was that explanation coupled with his vision of what the march would be like, his sketch of what the march would be like, that really sold it to us and we said, ‘Right, we will adopt that.’”

Not without controversy. It was inevitable that Holtom’s simple three lines and a circle would bewilder at least one of the anti-nuclear campaigners.

“He looked at it and he said, ‘What on earth were you three thinking about when you adopted that symbol? It doesn’t mean a thing and it will never catch on.’ Of course, he was thinking of the traditional things of a broken rifle, or a dove or something that would be immediately associated in people’s minds with peace, and if you’re looking at it now it’s impossible to separate it from all the history that has gone on since.”

Impossible, almost, to imagine some history without it.

The ‘n’ and ‘d’ of nuclear disarmament were its source, but its meaning quickly embraced a bigger cause: as a symbol for protest in the broadest sense, more specifically as a sign for peace.

An international brand that became as familiar as a stop sign, from grim and gritty, to groovy, like a universal trademark, according to design consultant Richard Williams.

“The clever thing about it is, it’s a mark we can all remember,” Williams said. “Because we can all draw it. You have to see it once to be able to draw it and there are very few marks that work that way. That’s why it can grow so quickly, why so many people can adopt it, because they can just scribble it. So when people were making placards they didn’t get it wrong, they knew what it was.”

And because Gerald Holtom and the anti-nuclear campaign deliberately didn’t copyright the symbol, no one owns it…or perhaps everyone does.

“We believe that brands don’t belong to companies, they belong to people, they’re made in people’s minds,” Williams said. “This isn’t a brand, this is much more than that. This is a movement and an attitude of mind.

“It’s the dream of every brand owner to get in there and own the territory, and [this] happened to do it and did it very well.”

CND, the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, is still doing it: printing signs, preparing for another march. It never managed to ban the bomb. But the spirit of its symbol is still booming.

“It’s been used as a badge against tyranny in Greece,” recalled Arrowsmith. “It’s been used as a badge against apartheid in South Africa, it’s been used just as a general peace logo, it’s been worn by U.S. U.S. troops opposing the war in Vietnam, it’s become very much an anti-war symbol, but also an anti-tyranny symbol.

“I think it’s a good symbol because it is actually quite simple”

Of course there would be a SHOE PEACE SIGN!

Simple, as simple as the three lines and a circle, etched on the headstone of Gerald Holtom’s grave.
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Thank you CBS NEWS
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Peace Out…
~The Baby Boomer Queen~

PEACE! PEACE, PEACE, PEACE, PEACE Bush! PEACE! PEACE! PEACE! PEACE!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~ IMAGINE…I STILL DO!

Don’t Let This Sneaky Scam Happen to You!

SCENE 1.

This is a new one.
People sure stay busy trying to cheat us, don’t they?

A friend went to the local gym and placed his belongings in the locker.

After the workout and a shower, he came out, saw the locker open, and thought to himself, “Funny, I thought I locked the locker. Hmm.” He dressed and just flipped the wallet to make sure all was in order.

Everything looked okay - all cards were in place.

A few weeks later his credit card bill came - a whooping bill of $14,000!
He called the credit card company and started yelling at them, saying that he did not make the transactions.

Customer care personnel verified that there was no Mistake in the system and asked if his card had been stolen.
“No,” he said, but then took out his wallet, pulled out the credit card, and yep - you guessed it - a switch had been made.
An expired similar credit card from the same bank was in the wallet.

The thief broke into his locker at the gym and switched cards.
Verdict:
The credit card issuer said since he did not report the card missing
earlier, he would have to pay the amount owed to them.

How much did he have to pay for items he did not buy?

$9,000! Why were there no calls made to verify the amount swiped?
Small amounts rarely trigger a “warning bell” with some credit card companies.

It just so happens that all the small amounts added up to one big one!

SCENE 2.

A man at a local restaurant paid for his meal with his credit card.
The bill for the meal came, he signed it, and the waitress folded the receipt and passed the credit card along.
Usually, he would just take it and place it in his wallet or pocket.
Funny enough, though, he actually took a look at the card and, lo and
behold, it was the expired card of another person.
He called the waitress and she looked perplexed.

She took it back, apologized, and hurried back to the counter under the watchful eye of the man.

All the waitress did while walking to the counter was wave the wrong
expired card to the counter cashier, and the counter cashier immediately looked down and took out the real card.

No exchange of words — nothing! She took it and came back to the man with an apology.

Verdict:

Make sure the credit cards in your wallet are yours.
Check the name on the card every time you sign for something and/or the card is taken away for even a short period of time.

Many people just take back the credit card without even looking at it, “assuming” that it has to be theirs.

FOR YOUR OWN SAKE, DEVELOP THE HABIT OF CHECKING YOUR CREDIT CARD EACH TIME IT IS RETURNED TO YOU AFTER A TRANSACTION!

SCENE 3:
Yesterday I went into a pizza restaurant to pick up an order that I had called in.

I paid by using my Visa Check Card which, of course, is linked directly to my checking account.

The young man behind the counter took my card, swiped it, then laid it on the counter as he waited for the approval, which is pretty standard procedure.
While he waited, he picked up his cell phone and started dialing.

I noticed the phone because it is the same model I have, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Then I heard a click that sounded like my phone sounds when I take a picture..

He then gave me back my card but kept the phone in his hand as
if he was still pressing buttons.

Meanwhile, I’m thinking: I wonder what he is taking a picture of,
oblivious to what was really going on.
It then dawned on me: the only thing there was my credit card, so now I’m paying close attention to what he is doing.

He set his phone on the counter, leaving it open.

About five seconds later, I heard the chime that tells you that the
picture has been saved.

Now I’m standing there struggling with the fact that this boy just took a picture of my credit card.

Yes, he played it off well, because had we not had the same kind of
phone, I probably would never have known what happened.

Needless to say, I immediately canceled that card as I was walking out of the pizza parlor.

All I am saying is, be aware of your surroundings at all times

Whenever you are using your credit card take caution and don’t be careless.
Notice who is standing near you and what they are doing when you use your card.

Be aware of phones, because many have a camera phone these days.

When you are in a restaurant and the waiter/waitress brings your card and receipt for you to sign, make sure you scratch the number off.

Some restaurants are using only the last four digits, but a lot of them are still putting the whole thing on there.

I have already been a victim of credit card fraud and, believe me, it is not fun. The truth is that they can get you even when you are careful, but don’t make it easy for them.

FORWARD THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN THINK OF. LET’S GET THE WORD OUT! JUST BE AWARE