Peace Flag Project - South Shore
We started the Peace Flag Project-South Shore quite accidentally! Just a small handful of friends who saw a Facebook post about the flags and got our hands on three of them. Once those flags were visible in our community, there was an outpouring of interest. People wanted to know how to get one, and what it stood for? Seemingly overnight, we had a list of people ready to display this symbol on their homes, businesses and organizations. It was a truly dizzying and inspiring experience!
The first and most important thing we tell people, is that the flags are always free. As this flag has been welcomed across the South Shore, the overwhelming feedback that we have consistently received can only be described as a united exhale. In a time when so many of us are holding in pain and sadness for both individual and collective reasons, this symbol is a beacon of hope. Hope that we may continue to recognize the beauty of diversity. In nature, diversity is what keeps a species alive, diversity is what keeps nature thriving. We believe that diversity across all genders, skin tones, cultures, sexualites, personal identities, neuro abilities, nationalities, religions, political ideals, disabilities, and ages, keeps this world thriving.
The flag itself was created by The Common Street Center in Natick (https://commonstreet.org/rainbow-peace-flag-project/). They worked as a team with a local artist, Virginia Fitzgerald, to create this symbol. The design went through several iterations and was given critical feedback from various community members, representing the broad spectrum of diversity across humanity, before coming to the flag we use today.
The mission of the The Rainbow Peace Flag Project is to extend kindness and caring across national borders, with love that includes people of all sexualities, genders, abilities, religions, races, and cultures, and to condemn acts of violence and hatred, embracing peaceful dialogue instead. They have successfully sent thousands of flags all over the world. And our chapter here on the South Shore have sent flags across the country from Arizona to Vermont, and have distributed hundreds of flags within our community.
The symbol of the peace flag is to include and encourage peaceful dialogue. It states with an open heart and mind that everyone is diverse in some way, and we must all be allies for each other. There are times when we must lean into the needs of diverse groups more than others, and when we do that for each other, it is a promise we make to turn towards peace in the name of those in need.
What started as a small act of solidarity for humanity, has blossomed into a veritable movement in our little community and we are truly not surprised in retrospect.
There are a few different ways you can get a flag for yourself, or a friend, or your whole neighborhood. We have pick up locations at Anchor and Sail in Cohasset Center and Board 143 in North Scituate. You can also visit and message us on our Facebook page “Peace Flag Project - South Shore”. If you would like to make a donation to the movement you can do so via the provided link.
https://secure.givelively.org/teams/common-street-spiritual-center/rainbow-peace-flag-project/peace-project-south-shore