We Want Every Home to Be a Zone of Peace

Lys Anzia – WNN Features

Muslim family returns home after the war, Kosovo, 1999. Image: Svetlana Bahchevanova

When Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold says, “We want every home to be a zone of peace. We want all forms of violence to cease,” she means it.

Everyone who hears this cry will agree it’s time to do something to help in the world’s peace effort. Yes. Peace is on our minds these days. Peace is essential.

As the 1967 poster by Lorraine Schneider said, “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” Lorraine had gathered a group of 15 friends to her house on February 8, 1967. It was the time when the Vietnam war was raging and activists gathered together in living rooms and kitchens to talk and take action.

Schneider decided she could do something.

“We decided to send a Mother’s Day card to Washington,” said Schneider about those days. “We decided to print and distribute one thousand.” In it were the words, “For my Mother’s Day gift of this year, I don’t want any candy or flowers. I want an end to killing. We who have given life must be dedicated to preserving it. Please talk peace.”

On the outside of this card was the same image that was later made into Lorraine Schneider’s poster, along with bumper stickers, note cards, and key rings that would help form a strong brand for the peace movement during the days of the Vietnam war. It started with a thousand cards send out by AMP – Another Mother for Peace. Soon it became 200,000 cards.

It was a simple image of a sunflower that would mobilize a nation of peace activists.