Regarding Lauri Frankciewicz’s Nov. 7 letter condemning Mark Massart’s ‘swastika’ comic strip:

Lauri, you ask how anyone could think of a parody of the swastika is even remotely funny.

I’ll tell you how: because there are open-minded people on this campus, people who take things at face value, for what they truly are, not for what they may personally represent.

The swastika was around for thousands of years before Hitler adopted it as his own and tainted it; it was used by the Hindus, Buddhists, and North American Indians, among others as a symbol of creative energy, good luck, and divine power.

Before WWII, it was used often in American design and advertising by such organizations and companies as the boy scouts, the Masons, Ladies Home Journal clubs and Coca-Cola.

I do not view the swastika as an evil symbol of Nazi Germany—I know it has a much better and deeper meaning. For me, Adolf Hitler is the evil symbol of Nazi Germany—for he is the responsible one, not the swastika.

It’s a shame that what was once a beautiful symbol now represents the deaths of six million people, and it’s a shame that most people will never understandably see it in a positive light.

In the future, Miss Frankciewicz, please try to be more objective. Mr. Massart was parodying a symbol and its name, not what the symbol represents.

James Costello

Sophomore

Physics