In an earlier post, Laws of Silence discussed the minorly infamous swastika-shaped barracks at the Coronado naval base.
It seems now that the same guy (almost always referred to as "researcher" Avrahaum Segol in the AP stories) is kicking up a fuss about another architectural offense, this time a retirement home in Decatur, Alabama.
The Wesley Acre Methodist retirement home is considering ways to disguise the building's offensive shape, visible only from satellite images, in the most inexpensive manner possible.
According to the AP, the center, "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."
As you can see from the AP photo, the two awkward extensions do little to hide the shape.
Most responses I've come across fall into the "good grief" category (i.e. here and here) and decry the waste of money which has and will continue to result from swastika-hunting on Google Earth. There's a rather terse response from Yisrael Medad's blog "No, not 'Heil Amerika'. Just a retirement home. In Alabama." Just in case you think everyone who finds this all a bit ridiculous is a closet anti-Semite.
It's understandable that people are offended by these shapes, but Segol loses a lot of sympathy points by proposing that this Alabama building is a "sister swastika" to the Coronado barracks and is part of a wider government plot to honor Nazis.
Again to quote the AP: "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."
Good grief indeed. Who is this Segol guy anyway? To be continued....
Links:
Swastika ('卐') tops Google's search list, then disappears
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