Cartoon hateful and offensive

The newspaper deserves rebuke for publishing an editorial cartoon (Register-Guard, Sept. 3) depicting a rescue in New Orleans. The rescuer says, "Why didn't you evacuate?" and the victim replies, "I figured you'd come get me."

Is it hard to imagine that, in a huge city where poverty is rampant, many people lacked the means to escape? That most lacked cars, or $50 for gas or money for shelter and a bus ticket? That many were infirm or elderly or children? That many cared for others and couldn't leave? That others were, well, human, and in denial about a forecasted storm that, by all accounts, had no equal in memory?

If all that is hard to imagine, an hour or so watching CNN these days might be enlightening. Jim Borgman, the offending cartoonist, seems to read from the same talking points as this week's right-wing radio hosts: The people who did not evacuate were at fault themselves and essentially got what they deserved.

The only thing I find more disgusting than a puerile cartoonist spewing hateful, blame-the-victim garbage is my local paper, in the clear light of day, making an editorial choice to publish same. Just because a point of view exists doesn't mean it is valid and worthy of publication.

Balance, at the expense of decency and intellectual honesty, is no virtue at all.

CHRISTY BISHOP

Eugene

Cartoons denigrated city's poor

I was appalled at two of the editorial cartoons in the Sept. 3 Register-Guard.

The first, showing looters who are all smiles as they cart away their booty - not to mention that they all appear to be African-American by the way their facial features are drawn - is truly mean-spirited. Yes, I saw looting on TV, but I sure didn't see anybody wading through filthy floodwaters smiling!

The second was more offensive, showing a Coast Guardsman asking someone being rescued, "Why didn't you evacuate?" and getting the answer, "I figured you'd come get me." Those who were left behind were there because they were left behind. They were the elderly, the frail, those without private transportation. There may have been a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans ordered before Katrina hit, but there were no buses provided for those without cars.

New Orleans is a city with a poverty rate over 30 percent. And that's only taking into consideration what the feds deem to be poor. Even 125 percent or 150 percent of the federal poverty rate is still too poor to afford a car.

My heart breaks for the people of a city I used to call home, but it is beyond cruel and heartless to imply that they are lazy or don't care enough about themselves to get out of harm's way, or that they trust that someone else will take care of them. It may be known as "the city that care forgot," but we must not forget them now.

KATE WHITEHEAD

Eugene