How can the US Navy announce that they will spent $600,000 to renovate one building (which is actually four L-shaped buildings) so that it no longer shows the sign of Nazi Germany from a satelite point of view? As one citizen said, "If the Navy can spend $600,000 on bathroom toilets or wrenches, they can waste our dollars for this."

The reason why I placed this in the "fun" section is that there is a kind of surrealism to the decision. First, they are four buildings that one can read from the sky as something that reminds us of WWII (one symbol seen in a gestalt fashion from four images); 2) the two buildings facing these four can be viewed as WWII bombers attacking the other four (our negative symbol, so called); 3) many buildings seen from the air can be imagined as something else (the Washington Monument as an erotic symbol); 4) even if we accept that the four buildings do look like something that Hitler highjacked from a positive image used by India, China, the Mayans, etc. (a centering symbol of good and contentment), it is not worth $600,000 to change it since the only people who might be offended are astronauts (and I think that they are educated enough not to be fooled by four buildings that resemble a highjacked symbol). and 5) lastly, we could put $600,000 to good use instead of camoflauging a sky view of our West Coast.

It is fun because it is crazy. And if I did not laugh, I might cry.

Joe Kagle

In Raton New Mexico, in the early part of the 20th century, there was a coal mining and marketing company called the Swastika Coal Company using a reverse of the symbol employed by the Nazi party. The symbol dates back centuries:

"The swastika (from Sanskrit svástika स्वास्तिक ) is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing (卐) or left-facing (卍) forms. The term is derived from Sanskrit svasti, meaning well-being. The Thai greeting sawasdee is from the same root and carries the same implication." Wikipedia

The US required the town and company to remove that name in the late 30's. Perception in both cases (Joe's and this one) is greater than reality.

Jack  Selway, Founder & CEO of RGHF, Rotary Global History, Pueblo, CO, USA