"peace" turns five-oh! -- good friday, 1958 -- to good friday, 2008!

join me! celebrate the fiftieth of the
most famous symbol of disarmament
the world has ever known -- and, no,
it is not a satanic symbol (some-
times falsely-called an inverted,
"broken" christian cross -- nope!) -- as
the below nyt-derived graphic
makes visually-plain, it is
the combination of the "N",
and "D" flag positions, from
american semiphore -- flag
signing -- coupled with the whole
world (thus, "nuclear disarmament,
for the whole world" -- though it
is also thought-of as a person,
with arms outstretched). . .

. . .Kathryn Westcott, writing on the Web site of BBC News, about the origin of the peace symbol:

It started life as the emblem of the British anti-nuclear movement but it has become an international sign for peace, and arguably the most widely used protest symbol in the world. It has also been adapted, attacked and commercialized.

It had its first public outing 50 years ago on a chilly Good Friday as thousands of British anti-nuclear campaigners set off from London’s Trafalgar Square on a 50-mile march to the weapons factory at Aldermaston.

The demonstration had been organized by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War and the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament joined in.

Gerald Holtom, a designer and former World War II conscientious objector from West London, persuaded DAC that their aims would have greater impact if they were conveyed in a visual image. The “Ban the Bomb” symbol was born.

He considered using a Christian cross motif but, instead, settled on using letters from the semaphore — or flag-signaling — alphabet, super-imposing N(uclear) on D(isarmament) and placing them within a circle symbolizing Earth.

The sign was quickly adopted by C.N.D.

Holtom later explained that the design was “to mean a human being in despair” with arms outstretched downwards. . .

so, increase the

p e a c e. . .

and wish it a
happy half-century!