As if the cartoonist Garry Trudeau needs my defense … but here goes. In the July 2 Maine Sunday Telegram opinion section, a letter writer (“Shameful misstep by ‘Doonesbury’ artist”) accused Trudeau of comparing a “blue state” college president to Oskar Schindler in the strip appearing on Page D4 of the June 25 edition.

I respectfully request that the writer reread the strip. In frame three, the college president says, “That’s an outrage!” when informed that Gov. Ron DeSantis is busing “woke” students to blue-state colleges. In frame five, he instructs his assistant to start screening the arriving students to see if they “meet our standards.” In frame six, it turns out that the assistant knows this means their “ability to pay.” So, when the college president responds, “This is heartbreaking. I feel like Schindler,” Trudeau is saying, “This is an outrage, too.”

If one need explain further, Trudeau is saying that the college president – who is motivated to accept the bused students only if they can pay the tuition, to sanctimoniously (gee, like DeSantis, who is saving Floridians from woke students) shed crocodile tears and compare himself to Schindler – is a hypocrite and an outrage. Got it now?

Thomas Laurent
Rockport

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