The War on Peace

Fought with the best weaponry no money can buy—staggering stupidity:

A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

Devilry!!!

The president of the association said that “three or four” residents complained about the wreath, because they have children serving in Iraq and/or because they believe the wreath is a Satanic symbol. When the association’s architectural control committee failed to order the dastardly wreath-hanger to remove the highly offensive holiday item, the association president fired all five of them. Nice one.

So, parents whose kid is serving in Iraq are offended by a peace sign, even though our troops are themselves ostensibly trying to secure peace in Iraq, and, by all accounts, peace is usually the key ingredient to saving soldiers’ lives. And some “other” people are offended, because the peace sign is Satanic—a common misperception among members of the fundamentalist Christian community, in which has been promulgated the myth that the peace sign is an upside-down broken cross. Unable to read any language of symbols but their own, and content in their ignorance, they’ve no idea the peace sign was created as a merging of the semaphoric signals for the letters N and D, short for nuclear disarmament. But why bother with the facts when screaming “Satan!” like the Church Lady is so much easier?

“Peace” is an important component—or is meant to be—of the Christian Christmas celebration: Peace on earth, pray for peace people everywhere, his gospel is peace, in his name all oppression shall cease, peace peace, heavenly peace! Jesus Christ is referred to as the Prince of Peace! The peace sign itself may not be a Christian symbol, but the desire for peace is certainly part of the Christian tradition and very specifically part of the Christmas “holyday.” But instead of looking at their neighbor’s peace sign and seeing the spirit of their holiday, these good Christians had to start a war.

Over a peace sign.

Tell me again who’s fighting the war on Christmas…?

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