CSotD: Days of Decision
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I've been frustrated lately that political issues seem so compelling and we are at such a flash point that I have not been balancing my coverage of editorial cartoons with the attention that comic strips deserve.
So here are four cartoons from this morning's funny pages.
Apparently, I'm not the only person who feels that this moment requires our attention.
When Richard Nixon announced the Cambodian Incursion in 1970 — the one that resulted in the Student Strike and accompanying Kent State shootings — my small department at college held an all-hands meeting to discuss the matter, in order to formulate a response as a group.
The option of continuing classes was based on our classics curriculum and the idea that pursuing an understanding of universal morality was of value, and I remember one professor telling us of a proposed student strike in Germany during World War I.
The students, he told us, had argued that there was a crisis, to which their professor responded, "There is always a crisis. Back to the books!"
It's an interesting point, but it didn't carry the day. We joined the rest of the university in allowing students to accept a Pass/Fail grade based on their current grades.
And, much as I loved that particular professor, the fact is that, while you can always find a crisis if you want one, there are times when a decisive moment is unmistakably thrust upon you and must not be ignored.
Also, Germany lost that war.
Maybe they should have paused to think things over.
Side Note: Today's Frazz particularly resonated with me because shortly after my cohort graduated, our university began a slide over to staunch neo-conservatism.
Contrary to Ms. Plainwell's situation, it was not a momentary scandal but a permanent shift, such that, when Father Hesburgh died, they carefully explained that he had secretly hated student activists.
Which we didn't know at the time because he had covered it up so well with intelligent, reasonable liberal policies and actions, concelebrated masses, resigning from the Civil Rights Commission over Nixon's pressure, placing a gay black man on our alumni board and always having the time for us, far beyond 9 to 5.
I haven't given them a dime in decades.
I bring this up because, some day, if we don't stay on top of things, the Powers That Be will attempt to re-write this moment, too.
When that happens, I hope the kids maintain their memories and refuse to go along with the fraud.
The above illustration is by Ann Telnaes and this accompanying article is one of two lengthy pieces among today's links you really should read, a roundup discussion of gun regulations and the issues around them.
Meanwhile, as soon as I wrap this up, I'll be out the door so I can be in Concord for this morning's march at our state capitol.
My granddaughter, who spearheaded the walkout at her middle school last week, turned from negotiating with the school administration to the far easier task of persuading her father to take her and her older sister to DC.
I'm not making that eight hour drive, but I can certainly travel 60 miles to Concord to help swell the numbers there, particularly in a state that declines to share its background checks with the federal government.
I like Andy Marlette's cartoon and I echo his opinion that the kids are acting in a proud and patriotic tradition.
But this is no time to be "with them in spirit." We need to be with them in person.
And, BTW, hotel rooms being at a premium in DC, the kids will be crashing with a shipmate of my son's from his Navy days, in case you thought this was solely an issue for pacifist lefties.
And my son is a gunowner and takes the girls out to shoot at the range periodically, which they really enjoy.
In case you thought this was solely an issue for people who hate guns.
It's about some guns, definitely, but it's largely about common sense and freedom from fear and the kind of society the kids want to live in.
And today is their deal, but it's also about the kind of society that we, as responsible, caring parents, should want them to live in.
The whole world is watching, and the sane portions would like to see some action.
Pat Bagley's cartoon makes a good backdrop for your other mandatory reading assignment today, which is an editorial written for the Guardian by the staff of the Eagle, the student newspaper at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High.
It lays out the reforms they want and why they want them, and it does so with a clarity that shows indeed that they've been coached.
That is, they've been taught to think independently and intelligently, and to express themselves coherently, forcefully and logically, and maybe that's something they can restore to a nation that once claimed to value education over indoctrination.
There is nothing tyranny fears more than independent thinking, and it can be lonely when it seems everyone wants to take shelter in the comfort of group thought, bleating "Four Legs Good, Two Legs Better" and forgetting that this was not always our motto.
But I have a feeling that, however today goes, these independent, logical, heartbroken, caring kids won't feel lonely, and that, however long it takes, they will feel justified in keeping it up and "shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit."
(Peter and Bethany Yarrow, at Newtown, Connecticut, February 2013)
UPDATE:
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