Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for October 22, 2011

One would hope that Alex would have a better understanding of Leo by now.

Alex’s learning curve steepens.

It’s hard to know what triggers Alex.

But she’s willing to stick with it and keep learning. That’s worth a lot.

Is Gram gonna move in? Or not?

Garry Trudeau vilified Viet Nam vets but apparently just loves WOT vets. Typical leftist hateful hypocrisy.

Sometimes I think the kids will be alright.

Only Doonesbury, babygirl. Advantage: me/you = 18/1. Just kidding. I don’t try to be pithy. Instead I read the strip, then meditate/sleep and the comment emerges effortlessly from my subconscious, surprising me. This way doesn’t make your hair hurt.

So we’re back where the arc began last Monday, at Leo’s trailer in the D.C. suburbs. Some of our postings have registered disagreement about GBT’s route. Where did Leo’s truck run into “the occupy people”? How much time was covered by these six strips?On Monday, Alex jumped at Leo’s proposal to “drive in” and take Joanie to lunch. If they’’re starting from (say) Bethesda, and Boston is more than eight hours away, their “lunch” date must be for the following day. In all five of the M-F strips they’re wearing the same clothes, so the action takes place in a single day.The quickest route to Boston, I-95, would cross the Hudson via the Geo. Washington Bridge, But the truck seems to have detoured into Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel and gotten stuck among the OWS crowd on its “march” to Times Square. Leo’s crisis befalls them sometime past noon.In Friday’s strip, evidently later in the day, we hear the OWS crowd in the distance cursing the “oligarchy” and we see Leo and Alex pull out of Manhattan (notice the detailed cornices in panel 2) and head back to Bethesda.In the next (today’s) strip Alex, still wearing her black top and bracelet, calls Joanie to apologize for standing her up. The daylight outside seems to indicate the next day. If it’s the same day, at least ten hours have passed since they were sitting at the breakfast table; but at least they’ve called off the lunch date in time.

Any suggestions for correcting this timeline?

..if the servants just knew their places,there would be no problem…

P.D., Leo’s trailer is in Virginia. The OWS folks have something going in D.C. They were meeting Gram in D.C. Things didn’t quite turn out, though…

Actually, D.C. is so accustomed to demonstrations that they have it down to an art. In reality, Leo would likely not have driven into the crowd, because where the demonstration route is, the road is closed.

Jesus tried very hard to save the ’publicans and sinners, and he did manage to save the sinners.

The poor were beyond help. We will have them to the end of the word.

@susan; I only comment when I have something specific I want to say – I don’t feel any pressure to comment all the time. In fact, there are some strips I never comment on altho I enjoy reading them.

try it – loosen up!

@palindrome; yes, just accept it. do you think gt gives it as much thought as you are doing?

@sharuniboy; it has occurred to me to wonder if phobias are simply ptsd reactions? does anybody have an opinion on this?

A very , sad dangerous trigger. Evolution has a lot of work to do.

@ all,,,, Toggle’s RV can be driven anywhere, almost at a moments notice. Much different from a trailer.

When I get old, remind me never to call anyone “Dear”.

“You’re still learning, dear.” Bracing and comforting words for each of us.

Wow, if this is the other side, it seems a lot like same old, same old.

Why did Alex have to say “trigger”? If they go to Starbucks, Alex is going to have a stroke.

Dandwriter1: “As I recall in my Sunday-school classes, Jesus wasn’t too keen on tax-collectors.”

Your recall is less than total. Tax collectors in those days got to keep a percentage of what they collected, so there was certainly motivation for taxation to turn into shake-downs, but Jesus was not opposed to the collection of taxes per se, (“Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s…”), and the fact of being a tax collector was not cause in itself for Jesus’s condemnation; read the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19. Of course, Zacchaeus ended up repenting his acts of corruption and made public restitution (“Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor, and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold”), although it never says that he stopped collecting taxes as Matthew did).

chicken 33: “The poor were beyond help. We will have them to the end of the word.”

If you interpret the perpetual need to help the poor as “they’re beyond help”, you’re missing the point in a big way. Poverty may not be a thing that can ever be eradicated, but that’s not an excuse to stop helping the poor. “The poor will be with you always” (and remember that Jesus said that in a very specific context) may be an unfortunate truth, but it’s not a Mission Statement.

Idiotic commentary, or policy, or thievery, orchestrated by right-wing forces that are NOT “Republican”, OR “American”, OR “Patriot”, are among my “triggers”. GT has never been anything but supportive of we ‘Nam veterans, OR our sons and daughters who’ve been caught up in the idiocy of Republican administrations’ “vanity wars” in NIcaragua, Panama, Colombia, Guatemala, Grenada, Iraq (20 years!!), or Afghanistan (“only” 10 years).

Yes, stupidity, is a trigger. Opposition to stupidity is a “positive” trigger, even though we can’t handle being in the crowds ourselves, more power to them, and Democracy, and economic freedom from oppressors and thieves, and a restoration of government “of the people, by the people, and FOR the PEOPLE”- who are NOT “corporations”.(like the ones fomenting and profiting from wars and blood)

Maybe David McQueen thinks Bush & Cheney were Vietnam vets…

GT has always been sympathetic to the soldiers who do the dirty work of war & pay the cost. Calling out the chickenhawks who send our troops in harm’s way in the name of corporate greed is hardly being disrespectful of our troops or veterans.

Many readers seem to have difficulty finding the proper distance for viewing Doonesbury. If you don’t pay attention to GBT’s deliberate clues, how can you tell the difference between Leo’s or Ray’s experiences in Iraq and Sorkh Razil’s in Afghanistan?If we don’t know which “march” was the “trigger” for Leo’s agoraphobia, how are we supposed to understand Alex’s vague reference to “class warfare”? What has she learned? To keep Leo away from crowds?If he were indifferent to specific details like time and place, GBT’s strip would amount to nothing more than a feeble, idiosyncratic protest against our violent world.

I like Heinlein’s idea, only after you have served in the military do you get to vote. See Starship_Troopers the book no the movie. In Mexico, every man jack serves for a year, light duty because they aren’t at war, but every man knows how to fight, shoot, march.

“I like Heinlein’s idea, only after you have served in the military do you get to vote.”

So Conscientious Objectors would never be allowed to vote? How about this: In order to vote, you have to complete two years of National Service, whether it’s in the Armed Forces, or the Peace Corps, or as an inner city social worker, or digging ditches, or whatever. Also, you must live for at least four years supporting yourself on a minimum wage job; no help from Daddy and Mommy.

McQueen, Doonesbury did not vilify Viet Nam vets. Have you forgotten that B.D. is a one?

I have gone back and read the Vietnam strips. GT was very sympathetic to the soldiers. The one person he mocked the most was John Kerry and his ant-war ccampaign.

“DT, your subconscious should be patented!LOL” Marry me! Marry me!

“GT did not villify the vets. He did not support the mission, but he did support the troops. There is a difference.” Well said.

@DTSo how come therea re still publicans? And thank God for that!!

“Garry Trudeau vilified Viet Nam vets”

I never noticed that he “vilified Viet Nam vets” — just the senseless war that cost the lives of 57,000 of them — like many of us.