Outstanding in the Field is a diary series usually devoted to Americans who are working to change the backwards policies in Washington. This week’s dedication was going to be to Amory Lovins. His green environment was explored and he had a few choice words for American energy policy on this week’s installment of the PBS series Nova, Saved by the Sun.
However on CBS Sunday Morning there was a segment on the origins, a half-century ago, of one of the world’s most recognizable emblems. So this diary is devoted to something that is neither American nor a person, The Peace Symbol, a sign for our times.
Richard Roth introduced the segment recalling the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament's march from London to Aldermaston, the center of British atomic weapons research and manufacturing;
Fifty years ago on a cold grim Easter holiday this protest was meant to be a watershed, a global call to ban the bomb.
I'm sure that most of the readers here are aware of the fact that the Peace symbol originated as the banner of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in Great Britain but have you ever heard the name of the designer?
Gerald Holtom's Wikipedia entry is merely a stub that explains the origin of the concept, the fact that the design was a combination of letters of the naval flag semaphore alphabet for "N" and "D", standing for nuclear and disarmament.
The History of the Peace Symbol offers a little more information;
It was designed in 1958 by Gerald Holtom, a professional designer and artist and a graduate of the Royal College of Arts. He showed his preliminary sketches to a small group of people in the Peace News office in North London and to the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, one of several smaller organisations that came together to set up CND.
The Direct Action Committee had already planned what was to be the first major anti-nuclear march, from London to Aldermaston, where British nuclear weapons were and still are manufactured. It was on that march, over the 1958 Easter weekend that the symbol first appeared in public.
On this very brief Easter Sunday segment from CBS Sunday Morning a still photograph was shown of this historic march on Aldermaston that while never banning the bomb, created a very simple graphic that became an international sign for peace;
After a brief explanation of Gerald Holtom's transformation of the more complicated dove or broken rifle into something tidy and neat, Michael Randall who was there in 1958 showed the original drawing and explained the incorporation of the "N" and "D"
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.
This universal trade mark for peace was deliberately not copywritten by the CND so the symbol would be owned by no one and could become a badge for everyone. A woman who was there for that first march, Pat Arrowsmith, dressed in a Peace sign vest added;
It's been used as a badge against tyranny in Greece. It's been used as a badge against apartheid in South Africa. It's been used as a general peace slogan. It's been worn by troops opposing the war in Viet Nam. It's become very much an anti war symbol but also an anti tyranny symbol.
The CBS Sunday Morning segment ended at the grave of Gerald Holtom. The simple but powerful lines of his design are etched on his head stone;
Gerald Holtom was a conscientious objector and a man that was certainly outstanding in his field of endeavor. May his wishes come true someday.
In wishing a Happy Birthday to the Peace Sign, I hope this symbol has a stronger effect on America in it's next fifty years that it did in it's first fifty years.
I can't help but think back to a time when many in this nation thought conscientious objector was a dirty word and the fact that many considered the Peace Sign to be un-American. During the Viet Nam War it was called the symbol of the counterculture. Today with another war on our hands you don't see nearly as much of this peace emblem that was once touted as the flag of the filthy hippie, do you?
It is Easter Sunday, a day to remember the teachings of Jesus Christ. I hope everyone here has had a joyous and peaceful Easter and enjoyed it surrounded by family.
Bring them home. Let us and them live in Peace.