Azazello1313 Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 DECATUR, Ala. - From the ground, the Wesley Acres Methodist retirement home looks like any other building. But fly over in an airplane, and the outline is unmistakable: It's one big swastika. Prompted by complaints from a Jewish activist, the agency that owns the government-funded building is planning to alter its shape to disguise the Nazi symbol. The move comes just a few years after a $1 million design modification meant to quiet similar complaints from a U.S. senator. "The difficulty is there are a limited number of options for fixing a building that has been there for some time," said Mike Giles, counsel for the Methodist Homes Corp. of Alabama and Northwest Florida. "We have to come up with a way to fix an appearance that we want solved and not hurt our residents." Wesley Acres provides government-subsidized housing for 117 low-income people ages 62 and above. Most have no reason to suspect their hallways take on a sinister shape. The one-story building, designed in the mid-1970s and completed in 1980, underwent a $1 million alteration in 2001 with funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development following complaints by Democratic Sen. Howell Heflin, who has since died. But the addition of two wings did little to hide the offensive shape, and in some ways accentuates it. Options for the new renovations include the addition of covered porches or other outdoor areas. The latest push to rid the landscape of the broken cross shape follows complaints from Avrahaum Segol, the same Israeli-American researcher who last fall helped publicize a swastika-shaped barracks at Naval Base Coronado in San Diego. The Navy said it would spend about $600,000 to alter the building, which opened in the 1960s, but the work has not yet been done. Segol calls the Alabama retirement home a "sister swastika" to the building in California and says they were both part of a tangled, government-funded conspiracy to honor Nazis. Segol claims the swastika shape of Wesley Acres in Decatur pays homage to the German scientists who came to nearby Huntsville after World War II and designed the rockets that put Americans on the moon. Methodist Homes' Giles said Segol's conspiracy claims are ridiculous. The building was originally designed to be much larger, he said, and cutbacks resulted in a shape that resembled the four-armed swastika used as the symbol of German Nazis during World War II. "It was certainly not intentional," Giles said. The shape of the retirement center is evident in satellite photos available on the Internet. But it is located in a residential section in a city with few tall buildings, and many in Decatur have no idea Wesley Acres resembles a swastika. Giles said any changes to the building must be relatively inexpensive since the agency lacks money for an elaborate solution. Planners are considering modifications, he said, "so that from the air it takes your eye away from what was originally there." lots of idiocy there, from the original design, to the claims of a conspiracy to honor nazis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pope Flick Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 http://www.news8online.com/features/specia...ry.php?id=71133 From a San Diego base a few years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimC Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Also, if you turn the Lincoln Memorial upside down, it says "Death to the South". Try it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
isleseeya Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 that is amazing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
driveby Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Get a life people, it's a friggin building. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darin3 Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 A couple dorms at my college were almost shaped like Swastikas. Southeast corner... Anacapa and Santa Cruz halls Oh, and Yes, that's right on the ocean. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randall Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 I'm not justifying it, but the Swastika as a long history... The swastika is an archetypal, universal human religious symbol. It appears on every continent and is as old as humankind. A marker of the sun's travels, it can be seen on Pictish rock carvings, adorning ancient Greek pottery, and on ancient Norse weapons and implements. It was scratched on cave walls in France seven thousand years ago. A swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures, and is often inciused on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary. In the Jain religion, it is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the Tirthankara Suparsva. To Native Americans, the swastika is a symbol of the sun, the four directions, and the four seasons. The swastika is a type of solar cross, with arms bent at right angles, suggesting a whirling or turning motion. Long before the symbol was co-opted as an emblem of Hitler's Nazi party, it was a sacred symbol to Hindu, Jain, and Buddhist religions, as well as in Norse, Basque, Baltic, and Celtic Paganism. The name Swastika is derived from the Sanskrit language, from "su," meaning "good," and "vasti"," meaning "being" (together; well being) In India, it is used as a fertility and good luck charm. The right turning Indian swastika symbolizes the sun and positive energy, and is most commonly associated with the deity Ganesh, a God of prosperity and wealth. Some Indians regard an anti-clockwise swastika as an opposing, dark force- a symbol of the godess Kali. Together, the two can be regarded as symbolically similar to the Yin Yang symbol of Taoism, or the two Pillars of Kabbalah. The swastika is also known for its uses in heraldry as the tetraskelion, the fylfot cross (fylfot meaning 'four feet,' a term used in european heraldry), the cross gammadion (because it resembles four greek letter 'gammas.'), and the hakenkreutz (German, hooked cross). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr. Love Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 When my brother was living in Japan, he visited a Buddhist monestary, and he noticed the swastikas. My brother, understanding at least some of the history of the symbol, asked one of the monks if it bothered him that the Nazis had co-opted one of their sacred symbols and tainted it forever. I don't remember the story exactly, but the monk bluntly said something along the lines of, "We were around long before the f*cking Nazis, and we'll be around long after the f*cking Nazis are long forgotten." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 Nice Cut-n-paste lulu, you can use them innernets good! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
misunderstood Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 reminds me of when i got drunk on wild irish rose . my neighborhood in douglaston , ny has hundreds of houses that look the same. rang and knocked on at least 14 houses that were not mine until i found mine . by then i had no puke left in me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
H8tank Posted March 14, 2008 Share Posted March 14, 2008 This gives me a great idea for a mobile home park... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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