"The peace sign has a lot of negativity associated with it."....

[walldude]

Just when you think people can't get any dumber...

"While the overwhelming Democratic victory in the midterm Congressional elections gives us huge reason for hope, we still receive signs on a daily basis showing just how much work we have to do in repairing our country. One piece of evidence today comes from Pagosa Springs, Colorado, where Lisa Jensen is in deep trouble with her homeowner's association for having the gall to hang a holiday wreath shaped like a peace sign on the side of her house...

...According to Bob Kearns, the association's president, three or four residents have complained and at least one believes Jensen's decoration is a symbol of Satan.

"The peace sign has a lot of negativity associated with it. It's also an anti-Christ sign. That's how it started," said Kearns. "Somebody could put up signs that say drop bombs on Iraq. If you let one go up you have to let them all go up."

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/3444

There's more, apparently the guy tried to get a 5 member panel to force her to remove the wreath, when they wouldn't he fired them all.

[Gwerlain]

1. "Peace has a lot of negativity associated with it.

It's a very violent emotion."

What an idiot. Of course, he's from the Republic of Colorado. Probably didn't know any better before he opened his pie hole. Bet he's getting lots of nice mail and phone calls just lately; judging by the three or four threads I've seen on here about this, mentioning that his phone was on fast busy, he's probably getting pieces of about 50,000 peoples' minds; not to mention, so is his homeowners' association, his city's chamber of commerce, his city's web site, his city's mayor and city council... hell, I bet a coupla hundred someones even called all his congresscritters.

Nice to think on.

[Hav]

2. .

Yeah, for starters, it is associated with peace ;).

And why all this talk about being an anti-Christ sign? Had it ever anything to do with something like this? Just yesterday I read here that it has its origins in two letters: N and D.

[zeemike]

4. It's all just Orwellian speech to me

But the talk about it being an Anti Christ sign is because the fundies say it is an upside down cross and that is a Satanic symbol.
But they are wrong on that the Satanic symbol is the Fallen Cross not the one upside down.

And i have heard that too about N and D and that this is the letters in the signal corp for the flag signals they use.

[and-justice-for-all]

3. Yes, she should take it down...

..and burn crosses in her front yard instead. Then they would have something to bitch about.
Its a fucking wreath! Of all the shit thats going on around us, those losers are concerened about a FUCKING WREATH!?? Alot of people dont even have a front door or four walls, but Kearns and his cronies want to cry about a wreath.

How can a peace sign be anti-jeebus?? Isnt/wasnt Jeebus the ulimate fiction character of Peace? Kearns is a douch bag and also a control freak it seems.

If I was Jensen, I would tell him to go fuck himself.

[Clark2008]

9. Home Owners Associations are notoriously dictatorial.

I don't understand why anyone lives where there are HOAs, myself.

[annabanana]

5. Peace sign Christmas wreath can stay (Lisa Jensen won!!!)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2632066

Merry Peaceful Christmas!

[malaise]

12. I actually hope millions of Americans

follow Lisa Jensen and place peace wreaths on their doors. That would shut them the fuck up.

Sp.

[Alamom]

6. This story made it to the MSM.....

& I'm glad about that because in this day of not knowing what expression of freedom may draw the ire of the community or govenment, this citizen was allowed to keep her peace sign.



There are probably about a thousand other stories of this nature that should be told and there is of course, THE MAJOR STUFF we see or hear so very little about.
Iraq, the slaughter of the people, our troops are targets and becoming moreso everyday, the criminals in charge...

the criminals in charge...the criminals in charge...the criminals in charge...the criminals in charge...

[proud2BlibKansan]

19. And last night they decided to let her keep it up

The MSM comes through every once in awhile.

[MadHound]

7. Yes, I'm a satanist, I eat dead burnt babies,

All because of my avatar(and regular lapel pin). :eyes:

Some people are just too stupid to live. That's the drawback with modern society and modern technology. In pre-electric days, these people would have at least been partially weeded out of the gene pool. Now they live long enough to procreate and pass their stupidity genes onto their children.

[tenshi816]

15. Hey, what about me?

Mine's tattooed on the back of my neck:



The next time I go back to the States to visit my family, I'm going to wear my hair up to see if the design provokes any comments from my fundie relatives or any of their friends. I'm just itching for somebody to tell me the peace sign is the symbol of the antichrist.

You're right, there's a scarily large segment of people in America who shouldn't even be left alone for long lest they do themselves damage trying to tie their shoes or something. What's even worse is that they hold jobs, vote and (as you point out) pass along their hatefulness and stupidity to the next generation.

[theHandpuppet]

8. Mr. Kearns and his nitwit acolytes need an education

Here's the story of how the peace symbol came to be:

http://www.designboom.com/contemporary/peace.html

(excerpt)

THE PEACE SYMBOL

"The anti-nuclear emblem or the peace sign is one of the
most widely known symbols in the world.
it was invented on the request of lord bertrand russel,
head of the british ‘campaign for nuclear disarmament’
or CDN and sponsor of mass marches and sit-downs
in london. the graphic symbol was designed by
gerald holtom, a member of the CND movement,
as the badge of the ’direct action committee against
nuclear war’, for the first demonstration against
aldermaston (a british research center for the development
of nuclear weapons) in 1958. holtom, a professional designer
and a graduate of the london royal college of arts, had
originally considered using the christian cross symbol
within a circle as the motif for the march, but various priests
he had approached with the suggestion were not happy
at the idea of using the cross on a protest march.

"From a design point of view, it is interesting to note that
the original sketches are preserved at the school of
peace studies, at the bradford university.
they show a symbol that stood for ‘the death of man
and the unborn child’ and that symbol was designed
from the naval code of semaphore - the code letters
for N and D (nuclear disarmament).
N is two flags, arms downstretched at a forty-five degree
angle, and D is two flags, one arm straight up and one
straight down. the ends of the ‘arms’ and ‘legs’ thicken
and splay out noticeably as they approach the circumference.
the circle itself was thick - the thickening itself has two versions:
in one, all the straight strokes are thickened;
in the other, only those in the lower half of the circle.
it is said, that the reason for the symbol being upside
down (D over N) is that semaphore is a military code and
upside down symbolizes ‘anti-military’.

"The symbol was quickly adopted in the US when a friend of
martin luther king jr., bayard rustin began using it during
civil rights marches. the power of this symbol is emphasized
by the fact that various far-right and fundamentalist american
groups, during the 1970s, seriously considered forbidding it
(they have spread the idea of satanic associations and
condemned it as a communist sign). in south africa, under the
apartheid regime, there was an official attempt to ban it.... "

Other links:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/~lcushing/addpages/PeaceSymbolArticle.html
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_149.html

And an example of Christian fringe nutballs who associate the peace sign with the devil, and even the Vulcan hand salute! http://www.nisbett.com/symbols/peace_sign.htm

[Crunchy Frog]

10. I'm comemorating this little piece of insanity with my new sig.

Hope you like it. :)

[chknltl]

11. Back in the early '70s, a fundie explained this position:

He informed me that the peace sign was an upside-down cross with the arms broken. He felt that it was a sign of the devil and proof that satan was influencing the minds of those who displayed them.
Needless to say that character had few friends outside of his church.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

14. Probably got the idea from the John Birch Society

which was basically saying the same thing about the same time, according to "More of the Straight Dope" by Cecil Adams

[Toots]

17. Back in the sixties it was said the peace sign was "the footprint of the American Chicken"

I always thought that was quite original and funny even though my whole basis of life is Peace...

[smirkymonkey]

13. These people are so f***ed up.

Being against Peace is like being against Love, Mom & Apple Pie - how their messed up little pea brains can twist the message into something sinsister is just beyond me.

[depakid]

16. That's what you get for buying a home in a planned unit development

You subject yourself to the whims of every little Nazi wannabe on the homeowners board.

Frankly, as far as I'm concerned- and property like that lacks marketable title (at least in the sense that I'd NEVER purchase or advise anyone to purchase it). Ever.

[proud2BlibKansan]

18. Just how dumb do you have to be

to think the peace sign is satanic?

[LWolf]

20. This one situation illustrates to perfection

how far removed some people have become from the god they purport to serve.

Just who is it that they call "The Prince of Peace?"

From another perspective:

While it's not acceptable, in my view, to link peace, or the peace sign, with "Satan," trying to do so begs this question: If a Satanist cannot display a symbol of Satan, should christians be allowed to display the nativity?

[JVS]

21. They need to prevent a bunch of hippies from moving in and bringing...

down property values with their yurts.