re: Germany: on the Swastika (Randy Black, US)

Randy Black writes:

Robert Whealey’s 4 August post ignores my original premise in which I clearly stated that the barracks building in the San Diego area, coupled with dozens if not hundreds of historical examples of swastikas across the USA and the world, is nothing new and not particularly controversial in 2009.

My post is not about one’s patriotism. It is not about our admiration of our military’s sacrifices during WWII. It is not about the sacrifices of the millions upon millions of Europeans in that era.

It is only about structures in the USA and the design of hundreds of pre-world war buildings, universities, graves of Presidents and monuments that date to the 1800s and even earlier–and one building’s design that has been overlooked by millions of air travelers to California for decades. We have not heard of these so-called controversies until the news media had a slow news day. With the Internet, this matter takes on its own life, much as “viral” advertising does on the Internet in this modern era.

Plus, I never mentioned an “empty work of art.” By labeling the swastika “an empty work of art,” Robert has insulted billions of people in the Asian theater who apparently have respected the swastika as relevant to their culture and religions for more than 5,000 years.

In my previous post, I illustrated with a plethora of sources that a building built in California nearly 40 years ago, coupled with historical structures, hotels, churches, universities and other structures across the USA dating hundreds of years, and even the death chamber of a US President feature swastikas and no one has ever protested them to this day until the media had a slow news day.

I repeat: Very clearly, this is nothing more than a media event led by a few newscasters who are having a slow news day. This “controversy” rates equally, in my mind, to the media hysteria about the death of Michael Jackson. Double yawn.

In my research on these swastika matters, I found almost nothing in the European media recently about any swastika controversy regarding the design of buildings or the décor within Europe. The closest thing to a European controversy was two years ago when the EU “almost” voted to ban the swastika from all publications and exhibits. The vote failed and that defeat was the totally the result of protests from thousands of Hindu-Europeans who said it would effectively ban their religious practices have included the swastika for thousands of years. Heck, there’s even a swastika in the Vatican on a candlestick that is used in religious ceremonies.

Certainly, no one can forget the Nazis, but that is not the issue I addressed. If the swastika issues are relevant, where are the demands and protests regarding the tens of millions of Hindus and others who on a regular basis, send swastika-illustrated greeting cards to one another across Asia? Are we to assume that Hindus and Buddhists and other religions in Asia are “Nazi-loving, Jew-hating” peoples? I think not. Heck, even the Chinese used the swastika as a sun symbol dating the 800s.

Robert, as a historian, addresses only the Nazi issue, not the matters I discussed.

Robert states: … The frequent reproduction of Swastikas in the United States of 2009…..

By the way, I recall that Robert is from Ohio. He might want to check out the entrance to a building in Cincinnati at 384 Probasco Street. And then there’s the capital building in New Mexico. And the previously mentioned President Garfield monument in Cleveland, Ohio, or the United Church of Christ in Providence, Rhode Island where there is a swastika on the church’s corner stone. Apparently, you can find swastikas in several places on the capital building of the State of Ohio. Where are the protests?

I know of no “frequent reproduction of swastikas in the US in 2009.” I realize that we have a few naïve students and a few racists here and there, but “frequent reproduction in the US in 2009” is a bit of a stretch, don’t you think?

Finally, my thought is that Hitler hijacked a centuries old, respected symbol for only about 12 years. When he along with his proposed Nazi empire died, the symbol reverted to its rightful owners–the religions of the world along with those peoples.

Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Other_Asian_traditions

http://oddcincy.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/lotsa-swastikas/

http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa086.shtml

http://www.quiltersmuse.com/swastika-quilt-block.htm

http://www.quiltersmuse.com/swastika-quilt-block.htm

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John Eipper, Editor-in-Chief, Adrian College, MI 49221 USA