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Insulting political cartoon



Yesterday our local paper published a cartoon that was apparently initially drawn for or was distributed by the Daytona Beach News-Journal.  It shows what is probably supposed to be President George W. Bush delivering some of his papers to the George Bush Presidential Library.  The person representing what the cartoonist calls the Bush Sr. Presidential Library asks  "Why do you want to store your gubernatorial papers here?"  The delivering person responds "All the shredders over at ENRON are busy."  I have sent the letter below to our local paper and am forwarding it to the List in hopes that any of you who see that cartoon in your paper will sent that paper a letter of protest.  As you can see if you read my letter, I find the whole thing a great insult to all archivists everywhere and hope and trust you will have the same feeling should your paper print the cartoon.



March 13, 2002

The Eagle
P O Box 3000
Bryan, TX  77804-3000

Dear Editors:

        Whatever possessed you to publish that highly insulting and tasteless cartoon by Beattie on March 12?  It ranks right up there with the awful racist cartoon published recently by the student editors of the Battalion.  I would expect better judgment from people who claim to be professional journalists.  

        In one brief moment of questionable judgment you have managed to seriously insult the integrity of two Presidents of the Untied States and the professional staff of the George Bush Presidential Library.  You have also insulted every archivist in every presidential library when you insinuate that they shred presidential documents.  You have also insulted every one of the several thousand archivists in the United States when you imply that any one of them illegally or unethically destroys documents given over to their care.

        Every reader of the eagle deserves a public apology from you for your tasteless and insulting action.  Both Presidents Bush and the staff of the Bush Presidential Library should all receive formal apologies from you.

        Your poor judgment is also an insult to all those who worked assiduously to convince President George Bush to place his presidential library on the A&M campus.  Your choice to publish that cartoon may well make it considerably more difficult for those who are currently working with President George W. Bush to locate his library on the A&M campus adjacent to his father's library.  Two presidential libraries at a single academic institution would be a great honor to Texas A&M and would provide a great boost to the local economy from tourism.

        While I am at it, that picture of President George Bush on the front page on March 12 is certainly not the quality of photography Dave McDermand customarily produces.  No photo at all would have been preferable to the one that you chose to use.  I know Mr. McDermand always takes numerous shots, one of which must have been a more accurate (or at least a less distorted) picture of Mr. Bush.



Charles R. Schultz


Dr. Charles R. Schultz, CA, SAA Fellow
Clements Professor and Clements Archivist
Cushing Library
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX  77843-5000
c-schultz@tamu.edu
979-862-1555
FAX 979-845-1441

State-of-the-art automation will never beat the wastebasket 
when it comes to speeding up efficiency in the office.
Ann Landers Gem of the Day, July 27, 1994

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