Stay The Course?

I thought of a cartoon idea, while talking to a friend. Car driving toward a brick wall with driver saying, "stay the course."

My friend said I should submit a cartoon to the Bellingham Weekly. My illustration skills are marginal at best, but it's and idea.

Then another friend entered the conversation.

He said, "that was today's political cartoon in the Bellingham Herald."

What a co-incidence. No I hadn't seen the Herald yet.

The Herald cartoon was not a car, but a boat headed for the waterfall. One rower says, "I'm staying the course" while the other says, "We could use a flip-flopper." Cartoon was by a Mike Luckovich, from Atlanta Journal Constitution.

A coincidence indeed.

I like the idea of changing course, in theory, rather than always being bull headed. On the other hand, I don't necessarily think the US should "get out of Iraq yesterday, if not sooner."

On the Iraq war, I have always been a "fence sitter."

Like "flip-flopper," "fence sitter" is another thing that some people don't like.

There are arguments in favor of trying to bring some sort of democracy to Iraq as well as arguments against it.

Being decisive may be impractical, for me, at least.

How is that for hedging everything?

By the way, tonight is the first presidential debate between Kerry and Bush. While I lean in favor of Kerry, I don't see Bush as the embodiment of evil. Both Kerry and Bush plan to stay in Iraq, for the time being at least.

On the other hand, it's not a very good situation. Someone needs to introduce new ideas, like reducing our dependency on foreign oil.