When I was in high school, I rode with my girlfriend and her parents to drop off her older sister at her college campus in Boulder, Colorado. My friend and I helped her settle into her tiny dorm room and I remember most vividly, hanging the large peace sign in her window. Peace signs were a common sight in those days and in the years following, usually seen on the bumpers and windows of VW beetles and buses.
The peace sign originated in the UK. It was designed by peace activist Gerald Holtom in 1958, to protest nuclear arms. His inspiration emerged from a dark moment of despair, when he visualized a peasant with hands stretched out and down, prior to being shot by a firing squad.
The period between 1945 and 1989 was known as the Cold War. It was a time when tensions were high between the United States and Russia and the race to build a nuclear bomb was a high priority. Russia built the first nuclear power plant in 1954. There are now 55 nuclear power plants, each with 1 to 3 reactors. The United States has the largest total number of nuclear reactors world wide. Most of them are in the eastern half of the country.
Most of us do not think about where or how our electricity comes to us. We become annoyed whenever our power goes out. Our reliance on something that could potentially annihilate us is not something we give much thought to; but this power that is helping to heat our homes, is the same power that is used in creating deadly bombs.
We have seen evidence on the news of Ukrainians shot down execution style, by Russian invaders. We have seen Ukrainian cities that have been leveled to the ground and their nuclear power plant targeted by Russian soldiers. This is what the nuclear arms race has brought us to. Is it time for all of us to display peace signs in our windows and to protest the nuclear power that has run amok in the world? I propose we have a peace race.
