Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for March 06, 2011

A refrigerator door strip for a lot of parents. But absolutely consistent with these characters, right down to the delayed-fuse punchline.

Ya mean I was poor? Spring break meant hopefully a few extra shifts while I tried to finish my papers. Sleeping in would come with grad school.

I never skipped a class, though I’ll admit I never thought of class time as precious, either.

The most important point of being in college was to learn what classes could teach. True enough. But that isn’t the only point of being in college. A student leaving college is supposedly better prepared to deal with life in the ‘real world’ than students just leaving high school.

THAT part of a college education is often neglected by institutions of higher education today, in part because college administrations have been put into such an awkward position. They are no longer standing ‘in loco parentis’ for their students, but they are not yet regarded as mere landlords providing room and board for students.

Another aspect of our schizophrenia social norms: you’re old enough to vote, and to fight and die for your country, but not old enough to drink.

And you, ma’am, are now fully and equally accepted as a member of the workforce, but we expect you to be a good homemaker and a mother too. You may do it all! But that doen’t mean you can do it all. We make no attempt, as a society, to create the infrastructure to enable you to do it all, but maintain attitudes and structures that punish you for attempting to do it all, or ensure that you are only partly successful at work or at home unless you are willing to sacrifice the one for the other.

We want a great and powerful military ‘to protect us’ but we don’t want to have to pay for it. Or anything else, for that matter.

But I digresss …

It seems that every time GT bases the strip in Leo’s trailer, the comments section abounds with lame shots at “trailer park” living. My experiences in trailer parks and upscale subdivisions has shown me that the only significant difference is the price of the homes.

well said sandfan; and many times the ones who are living in the trailer parks appreciate what they do have much better, and help each other out a lot more.

There’s the big difference between these two! But, then again, what’s wrong with having a snow day now and then?

..today..mostly because of Wall Street,being poor is considered to be a flaw..growing up poor(in the good ol’ days:-) ,my,and many many other parents,did not let poor be an excuse for anything.We studied hard,were polite,did not steal(or covet),we worked and played hard.Poor didn’t seem poor.Oh,there were times when I had beat up holy clothes,didn’t wear the lastest fashions..but those were social lessons in themselves.You learned how to be thankful.

A cousin spent three weeks in Europe…something I could not even dream of doing…and because he had been everywhere,he hated it:HATED IT! Meanwhile ,we did a weekend at Cedar Point,spent the night in a cheap hotel next to a rail road track and on the way home,the seven of us,watched the jets take off at Cleveland Hopkins Airport and ride the rapid transit.It was not only one of the greatest vacations I ever had,but one of the happiest memories of my life.

I cry over the A-typical-Wall Street head bangers.They have nothing to be thankful for.Pursuing a dream of tread mill riches and wind mill power….

…For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul????

..and by forfeiting your soul,my brother and sister,I don’t mean the existential after death variety…I mean your day to day life…

…something to think about..can I get an amen?!?

Amen.

Actually doughfoot, you are giving too much responsibility to others…….. really, it is just about each individual taking RESPONSIBILITY for their actions and just MATURING into the differing roles that we will each step into during different phases of our lives. No person is perfect. Life itself is a learning process. Chill, man!

Amen 3hourtour, Amen and again Amen.

I was unable to complete college because of family obligations, I did not attend right out of high school but many years later after marriage and the birth of our first child. While I was in school I worked a full time job, at night, and my wife would help me study. It was difficult but I managed to succeed in school because I worked at it. I learned alot, and not all book learning. I matured a great deal and learned what it meant to work hard at something and persever. I was a different person. Stronger and more mature. Better prepared for real life in spite of not having finished. That, to me, is worth far more than the book learning I received in class. I count myself lucky to have attended at all. These kids today that blow off classes and drink their college away make me sick. They have no gratitude for what their parents have slaved away to give them. And what makes me more ill is that these brats will come out of school with a degree, that they haven’t earned, without any knowledge gained from it, and end up being my bosses because I was unable to finish because I accepted the responsibilities that had been given to me to take care of my family.

sandfan,

Many years ago, I hitchhiked across the U.S. and I found that it was the people who had the least to give–materially speaking–who offered me the most. I was rarely offered a ride by wealthy folks. And even though many of the people who did offer me rides were themselves having to work hard to make ends meet, they often insisted on letting me stay with them and providing a meal despite my offering to pay or help in some way as compensation.

I stayed in a few trailer parks and have only memories of kindness and community.

A big “AMEN!” for 3hour….

Neo Blakkrstal I give you a thumbs up! And, in addition, to becoming your bosses these young ones will treat those who are more mature and learned, such as yourself, as if we are stupid because we don’t maybe toggle between screens on a computer!

People are who they are, regardless of wealth, status, race or religion. As said above, often the people with the least to give are the ones who give the most. Sometimes this is not necessarily in material things either. My most memorable days were spent in a neighborhood which shared everything, good and bad. Greed didn’t exist. Unfortunately that neighborhood doesn’t either.

Sandfan: I grew up in a trailer park. It was populated by people who seemed to be no different from the people who lived in the nearby bungalow subdivision. No, wait–the trailer park folks were more interesting, and I mean that in a good way. We had office workers, factory workers, auto mechanics who could fix just about anything that might break, and even a trapeze act that appeared about twice a year on the Bozo show. The folks in the bungalows all seemed to be the same–white-collar office workers with fairly dull jobs. This didn’t stop them from looking down their noses at the “trailer park trash,” of course.

Off of today’s topic… back to the past week’s dailies:

I’d like to see BD and Ray go to a fallen comrade’s funeral and be confronted by these loonies:

http://comics.com/rob_rogers/2011-03-05/

No, not really. Just a little wish-fulfillment.

Justice22’s ironical comment reminded me of a poem from Blake’s Songs of Experience:

I went to the Garden of Love And saw what I never had seen: A chapel was built in the midst Where I used to play on the green.

And the gates of the chapel were shut, And “Thou shalt not” writ over the door; So I turned to the Garden of Love That so many sweet flowers bore.

And I saw it was filled with graves, And tombstones where flowers should be; And priests in black gowns were walking their rounds, And binding with briers my joys and desires.

The child in Songs of Innocence never noticed the chapel in the Garden of Love, but now that he’s an experienced adult he “sees things as they are” (i.e. ironically).

Readers who agree with Alex in praising Leo’s simplicity are like Blake’s adults trying naively (i.e., without irony) to recapture their innocence.

Ps @Lew, below

Blake’s etchings have been likened to the work of an invertebrate Michelangelo. I’d compare his art with Trudeau’s: Blake adds volume (or the third dimension that Doonesbury lacks), but his light and space remain fantastic caricatures of reality. Also, the Faustian note you detect is echoed in G.T.’s satire.

PALIN Took a semester of Blake (Yeah, BA Brit Poetry) and never saw anything but a man who could never believe in forgiveness (Faustus?). Hated his etchings.

One 4th of July, about 3-4 years ago, I took my family to a park and the locale Nat’l Guard unit was present to display their gear and Humvees. They were just returned from a 1 year deployment in Iraq. My wife and I noticed that these young men in their 20’s were much more mature than their contemporaries. Focused, disciplined and mannered (at least in the public eye :-)

Go Toggle, your character may be fictional, but there are many like you. Military careers were a boon to my Southern dirt poor family and extended family. I owe the Army a big one.

Could someone enlighten me? In the last panel, Alex says “shame spiral”.

????????????????

I read a lot. The book I read that defined WWII for me was The Cruel Sea. For WWI, it was All Quiet on the Western Front, which is set in Germany. Hence the western front was on the western side of Germany.

Both books are very well written. They are very moving - they give you the feeling that the authors were writing about things they knew intimately. The most striking thing I read was about a soldier on leave, come home to visit his family, and how hard it was for him to adjust. He says that he could walk down any street and no one would be trying to kill him! That still gives me to think.

I have no personal experience of war, I don’t want it, and I don’t think I need it. I feel I have a good enough imagination. The comments I read here all make perfect sense in the light of not being able to walk down any street without knowing that someone was trying to kill you.

The closest I came to experiencing war was knowing survivors of the Holocaust (I am Jewish), and reading a great deal about it. Meeting someone who has a blue number tattooed on their arm…

^The “spiral” is like the whirlpool of water going down a drain. Alex is going down right now because she unintentionally hurt Toggle and she is ashamed.

@doughfoot, your comments on the dilemma of modern-day women are among the best I’ve ever seen.

We make no attempt, as a society, to create the infrastructure to enable you to do it all, but maintain attitudes and structures that punish you for attempting to do it all, or ensure that you are only partly successful.

Are you aware that by not allowing women to do it all, society cheats men as well? But from what I’ve seen, things are getting slowly better, Slowly.

Rina, I don’t know about “The Cruel Sea,” but have read and re-read “All Quiet on the Western Front” and count it as my favorite. Erich Maria Remarque was a soldier on the Western Front, and was wounded and hospitalized. Although not autobiographical, he drew heavily from his own life experiences. He wrote a second book that you may be interested in reading, “The Road Back,” which deals with he and his comrades returning home and attempting to re-integrate with German society after WWI.

The Nazis banned and publically burned his books and falsely claimed that he was a Jew who had never served on the front, and Remarque had to flee Germany. I guess it was considered unpatriotic to expose war in all its ugliness and what it does to the people who must endure it.

Tis the difference between those who are paying for their own education and those who have parents paying for it. And tho Toggle may be getting his paid for by the govt, he has already paid dearly.