Sunday, November 27, 2005
Each political movement has its own symbol. Yellow ribbons are a sign of support for the troops, while the peace sign is often used by war protestors. It seems like they now have a colored ribbon for almost everything. For example, the pink ribbon has become an important symbol for breast cancer awareness.
As an ironworker, I don't get too excited about ribbons, so I needed to come up with a better idea (not to mention that every imaginable color has already been claimed by one group or another). Then I heard about the paperclip.
During World War II, Norwegians wore paperclips as a symbol of national unity. A Norwegian by the name of Johan Vaaler is widely credited for inventing the paperclip, and it emerged as a way for Norwegians to show their resistance to the occupying Nazi forces.
That which had once bound page to page soon served to bind one heart to another.
I immediately knew that the paperclip would make a perfect symbol for PACT America. After all, the investment we need to protect is not the one printed upon the paper of stocks and bonds, but the one engraved upon the hearts and minds of a generation. And since one of the greatest problems our country faces is a lack of national unity, we could probably use a symbol whose sole purpose is to unite that which is divided.
