Last week, America prepared to commemorate the Tenth Anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on our nation. At the same time I [Paul] was honored to join a group of cartoonists from the National Cartoonists Society on a trip to Norfolk, Virginia and Bethesda, Maryland on a trip to visit and draw for some of our wounded warriors and active duty military personnel at a number of different hospitals and military installations.
The NCS has a long-standing tradition going back to WWII, Korea, and Viet Nam of going out to entertain the troops wherever they may be. In recent years, NCS teams have visited places like Kuwait, Iraq, Afghanistan, Germany and countless bases stateside. Our goal is to express our appreciation to these remarkable people for the job they do and the sacrifices they make to keep us safe here at home.
Our group consisted of Dr. Joel Goodman, founder of The Humor Project, who travels the world giving presentations on humor in the workplace and humor in healing. Our cartoonists were Mason Mastroianni, who draws the classic comic feature, “B.C.”; Jeff Bacon, whose cartoons appear in “Navy Times” and “Marine Times”; Bruce Higdon, freelance cartoonist and illustrator; and yours truly, Paul Fell. We were escorted throughout our 5-day trip by Leanne Braddock, retired Navy Commander who now does counseling for the wounded warriors and their families.
We began our trip in Norfolk, Virginia, where we visited the Portsmouth Naval Hospital to meet and draw for marines and sailors who are recovering from their wounds and receiving rehabilitation before returning to active duty or civilian life. We spent the morning drawing for these men and women in hopes of expressing our appreciation and to provide a brief respite from what is for many of them, a long ordeal of recovery. At the same time, Joel Goodman was doing his presentation “Humor and Healing” for hospital patients and staff.
Later that day, we visited the Portsmouth Navy base, where we were told we would see the largest collection of naval power in the world. They weren’t kidding. As we boarded the cruiser USS San Jacinto, we were surrounded by nuclear aircraft carriers, assault ships, destroyers, and naval vessels of every kind. We received a tour of the ship and then proceeded to the chiefs’ mess where we drew for the crew. As always, our scheduled stop of 90 minutes ran overtime. The crew members kept coming by for drawings, and we were happy to oblige.
After a travel day we visited the Bethesda/Walter Reed medical center. This is yet another huge facility where the wounded receive top-notch care for their injuries. It is truly sobering to see the extent of the wounds these soldiers, sailors, and marines have endured and the long and painful rehabilitation they go through. What truly touches your heart is their determination to move on with their lives and how their situations impact their families and loved ones. We spent part of our day drawing in the main lobby of the hospital for anyone who could stop by. Later we were taken to the acute care facility where the wounded are first housed when they are evacuated from the combat zones. When their condition is stabilized, which could take anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months, they are transferred to another part of the complex where they are housed in apartment-like facilities. Their families can then stay with them as they begin the long healing process.
This was my first NCS trip to draw for the Wounded Warriors and I already have my name in for another. Our association has groups preparing to head overseas next week and again in October. Time and time again, we received heartfelt thanks from the wounded, their families, and medical staff for these visits. In reality, we, as cartoonists are the honored ones, and we get even more out of these visits than those who have sacrificed so much for our country.
Monday, September 12, 2011
Friday, September 9, 2011
Time For Heroes
With the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks this weekend on our mind, and the President's jobs speech still resounding in our ears, we began to gather our thoughts for today's commentary. As we knew when we began this week, today's commentary would be about heroes.
As a cartoonist, Paul has drawn heroes and caricatures of heroes for years. Today, he's continuing a tradition that many of our friends in the cartooning and media business have been involved in for years: visiting real heroes, through Navy, Army, and USO programs.
The men and women that Paul and the other cartoonists are drawing for this week come from many different situations. Some are injured soldiers and sailors in hospital wards, while some are healthy service members stuck on long-term duty stations and ships, both here in America and abroad.
The cartoonists are doing what they can, to help their fellow Americans get through a tough time. They're taking pictures with the troops, drawing them and their friends, telling jokes - trying to help them get a breather from the daily grind of their lives. Some have major injuries. Many simply do the things that keep our armed services running smoothly, things that rarely garner public recognition. Yet they're heroes, each and every one.
If you ask almost any one of our living Medal of Honor recipients, they'll all say nearly the same thing: that they're not really heroes either. When they took out whole groups of enemies in insane firefights, they were just protecting their friends, their fellow Americans - their family by another name.
Many of the heroes of 9/11 would answer that question in much the same way, if we could ask them. The buildings were falling - but they were going to do the job, to the best of their abilities, do it all the way, until they couldn't anymore.
When we repeat the words of our web guru's granddad - that anything worth doing is worth doing well - THIS is what we mean by "doing well."
Our President - the President of EVERY American - once again was trying to do his job well when he spoke to Congress, and to every American citizen, Thursday night. He called on us to act on the most pressing crisis of our time, the jobs and economic crisis.
Mr. Obama laid out his plan, and he made it VERY clear that we will ALL be expected give up some things for the greater good of our nation. Excesses in Medicare WILL be examined. Corporations and the wealthy WILL pay more in taxes. And if we fail to help each other, it is all of us together that will have failed, not just him alone.
The President will put the details of his together bill by next Tuesday, and submit it to Congress. Then Congress will need to act - not next year, not in fourteen months. NOW. But it's not just up to them. We, the American people, will need to push Congress every step of the way, day after day.
Like some of the heroes that Paul and the cartoonists are visiting this week.
Being a hero isn't just something that can be spun into an exciting story, a Hollywood movie, or a great cartoon. Heroes include the kind of individuals who tear apart a ship, and retrofit it so that we can protect our country with better, safer, faster ships. It's grueling work sometimes, work that takes not just hours or weeks, but months and sometimes years of doing the same thing - and doing it well.
The actions of heroes aren't just a single moment or a single day - and they shouldn't be just a single day's events for any of us either.
The heroes of September 11th didn't just show up on September 9th and become members of the NYFD or NYPD. They took years to become heroes. Some of the heroes that have died since that day passed away due to weeks and months spent digging through the rubble. Day after day.
Now it's our turn. We are each faced with a fundamental choice: we can choose to accept the ideas put forth by President Obama to help our fellow Americans, or we can look no farther than political labels and automatically ignore the most pressing needs of our time. Some of these people, our family by another name, have been out of work or severely underemployed, through no fault of their own, for years. Ignoring them is no less neglectful and dishonorable an action than ignoring our soldiers who come home physically whole, but mentally and spiritually damaged.
Our fellow Americans need heroes.
It's time - long past time, actually - that we become the heroes we need.
It is time we did everything well. Every day. No exceptions.
No excuses.
As a cartoonist, Paul has drawn heroes and caricatures of heroes for years. Today, he's continuing a tradition that many of our friends in the cartooning and media business have been involved in for years: visiting real heroes, through Navy, Army, and USO programs.
The men and women that Paul and the other cartoonists are drawing for this week come from many different situations. Some are injured soldiers and sailors in hospital wards, while some are healthy service members stuck on long-term duty stations and ships, both here in America and abroad.
The cartoonists are doing what they can, to help their fellow Americans get through a tough time. They're taking pictures with the troops, drawing them and their friends, telling jokes - trying to help them get a breather from the daily grind of their lives. Some have major injuries. Many simply do the things that keep our armed services running smoothly, things that rarely garner public recognition. Yet they're heroes, each and every one.
If you ask almost any one of our living Medal of Honor recipients, they'll all say nearly the same thing: that they're not really heroes either. When they took out whole groups of enemies in insane firefights, they were just protecting their friends, their fellow Americans - their family by another name.
Many of the heroes of 9/11 would answer that question in much the same way, if we could ask them. The buildings were falling - but they were going to do the job, to the best of their abilities, do it all the way, until they couldn't anymore.
When we repeat the words of our web guru's granddad - that anything worth doing is worth doing well - THIS is what we mean by "doing well."
Our President - the President of EVERY American - once again was trying to do his job well when he spoke to Congress, and to every American citizen, Thursday night. He called on us to act on the most pressing crisis of our time, the jobs and economic crisis.
Mr. Obama laid out his plan, and he made it VERY clear that we will ALL be expected give up some things for the greater good of our nation. Excesses in Medicare WILL be examined. Corporations and the wealthy WILL pay more in taxes. And if we fail to help each other, it is all of us together that will have failed, not just him alone.
The President will put the details of his together bill by next Tuesday, and submit it to Congress. Then Congress will need to act - not next year, not in fourteen months. NOW. But it's not just up to them. We, the American people, will need to push Congress every step of the way, day after day.
Like some of the heroes that Paul and the cartoonists are visiting this week.
Being a hero isn't just something that can be spun into an exciting story, a Hollywood movie, or a great cartoon. Heroes include the kind of individuals who tear apart a ship, and retrofit it so that we can protect our country with better, safer, faster ships. It's grueling work sometimes, work that takes not just hours or weeks, but months and sometimes years of doing the same thing - and doing it well.
The actions of heroes aren't just a single moment or a single day - and they shouldn't be just a single day's events for any of us either.
The heroes of September 11th didn't just show up on September 9th and become members of the NYFD or NYPD. They took years to become heroes. Some of the heroes that have died since that day passed away due to weeks and months spent digging through the rubble. Day after day.
Now it's our turn. We are each faced with a fundamental choice: we can choose to accept the ideas put forth by President Obama to help our fellow Americans, or we can look no farther than political labels and automatically ignore the most pressing needs of our time. Some of these people, our family by another name, have been out of work or severely underemployed, through no fault of their own, for years. Ignoring them is no less neglectful and dishonorable an action than ignoring our soldiers who come home physically whole, but mentally and spiritually damaged.
Our fellow Americans need heroes.
It's time - long past time, actually - that we become the heroes we need.
It is time we did everything well. Every day. No exceptions.
No excuses.
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Hoping For The Real Thing
As we expected, last night's GOP debate at the Reagan Library looked more like an Obama re-election committee than a group of potential challengers to President Obama.
We hoped for specifics from the Republican candidates; we got very few. We wanted honesty; we got very little. We wanted more discussion of how each candidate would create jobs; we heard mostly the talking points and platitudes we sadly expected. Romney's big moment, where he defended Social Security seems to directly contradict one point of his 59-point jobs and economic plan from earlier this week. Perry lied like cheap rug. Michele Bachmann just seemed to fade away.
Of the eight foolish, ill-informed, pandering puppets on the stage, only Jon Huntsman appeared to us to be even marginally worthy of competing for the Presidency. We're not the only people who thought he won the debate last night.
Truthfully, he may have been the only REAL Reagan Republican on that stage.
If President Obama did anyone a favor by agreeing to move his speech on jobs to Thursday evening, it was the GOP candidates on that stage in California Wednesday night. If he'd given his speech before the Republicans spoke, they may have looked even more inept than they did.
That doesn't mean we're giving a pass to the President tonight - or in the 2012 campaign.
We're well aware of the information that has been leaked about the President's speech tonight: that there will be about a $300 billion stimulus, and that it will include things like payroll tax cuts for WORKING Americans and infrastructure spending - both items that Republicans have supported in the past.
Those are good ideas - ideas that have already proven to create jobs through the stimulus, though the original stimulus should have been MUCH larger, as many of the best economists have been saying all along.
We're also aware that the Republican talking heads and the right-leaning corporate media will continue screaming that regulations and a tax burden are the real problem, even though that lie has already been debunked by many of the private sectors' most successful businesspeople and economists.
Like an infant who's learned that screaming and tantrums result in attention and treats, the extremists on the political right have come to think that if they scream their lies until everyone else becomes weary and gives in, their version of reality will somehow prevail. Like that same infant, they must be re-trained to learn that behavior is unacceptable, offensive, and ultimately won't get them what they want.
What they want on the right is the same thing many on the left want tonight. They want to see President Obama take full command of his position.
He needs to be bold. He needs to be direct. He needs to tell Congress that they WILL get off their lazy asses and do something to help America get back to work - or he will use every inch of leeway accorded to the Office of The President and he will begin programs to put Americans back to work himself.
And then on Friday, he needs to follow through. Immediately.
America needs help. NOW. As we said, earlier this week, we don't expect the President's speech tonight to solve all of the country's woes. To think that words alone will solve the issues would be ridiculous.
However, if President Obama wants to convince independents, Democrats, and Republicans alike that he's the right choice in 2012, he needs to be at his best tonight.
We hoped for specifics from the Republican candidates; we got very few. We wanted honesty; we got very little. We wanted more discussion of how each candidate would create jobs; we heard mostly the talking points and platitudes we sadly expected. Romney's big moment, where he defended Social Security seems to directly contradict one point of his 59-point jobs and economic plan from earlier this week. Perry lied like cheap rug. Michele Bachmann just seemed to fade away.
Of the eight foolish, ill-informed, pandering puppets on the stage, only Jon Huntsman appeared to us to be even marginally worthy of competing for the Presidency. We're not the only people who thought he won the debate last night.
Truthfully, he may have been the only REAL Reagan Republican on that stage.
If President Obama did anyone a favor by agreeing to move his speech on jobs to Thursday evening, it was the GOP candidates on that stage in California Wednesday night. If he'd given his speech before the Republicans spoke, they may have looked even more inept than they did.
That doesn't mean we're giving a pass to the President tonight - or in the 2012 campaign.
We're well aware of the information that has been leaked about the President's speech tonight: that there will be about a $300 billion stimulus, and that it will include things like payroll tax cuts for WORKING Americans and infrastructure spending - both items that Republicans have supported in the past.
Those are good ideas - ideas that have already proven to create jobs through the stimulus, though the original stimulus should have been MUCH larger, as many of the best economists have been saying all along.
We're also aware that the Republican talking heads and the right-leaning corporate media will continue screaming that regulations and a tax burden are the real problem, even though that lie has already been debunked by many of the private sectors' most successful businesspeople and economists.
Like an infant who's learned that screaming and tantrums result in attention and treats, the extremists on the political right have come to think that if they scream their lies until everyone else becomes weary and gives in, their version of reality will somehow prevail. Like that same infant, they must be re-trained to learn that behavior is unacceptable, offensive, and ultimately won't get them what they want.
What they want on the right is the same thing many on the left want tonight. They want to see President Obama take full command of his position.
He needs to be bold. He needs to be direct. He needs to tell Congress that they WILL get off their lazy asses and do something to help America get back to work - or he will use every inch of leeway accorded to the Office of The President and he will begin programs to put Americans back to work himself.
And then on Friday, he needs to follow through. Immediately.
America needs help. NOW. As we said, earlier this week, we don't expect the President's speech tonight to solve all of the country's woes. To think that words alone will solve the issues would be ridiculous.
However, if President Obama wants to convince independents, Democrats, and Republicans alike that he's the right choice in 2012, he needs to be at his best tonight.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)