PEACE

One word in green paint captured a lot of attention for important issues over the past couple of weeks. Willamette Week reported on Wilson High School students using washable paint, with teachers’ permission, to write “PEACE” on classroom windows facing the school’s front entrance on SW Vermont Street. One adult called the school to complain, and the District decided the word must be removed -this despite other window decorations being permitted and even encouraged at schools all over Portland. Indymedia, the O, The Red Electric and others picked up the story. From the Oregonian:

“… members of the school’s social justice committee, which came up with the peace idea. Classroom teachers gave the students permission to put up the messages, the students noted.

Senior Maggie Zimmer, a club member, said the administrative rationales given for removing the weeks-old messages varied from equating them to graffiti to saying they were political speech to calling the letters messy.

Sophomore Rachel Coodley, another club member, said students agreed to wash off the letters, painted with water-soluble paint, because janitors would have had to do it otherwise. The intent of the artwork was to convey a general message of peace and harmony, she said.

“I don’t think the message of peace is hurting anyone,” Coodley said. “Realistically, who has a problem with peace?”

I’m proud of the Wilson students. Several posted astute comments on WW’s site, using their full names taking responsibility for their words and actions – a good example for all the adults posting anonymously on blogs. Kudos to teacher Karl Meiner, known for challenging the senior honors English class and making students of all abilities think more carefully. I’m grateful to community members such as Paloma Clothing‘s Mike Roach in nearby Hillsdale, offering alternative window space for the message of peace. And I’m happy the students are continuing to bring attention to the cause….. for instance, on this student’s car, frequently parked on the Wilson campus.

(fuzzy photo taken by me on my phone camera)

Want to ban bumper stickers and window signs in school parking lots, too, Portland Public Schools?

As anyone who’s followed the City of Portland’s battles with billboard companies knows, any regulation of signs has to be content-neutral.

Interesting fact: signs on windows inside buildings aren’t regulated by Portland’s code – so those gigantic letters visible from I-5 North, spellng “THE JOHN ROSS .COM” in the windows of one of the South Waterfront skyscrapers, are legal. As Wilson senior Daniel Ronan points out, since snowflakes are allowed on windows at Stephenson Elementary, on what basis does the District discriminate against the word PEACE at Wilson? Too bad they started with the simple, who-could-complain single word. Would WOODROW WILSON, NOBEL PEACE PRIZE LAUREATE, have been more acceptable to the lone complainant and the District? With, say, the PEACE in green and the rest in white and orange, the other school colors?

My son Maxwell’s last act at home yesterday at the end of his Spring Break, before getting into this car to head back to the airport and New Jersey, was to write PEACE in green sidewalk chalk at the end of our driveway. What if everyone who believes peace is desirable did the same? Use your own high school’s colors, or if you don’t feel affinity to one, use green to reflect support for Wilson’s activists. Remind yourself and your neighbors, every day, that we don’t often achieve a goal unless we think about and remember it.