To appease the public, the U.S. Navy has decided to spend as much as $600,000 for landscaping and architectural modifications to obscure the fact that one its building complexes looks like a swastika from the air. The buildings, constructed in the 1960's, are located on the Coronado Naval Amphibious Base and serve as a barracks.
From the ground, or even adjoining buildings, the configuration cannot be seen, but from the air they are shaped as a swastika. What started the controversy was that people began looking at satellite images from Google Earth and this generated alot of talk on the internet.
The Navy admitted that the design was not noted until after the ground breaking in 1967, but since it was not visible from the ground, a decision was made not to make any changes.
The controversy has created such a stir recently that the Anti-Defamation League and U.S. Rep. Susan Davis (D-San Diego) both pressured the Navy to make changes.
The Nazi's adapted a version of it in the 1920's but the swastika dates from the Neolithic period. It has long been widely-used in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism.
What do you think? Was this really necessary?
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Comments: 17
Who can see it? The airplanes? Google..? What a waste of money!
They should just leave it alone, you cannot tell from the ground.
But I also feel this about a multitude of other 'issues' that people have these days...
Why don't they focus on the many examples of real life genocide going on right now that involve people who are not Jewish? That would would be refreshing.
Thanks for pointing out that the symbol existed long before Hitler and his Nazis adopted it. As others have stated, the symbol was traditionally understood as a "sun" symbol that meant good things. Hitler co-opted it to present his Reich as some kind of light bringer to the world, but his goals and actions were Lucifer related, not God related.
Who cares what the building is shaped like? If it serves its function, let it go. It's a sad state of affairs when architecture has to become politically correct as well. Does this mean that all offensive buildings are on the chopping block?
I think I'll file a suit against all the State owned maintenance buildings that look like 'coneheads' as I find them demeaning to aliens from other planets.
SPEND - BUSH, SPEND - you haven't quite bankrupted the USA, but you're damn close.