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Friday, October 18, 2002

'Boondocks' goes beyond the pale with Hitler-Bush comparison

I would like to voice my displeasure with Sunday's "The Boondocks" cartoon.

Regardless of one's political views, I think it was outrageous and dishonorable to insinuate that one of the worst mass murderers in history has anything in common with a sitting president of the United States.

The cartoonist can disagree all he wants with the results of the 2000 election. He can exercise his right to free speech by denouncing his programs and policies. He can demonstrate in the streets like thousands of other citizens; but, to compare the president to a racist, xenophobic, anti-Semitic hate-monger is beyond the pale. He denigrates all of the trials and sacrifices of our forebears who died to allow him the privilege to live in a world where leaders periodically relinquish power in an orderly and peaceful manner.

He insults the men and women in uniform who may have undergone great privation in insuring that the concept of representative democracy is not regulated to the dustbin of history, to be replaced by theocratic dictatorship. Human freedom and rights are under grave threat today. If he hasn't noticed, billions of people around the globe live at the sufferance of their supposed "leaders."

However, he seems to forget that in exercising his right to criticize others, that such courtesies as civility and respect (which are extended to his person) should likewise be extended to others.

This attack on another, which would not be tolerated in private life, can seemingly only be countenanced upon those in the public's eye.

ANGELO L. FONTANESI
South Park

'Boondocks' doesn't even get facts right

"The Boondocks" strip in your Sunday edition was vicious, scurrilous, outrageous and really crossed the line of civility. Even your aggressively anti-Bush editorial cartoonists or Doonesbury would not have gone anywhere near this far.

People used to say that the anti-Clinton side was rough on the former president! We might have compared him to Nixon, but never to a genocidal dictator.

By the way, Hitler was never democratically elected to the position of dictator in Germany. His party was the largest party in the German Parliament in their last election, but they did not get a majority. He became chancellor (a position similar to that of the current German leader) in a coalition arrangement which was also legitimate though a tragic mistake. However, Hitler then assumed dictatorial powers on his own in total violation of the German constitution. That act and everything thereafter was totally undemocratic. The Germans never, in a free election, gave a majority of their votes to Hitler and the Nazi party. The later plebiscite was an anti-democratic fraud.

As for "Boondocks," this is not the first time that this strip has been utterly inappropriate. If you insist on keeping it, you ought to put it on the editorial pages and just refrain from printing it when it goes beyond the limits of civility, particularly in a possible war-time setting.

JOHN T. RYAN III
Squirrel Hill

PG should take a hint from 'Boondocks'

Thank you for running Sunday's "Boondocks" comic strip. The controversy this is bound to generate is the whole point of free speech. My only wish is that the PG would run such thought-provoking facts on pages other than the comics.

CHUCK CARLSON
Highland Park

Struggles of local theater

Kudos to William O'Donnell for his article, "Let's bridge the gap between cultural districts" (Oct. 6). As a somewhat junior member of the local theater community, I've become frustrated at the gap between the artistic haves and have-nots in this city.

The demise of companies such as the Penn Avenue Theatre (to cite the most recent example) serves to remind those of us with a drive to add to the vibrancy of our city that most of the efforts by our local artists are unappreciated and, to a certain extent, unwanted. Our small local companies are motivated by the desire to create and perform, not by greed or aspirations to fame. It is typically the local companies that present the more challenging works that, while not your typical Neil Simon crowd-pleasers, deliver compelling storylines and cutting-edge playwriting that many of the larger companies will not provide.

In all fairness, I will admit to a vested interest in this situation. Being in the process of launching my own theater company, Cloven Hoof Productions, I have a personal stake in the theater scene in Pittsburgh. I am learning how tough it is just to get a name mentioned, let alone mount a production and build a reputation.

I will be the first to admit that the small companies need to be more proactive in reaching out to a wider audience via promotional methods. That being said, I also believe that no amount of promotion can stand a chance with our major news organizations focusing so fully on artists that come from out of town to take our money, do a show, and leave on the next plane out. So many of the articles I read in the Post-Gazette and other newspapers are meant to regale artists who come into town for a short time, or arts events happening in other cities. It is nice that there can be show planes to Toronto, New York and London. Unfortunately those of us who are trying to do theater here in the city cannot afford to jet off to another city to see what is happening elsewhere, and most of us are too busy trying to work here in Pittsburgh to be able to find the time to go anywhere else.

Also, I think Mr. O'Donnell is spot-on in his analysis of the Public and City theaters. It is well known throughout the acting community in Pittsburgh that one stands a better chance of getting cast in either company if your address reads anywhere but Pittsburgh. Many of us don't even bother trying. But still we keep on, creating shows on a shoestring budget, doing our best to entertain an audience that more and more consists of our families and friends. We're getting used to performing for audience sizes in the teens and twenties, because that seems to be all we can get. Many factors play into the dwindling numbers, and we realize our shortcomings. But in a city where the only successful shows are those that appeal to the least common denominator, or who are backed by large amounts of money and can afford endless promotion, how can the little guys compete?

JOE PAULEY
Bellevue

Here's what I've SEEN

SEEN? What is this anyhow? How could the Post-Gazette continue to publish this section in the paper? In color to boot!

SEEN, just the name is nauseating. In an attempt to out-dress another and enjoy elegant parties in which the wealthier population can pat one another on the back and say "we are so good and helping humanity" and "look, we are wearing thousands of dollars worth of clothing and eating rich delicious foods that the people we are claiming to help can only dream of wearing or eating."

Guess what, Post-Gazette, no one cares what they wore or ate! Maybe what they did only. If you really want to see something worthwhile maybe stay out of the ballrooms and take a look around. Because these are the things I see: I saw a doctor walking the streets of Pittsburgh helping to care for the homeless, I saw a group of elderly women having a bake sale to raise money for a child that needs life-saving surgery because her family cannot afford the ever-rising health insurance prices, I saw a group of Boy Scouts cleaning a run-down park today. I saw a group of nurses volunteering their time to help raise money for a burn unit.

Look around Pittsburgh every day, there are lots of things to be SEEN that are worthwhile. And it didn't require a personal designer.

GINA KAUFMAN
Crafton

Too little, too late

It is not that I have great concern for the future profits of a small art gallery owner, but I do have a concern about the state of the fine arts here in Pittsburgh, and your art critic has much to do with that concern.

Mary Thomas' recent and belated review of the watercolor show at the Stobart Gallery in the Union Trust Building (Oct. 8) focused on retail store decor rather than on the quality of the local and national artists, which comprised the show, some of whose work was truly outstanding. Four days before the show closed and some 30 days after it opened, she bestowed the gallery with the Gazette's publicity with a review which dealt more with the manner in which the paintings were installed, than the quality of the artists' work. I think she called the show "cramped."

If fine art in Pittsburgh is ever to obtain the vibrancy it has in most other large American cities, the news coverage will have to become more informed and less mewlish. I feel for the struggling artists and art galleries in this town.

STEPHEN M. SOKOL
Mount Washington

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