‘Politics’ Is No Gunman, but Real Ones Abound

Many poorly informed Americans fail to grasp the reality that politics is the alternative to war, that it is the only hope for replacing coercion with persuasion, that it is an inescapable and inherently worthy effort to cope with problems common to all.

It is no surprise that Michael Ramirez seems to join the many who unthinkingly make “politics” an all-purpose bad word. But his July 20 cartoon, in which “politics” is symbolized as the infamous South Vietnamese officer who murdered a prisoner in the street at point-blank range and, further, in which President Bush is portrayed as that same (unpolitical?) victim, is all at once nonsensical, malicious and just plain stupid.

Lee C. McDonald

Claremont

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I’m no fan of Bush but really, Mr. Ramirez. We live in a turbulent society full of guns and gooneys and lock-and-load loonies. We can’t even keep ourselves out of off-the-cuff, ill-advised outright warfare. Therefore, the depiction of violence toward our president goes well beyond bad taste, arriving somewhere close to incitement. Perhaps if you attended to the hole in your own head you might restrain yourself from graphically suggesting similar wounds to others.

The victim in the original picture was presumably a communist, unlike our president. He was being tried in the street according to the applicable tenets of South Vietnam’s version of the Patriot Act. Real funny. Thanks for reminding me of what a political cartoonist isn’t.

Bruce Strathdee

Palm Desert