Post by roycastro on Dec 14, 2008 15:16:50 GMT -5
Tab (Thomas Boldt), The Calgary Sun, Alberta, Canada 12/12/08
In front of the fiery glow of the fireplace, we see a Christmas tree, and under it, a boxed gift. The box says "Peace on Earth" and below it says, "some assembly required." Peace on Earth would truly be a gift to all of mankind. For once, we should be able to live in uniform peace while maintaining a sense of one's individuality and tolerance of the diverse populace. We, as the people, must take it upon ourselves to uphold the responsibility of being mature enough to be tolerant of the differences of others; we must build this peace. In other words, for peace to be on Earth, there truly is "some assembly required."
The symbolism in this cartoon is simply great. Peace is being signified as a gift by being put under a Christmas tree and inside a box with a bow on top, but inside the box there are many different nuts, bolts, screws, and scraps of metal that symbolize our "broken peace." The fact that the box says "some assembly required," sends a strong message that is made effective through the cartoonist's use of symbolism. The message indicates that this "peace" that we long for needs to be "assembled" in a sense, we must build it through acts of kindness and compassion, through tolerance and acceptance, and most importantly, through intentions of coexistence. As we have seen in the past, in events such as the Holocaust, the Nazis could not imagine coexisting with the Jews, which led to the mass murder of Jews and many other different components of the diverse populace such as homosexuals and Gypsies. For peace to be on Earth, people must come together and try to build this peace, we must "assemble" it.
