Heroes, villains and those caught in between

There are a lot of "Godspeed, John Glenn" cartoons and, while they're all sufficiently heartfelt, none of them stands apart from the rest. However, the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum has shared this February 2, 1962 panel by Karl Hubenthal, which brings back the hero worship that the Mercury astronauts inspired.

I was home from school sick that day and I've told myself for the past half-century that I was faking in order to watch the flight, but, given the number of times it was delayed, I guess that's not the case, though, of course, it doesn't mean I wasn't faking.

Just probably not for that reason, since my mother would not have fallen for my act so often.

 

While we're on the topic of kids and their mothers, let me direct you to an ongoing arc in Pajama Diaries, about a friend of Jill's who is dealing with a possibly autistic but as yet undiagnosed child. These are yesterday's and today's strips, touching on the collateral damage a family crisis like that can cause.

Terri Libenson is taking a slow pace with this, returning to it from time to time within the other things going on in Jill's life, rather than stopping everything else for a Very Special Story Arc.

I like the approach because that really is how someone else's troubles enter your life, because it lets her do some research and get some feedback and, particularly, because it keeps her from having to come up with a "moral" or a "solution."

One of the things I used to hate about the 1976-80 TV show "Family" was how somebody would show up who we were told was Willie or Buddy's best friend but who had never been seen or mentioned before. This person would have a full-blown crisis, the wise Lawrence family would solve it, we'd all hug and the kid would then disappear forever.

Not only is Libenson's approach more realistic, but it allows her strip to be funny one day and touching on another, and thus she is able to sneak in the important storylines rather than club you over the head with them.

(Note: If you go to her page, you'll see there is an "autism" tag on these strips that would let you pull them all up at once if you'd like.)

 

Matt Pritchett comments on the news that, yes, the Russians were cheating, and not just at the Summer and Winter Olympics but even at the Paralympics, which makes you wonder if there is any limit to Putin's incredible ego and need to be Number One.

Thank god the Russians don't bring this penchant for cheating into any contests that really matter, eh?

And now for something completely different: 
A cartoon about the President-Elect of the United States of America

Pat Bagley nails the topic of Trump's purposeful appointment of a head of EPA who is actively opposed to the EPA.

It's only one piece of a trend by the incoming president to reverse decades of presidential actions not simply by Obama and Clinton but by both Bushes, by Reagan and, in this case, by the liberal commie tree-hugger, Richard Nixon, who founded the EPA because he hated our freedom.

In this case, of course, Trump's backers aren't concerned about pollution, so he's simply doing what they elected him to do.

 

Marty Two Bulls cartoons for a niche audience, and this one might take a little explanation for readers beyond Indian Country.

"Privatization" is how treaty land becomes individually owned and then falls out of tribal control, which may sound perfectly normal in a capitalist, laissez-faire system but is toxic in the collective systems of Indian nations. 

Some treaty lands were lost in war, some were lost in court and some trickled away in privatization, but the result is largely the same and, while it's lovely to look back at tribal lands as defined by the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty, that's a little like looking at the map of the Middle East before World War I. 

Yes, you're right. What are you going to do about it now?

Well, we can hope for successful lawsuits, because there have been some, but for those whose land is surrounded by the United States, the crisis is that our incoming government has no more respect for tribal sovereignty than it does for our treaties with any other nations, and that it couples that with an idolatrous belief in privatization, not just of reservations but of the Post Office, Social Security, Medicare and all sorts of pies into which greedy thumbs can be plunged.

In this case, Two Bulls pulls no punches: "Hang Around the Fort Indian" is worse than "Uncle Tom" because an Uncle Tom is simply someone who accepts what is being done to his people, while "Hang Around the Fort Indians" are complicit in it.

Think of the Pawnee in "Little Big Man" who hopes to curry favor with young Jack Crabbe by killing his Cheyenne friend. The term is not simple dismissive but a stark, outright insult.

Native people tend to talk around things, kind of starting with general topics and then eventually, politely, indirectly spiraling in to the thing that is actually on the agenda. It's a very pleasant form of conversation, but I have on more than one occasion emerged from  "Indian time" to realize hours have passed without my noticing.

It's a style of negotiation that the Dutch adapted to in their 17th century dealings with the Iroquois, in which forming a trade deal might take a week or more of dinners and discussions.

Which was why, after the impatient, get-to-the-point English took over New Amsterdam, the Dutch remained central to the fur business.

Which in turn makes it kind of funny to have an Oglala speaking more directly and pointedly than his white cartooning colleagues.

But when the bulldozers are starting to dig up the ground, the time for polite indirection is over.

 

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[Mary in Ohio]

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