Combating Radicalism Saugus Style!!!

Of Peace Symbols and Hurricane Seasons

Thanks to Amy Ridenour over at “National Center Blog” for compiling this useful response that will come in handy for my customers entering my work where usually two Green Peace’rs are gathered. I cannot wait to use it myself in general conversation. Enjoy, and the whole article is worth reading.

…In fact, right now, the continental United States is in the midst of its fifteenth longest sustained period without a hurricane strike. (For purposes of this post, a "hurricane strike" refers to a hurricane affecting the continental U.S. The eye of the hurricane may not necessarily have made landfall, but there will have been hurricane force winds on land.)

It is not the first such extended hurricane strike-free period in recent years.

In fact, four out of the 15 longest periods without hurricane strikes (that's about 27%) have occurred since 1983 -- when the planet was presumably in full overheat mode. Lengthy strike-free periods extended through 1983 (1105 days, ending with Hurricane Alicia), 1995 (700 days, ending with Hurricane Erin), 2002 (1084 days, ending with Hurricane Lili) and 2007 (688 days and counting).

Four out of the longest 15 strike-free periods occurred in the second half of the 19th Century. Prolonged periods of inactivity extended through 1865 (1412 days, ending with the Sabine River-Lake Calcasieu Hurricane), 1873 (716 days, ending with a Florida strike from an unnamed hurricane), 1885 (718 days, ending with strikes in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida from an unnamed hurricane) and 1893 (731 days, ending with the Midnight Storm Hurricane).

The remaining seven periods were spread out between 1903 and 1974.

Particularly striking -- in a strike-free sense, that is -- is that two of the five longest periods of U.S. mainland strike inactivity have occurred over the past 24 years. The five longest periods without strikes include: 1865, 1415 days; 1983,1105 days; 2002, 1084 days; 1932, 1050 days and 1974, 812 days.

A few of my co-workers along with the few hippie moonies in our valley went to the corner by Whole Foods (where I work) and had a "Peace-Rally" (e.g., anti-Bush/pro-conspiracy/why veganism is good "rally"). If I had it off I would have got a nice "Protest Warrior" type sign made up.

So all I could do is comment as I saw the "Peace Symbol" on shirts and jewelry as they filtered into the store. This is my opening line:

"Oh wow, I sure have seen a lot of 'Broken Crosses of Nero' today."

The customer would look inquisitively at me, "Broken cross of Nero?"

I would reply (and it would almost always go like this), "Yeah, the 'Broken Cross of Nero' was the symbol Nero took representing the killing of Christians/Christianity (even at times making human candles out of us in his garden or feeding us to lions). In the 60's [ironic timing], the peace movement adopted the Broken Cross of Nero to signify not 'killing' Christians but the 'doing away with' or defeating of the old moral standard found in the Judeo-Christian worldview which they viewed as underpinning the capitalism found in the West which they viewed as the stumbling block for world peace."

They would look at me almost in disgust at this new information of what they were inadvertently supporting. I would then finish with, "analogously, the 'peace symbol' is to the Christian what a swastika is to a Jew, just with a circle (meaning worldwide) slapped on it - 1,900 years removed."

So I had a little fun with the "peace-rally" being so close. Not only fun, but I got to impart some history to my customers.