TACOMA, Wash. - A military family is asking the Tacoma News Tribune to apologize for what they consider an offensive editorial cartoon.
The newspaper serves primarily Pierce County, which is home to Fort Lewis and McChord Air Force Base.
Copley News Service
The cartoon appeared on the opinion page this weekend. It showed flag-drapped caskets and the lyric to that classic song of holiday longing, "I'll be Home for Christmas."
“My first reaction was I started crying and just got really mad," said Cathy Painter, mother of a son who has just wrapped up a year-long tour of duty in Iraq.
“That could be my reality this Christmas and I don't need them reminding me of that," she said.
Painter's son, Army specialist and medic Brian Nation was also seeing red. He's about to be deployed again to Iraq. Both mother and son felt it was insensitive of the paper to run the cartoon in an area full of military families.
“I know people that have lost their lives over there and I thought it was very distasteful,” Nation said. "The editor should write an apology letter not only to people over there, but also to people back here who have lost loved ones in the war in Iraq."
At the News Tribune, the editor of the editorial page, Dave Seago, said the drawing was placed in the paper's weekly round-up of cartoons from across the country because the artist, Gary Markstein, made an important point.
"When I first saw it I said: 'Wow, that's powerful,'" he said. “Most of America is going about its business shopping and preparing for Christmas as always, while we have men fighting and dying overseas.”
At the newspaper's offices, managers admitted they received several complaints by phone and e-mail but expected some backlash.
"It certainly wasn't our intent nor the cartoonist's intent to be disrespectful as well," Seago said. But he said he would probably run the cartoon again.
Painter and Nation said they won't buy another News Tribune unless the paper issues an apology.
"We all know that's a reality of war -- yes, it's an ugly reminder -- but we don't need that thrown in our faces," Painter said.
Cartoonist Markstein, who drew the syndicated cartoon, lives in Milwaukee. It’s unclear how many papers it has appeared in and whether it's sparked controversy elsewhere.
