With so many others from which to choose, I wouldn’t have run the Dec. 22 editorial cartoon by Walt Handelsman of Newsday. It showed several people admiring a proposed design for New York’s World Trade Center. A bearded figure, whom other Opinion colleagues perceived to be Osama bin Laden, was saying that the proposed tower — very tall, like the World Trade Center — was “perfect,” apparently for destruction. Even accepting that concept, and the poor likeness, to me, the drawing too closely resembled many fellow law-abiding Muslims.
Though that struck me as the worst kind of stereotyping, it won’t be the last time a cartoon bothers someone due to the message he or she perceives. Editorial Page Editor Randy Schultz chose to run that one but suggested it might be an item for this column. Hearing from no readers about it, I wasn’t going to bring it up. Then he forwarded an e-message that was copied to him but addressed to Wiley Miller, who draws the Non Sequitur comic strip. Criticizing the strip’s suggestion that monarchs in the Dark Ages were ruled by the church’s bishops, Anthony Orrico wrote:
“I never thought I would see such vehement anti-Catholic sentiment in a 21st-century American newspaper, especially on the cartoon page and especially on the Sunday before Christmas. I acknowledge that some past and present Catholic prelates have abused their power, as have some of those of other religions when they possessed similar power. But many others have lived saintly lives for the good of mankind. You, on the other hand, have abused the First Amendment privilege of free speech. Who will you persecute next? Protestants? Jews? Muslims? Don’t you think that your cartoon is a little strong for a page read by young children?
“I’ve greatly enjoyed your cartoons in the past, but I hope that you will reconsider continuing along the line of today’s strip….. Why can’t we all try to have a Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, Kwanzaa, or whatever, season filled with peace and love?”
I asked Mr. Miller to respond, and he said, “Actually, Mr. Orrico defends the material himself when he said: ‘I acknowledge that some past and present Catholic prelates have abused their power, as have some of those of other religions when they possessed similar power.’ Well, that’s all the story line is about… the abuse and corruption of power. And that is why I use the generic term, ‘the church’, throughout the story, as the shoe of corruption is sadly one that fits all faiths at any given time in history. This story is not intended as a shot at the Catholic Church, and to say this material is ‘vehement anti-Catholic’ is quite a stretch to say the least.
“Let’s put it this way… if this was intended to be anti-Catholic material, it would have never seen publication. First of all, I am Catholic. Secondly, my syndicate would never allow material to be distributed that defamed any faith. And last, no newspaper would run it.
“I understand the sensitivity Mr. Orrico has regarding anything that even remotely smacks of criticism toward the Catholic Church, as the church has taken quite a beating in the press over the past year. But that beating is not only well-deserved, it is self-inflicted…. Catholics should be directing their rage at the source of those problems… the hierarchy. Censorship is not the answer to the problems of the Catholic Church. Indeed, that is the very reason the problems got to be so big. If people see their faith reflected in this material, then they shouldn’t blame the mirror.”
While I thought it important to air Mr. Orrico’s criticism, it made me — who rarely looks at the comics except to check out a reader’s complaint — look for the next installment of the strip. The story line continues this Sunday, and other readers can judge for themselves.
Particularly with Florida having led the nation in hate crimes against Muslims last year, however, I was disappointed to hear of a recent editorial cartoon in The Tallahassee Democrat by Doug Marlette. It depicted a man dressed in Arab garb driving a Ryder truck bearing a nuclear missile with the caption: “What would Mohammed drive?” Orlando Sentinel columnist Kathleen Parker perceived the cartoon as a play on the “What Would Jesus Drive?” campaign against gas-guzzling autos to make the point that fundamentalists have hijacked Islam to justify murder. I’m guessing that point was lost on a lot of people — including some good folks named Mohammed, not all of whom are Muslim.
Cartoons and comics that touch on faith, as these do, run more risk of offending sensitive readers the more open they are to interpretation. While the art of invading readers’ comfort zones can hit too close for comfort, people also can be reflected in unintended ways in the mirror of social commentary.
