Peace Symbol Gets a Warmer Reception 2nd Time Around

Ernie Torres worried about his neighbors’ reaction to a large, wooden peace symbol he hung in front of his Northridge home last month as a Christmas decoration.

He remembered the adverse response to a peace symbol he displayed in front of a Canoga Park house during the height of the Vietnam War. In those politically charged days, the peace symbol meant “you were member of the anti-war minority, a Commie,” Torres said.

“When I look back, I’m surprised nobody burned down the house. It was a very conservative neighborhood,” he added. But that was then and this is now, Torres reasoned. And even though times had changed, hanging a large peace symbol could spark controversy.

“I asked myself, ‘Do you want to bring that age back?’ Those weren’t the best of times,” he said.

But Torres, 46, hung the peace sign, complete with lights to illuminate it at night. To his surprise, the response has been positive and his peace symbol, still in Torres’ front yard, has served as the catalyst to some rather surprising events.

When one of Torres’ sons, an Army private stationed at Ft. Benning, Ga., saw the huge peace symbol, he wanted his picture taken next to it. His mother, Karen Torres, eagerly shows visitors the photograph of her son in his dress uniform standing next to the peace symbol, his arms stretched above his head and his fingers making the “V” peace salute.

‘They Knew What it Was’

One evening when the Torres family forgot to light the symbol, a trio of high school girls, who said they were worried that the family had taken it down, appeared at the door.

“They knew what it was and said they loved it,” Karen Torres recalled. “They said that there were peace symbol earrings, and peace symbol T-shirts. It seems like there’s a revival of the peace symbol. It’s neat.”

The Torres’ peace symbol even has had a calming affect on a cluster of dorms at Cal State Northridge across the street from the family’s house.

“I don’t know what it is, but since that thing went up, everyone here seems to have mellowed out,” said David Flinn, a resident of the North Campus complex. “Maybe it was the Christmas vacation, maybe it was the holiday spirit. But the peace symbol is still up and the mellowness is still here.”

The only controversy generated by the Torres’ peace symbol is a ongoing family debate over whether to leave it up or take it down. Daughter Jill, 17, and her high school friends want it to be a permanent front yard fixture. “They think it’s cool,” she said.

Whatever the final outcome, Torres said he is going to take his time making up his mind.

“It went over so big, if we take it down, we’re going to get a lot of protest,” he said with a laugh.