Thursday, April 27, 2006

Oregonian Cartoon Wars

Apparently I have less excitement in my life because I'm not teaching math at LCC instead of U. of O. The university is apparently having it's own cartoon controversy because of some anti-Catholic cartoons of nature.

Most striking to me is that the university's official newspaper responds by writing an such a confused editorial.

Nothing is mentioned about how the Danish cartoons were published to clarify that mainstream media coverage mostly ignored that the cartoon's crisis was initiated months after the fact by Muslim leaders who inserted three extra super-offensive cartoons as part of a planned excitement to global rioting.

Nothing is mentioned of the more offensive anti-Catholic cartoons.

Nothing is mentioned of how the rioting against the Danish cartoons ironically supported their slanderous accusations.

The fact that the anti-Catholic cartoons do not refer to "relevant religious and social issues" and were "intended to provoke" apparently means they can be true to the "admirable goal" of "arousing dialogue" even though they "seem intended to simply incite controversy for controversy’s sake rather than making specific social commentaries".

Finally, the closing remark that "poking fun at the religious beliefs of the majority is inherently different from attacking an already oppressed minority" seems to be something the editors might soon regret publishing, since the university's official policies on diversity and tolerance make no such distinction.

As someone living in Eugene, Oregon, it is no surprise that in this city a conservative student paper would publish the Danish cartoons or that a liberal student paper would respond in this manner. But I guess I expect more from the official university newspaper.