Valentine's Day for Activists

It may be their passion for their cause which originally attracted you to them. The fire in their soul and the flashing fury in their eyes, as they survey the injustices that they wish to put right.

These are people with big hearts and endless compassion. It is a love bigger than themselves, which explodes out into fighting for their community or the whole, wide world.

Valentine's Day can seem trite beside all of that, but it doesn't have to be.  On February 14th, your gift or card could say loud and clear that this is why you love them. You embrace their battles like you embrace their bodies. You appreciate the whole package.

You are the right person for them.

It will take more than a nice bunch of flowers to communicate this claim, so let us run through some of the alternatives. Let's look at some of the ways in which Valentine's Day tokens might match your loved one's activism.

Holtom took his inspiration from the semaphore flag alphabet, which was so widely used by the armed forces. He gambled on the fact that military observers would completely understand this symbolic language.

The resulting peace symbol super-imposed two semaphore letters. 'N' is shown by an individual holding two flags downwards, at 45 degree angles from their legs. 'D' is practically a straight, vertical line. One flag is held aloft, high above the signaler's head. The other points down.

Between them they create the inverted V, cut through with a line, which makes up the universal symbol for peace. The ND stands for 'Nuclear Disarmament'.

They will be fighting all attempts to centralize, restrict or otherwise censor access to cyberspace. They will be defending freedom of speech and expression; and they will be ensuring that any and all information is freely shared across the globe.

It's one of life's great fallacies that all internet activists are married to their computers. Some of them are just waiting for the right person to tell them, '01001001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101.'*

Only a minority of politically aware cyberpunks are hackers. The vast majority spend their on-line lives raising awareness in petitions and websites. They are the people bringing information to the masses. Their activism takes the form of devising the right language to communicate all that needs to be said.

Of course, being geeks, this language is usually HTML or PHP.  As their Valentine, you want to ensure that it's all happening around your CSS.

A whole lexicon of memes and slogans has built up around internet activism. You can use it to spread your own message this February 14th.  'We never forget' could apply to more than a statement of purpose from Anonymous; and what could be more romantic than declaring 'all my base are belong to you'?

*  Binary for 'I Love You'.

Activists involved in it have been arrested, beaten and shot defending their right to peaceful protest. The famous photograph which heads this page was taken during one of its demonstrations, in Oakland, California. The woman depicted had been injured by an officer's baton, hence being on the floor in the first place.

They found time for romantic love, even in those difficult and painful circumstances. This Valentine's Day could easily be your moment to declare the same for your Occupy activist. After all, the entire movement is based on love, community and the deep emotion of the heart.

It is a story steeped in mystery, which may or may not be true. The legend goes that Valentine was a Christian priest at the time of Emperor Claudius II.

This was not a great time to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. Worshipers more often found themselves fighting for their lives in the Colosseum than embracing old age. Yet secretly conversions took place and their numbers swelled.

For those rebellious couples wishing to marry within the tenets of their religion and the Church, this era was especially dangerous. Anyone witnessing that could expect a reward for reporting them to the authorities. Moreover, the defiant couple would have to find a priest.

Father Valentine was a courageous man. He officiated over many of these marriages, until he was eventually discovered. Then he was arrested and locked away. There was no mercy from Claudius II. The Emperor ordered the execution of the Christian priest.

Valentine was reputedly stoned and beaten to within an inch of his life. Then he was beheaded, as a warning to all who would follow. 

But Christians of the time fought hard for their right to worship according to their own spiritual path. They eventually secured safety for their religion and, in 496 CE, Pope Gelasius I canonized the martyred priest as St Valentine.