Just saw this one on the news. A Jewish lady out in California was in her
local Walgreens to buy gift wrap for Hanukkah when she noticed Nazi symbols contained in the pattern of the wrap.
Cheryl Shapiro said "I really put my foot down because I was appalled by
this." And after taking her grievance to the store manager, Walgreens made the
decision to pull the offensive wrap.
I'm quite sure if I had seen this paper I would not have noticed the
swastika. At least not without studying it for a while.
Was this an unfortunate coincidence? Is it possible someone was "in" on
this and purposely tried to sneak this through in order to be offensive?
The swastika (under various names) has been in use for some three
millennia. It took on its current infamy after Hitler's Germany made
itself the disgrace of modernity. Before that it usually had good connotations.
But we can't put the genii of the Nazi usage back into the bottle.
Some, I see, are suggesting this is an example of people looking for
something to be offended over. That's way too cynical a view for me to
entertain. I want to hope this was an unfortunate accident. I applaud Walgreens
for taking the high road.
Symbolism can cut very deep indeed.
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