Comics Editor
Houston Chronicle
To Whom it May Concern;
I am writing to you today in response to today's Prickly City strip, which depicts a waterboarding.
I presume that you are going to get a lot of letters of complaint, saying that such material is not suitable for young readers, or not fit material for a comic or cartoon.
This is not one of those letters.
The only outrage of this strip is that our government is doing these things and worse to people we have imprisoned, people who cannot appeal to the courts for release, people who, according to our leaders, are non-persons. Too many people are complacent on this issue. Too many people believe the weasel words of our government, who repeatedly claim, despite all evidence, that what they are doing is not torture, not cruel, and not un-American.
It takes great courage for a nationally syndicated newspaper cartoonist to present this issue, in graphic and explicit fashion, next to cartoons about cute dogs and cats or mischevious children or cultural icons. The fact that you- a newspaper in the home state of George W. Bush- support this artist demonstrates your own courage, for which I commend you.
Thank you for printing this strip. Thank you for taking a stand.
And thank you for remembering that, in order to educate the public, it is often necessary to shock and outrage them.
Kris Overstreet
Livingston, Texas
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment