Cartoon #4

I read a cartoon by Joe Heller posted in the Green Bay Press-Gazette on 12/19/2009. It was about poverty/healthcare reform. It showed a couple, the guy looking at a movie poster for Avatar, and the woman looking at a homeless family freezing and holding up signs. The woman says "What were you saying about wanting to see skinny, blue people fighting for their lives?" I thought this commented on two things: lack of health care/homelessness and how most people are too absorbed in their own lives to notice those things around them. I agree with this cartoon in that I think we need a system to help people who are jobless and homeless. I also think that a system would be put in place faster if more ordinary citizens really supported it. Most people think it's a nice idea, but when it comes down to it, who really wants to give up giving presents to pay for the wellfare of some homeless stranger?

Question #4

I love Thanksgiving because there is all the food and family without the stress of getting/giving presents and the year being about to end. My whole family and cousins help to cook our big meal together. We all get crammed into someone's kitchen and "help" everyone else a little too much. Somehow, everything still always tastes great.

Question #3

I think that displaying religious symbols is good. All the symbols that I see around the winter holidays are about love, forgiveness, peace, etc. Even if people express their devotion to these principles in different ways, they can still be coexistent.

Cartoon #3

I read a cartoon by Nate Beeler for the Washington Examiner, posted on 12/11/09. It depicts the Health Care bill as a tangled ball of Christmas lights as tall as a person. There are two donkeys looking at it disheartenedly, and one of them says "I'm inclined to say we should just plug it in and break out the eggnog." I guess this is supposed to mean that that the Health Care bill is a big mess right now, and it will take a lot of work to clean up. Also, there is a big deal about getting it done before the new year, which means before this session of Congress ends. If that is going to happen, then a lot of work needs to be done. It may seem impossible, but what I got out of the cartoon is that making the Health Care bill something manageable can be done, just like untangling Cristmas lights.