I e-mailed a few cartoonists about their cartoons. Here are my questions:

… You and lots of other cartoonists drew a memorial cartoon of .  Carlin was a very vocal atheist and the question sometimes comes up about what the cartoonist has in mind by drawing a memorial cartoon featuring dead celebrity in a religious scene from a religion the celebrity didn’t choose.  There was a lot of commentary about this when George Harrison died, and was depicted so often at the Christian Pearly Gates.

Does the cartoonist’s religious view trump the celebrity’s religion in an obituary cartoon?  For a Christian cartoonist, who believes that his own religion is the only correct religion, is an obituary cartoon an opportunity to show that the celebrity’s religious views were wrong – as the dead celebrity would surely know by now, as he is really at the Pearly Gates right now?

Thanks,

Daryl

Daryl,

Firstly, I am not sure I have ever said through conversation or my cartoons that as “a Christian cartoonist, (I) believe that (my) own religion is the only correct religion…” and, frankly, I resent the implication.

However, I will try and respond to your question regarding this specific cartoon. I did, indeed, mean as an irreverent commentary within the cartoon. I readily admit I have drawn my fair share of pearly gates and crying mascots in the past. But recently I have tried to take my inspiration from the obit cartoons of Pat Oliphant. When he does do them he places them in some kind of context of the persons life and impact. With George Carlin, (of whom I consider myself a fan), his contribution to comedy and social discourse was to tear down the walls of conformity and ridicule the overly serious. His anti-religion screeds grew longer and more serious near the end.

Hence, a cartoon I hoped would be viewed as irreverent. At least to those familiar with the subject.

I trust this answered your question.

God bless you,

– Scott

Scott Stantis, Alabama, The Birmingham News.

Visit an archive of the artist’s most recent cartoons in the drop menu at the right. Click on the cartoon to e-mail it to a friend.

Daryl,

My cartoon was an artistic poke/joke made at the expense of those who actually believe in some kind of real but other-world notion called “heaven” where serious stuff supposedly takes place.

Atheist Carlin (assuming he ended up in “heaven’ which, of course, he did not because there is no such place as the Pearly Gates) would have had a great time shakin’ up the joint–and hopefully St. Pete would have appreciated the show.

In cartooning, an artist’s religious or non-religious views often make their way into their artistic commentary in clear, iconoclastic and sarcastic ways–and at the end of that process, the inkslinger’s view trumps everything.

Myself, I am –like Carlin was–an atheist.

So, in George’s unholy name, here’s a light-hearted (but to-the-heart-of-the-matter) anti-Hosanna “Hoo-rah!”

Steve Benson

Steve Benson, Arizona Republic

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Hi Daryl

Thanks for the email. I am not in the least religious, but I often do obit cartoons on famous people using the “pearly gates” setting.

It’s not that I actually believe in such a scenario, but, much like other metaphors and symbols we cartoonists use, it immediately puts the reader in touch with the situation, regardless of their religious beliefs. George Carlin’s personal views on religion never entered into it for me. The first thing I look for in a cartoon to honor the passing of someone famous, is some kind of punch line that reflects that person’s influence or effect on our world. For me, it was Carlin’s famous 7 words that you can’t say on television. The purpose of the cartoon is to inform readers of George Carlin’s passing, and remind them of his lasting influence on our culture. To me, the fact that it has a heavenly setting doesn’t take away from that message.

Best Regards

Steve Nease

Steve Nease, Oakville Ontario, Steve is the daily cartoonist for the Oakville Beaver – E-Mail Steve — Visit an archive of the artist’s most recent cartoons in the drop menu at the right. Click on the cartoon to e-mail it to a friend.

Hi, Daryl,

That was an interesting cartoon for me, because I was ( and still AM , of course ) a George Carlin fan, and one of my favorite bits of his was the one in which he pointed out the swiss cheese – like holes in Catholic theology behind eating fish on Friday.

The setting of my cartoon is not really intended as a ” George went to heaven ” scenario, but shows him in a sort of friendly but slightly contentious exchange with St. Peter involving Carlin’s classic” Seven words you can’t say on television” bit. Maybe in that setting, it’s an opportunity to point out that while some standards morph and shift – you can now say those words on television – some remain constant. So I was using George Carlin’s passing as an opportunity to try to point out some truth and irony – something I think Mr. Carlin would have approved of.

Thanks, Daryl

John Deering

John Deering,The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

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Mike Luckovich, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

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Ken Catalino — National/Syndicated.

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Jerry Holbert, Boston, MA, The Boston Herald

Visit an archive of the Jerry’s most recent cartoons in the drop menu at the right.

Gary Brookins, Virginia — The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Visit the Times-Dispatch for archives of Gary’s Editorial Cartoons. Visit an archive of the artist’s most recent cartoons in the drop menu at the right. Click on the cartoon to e-mail it to a friend.

Chris Britt, Springfield, IL — The State Journal-Register

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Jim Day, The Las Vegas Review Journal, Nevada

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When I was on my recent speaking tour of China, I showed a bunch of Pearly gate cartoons (I’ve drawn my share of Pearly Gates cartoons, too). Often a question would come form the audience, “Are you a Christian?” I would reply, “I’m not much of anything.” And the questioner would reply, “No, no, I think you are a Christian.” – Daryl

DARYL: Editors are always asking us for editorial cartoons that celebrate holidays. More than any other request we get from editors. It may be an outgrowth of editors not wanting controversy, and wanting soft, happy cartoons, and it is interesting for us to gauge just how unhappy they are with cartoonists not giving them what they want.

You are the exception. Of-course, as a syndicate we like giving editors what they want. You give them what they want, and your cartoons celebrating holidays are very widely reprinted. We liken them to greeting cards. I wondered if you had any comment on that.

CAM: Well, for me it has been a tradition at the Ottawa Citizen to draw holiday cartoons. This was a natural thing for me to do, since I evolved from being a staff illustrator many years ago to editorial cartoonist. I don’t think it is me trying to appeal to as many editors as possible, so that I can get more print, as it is just me drawing something different. As editorial cartoonists, we spend most of the year making political statements, so it really doesn’t bother me too much if we take a day out here and there just to illustrate life.

DARYL: I hear lots of complaints from cartoonists that they draw hard-hitting cartoons that don’t get printed, and their soft cartoons get all the ink – or more often, the other guy’s soft cartoons get all the ink.

  Your cartoons dominated editorial pages on Fathers Day. We got almost no cartoons from other cartoonists on the topic – and we got lots of complaints from editors about that.

CAM: I think there is room for soft cartoons on certain days. You know, as a reader, I really prefer to see a holiday cartoon that reflects the mood of the day, rather than some hard-hitting smack at another politician. I think editors understand that, but the purists in the business might take issue with that.

I’m not suggesting everyone should be drawing Father’s Day cartoons, as I really believe the best cartoons are the ones that come from inside. For me, I really like drawing heavy cartoons, as well as funny, or light-hearted. Is there a rule written somewhere where we have to be heavy every day?

DARYL: I think most editors would prefer soft every day. There is a kind of macho attitude among cartoonists that there is some virtue to drawing tough cartoons on the issues, and that the soft, “Newsweek” cartoonists are somehow sellouts. But, even those “Newsweek cartoonists” draw harsh cartoons, that Newsweek doesn’t print.

I think there is a bell shaped curve for spineless editors. Most in the middle want spineless cartoons. But there are a few at the endpoints that will print anything.

  Your holiday cartoons are a bit different, though. You’re conveying warmth. The typical argument is about soft joke cartoons. Hardly any editorial cartoonist conveys warmth in his cartoons. And clearly, as the syndicate guy here, I can see that editors respond to warmth in cartoons.

Editors want love.

CAM: Has our profession devolved to counting how many times we get reprinted? In my 20 years in this business, I have discovered that editors choose cartoons based on their own preferences. In the case of Newsweek, it’s obvious they prefer soft. Perhaps they don’t want the extra grief of having to deal with grumpy readers. Some editors prefer cartoons which reflect their opinion and others wouldn’t know a good editorial cartoon if they saw it.

DARYL: Cartoonists often argue that editors simply want to avoid controversy, or any cartoon that might offend any reader who might cancel a subscription. But I think it goes beyond that. They really want the greeting card/love cartoons – clearly on holidays, but I’d say, anytime they can get them. So long as there is an excuse to have the cartoon on the editorial page – like when there is a holiday.

CAM: I remember this argument 20 years ago when the younger cartoonists appeared and began a trend towards cracking jokes off the headlines. The old-timers were understandably upset because the whole point of an editorial cartoon is the editorial comment. Perhaps this is just a natural progression from gag-orientated to a preference for soft, fluffy cartoons. I can only speculate on what editors are thinking these days. My guess is that they appeal to readers and that appeals to editors.

  DARYL: It’s not just cartoons. We also see much more soft and fluffy from columnists on the Op-Ed page. Our most popular columnist is Tom Purcell, who often writes light pieces about life – but his columns about warm remembrances are the most popular by far.

This is all for the Op-Ed page where I would expect people to argue about issues in the news.

Another part of it may be that the readership of newspaper Op-Ed pages now is elderly and we’re delivering a product for Grandma. The editorial page has turned into the Hallmark Store.

CAM: Maybe it’s a byproduct of political correctness. There is a subtle censorship going on in the media. I saw it during the Muslim cartoon controversy. Editors were very nervous and, as a result, many cartoonists felt less freedom to say what they really wanted to say. It might also be part of trying to retain the readers they have, since as we are all very aware by now, readership is dramatically down. Perhaps that’s the key: editors are nervous these days.

DARYL: Do you totally discount the idea that editors really want the warm fluffy stuff? Do you feel editors are going for something they don’t like in order to appeal to readers?

CAM: No, editors print what they want. Remember they are people too, have kids, parents etc. A Father’s Day cartoon appeals to just about everyone. You are probably more in tune with what gets printed than I am. I frankly don’t care. I draw cartoons. If editors want them, great! If not, oh, well…

  When I was younger, I cared a great deal about appealing to editors and my work reflected that. Syndication for me was a big second income. Now it is pocket change, thanks to cartoonists and cartoon marts undercutting the market with cheap, mediocre cartoons. So, I draw cartoons for my paper with the understanding that my readership extends outside the pages of the Ottawa Citizen. I prefer to stick with what my paper desires and I’m fortunate they give me a lot of freedom to do what I do. I draw holiday cartoons; I even draw (gasp!), faith-based Easter cartoons. Fortunately, they haven’t complained yet, but editors change.

DARYL: Your faith-based Easter cartoons dominate the Easter editorial pages, you know.

CAM: Which is odd because I thought we were a secular society with a liberal-dominated media, or so I keep hearing.

DARYL: Thanks, Cam.

CAM: Thanks, Daryl.

Want to comment? E-mail Cam. If we get some interesting comments we’ll post them in the blog.

The cartoon below is scanned from today’s Los Angeles Times, by cartoonist Mimi Pond. It is shown here about twice as big as it was printed, and it is much more legible here in the large size than it was in the newspaper, where the lettering looks like illegible, muddy blobs.

This is a problem lots of cartoonists have. They save their files with the fine black lines consisting of black, cyan (blue), magenta (red) and yellow – instead of just black. Newspapers have lousy printing so the colors rarely “register” or line up directly on top of each other, so the black and color lines muddy up and look like a globby mess.

For some reason, cartoonists insist on continuing to do this and seem oblivious to how terrible their work looks in print. We have this problem with some cartoonists we represent and no matter how many times I tell them how to prepare their art properly for print, they don’t hear it. I might as well be knocking on their front doors trying to sell them religion.

The solution to this is pretty simple, and we can all see it on the Sunday comics pages, where the black is just separate, crispy black, not a combination of all four colors. Most cartoonists start off with a clean black line drawing, then change their color settings to “RGB,” making the lines turn to three color slop but still looking good on the screen. The cartoonists for the Sunday comics are forced to comply with the rules their syndicates impose on them, and in this case, that’s a good thing.

Cartoonists need to keep their files in a CMYK format, with their black lines separate from the magenta, cyan and yellow, just like the Sunday funnies. I know I’m not going to see any change from the guilty cartoonists who work with us, who shall remain nameless (they know who I’m writing about, I’ve nagged them enough). I’m just banging my head against the wall.

And I doubt that I’ll ever be able to read one of these Mimi Pond cartoons in the newspaper.

Our own Milt Priggee drew this powerful anti-war cartoon for Fathers Day …

 

The cartoon was not well received by Milt’s readers. I’ve posted some excerpts from Priggee‘s mailbox and some of Milt’s replies. Click here to send another comment to Priggee; we’ll post a selection of your responses here. See more of Milt’s cartoons here.

———————

On 6/12/08 7:34 AM, “Mettlen, William O SPC DENTAC-Ft Hood” wrote:

Sir let me say that I am all about freedom of the press and freedom of speech, but the cartoon where you depict a U.S solider in Iraq with a letter that states we love you dad along with the soldiers head half blown off and what looks like part of a leg that is missing to be very careless. You will never know how many soldiers use these cartoons to lift their spirits every day. We love to laugh and they really do bring our spirits up. But this particular cartoon was not received very well by many soldiers. It will bring up bad memories for soldiers who have been in Iraq and other countries. You could have brought your point across by being just a little more subtle. We will continue to read your cartoon but I feel that we should receive some sort of an apology for this particular cartoon.

My name id Spc. William o Mettlen and my cell# (XXX) XXX-XXXX, call anytime.

Dear William,

Thank You for writing and sharing your views about my Father’s Day cartoon.

This cartoon was not drawn to lift any spirits but to show the public how and what military families have to deal with. This cartoon was drawn to make people mad, mad enough to demand some accountability from their elected officials for not supporting our fellow citizens who volunteered to protect our country.

I will apologize for my cartoon as soon as President Bush apologizes for needlessly sacrificing the lives of our soldiers and reunites them with their families.

We’ll have to agree to disagree about subtleness because I don’t believe war is subtle. Again, Thank You for writing and THANK YOU for serving.

The BEST to you and yours,

Milt

———————

On 6/10/08 12:44 PM, “Andrew Altman” wrote:

You have had plenty of opportunity to knock the war. This is just indecent.

Andrew Altman

Denver CO

THANK YOU for writing and sharing your views. I’ll share your views with the kids who have lost a parent.

BEST,

Milt

———————

On 6/11/08 10:33 AM, “Vernon Miller” wrote:

That was a terrible cartoon of Bush on Fathers Day. Can’t you get off his back at least on that day. What about the men and women that have died so you can be free to disrespect them on Fathers Day.

Shame on you.

Vernon Miller

———————

From: Joseph Thinn

Subject: Father’s day

You’re sick, Priggie:

I’m going to do my level best to forgive you and pray that you get some professional help. If needs be, I’d be willing to pay for it if you can’t afford it. Let me know. I can afford to pay for about 4 hours of help for you.

Really: get some psychiatric help. You need it.

Blessings,

Joseph Thinn

I’ll do better about posting in the blog. I promise.

Our own Patrick Chappatte of the International Herald Tribune has jumped on the animated political cartoon bandwagon and is animating his editorial cartoons for Swiss television. See them here.

After giving so many speeches in China I learned the oddities of what works and doesn’t work in cartoons with a Chinese audience. Some things can’t be explained, for example light bulb jokes make no sense to the Chinese, and can’t be explained. I’m told this is because it really takes four people in China to screw in a light bulb. Try to explain light bulb jokes and you’ll get a blank stare. They don’t care for ironic cartoons. The typical, wordy American cartoons are lost in translation, even when they address world issues.

For some reason I don’t understand, the Chinese audiences all laugh at pigs. My advice for any cartoonist giving a presentation to an audience in China is to show all the cartoons you’ve ever drawn with pigs in them. As part of my stump speech, I show a batch of my work from my illustrator days, before I became an editorial cartoonist, and I explain that only a very tiny percentage of American cartoonists are political cartoonists, most cartoonists work in illustration, animation, comics books and other non-political genres. When I show the cover at the right, the audience busts up laughing. I’ve asked them why, and the answer I get is, “We think pigs are funny.”

In fact, after each talk I usually get a crowd around me asking for sketches, and they want me to draw a pig for them. There are a few other requests for Chinese zodiac animal characters like bunnies, sheep and monkeys, but mostly it is pigs.

The Chinese just eat up those pigs. Literally. Pork is the staple meat on every Chinese menu. China has a strategic pork reserve, much like America’s Strategic Oil Reserve, in frozen caves underground in different places around the country. The Chinese can continue to enjoy pork dumplings after the apocalypse.

I learned that the Chinese word for pig is “ju,” pronounced, “Jew.” An unfortunate choice of words, I think.

The other big thing they find funny in my presentation is homosexuals. The cartoon at the right gets a big laugh. This was a Larry Craig cartoon; the Chinese audiences have no idea who Larry Craig is, but they know the donkey and elephant party symbols, and the gay reference makes them bust up. Homosexuality isn’t much accepted or discussed in China; as it turns out, when it is discussed they find it quite funny.

Yesterday I visited the tourist sights in Harbin: the Unit 731 Museum and the Harbin Siberian Tiger Park.

The Unit 731 Museum is the home of the infamous Japanese Army Unit 731, the germ warfare research unit that killed thousands of Chinese in grisly experiments and possibly up to 300,000 Chinese with actual germ weapons. The museum is a collection of artifacts, photographs and sculptures that depict the horrors, in Chinese and in English. It looks like a lot of Chinese school groups come through, with parking places for many busses. There was a line of Chinese tourists waiting to get into the busy free museum, on the outskirts of Harbin. Wickipedia gives a good description of Unit 731’s evil enterprise. The museum touts their website at 731museum.com, but it appears that they forgot to pay for the renewal on their domain name and the site doesn’t come up.

What was most interesting to me was the end of the exhibit, where there was a display describing how the commander of Unit 731, Shiro Ishii, was given amnesty by the Americans in exchange for data from Unit 731’s experiments; this led into a new room detailing “evidence” of the alleged American germ warfare against the Chinese during the Korean War. Included in the exhibit is an American germ warfare bomb with four chambers for germ agents. I tried to take a photo, but the guards stopped me.

I’m told that there is a larger exhibit of the alleged American germ warfare against the Chinese at the Museum of American Aggression in Dandong, on the North Korean border. There is little to be seen about this museum on the web, but I’m told it is a well known attraction, containing more exhibits on America germ wafare against the Chinese, including details of a plot allegedly using crickets to spread plague through China. The US State Department has protested both exhibits.

The Harbin Tiger Park is an interesting experience. I doubt that there are many non-Chinese tourists here, but there are English translations everywhere, including a sign that tells visitors the admission prices to be paid for animals to feed to the lions and tigers. In dollars, the prices are: Chicken: $5.70; Duck: $14.29; Pheasant: $14.29; Sheep: $86.00; Cattle: $214.00.

I bought a chicken to feed to the tigers (here is a YouTube video of tigers eating a calf, shot by a tourist from the bus at the Tiger Park).

This is our bus (right), with a cage to protect us from the tigers and with chutes for dropping live chickens out of the bus. The lions and tigers walk up to the bus and open their mouths at the chicken chute openings, so the chickens are devoured as soon as they exit the chute.

The Chinese tourists on our bus had obviously been to the Tiger Park before, because they knew to spend a bit more to buy ducks, which make the tigers work harder for dinner. A duck is thrown into a pond (a hole filled with water) and the duck forces the tigers to swim and chase around the pond for a few minutes, before gobbling up the duck. The Chinese tourists cheer for the duck as it tries to avoid the tiger attacks. It all had a Roman feel to it. I can imagine the ducks saying, “We, who are about to die, salute you!”

The Tiger Park looked like it had over one hundred tigers, many in small cages. I read on the web that the park is active in trying to have the protected species designation removed from Siberian Tigers, so that they can trade in tiger parts and pelts. That doesn’t really surprise me.

This is an example of a banner expressing concern and well wishes for the victims of the earthquake. People write their sympathies on the little yellow ribbons and hang them with the banner.

There are scenes like this all over. In downtown Harbin there’s a big, active kiosk soliciting donations of money and blood. The TV news here is continuous coverage of earthquake news. The outpouring of public support and sympathy is evident all over.

 

I’m now in Harbin, in Northern China, as part of a US State Department cultural exchange program that introduces Chinese audiences speakers from the USA. They have never had an American cartoonist participate in the program before; I’m the first one, and I seem to be a provocative choice for the Chinese students.

The consulate in Shanghai requested an American editorial cartoonist (and I’m an easy cartoonist to find). I’m meeting with Chinese cartoonists, speaking to university students and seeing the sights. The Chinese don’t see American editorial cartoons in their newspapers, we don’t see Chinese editorial cartoons in our newspapers and there is a wide cultural divide when it comes to journalism. The students seem to be amazed at the very idea that cartoonists would dare to be disrespectful of their government leaders.

I explain to the classes about “censorship” in America, and that the government never censors cartoonists, but that freedom of the press belongs to the guy who owns the press and cartoonists often complain about their editors. I tell them about the AAEC’s Golden Spike Award and show them examples of killed cartoons. They seem to be especially interested in this topic.

I leave a lot of time for questions and answers with each group I talk to; they can be shy, but when they get started they have lots of questions, and I get the same questions wherever I go. Here are some examples of recurring questions and answers:

Do your cartoons hurt your personal relationships with the politicians you draw?

No, I don’t have personal relationships with the people I draw.

Do you worry that your drawings will hurt the reputation of someone you have drawn?

No, if one of my cartoons hurts the reputation of a politician that I am criticizing, then I am pleased. (Sometimes the crowd murmurs when I say this. It doesn’t seem to be what they expect me to say.)

Do you ever apologize for your cartoons?

Sometimes, but only if I make an error or if the cartoon is misunderstood. Usually the people who are angry about a cartoon are the people I intend to make angry, and I am happy to make them angry. (The crowd murmurs at this answer, too.)

Do you ever draw cartoons that are supportive of China?

No, I don’t draw cartoons that support anything. I just criticize. Supportive cartoons are lousy cartoons.

Now that you have visited China, and have learned more about China, will you be drawing cartoons that support China?

Probably not.

What do you think about the terrible things that Jack Cafferty from CNN said about China? What can be done to make CNN apologize for these remarks?

(I try to be polite here.) Most Americans don’t know Jack Cafferty and haven’t read about his remarks, but most Americans have a negative view of China and would probably agree with Jack Cafferty’s remarks. I wouldn’t expect CNN to apologize. (The students murmur.) It is interesting that Jack Cafferty is a big issue here; the students all seem to know about the guy and seem personally insulted by him. Here’s a Chinese cartoon on Jack Cafferty.

At every event there is a student with a big smile who asks: Do you see many editorial cartoons in the USA about the Olympics? What are the cartoons like?

(I try again to be polite.) Yes there are lots of cartoons about the Olympics, and the cartoons from around the world are almost all negative about China.

The State Department people asked me not to show cartoons about China, thinking that the cartoons would be so provocative that their contacts at the universities wouldn’t want to work with the US speakers program any more, after a cartoon trauma. The students are eager to see cartoons about China. One student said, “You can show us the cartoons about China, really! We’re strong!” I refer the students to my web site to see the cartoons about China, and I tell them what the cartoons are like.

The request to refrain from showing cartoons about China is something I had to contemplate, because I like to say whatever I want. It was the only request the State Department people made of me, regarding what I would have to say and show in China. I decided I was OK with it.

Now that I have heard from the students, and I can see what a huge cultural divide there is, I think I agree that I make important points by just showing how I draw disrespectful cartoons about American leaders. That is enough to shock these audiences and show how different our attitudes are.

The students think that China is misunderstood around the world. They are proud of China, they are all personally very nice, and genuinely expect that the world should love China. At a couple of events students have asked me to list reasons why Americans would not like China; I give them a list of issues and they seem shocked. I think they are not shocked so much by the list of issues as by how this American cartoonist can so misunderstand China.

A person from a US consulate here told me a story about one bright young English student who was working for the consulate. He seemed inspired, was interested in everything and he seemed to be well on the road to understanding what America is all about. One day the English student was at a hotel and he watched CNN’s coverage of China; he had never seen CNN before. The student was so shocked by what he heard on CNN that he came back to his US Consulate friends and told them that he was inspired by watching the news on CNN, and he had decided that he wanted to work for the Chinese government as a censor, to insure that other Chinese people would never have to hear the terrible things he heard on CNN.

The barriers may be so wide that there may be no bridging the gap.

But I shouldn’t be too negative. I’d like to have seen president Bush handle hurricane Katrina like the Chinese are handling the earthquake here.

The Chinese college classes are all very interested, and happy for me to be there. They are eager for me to do drawings and sometimes they rush out and want a photo with me. That’s a gregarious college class that I spoke to in the southern city of Guangzhou in the photo below.