More dimwits in Oregon
We read:
"A swastika along Highway 36 flown on private property in Junction City is just one example of hate speech in Lane County, according to County Commissioner Pete Sorenson. He says flags like this are legal on private property, but he still doesn't want to see them. "This kind of hate speech is just not welcome in our community," he says.
In light of this recent swastika flag, county commissioners met late last month and voted on the "Proclamation Against Hate Speech." Basically, commissioners are using their free speech to condemn this type of speech. They can condemn it but not change it. "As most people know, the swastika is a symbol of hatred," says Sorenson. "We feel while we cannot regulate that kind of speech under the federal and Oregon constitution, we feel we certainly can condemn it. And that's exactly what we did."
Source
It's difficult to know who is the dimmest here. The flag illustrated is NOT a symbol of hate. It is an Indian good luck symbol. You see them all over the place in India. In the Indian "swastik", the arms normally point to the left. In the Nazi Hakenkreuz, they point to the right. The Nazis did NOT refer to their symbol as a "swastika". It was the English who created that confusion. The German term translates as "Hooked Cross".
But the learned commissioner was not the only dummy. The guy who put the flag up apparently was comparing Obama to Hitler -- which is legitimate political speech, though something of an exaggeration. After all, Bush=Hitler was repeated ad nauseam from 2000 to 2008.
14 comments:
Good point about the name of the symbol. But alas, "swastika" is probably irretrievably associated with the Nazis.
So I say, let's go the other way. Start calling all indigenous or non-Nazi swastikas by the term "broken cross" or "bent cross" (or if you have a pedantic turn, by the term "fylflot").
Redeem the symbol by renaming it and rehabilitating it in its other forms and contexts.
The nazis have destroyed the meaning of the swastika. The homosexuals have destroyed the meaning of gay, and of rainbows. The current and last couple of administrations have destroyed the meaning of hard work and of the dollar. Extremists are destroying the meaning of life on all fronts.
Bad means good, bud is a racial reference. Watch what you say, for someone will choose to be offended.
And "right" means "crazy" - yeah we're all confused.
Residents pay income tax to the federal government.
The federal government returns small portions of that money to counties in the form of grants.
County governments that offend the sensivitivies of the prevailing powers in Washington are denied grants.
I believe there is a temple of the swastik in Singapore. The symbols are all over the place. I think it is a western hangup.
I don't mind the commissioners issuing proclamation as long as they don't force that neighbor to take his flag down.
The way the swastika is in the photo, it is not the nazi swastika. In fact, when I was in Korea, I saw those all the time. It is a symbol of Buddhism. The nazi swastika points in the other direction.
There are more people who've never heard of Hitler in Asia than there are in Europe and North America combined. The swastika is a common religious symbol all over Asia from India to Japan. I've seen it in Vietnam, Korea and China. I know 2-3 bargirls in Thailand who had to cover their swastika tattoos because - to their surprise - some westerners thought it was a bad symbol. I've seen a schoolboy draw a swastika on himself in a bus... Outside our small circles it simply has nothing to do with national socialism, regardless of which way it's drawn (Nazis used it both ways btw).
That said, it's obvious that in the U.S. it's not usually used as a religious or good luck symbol. There's no point in arguing whether it's a bad symbol or not - everyone knows the meaning in this case. Now it's just a matter of free speech and individual rights.
BTW, the symbol was "never" used facing in both directions by the Nazis.
"regardless of which way it's drawn (Nazis used it both ways btw)"
I've never seen it "backwards" when used by the Nazis, do you have an example?
Before 1920 swastika was used both ways by the NSDAP and its predecessor. After that it was mainly used facing right with the exception of the ensign flag which was always printed through so that the position of the cross depended on which side one was looking at. This was different from the national flag used on land which always had a right facing swastika on both sides.
http://www.demo.com.hk/flags/Germany_WWII.jpg
Anonymous 12:04, I believe you are incorrect, those JPG show the front and back of those flags. Fold one over the other and they both face in the same direction.
No, Ed, you are incorrect. The picture shows the front and back of those flags. Fold one over the other and one points to the left and the other to the right. Folding doesn't turn the picture into its mirror image.
(And yes, if you print the picture fold it so that the white sides are against each other.)
The ensign flag was always printed through and so the direction the swastika points depends on which side the flag is looked from. Same goes for the iron cross --> if it's on the left side when looked from the front, it's on the right side of the flag when looked from the back.
The way to distinguish the swastika from the Nazi Hakenkreuz is that the Nazi symbol hooks together two elongated "S"'s standing for "Socialist". Thanks, Jay, for the information in your comment after the article. Very interesting indeed.
Post a Comment