CSotD: Come Join the Service
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Carmen and Winslow have been struggling lately to decide where they stand on various political matters.
In its simplest form, as seen in today’s strip, they boil it down to whether we should feel guilty about being happy in times of misery?
Is it naive, or is it wonderful, or can it be both?
We shouldn’t be always miserable or always happy, but we can be joyful, which is different. As Rabindranath Tagore wrote, “I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy.”
There’s nothing wrong with waking up in the morning and rejoicing in the sunrise and the bird song, but your life should still have purpose.
Going to a demonstration is service, as is going to a zoning board meeting. So is working a soup kitchen. But holding a door for someone is also service. Service is an attitude, not a specific action.
The first No Kings gatherings I went to were huge and informal. We lined the street, talking to each other and waving signs and cheering as cars drove by, honking their horns in support. But yesterday I went to a different town, and the demonstration centered on a stage, and speeches, and chanting together.
The first had been about appealing to others; this one seemed more about reinforcing our own beliefs. For my part, I’ve always preferred outreach, though either approach is better than nothing. As Ram Dass advised, “Be here now.”
Presence is service.
Stantis may have gotten caught in a lead-time issue here, because those stickers have been appearing on gas pumps. It’s a gesture of outreach that takes all of 20 seconds and lasts until someone scrapes the sticker off.
I’m not sure where guerilla gestures become an ego trip, but I remember half a century ago when people would add “War” to Stop signs. Silly, but effective.
And then there were the Yippies, who did more elaborate pranks to make people laugh and think. Again, silly but effective.
Political cartoonists also make quick hits intended to make people think, and often laugh, too.
Lee Judge cloaks his point in sarcasm and an accusation of misplaced concerns, and he’s not the first to make the point. John wrote “If any one say, I love God, and hate his brother, he is a liar: for he that loves not his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?”
Lee Judge simply put it in graphic form to make it easier to absorb, but he used the word “us” to drive the point home, that it’s not “those people” who are being insensitive.
Golding makes a pointed joke about how much we ignore in the world while we focus on our own immediate inconveniences. The meteor wiping out dinosaurs is a well-known disaster event, and he’s suggesting that there are matters more worthy of our attention than the price of eggs.
Juxtaposition of the Day
Two approaches to the same issue. One of the things that occurred to me during the speeches yesterday is that we no longer have teach-ins. There was a time when understanding the Geneva Accords of 1954 that divided Vietnam was crucial to understanding the war. Similarly, there is room today for documenting how very rare illegal voting is, but it’s more like German’s chart than a lecture.
And de Adder doesn’t offer a list to buttress the point. He simply mocks the empty accusation, assuming that either people already know the statistics or that his accusation will inspire them to question what they’re being told.
Either approach can work; the combination of the two works even better.
Bennett goes after a story in the news, that despite his campaign to outlaw mail-in ballots, Donald Trump himself took advantage of the practice, and defended his use of a mail-in ballot in Florida’s recent special election:
“You mean, I used a mail-in ballot, you probably said? Yeah, I did,” Trump continued. “You know why? Because I’m President of the United States. And because of the fact that I’m President of the United States, I did a mail-in ballot for elections that took place in Florida — because I felt I should be here instead of being in the beautiful sunshine.”
“But you were in Palm Beach, sir, the last few weekends,” PBS White House correspondent Liz Landers replied.
The president explained why absentee ballots are permitted, but never explained why he had used a mail-in ballot when he wasn’t absent.
While Bennett pointed out the inconsistency of voting by mail while condemning the practice, Blitt digs a little deeper into actual hypocrisy, suggesting that Trump did it on the sly (presidential voting often being a photo op), and adding a caption to make it clear that he is indulging himself while working to deprive others of the same convenience.
And Weyant goes beyond innuendo to make the direct accusation that Dear Leader’s suggested voting reforms are purposefully intended to suppress voter turnout.
However, nobody really expects that sort of candid, open honesty, about voting or about the progress of the war in Iran, as seen in this
Juxtaposition of the Day #2
An interesting contrast: Broelman suggests that Trump’s positive attitude towards the likelihood of victory is an echo of the “Five O’Clock Follies” with which the press — and thus the American people — were fed optimistic nonsense during the Vietnam War, while the dedicated resistance of the Vietnamese people was underestimated.
Whamond cites a more recent, less subtle example, the transparently nonsensical status updates provided by Iraqi communications minister Muḥammad Saʿīd Al-Ṣaḥḥāf, known as “Baghdad Bob” for his entertaining but totally inaccurate reports on the war.
If anything has been “literally obliterated,” Telnaes charges, it has been our own credibility in the world, together with our freedom and our ability to direct our government. Spreading truth is a form of service.
To be happy, it’s necessary to make your life a consistently joyful service, in small and major ways, so that you neither miss a beautiful sunrise nor sacrifice a beautiful nation.
Mike Peterson has posted his "Comic Strip of the Day" column every day since 2010. His opinions are his own, but we welcome comments either agreeing or in opposition.
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