Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Baby's on fire
I figure I might as well start putting my new cartoons here in my blog, and eventually I'll make a page for them on the site. I don't know how the Daily Iowan feels about me publishing these cartoons here, but that's not something I'm going to worry about unless they decide to start paying for them.
Okay, so this is to accompany a point-counterpoint about the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance; which is going to appear in the DI, I'm told, on Thursday.
The joke I'm making is a reference to the fact that the words "under God", which many people think are authentic to the original pledge, didn't really appear until 51 years ago, as a reaction to the "godless" menace posed by the Soviet Union (hence the picture of Joe McCarthy in the background). Thus, they are pretty much unnecessary now that the USSR is gone and, gee, aren't our biggest enemies religious zealots now and not atheists? I'm hoping, but not expecting, this to be common enough knowledge for at least some people to get this cartoon. With a little luck, this background will be covered in some of the articles that are going up with this cartoon on Thursday.
But the joke I'm really making is that the whole debate is stupid and ridiculous. Who cares what is in the pledge of allegiance? Kids certainly don't. I grew up saying "under God" with my hand over my heart every morning for my entire childhood. I also grew up in the Unitarian Church. Which one do you think has influenced me more? Our schools have enough trouble making kids remember who Magellan was for more than a year out of sixth grade; if there was some sort of strange federal agenda to make all kids grow up as God-fearers, you can bet they'd be doing more than making them say "under God" five times a week. Yes, to religious kids, "under God" applies nicely; but to the non-religious kids (like I was), "under God" was like all the other arcane stuff you take in while growing up, like all those weird nonsense symbols on dollar bills. Or like the word "indivisible," for that matter, to your average second grader.
On an unrelated note, I've been pretty good about not turning in piss-poor art lately. Even though I would get paid the same the crappier the art is (that being no money at all). The inking is looking pretty good, I daresay (but I hate lettering). Sometimes lines look parallel when you're drawing them, but then you look at it from afar and realize you should have used a ruler.
Okay, so this is to accompany a point-counterpoint about the words "under God" in the pledge of allegiance; which is going to appear in the DI, I'm told, on Thursday.
The joke I'm making is a reference to the fact that the words "under God", which many people think are authentic to the original pledge, didn't really appear until 51 years ago, as a reaction to the "godless" menace posed by the Soviet Union (hence the picture of Joe McCarthy in the background). Thus, they are pretty much unnecessary now that the USSR is gone and, gee, aren't our biggest enemies religious zealots now and not atheists? I'm hoping, but not expecting, this to be common enough knowledge for at least some people to get this cartoon. With a little luck, this background will be covered in some of the articles that are going up with this cartoon on Thursday.
But the joke I'm really making is that the whole debate is stupid and ridiculous. Who cares what is in the pledge of allegiance? Kids certainly don't. I grew up saying "under God" with my hand over my heart every morning for my entire childhood. I also grew up in the Unitarian Church. Which one do you think has influenced me more? Our schools have enough trouble making kids remember who Magellan was for more than a year out of sixth grade; if there was some sort of strange federal agenda to make all kids grow up as God-fearers, you can bet they'd be doing more than making them say "under God" five times a week. Yes, to religious kids, "under God" applies nicely; but to the non-religious kids (like I was), "under God" was like all the other arcane stuff you take in while growing up, like all those weird nonsense symbols on dollar bills. Or like the word "indivisible," for that matter, to your average second grader.
On an unrelated note, I've been pretty good about not turning in piss-poor art lately. Even though I would get paid the same the crappier the art is (that being no money at all). The inking is looking pretty good, I daresay (but I hate lettering). Sometimes lines look parallel when you're drawing them, but then you look at it from afar and realize you should have used a ruler.
Comments:
<< Home
I took the Pledge more seriously than most kids, I suppose, and felt I actually had to mean what I chanted every morning. So, when it came to the "under god" part I'd just mumble something incomprehensible and go on (at the time I was atheist, but I've become more agnostic since then).
Personally I guess I have less issue with the Pledge specifically and more with the government legislating how we declare our loaylty.... But I guess I don't care much whether or how much they change it as long as teachers respect their students' rights to tailor it to suit theirselves. Ideally pledging allegiance should be a personal statement from the heart, not a formula imposed on us by grand high mucky-mucks.
Personally I guess I have less issue with the Pledge specifically and more with the government legislating how we declare our loaylty.... But I guess I don't care much whether or how much they change it as long as teachers respect their students' rights to tailor it to suit theirselves. Ideally pledging allegiance should be a personal statement from the heart, not a formula imposed on us by grand high mucky-mucks.
# posted by 
: 10:18 AM
: 10:18 AM
Right, but if you're only going through the motions when you say the pledge, there's really not too much the mucky-mucks are going to do about it, at least. I doubt many teachers tend to kick up too much fuss about it either (although I don't live in Kansas, so I don't really know).
And luckily, nobody can tell if you're saying "God" or "god."
Post a Comment
And luckily, nobody can tell if you're saying "God" or "god."
<< Home
