CSotD: Classic cartoon: Ann Telnaes on the aftermath of 9/11
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I'm tied up for the next few days with some workshops for middle-school journalists, so will be posting some of the classic cartoons I used to show high school students in a presentation on the topic.
Ann Telnaes can do things with a single, sweeping line than most cartoonists can only dream of. Look at the postures of these two people and you can tell both that he is walking through the room and that she is completely disgusted. I'm glad I like her attitude, because I certainly love her style.
Telnaes, who has a background in animation, has begun doing animated political cartoons, but, honestly, her cartoons already contained an awful lot of motion.
This cartoon appeared in 2004 and was not the only time that she criticized the Big Brotherism that sprang up in the wake of 9/11, but it had an angle that I found I could use with the kids, because it wasn't criticizing a politican or a party for what had happened to America.
Confucius said, "In vain I have looked for a man capable of seeing his own faults and bringing the charge home against himself," but Telnaes has no problem placing the blame for our loss of freedom squarely on our own heads, rather than trying to foist it off on this or that party.
Not that she shies away from criticizing those who benefit from our fear, both politically and elsewhere.
About 10 months after 9/11, my boss, the circulation director of our newspaper, got a memo from corporate asking how we planned to reproduce the single-day sales we had achieved on September 12, 2001, on the same date a year later. He read it to me in a combination of fury and defeat, and I suggested, "Well, we could rent a couple of planes …"
The fact was, corporate saw the ruins of the World Trade Center and their eyes immediately lighted upon the profit made the next day as people rushed to get coverage. And they wanted it to happen again, at least the part with the profits.
That was the impact of 9/11, and if you thought the "tributes" everyone published a year later were motivated by patriotism, you probably put out a carrot the night before Easter, too.
Ann put out this cartoon in time for the anniversary. I asked her if anybody had dared to publish it and she admitted she didn't know, but one paper that published all her work hadn't picked up this one. And she indicated that she wasn't that concerned about who ran it, and added that it was nice to be in a two-income family so she could have these ideals about why she does what she does.
Here's her commentary. I don't think you'll find it in the archives of those special "tribute" issues. But I liked it, and I still do.
But, no, I didn't share it with the kiddies. I only have one income.
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