Tiger Beat Spectacular - Spring 1970

What Peace Means To Me

Just before I flash the peace sign at my concerts or on the street or whenever I do it, a chain of thoughts run through my head. It goes something like this: I've met you, my fans; you've made me happy; I've made you laugh and smile; I get a feeling that everywhere, all over the world, there could be this great feeling of warmth and understanding and calm and peace...that's when I raise my hands and form a V with the first two fingers on each hand. Peace - that's what the sign means - and in turn, peace means a lot to me.

You know, the peace sign used to stand for many things. Once before, Winston Churchill used it to mean victory, that the Allied forces would be victorious over enemy troops.

When people our age started using it, we gave the V many different meanings. Some schools and colleges flashed it during their school songs to say that their team would beat the opposing side. In some circles, it was even an underground sign to mean that you smoked marijuana! But all those connotations are gone, finally, and the peace V means just that, a fervent wish for peace.

Peace sometimes seems like an almost impossible state to me. All over the world, year in and year out, men have been fighting. They battle over land, trade, religion, even over a woman. Sometimes I wonder if peace is really possible? Maybe man just isn't suited for a society where problems aren't solved by clubbing those who disagree.

But then I look to places where peace really does exist, countries who haven't been at war, people who solve their differences by taking them to court, not settling them with gunfire in the streets.

To me, peace IS possible. It's possible because when you come right down to it, no one wants to fight. Can you find me a mother who's glad her son died in war? Of course not. Do you know a soldier who will tell you, "I want to die." Not ever! No one wants war...not one single sane soul! People would rather live in peace, pray in peace, die in peace than wake and sleep in war.

Peace isn't something that's far away, around next year's corner or in the following political elections of any country. Peace, I know, is possible right now, right this very minute, if only those who are warring would sit down and talk instead of standing up and fighting. And that doesn't mean sitting down and talking at the same time others are fighting and firing on the enemy. No - I mean for every soldier in every trench in every fighting country of the world to sit down and talk, right now...for no man, just because his skin is a different color or his eyes slant a different way or his religion meets in a different church is an enemy. He's another man, a little different perhaps but every bit as much flesh and blood and bones as you and I. That makes him a brother.

So when you flash the peace sign, give it some meaning. Know what it stands for and let peace mean something to you, like it does to me, and hopefully will to everyone someday.

VVVV Peace VVVV