What's so bad about a little girl wearing a peace sign?

A liberal blog ^ | July 13, 2009 | Helena Andrews

[Jim Robinson]

Can anyone answer the sweet lady's innocent little question?

[prisoner6]

On a personal level, it stands to me to symbolize the hatred and animosity expressed toward both our military in the 60s and toward our country. It is a symbol expressing hatred of the US rather than pride in the greatest country on earth.

Ditto's to that. Basically I suppose there's nothing constitutionally wrong with wearing it but by the same token I have the constitutional right to not like it.

Just like this picture that FReeper rightwingintelligentsia took of a house near where we live.

Admittedly we don't know the homeowner's intention or the statement that is being made. It could be a protest against the current administration or a show of support.

However I am still offended. Then again I know of a lot of my neighbors who don't like my Gadsden.

prisoner6

[rabidralph]

Pajama-clad maniacs, may be more pithy.

[Free State Four]

Yup. I don't mind the children wearing clothing displaying their political preferences to the Sidwell Private School for Beltway Democrat Politicians and their Friends, but when they are traveling, especially to political summits, on MY DIME, they can just wear nice pink or blue or yellow t-shirts.

[fortunate sun]

What's so bad about a mother not aborting a Down's Syndrome baby?

What's so bad about a mother sticking up for her daughter when she's been being described as a tramp by a washed-up, late night comedian?

etc., etc., etc.,

[Jemian]

I would have a lot of problems with those neighbors.

[SERE_DOC]

"Pajama-clad maniacs with attitudes" maybe more apropos

[Vanders9]

What is so bad about a little girl wearing a peace sign?

Hm.

Well, for a start off that sign is not a universal sign of peace - it is the specific peace sign of several different groups, all of a particular strand of political thinking. These assorted groups do propogate the idea of “peace”, but they also propound a particular way of achieving this lofty objective (as well as a whole lot of other, rather less savoury policies) to which the rest of us are, shall we say, not neccesarily in agreement with.

Ergo, in wearing such a “peace sign” said young lady is emphatically NOT merely advocating “peace”. She is, perhaps unwittingly, in fact making a whole series of specific political statementsm because the emblem may mean “peace”, but it doesn’t ONLY mean “peace”.

[barker]

Good morning.

[Red in Blue PA]

Wearing a shirt with an obvious political statement while visiting a foreign country as their guest is a no for any President (or any of his family).

The fact that Obama is so tone deaf to this most salient point is downright scary.

[GregB]

They have no idea what we are about. Obama will be like the french..he will surrender before the first shot is fired in a war!!!

[raybbr]

That blog is proof that some people are born into ignorance and never leave. Mostly by their own choice.

[johncatl]

It’s the footprint of the American chicken to this vet.

[MagnoliaB]

It's hard for me to imagine the ignorance of this administration allowing this child to parade around Europe with ANY KIND of symbol on her clothes that could be interpreted in all kinds of controversial ways. AND I have to conclude that it wasn't by accident because apparently it was two different tee shirts in one day.

“Just a couple of days after President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev agreed to cut back on nuclear weapons, the 11-year-old was spotted in Italy wearing two T-shirts that blared anti-nuclear sentiments.

As the president readied for the G-8 talks there, Malia turned out in a gray T-shirt bearing the famous Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament’s peace sign logo during a visit to the Coliseum in Rome.

Later, Malia changed into a mottled white and gray top bearing the peace sign.”

http://weblogs.newsday.com/entertainment/shoptalk/blog/2009/07/malia_obamas_peace_sign_tshirt.html

All of the foreign news sources I read interpreted it as a deliberate political statement by the child. I guess they think like I do, no one would be that stupid by accident and I'm talking about the adults around her.

So now I think, hmmmmmmmmmm......what was behind this? With Obama’s popularity tanking could this have just been a political ploy concocted to draw sympathy and deflect from BO’s failing policies. They HAD to know this would create controversy especially after seeing what has happened to Sarah Palins children, even little Trig. They HAD to know that there would be tons of negative comments. If not, then it leads me back to ‘is this the most ignorant administration that has ever occupied the WH’? I would like to see a reporter address this in a WH press conference. Let's get to the bottom of this. Do they just let the child wear what she wants anytime she wants? I want the WH to clear this up.

[rlmorel]

The peace sign in and of itself is just a symbol, a unique collection of lines and curves. It is not the symbol itself that many Americans (like me) detest, but what it actually symbolizes.

It symbolizes all the worst things and wrong attitudes when dealing with the most dangerous facets of human existence, armed confilict.

Nobody in their right mind likes war. But no thinking, freedom loving person loves peace that is an abdication of national responsibility or a surrender of personal freedom.

The peace sign is not a “Peace through Strength” sign or a “Peace through fair, just and moral agreement” sign.

The peace sign is a “Peace at all costs” sign, even if that means exposing our belly and surrendering our freedoms. It is a sick, twisted and corrosive form of unthinking, uncaring immature utopianism.

And in this case, the “little girl wearing the peace sign” is doing so with full consent and support of her parents, who know full well the symbolism of the “peace sign”.

There are people who say it is her First Amendment Right to wear that shirt in that setting.

First, children do not have Full First Amendment rights, not if they have responsible parents, and not if their expression of First Amendment rights could have affects that could impact adversely millions of people. Children learn through responsible parenting the boundaries of their First Amendment rights.

Secondly, it was worn with the full approval of the parents. Does anyone think, for even a moment, that she would have been allowed to wear a shirt in that situation saying “Russians murdered and tyrannized many millions more people than the Nazis ever did!” Of course not, because it would have had an effect on millions of US citizens as a result.

That fact that Obama, his wife, and liberals think this is a great thing, letting an 11 year old wear that symbol in that context, is shocking proof that (a) they either think the symbol has no meaning past the wearing of it. It is just a symbol, or (b) They know full well just what it symbolizes and wish the message to be sent.

Either choice unearths a dangerous, immature, naive mindset in a world where we should be projecting strength, not weakness.

That is what is wrong with a “little girl wearing a peace sign”.

[Kirkwood]

That particular peace symbol is associated with an anti-military stance and a weak America. Peace through strength trumps peace through weakness. I don’t know any conservative who doesn’t want peace and for the troops to come home to their families.

[Free State Four]

Good morning back atcha. Summertime and I have a/c running, so I arise uncharacteristically early to run a load of laundry and the dishwasher, and boil water for my iced tea. Can do all that, a little FR reading, go back to bed and get in a nap all before the crack of noon, when my teenagers drag out of bed! :)

[Never on my watch]

Anyone who has said to their kids, “You're not going outside wearing THAT?!”, knows that the shirt she was wearing was a political statement of the parents and worn with their approval. I suspect it was a gift from Bill Eyers.

[cabojoe]

It is a slap in the face to those in the military and those who have given their lives defending our nation, by the Commander in Chief’s family while visiting a foreign country. It’s amateur hour at the White House.

[Never on my watch]

Wow. Well written, thanks!

[depressed in 06]

It is not a peace symbol, it is an anti-war symbol, that is, any war America is involved in. You didn’t see it when the communists were involved in a war, in fact, it would be prominent when America opposed a communist war.