Real villains …

Christian Century, July 17, 2002 by Leslie W. Walck

I WAS EXTREMELY disturbed by the cartoon in the June 5-12 issue depicting a bloated farmer and a welfare mom, especially in light of the sensitive articles on agricultural concerns in the following issue. The cartoon seemed to suggest that farmers receive too much of the pie.

The real villains who take too much of the pie are the upper echelon of elites who control so much of the wealth, the transnational corporations, the huge agricultural corporations, and the politicians in their pockets who grant them huge tax breaks and are working to do away with estate taxes. They have manipulated the rules of the economy so that they get richer, while the urban poor, the rural poor and the Third World poor get poorer. And they have done it in a way that they escape the notice of the media, cartoonists and public opinion.

How about a cartoon, or an article, about those folks feasting at a lavish banquet table, while the rest of America and the world are provoked into squabbling over a morsel?

Leslie W. Walck
Colfax Lutheran Church,
Colfax, Wis.