Another reason to abolish HOAs

A Denver HOA has ordered a resident to take down a Christmas wreath in the shape of a peace sign because some of her neighbors have taken offense to it.

Now, how could a reasonable human being object to a universal symbol of peace, one of the central values of their own religion? Well, a reasonable person wouldn't. Only a stupid person would.

Their stupidity is confirmed by their reasons for taking offense to it. Some neighbors have confused it with a pentagram, which they have confused with a pentacle, which they erroneously believe is a symbol of Satanism.

If you are under this pernicious delusion, please take a note of the differences between the three symbols in this handy diagram:

As you can see, there are pronounced differences between the symbols. So there goes that argument.

Of course, if you want to get technical, even if she had displayed a pentacle or pentagram, it couldn't be considered an explicitly Satanic symbol because both symbols have been used by many cultures to represent God or some concept associated with God. The star of David is an example of a pentacle (the etymology of which has nothing to do with the number five, despite common misconceptions). Early Christians displayed pentagrams to respresent the wounds that Jesus suffered on the cross. It's not really necessary to go into all of this to refute the arguments of the peace sign opponents, but it does illustrate their ignorance of the history of their own religious traditions.

The other reason neighbors cited for objecting to the peace sign is that it expresses opposition to the war in Iraq, in which some of their sons and daughters are fighting. Here they are making rash assumptions about her reasons for hanging the wreath. Let's ignore the issue of whether the war is legal or morally right and focus on the meaning of the symbol. Again, a little history lesson will illuminate the matter. The peace sign was created for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in 1958. The symbol is derived from the semaphore symbols for 'N' and 'D'. So the peace sign is nothing more than a stylized acronym for "Nuclear Disarmament." Of course, the peace sign became a symbol for the movement against the Vietnam War. Beyond that, it has become a symbol for the ideal of world peace, something that real Christians wouldn't object to. The peace sign has no explicit connection to the war in Iraq, and one would think that opposition to the Vietnam War is no longer a hot-button issue. Once again, the HOA's reasoning has been proven fallacious.

Having established that our heroine was, in fact, explicitly supporting the abstract notion of world peace and not necessarily intending to express a stance on the current war, let's turn our attention to why the concept of peace should not be controversial.

There are numerous references to the ideal of peace in the New Testament. For example, Matthew 5:9 says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." James 3:18 says, "Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness." There are also numerous associations between peace and Christmas in folk tradition, especially in carols. On famous example is in "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", written by Charles Wesley in 1739. "Peace on earth and mercy mild" are lauded as the consequences of the coming of the Messiah. If the offended neighbors intend on singing this particular carol this year, in public or in private, they have no leg to stand on in their objections.

However, there is reason to believe that the campaign against the peace wreath has more to do with the personal ambitions of the HOA president. The architectural control committee voted to allow the wreath in accordance with the HOA's rules. The president, however, was dissatisfied with the result of this vote and fired all five committe members.

This goes to the center of why HOAs should be abolished or, at the very least, heavily regulated. They frequently go way beyond protecting property values and abridge the civil rights of homeowners without due process. There is no way the presence of a peace sign wreath, controversial or not, can severely affect neighbors' property values. This is entirely about trying to control what fellow Americans think and say, which is the very definition of un-American. I hope that the new Democratic majorities in both houses will make limiting the power of HOAs part of the 2007 legislative agenda.