Old Newspaper tidbits for Thursday.- History

Have you as a family researcher gone to the old newspapers in the region of your ancestors?

Today I found myself looking for some information at Greene county on several ancestors. I was very distracted by all the good information and interesting articles.


Thursdays Interesting tidbit
All is not lost. Here's the tidbit for the day, which was put forth in the newspaper of Greene county The Iowa Reporter on January 1st 1908. Found at Ancestry.com.
The article starts out by saying
"Owing to the popularity just now the Schwastika or good luck cross as a ornament of personal adornment and usefulness we give a brief history of this beautiful symbol."
It goes further into how it goes back to earlier than the Christian era and used in later years in Europe. [ I didn't know that, I thought Hitler was just a clever artist. I forgot that I have seen it in design of one of my Indian made purses, and maybe other art.]

Then there was a huge amount of black ink damage to the appearance of the rest of the little bit left of the article. I saw something that may have said 'building of America'. So interest aroused. Off to blogosphere I went.

The name “swastika” comes from the Sanskrit word swastika, meaning “lucky” or “well being.” It is generally used on people and things to denote good luck or wish well being. It goes by many names in many different places: hook cross, crooked cross, angled cross, sun cross, sun wheel, hakenkreuz (German), among others.

Since the 1930's the use has been a signification with Nazism and white supremacy in the western world but with a slight change. .They not only stood stood it up diagonally and placed it in a circle rather than running it four-square, and gave it their brand-logo colour scheme of black, white, and red, thus making THEIR swastika a national seal,
They had reversed the swastika or rotated it visually backwards and in the end it stood for much more 0opposite the non-Nazi swastikas of varied colour and form one finds all around the world.

"The Mound Builders inhabited the Ohio River Valley and the Cliff Dwellers lived in the Southwestern United States; however, both did use the swastika, as did the Mayas of Mexico. Furthermore, although the swastika may look like four "L's" to one who uses the Roman alphabet, in Greek it forms four Gammas ("G's"), in Hebrew it can be seen as four Daleths ("D's"), and among the non-literate people of North America, it corresponded to no letters at all. Thus the ascription of Luck, Light, Love, and Life to the amulet is simply an Englishman's work "

The swastika can be traced back to the Neolithic period - Bronze age, which is about 11,500 years. It’s past and present are deeply rooted primarily in Eastern religions although there are many examples of it in other religions. Long before it had any negative connotation, it was popular in religions and cultures including: Christianity, Buddhism, Hinduism, Chinese and Japanese art and many others. Swastika were used as the specific emblem of Ganesha, the Hindu god of good luck, who is also represented as an elephant. WE see much use of the elephant in many forms these days.

Modern 1800's - 1900's day use.
One writer says they have seen the use of the swastika in domestic ornament as fairly common. in the 19th century. the writer says a mail order bride from Poland came with married in a beautiful white wedding dress, covered all over with embroidered swastikas, a lucky logo..
But this idea that directionality is important in the history of swastika usage is demonstrably untrue: counter-balancing (bilaterally symmetrical) arrays of clockwise and counterclockwise swastikas are common in both ancient and modern Indian art. Pursuing the ancient examples of Left and right turning of the swastika of virtually of all past cultures of ancient monuments and steles with it was a failed attempt to reverse the negative reaction to the swastika. found in old artifacts.

No matter how pure the concept was before, and claiming it stands for that, one mans leadership did change the connotation difficult to get past. And actually,some places forbid the use of the Swastika.
--The use of the swastika or any Nazi symbol, their manufacture, distribution or broadcasting, with the intent to propagate Nazism is a crime in Brazil as dictated by article 20, paragraph 1, of federal statute 7.716, passed in 1989. The penalty is a two to five years prison term and a fine.
- In Panama the symbol rrepresented an Octopus.

This author says

Some people believe that the display of any sort of swastika should be forbidden because it is offensive to Jews. From first-hand experience, i can assure you that dozens of elderly German Jews i personally know who lived through or escaped the holocaust, were and are well aware that the swastika pre-dated the Nazis and do not consider it a Nazi symbol.

One thing most of them have learned -- and have taught to me -- is that RELIGIOUS TOLERANCE is a key to preventing future holocausts. Therefore they honour and respect the religious iconography of others. including the Jains and the Hindus, who revere the swastika as a symbol of a symbol of long life, good health, and good luck, and the special symbol of the Hindu elephant headed god Ganesh.

Her mother who fled Poland said it was just wrong for Hitler and his men to use the symbol wrongly.
In further thinking of tolerance of evil symbols. I recall that the panama region natives say it symbolized the octopus that created the world. Perhaps to me it symbolizes a book burner man like an octopus of many hands of power and the things he could do if given the means. Thus to me it has become a symbol to watch, listen, read, and speak, write, preserve our important freedoms. One must reidentify the symbol as Christians' victory over death by an octopus symbolism of the powerful octopus of an evil man. Maybe I can let it be my substitute symbol reminder to myself as a reference to the way Christians used the symbol with it during Romanesque and Gothic eras..

That interesting thursday tidbit is a tad controversial about the swastika use, kind of like religion in schools. Besides the fact it progressed from tidbit. Opinions are everywhere. So much to read and u tube too.. I am sure it affects each of you differently. I am open to your opinion.
...................................................


For Further reading from Blogosphere sources:
More on Controversies over pre-1930 designs here
http://www.dpjs.co.uk/swasticross.html
http://www.holocaust-trc.org/wmp14.html
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Swastika.html
http://brokensecrets.com/2010/10/18/the-swastika-was-once-a-symbol-of-good-luck/
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/geometria_sagrada/esp_geometria_sagrada_5.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-X4WlMg234I
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXwwkgSrIsU
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.aviation.military/browse_thread/thread/645a83732cf07a0d/9ec6c08d8afa61b9
http://groups.google.com/group/rec.aviation.military/browse_thread/thread/645a83732cf07a0d/9ec6c08d8afa61b9
http://books.google.com/books?id=do-ugt267IUC&pg=PA190&dq=swastika+good+luck+cross+finland&hl=en&ei=6ykvTeDXAsP-8AbVo9ydCg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CDkQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=swastika%20good%20luck%20cross%20finland&f=false
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIeC2WhD4xc
http://aleximreh.wordpress.com/2011/01/03/swastika-in-the-vinca-script-6000-7000-bc/
http://unitedcolorsofindia.blogspot.com/2011/01/sacred-symbol.html
http://www.muskogeehistorian.com/2010/09/camp-gruber-again.html
http://goddesschess.blogspot.com/2010/10/evidence-of-spiral-formed-settlements.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_use_of_the_swastika_in_the_early_20th_century
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika
..............................................