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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPlane tows swastika banner in New Jersey...
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LONG BEACH, N.J. (CBS/AP) New Jersey beachgoers were startled over the weekend to see a small plane flying overhead pulling a swastika banner.
Twitter was abuzz with tweets from people who saw the plane fly over Long Beach Island on Saturday afternoon.
http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2012/06/25/plane-tows-swastika-banner-startles-new-jersey-beachgoers/
FarLeftFist
(6,161 posts)petronius
(26,614 posts)A little more info here: http://online.wsj.com/article/APce7c3bef22e34f92a0730659e4980329.html
"Any negative emotions regarding the swastika by people under the age of 70 years old are obviously linked to their education and not to their experiences," the statement read in part. "It's about time people were re-educated to understand the original meaning of the oldest and most recurrent symbol in the world."
Etzion Neuer, acting head of the Anti-Defamation League in New Jersey, also noted that the swastika predates Hitler by hundreds, if not thousands, of years. He said that the group is not racist and that towing the swastika was a "misguided, but not malicious, act."
"They use the swastika in the traditional Eastern context, not the Nazi context," he said. "But to us it's incredibly insensitive because it's dismissive of the pain it causes to the Jewish community. It's an egocentric attitude, completely unconcerned about the way it's viewed by others."
freshwest
(53,661 posts)Brickbat
(19,339 posts)struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)reseru
(1 post)Of course the Raelian Movement wants the attention but not for the sake of it, you know? The Ku Klux Klan used the Christian cross as their symbol but there's no taboo against showing a cross, so why the double standard? They want the attention to share that perspective, to share the history of the swastika as an image of peace and unity, and to share the injustice European Buddhists and Hindus faced when the EU banned any public displaying of the swastika
struggle4progress
(118,379 posts)the bottom line is these folk are assholes. it doesn't matter whether or not they might be very very sincere assholes: lots of assholes are very very sincere. we really don't need to discuss whether or not there's a double standard here, or whether or not these people should be allowed to open an embassy for visiting extraterrestrials in israel or lebanon, or whether mr vorilhon ever traveled to other planets to hear important messages. they're just assholes
sufrommich
(22,871 posts)Of all the battles to choose, "swastika rehabilitation day" doesn't seem like a particularly well thought out one.
Hassin Bin Sober
(26,370 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)UFO Cult.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)I saw it in the first one and was seriously scratching my head. It is at the back by the way... bad, bad photo... but it gives it a whole different context.
Ian David
(69,059 posts)cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)This is fake news at its worst.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)it is there... mostly worst photo I have seen in a while.
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)with designs in it.
put up by a cia front group.
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)'Any negative emotions ... by people under age 70 ... are linked to education not to experiences ...
It's about time people were re-educated ..."
(From petronius' Reply $2 link at http://online.wsj.com/article/APce7c3bef22e34f92a0730659e4980329.html )
IMO the people who need to be re-educated are the ones behind "Swastika Rehabilitation Day". I would sentence each of the leaders to 2000 hours of community service at the Holocaust Museum and each of the followers to at least 200 hours.
Johnny Rico
(1,438 posts)ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)Any group parading around with swastikas is IMO daring other people to tear them down.
I realize that, unlike most other countries, the US severely limits prosecution of hate speech. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech .
So I would prosecute them on some other charge and let them sue.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)For example, swastikas (also known as fylfots) are commonly used in Buddhist literature, and in Japan, the "reverse swastika", or "omote manji", is used to designate Buddhist temples on maps. The swastika at the end of the banner does not appear to be a Nazi swastika, which was in a baseball diamond-like configuration like the one depicted on this coin:
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)even for post-1945 Buddhists
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)or chinese texts of oh Comets... is about Nazis?
WOW.
I am left speechless.
So we should go with hammers and destroy them?
I should also add, are you seriously suggesting that the Navajo cannot display their tribal symbols either? Upside down swastikas by the way...
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)And Bhudhist to abandont symbols that go back thousands of years...
I'm a child of a holocaust survivor, while jarring the first time, I have since learned the spiritual significance of these symbols for the navajo. Try broadening your horizons, it's good for the spirit.
We call this context by the way. it's good to understand it. Also pay close attention, as to the forms.
But damn it, on a blood flag flying in Michigan it has one meaning, on a Navajo blanket very different meaning.
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)demanding that people like you be "re-educated".
Read the WSJ article link and look at the photo--these folks are openly flaunting swastikas fully aware of their cultural meaning in 21st-century societies with millions of Jews and their allies. In many Western democracies , such as Belgium, these folks would be considered Holocaust deniers subject to the criminal provisions of Holocaust Denial legislation.
nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)Bhudist use of it.
Your intent is to ban it's use, period.
Raelians are right in one sense, the nazis did indeed use it in a way that is significant. Alas they're not denying the holocaust
But I guess you got me, I seem to deny the death of fifty of my relatives at Treblynka, which was a summer canp?
Take a good look at that particular use of a swastika, I mean it mixes it with a star of David...gets worst, the direction is wrong for the prongs.
Context my friend, would do you some good.
Oh and one more thing European laws banning it's use do not pass muster in the US and have had significant effects in the production of entertainment. Yes my dear, more than one game set in WWIi simply does not even mention the Holocaust to be sold in the European market. You chew on that one.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)And does it apply just to the Swastika? 'Cause hey, people waving the cross around have killed a whole hell of a lot more people than people who were waving the Swastika...
ProgressiveEconomist
(5,818 posts)From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_Holocaust_denial_law
"The Belgian Holocaust denial law, passed on March 23, 1995, bans public Holocaust denial. Specifically, the law makes it illegal to publicly "deny, play down, justify or approve of the genocide committed by the German National Socialist regime during the Second World War". Prosecution is led by the Belgian Centre for Equal Opportunities. The offense is punishable by imprisonment of up to one year and fines of up to 2,500 EUR."
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Yes, that's exactly what i'm doing. How clever of you to lift my ruse. Here I thought no one would catch on, since I used my ultra-secret shit-I-didn't-say code! But you sir, you have read between my lines to see the shit I never said, and have successfully called me on it
No, I'm asking you if we should also ban the cross as a symbol. it's got a longer, much bloodier history than the swastika, after all, and unlike the swastika, it's still going. If you don't think we should, then is it because of some statute of limitations?
Johnny Rico
(1,438 posts)Good.
The 1st Amendment trumps any wish you have to charge someone with a crime for displaying a swastika.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Though they don't rely so much on criminal attorneys...
cthulu2016
(10,960 posts)EastTennesseeDem
(2,675 posts)nadinbrzezinski
(154,021 posts)I know it is wiki, but hell, you could also look it up in a copy of the Bill of Rights
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
Try to read it.
Oh and before you say it, dad fought the nazis and lost family to the Nazis...
For me it is kind of personal, but that is also personal.
proud2BlibKansan
(96,793 posts)HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)limpyhobbler
(8,244 posts)Check back in 150 years.
jtuck004
(15,882 posts)Adam, Eve, and extraterrestrial Elohim (according to Raëlism - http://www.raelafrica.org/news.php?extend.69)
On reflection, it would have been SO much cooler if they could have flown that with a flying saucer.
xfundy
(5,105 posts)Elephants never forget, but repigs are required to do so.
Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)Elephants never forget, but Republicans never know in the first place
leftynyc
(26,060 posts)Perhaps when everyone who had anything to do with the holocaust (victims, survivors and perpertrators) are dead a couple of generations - but not now.