Let There Be Peace

The peace sign has been used by people around the world to promote different views and ideas, which all tie into the purpose of promoting peace. What is peace, and why does this symbol represent it? Well peace is the unity of a community and group. These communities live in harmony, meaning there is no fighting; everyone gets along.

In American culture this peace sign symbolizes the struggle for peace and unity. The hippies were anti- war. So they had many protests in which they would hold up the peace sign. The hippies used the peace sign to show they opposed war and wanted unity. The hippies also were very laid back and chill people. They walked around without shoes. They wore the peace sign because it looks like an upside down chicken’s barefoot, to symbolize the fact that material things didn’t matter to them.

If you look at the peace sign it has three branches that lead into one branch. Peace signifies unity. So the three branches show our differences, but then through peace we should try to blend together in order to become one like the sign does with the one branch. The frame of the sing is in the shape of a circle. Each part of a circle is connected. So with peace everyone will be connected and unified. The peace signs also come in all colors and sizes, but still all symbolize the same thing: peace. There are all kinds of people in the world, but we can all come together, and still try to live in harmony even though we may have different beliefs.

The inventor of the peace sign is Gerald Holton, created the peace sign in 1958 during the Cold War. He used the semaphoric combination of the letters N and D to create the sign, which stand for Nuclear Disarmament. During the Cold War countries kept making nuclear weapons, so Mr. Holton made this sign to promote peace through the ceasing of nuclear weapon production. The sign later moved to America where the hippies adopted it.

The peace sign is just like the peace sign with the ring finger and the middle finger held up. They both stand for and promote peace. When you look at these symbols you are expected to see unity, and togetherness which hopefully one day will lead to peace in the world.
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