Canggih Yang Ada: Publishing Warren cartoon a big blunder

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Publishing Warren cartoon a big blunder - Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel

I am deeply troubled by the Dec. 28 editorial cartoon, captioned “The Early Writings of Elizabeth Warren,” which shows Santa reading a letter, presumably from Warren as a child, in which she notes that her neighbor has “too much stuff” and asks Santa to “please take some of his stuff and give it to me.”

I see no humor at all in this cartoon, and wonder what the purpose was of publishing it. The newspaper has done a good job recently of publishing articles and letters that highlight the cruelty of rampant poverty and hunger, and the terrible and growing tragedy of economic inequality, in our state and across the nation. Why then publish a cartoon that seems to mock a child’s longing to have something that a more privileged neighbor has, and that identifies Elizabeth Warren explicitly in the caption?

We know that Warren’s family suffered deep financial setbacks when she was a child. We know she has been campaigning boldly for economic justice and to end the terrible wealth inequality that characterizes America today and leaves 140 million people poor or one crisis away from desperate poverty. You don’t have to like or want to vote for Warren for president in 2020. But you don’t need to make fun of her for striving to move this country towards greater equality and justice.

And why was it so easy to mock Warren in the first place rather than, say, Sanders, whose message is similar? Is it because she is a woman? Is it that the cartoonist would prefer to attack Warren than help bring an end to the grotesque Era of Trump? I think the cartoon was a blunder and it made me sick to see it.

Elizabeth Leonard

Waterville

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