Perhaps it´s nothing to do do with you being a para, Wonk...
Perhaps, a "Cigar was just a cigar" and that woman was just a racist.
I dated a couple of racist men when I was young and, believe me... though the conversation was more diplomatic, I cut the date in less than an hour!... I can´t stand the racists! and that men were ab guys!
And Cali, the swastika was a beautiful symbol of energy and power. But the Nazis had to come and spoil this wonderful symbol. Now, the swastika is attached to a terrible bad connotation.
People... you can "jump" this... it´s long!! LOL... forgive me!This segment is from Wikipedia:
Archaeological record The Samarra bowl, at the Pergamonmuseum, Berlin. The swastika in the center of the design is a reconstruction.
Seals from the Indus Valley Civilization preserved at the British MuseumThe earliest consistent use of swastika motifs in the archaeological record date to the Neolithic. The symbol appears in the "Vinca script" of Neolithic Europe (6th to 5th millennium BC). Another early attestation is on a pottery bowl found at Samarra, dated to as early as 4000 BC. Joseph Campbell in an essay on The Neolithic-Paleolithic Contrast cites an ornament on a Late Paleolithic (10,000 BC) mammoth ivory bird figurine found near Kiev as the only known occurrence of such a symbol predating the Neolithic.
The swastika appears only very rarely in the archaeology of ancient Mesopotamia. It is found on prehistoric pottery, of which the Samarra bowl is the oldest known example, and on a number of early seal impressions, but then disappears from the record for the remainder of the Near Eastern Bronze Age.[14] In India, Bronze Age swastika symbols were found at Lothal and Harappa, on Indus Valley seals.
Swastikas have also been found on pottery in archaeological digs in Africa, in the area of Kush and on pottery at the Jebel Barkal temples, in Iron Age designs of the northern Caucasus (Koban culture), and in Neolithic China in the Majiabang, Dawenkou and Xiaoheyan cultures. Other Iron Age attestations of the swastika can be associated with Indo-European cultures such as the Indo-Iranians, Celts, Greeks and Germanic peoples and Slavs. The Tierwirbel (the German for "animal whorl" or "whirl of animals") is a characteristic motive in Bronze Age Central Asia, the Eurasian Steppe, and later also in Iron Age Scythian and European (Baltic and Germanic) culture, showing rotational symmetric arrangement of an animal motive, often four birds' heads. Even wider diffusion of this "Asiatic" theme has been proposed, to the Pacific and even North America (especially Moundville).
Historical use in the EastThe swastika is a historical sacred symbol in Indian religions. It rose to importance in Buddhism during the Mauryan Empire and in Hinduism with the decline of Buddhism in India during the Gupta Empire. With the spread of Buddhism, the Buddhist swastika reached Tibet and China. The symbol was also introduced to Balinese Hinduism by Hindu kings. The use of the swastika by the Bön faith of Tibet, as well as later syncretic religions, such as Cao Dai of Vietnam and Falun Gong of China, can also be traced to Buddhist influence.
Hinduism Swastika on the doorstep of an apartment in Maharashtra, IndiaIn Hinduism, the two symbols represent the two forms of the creator god Brahma: facing right it represents the evolution of the universe (Devanagari: प्रवृत्ति, Pravritti), facing left it represents the involution of the universe (Devanagari: निवृत्ति, Nivritti).[citation needed] The swastika is one of the 108 symbols of Hindu deity Vishnu and represents the Sun's rays, upon which life depends.[citation needed] It is also seen as pointing in all four directions (north, east, south and west) and thus signifies grounded stability.[citation needed] Its use as a Sun symbol can first be seen in its representation of the god Surya.[citation needed] The swastika is used in all Hindu yantras and religious designs,[citation needed]
Among the Hindus of Bengal, it is common to see the name "swastika" (Bengali: স্বস্তিক sbastik) applied to a slightly different symbol, which has the same significance as the common swastika, and both symbols are used as auspicious signs. This symbol looks something like a stick figure of a human being.[22] In the Bhavishya Purana, it is a weapon of a snake king (dragon), Takshak.
Buddhism
Buddhism originated in the 5th century BCE and spread throughout the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE (Maurya Empire).
The swastika symbol (right-hand) is alleged to have been stamped on Gautama Buddha's chest by his initiates after his death. It is known as The Heart's Seal.[citation needed] The swastika figures on the Pillars of Ashoka.
With the Silk Road transmission of Buddhism, the Buddhist swastika spread to Tibet and China.
Known as a "yung drung" in ancient Tibet, it was a graphical representation of eternity.
The paired swastika symbols are included, at least since the Liao Dynasty, as part of the Chinese language, the symbolic sign for the character 萬 or 万 (wàn in Mandarin, man in Korean, Cantonese and Japanese, vạn in Vietnamese) meaning "all" or "eternality" (lit. myriad) and as 卐, which is seldom used. The swastika marks the beginning of many Buddhist scriptures. The swastika (in either orientation) appears on the chest of some statues of Gautama Buddha and is often incised on the soles of the feet of the Buddha in statuary.
Jainism Jain swastikaJainism gives even more prominence to the swastika than does Hinduism. It is a symbol of the seventh Jina (Saint), the Tirthankara Suparsva. In the Svetambar (Devanagari: श्वेताम्बर) Jain tradition, it is also one of the symbols of the ashta-mangalas. It is considered to be one of the 24 auspicious marks and the emblem of the seventh arhat of the present age.[citation needed] All Jain temples and holy books must contain the swastika and ceremonies typically begin and end with creating a swastika mark several times with rice around the altar.
Jains use rice to make a swastika (also known as "Saathiyo" or "Saathiya" in the state of Gujarat, India) in front of idols in a temple. Jains then put an offering on this swastika, usually a ripe or dried fruit, a sweet (Hindi: मिठाई, Mithai), or a coin or currency note.
Other Asian traditionsSome sources indicate that during the Chinese Tang Dynasty, Empress Wu Zetian (684-704) decreed that the swastika would be used as an alternative symbol of the Sun.
The Mandarin "wan" is a homophone for the number 10,000 and is commonly used to represent the whole of Creation, e.g. 'the myriad things' in the Dao De Jing.
In Japan, the swastika is called manji. Since the Middle Ages, it has been used as a coat of arms by various Japanese families. On Japanese maps, a swastika (left-facing and horizontal) is used to mark the location of a Buddhist temple. The right-facing manji is often referred to as the gyaku manji (逆卍, lit. "reverse manji"), and can also be called kagi jūji (literally "hook cross").
In Chinese and Japanese art, the swastika is often found as part of a repeating pattern. One common pattern, called sayagata in Japanese, comprises left- and right-facing swastikas joined by lines. As the negative space between the lines has a distinctive shape, the sayagata pattern is sometimes called the "key fret" motif in English.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika