Politics and the Olympics

Back to the funny papers again...

An ad agency network recently experienced a rather awkward public clash of conflicting sentiment toward China.  Two offices serve very large global clients with Olympic sponsorships.  A third has a long-standing relationship with Amnesty International.  Each produced work on behalf of their respective client – and understandably, demonstrated very different points of view on the nature of humanity.

The Olympics, despite protestations that it is an apolitical celebration of athleticism, transcending boundaries and skirmishes, petty and otherwise, is about flags.  Anthems.   Nationalism.  And beating ("smashing!" say the French swimmers) other countries.  Sounds almost... warlike... when you think about it.  Politics continues to overshadow these games, as it has many before, from Moscow to Berlin to Mexico City.

Prickly City (not to be confused with Mexico City) is a politically-conservative comic strip that runs in the LA Times.  It's theme over the past week or so has been China and the Olympics – and notably, China's relationship with Tibet.  After kicking off the series with the strip shown above, each subsequent day has featured an end panel in which one of the characters is viewed through prison bars.  

Human rights makes strange bedfellows.  Tibet: it's not just for liberals anymore.  And it's not going away because we're pretending the Olympics isn't political.

Welcome Back, Gary Trudeau

Is there any form of political discourse more enchanting that the cartoon?  What a righteous tradition of satire and commentary, celebration and commemoration. 

As I'm probably the only person who still reads the LA Times in paper format, I always feel compelled to share with others what cartoonists are talking about.  My husband finds this totally unfunny.  Interestingly, the Times is almost pathologically "fair" in its balance of liberal and conservative political viewpoints in the funny pages.  For that matter, it equally represents nearly every ethnicity, race, gender, age and sexual orientation, including talking animals of both the mammalian and reptilian persuasion.  Never have I seen such democracy in action as in the LA Times comics.

But to the point: Gary Trudeau went on a sabbatical for a while.  And I felt like I'd lost my perspective on things.  

If you've followed him over the decades, you've watched him, for lack of a better word, mellow.  His observations, while still delivered on the tip of a razor-sharp scalpel, are more considered.  For example, while his disdain for the Bush administration is as pointed as ever, his commentary on the war in Iraq – and more accurately, the soldiers in Iraq – is heartbreakingly beautiful.  I poked around on his site to find out how long he'd be incommunicado, and I found a really surprising thing: a section on doonesbury.com called The Sandbox.  It's a blog made available to servicepeople in Iraq and Afganistan, allowing them to document their experiences and thoughts for readers around the world.  It's a treasure.

Welcome back, Gary.  All is right in the world again.