Rachel Corrie Cartoon Controversy
 

Some background:

Rachel Corrie was a college student from Washington State who was a member of an organization called the International Soliditary Movement. She was participating as a "human shield" in a protest on the Gaza Strip. She stood in the way of a bulldozer that was about to wreck a Palestinian home and was apparently crushed to death.

This cartoon appeared yesterday in the University of Maryland's student newspaper and many people are offended by it.

Do you think it's offensive? Why or why not?

http://www.inform.umd.edu/News/Diamo...8/cartoon.html

It's pretty tasteless. tragedy + time = humor. There has been no time to heal from this tragedy.

I personally think it is stupid to sit in front of bulldozer protecting people I don't even know. But this young lady obviously felt so strongly about it and I commend her for standing by her convictions. But, yes, this cartoon is in poor taste. I think in times of tragedy, humor can help many people cope, but it's important the know where to draw the line between humor and bad taste.

I agree it's in poor taste but for me it's all about the First Amendment.

It's in poor taste, but it's hard to argue that what she was doing wasn't just a little stupid. Perhaps less people will now make themselves out to be human shields. It's likely she's not going to be the only one to die in similar circumstances in the next few days.

Like Cream said, tragedy + time=humour. When The Onion decides to cover it, it's funny--they seem to have a sense of tact about when it's right to comment on something like this? This collegiate cartoonist should have waited.

Regardless of my political views, it seems that there are much less hurtful ways to convince people that shielding is a dangerous or stupid behavior than ridiculing a woman who died supporting what she believed.

Palenstinians aren't terrorists. Israelis are. They bulldozed down some one's house.

The family of someone who attempted or committed a suicide bombing. It's an established policy.. The people should have known to evacuate. No worries for them though, the Saudis will buy them a new house.

I guess I'm just notoriously un-PC, but I think its funny.

Maybe its becasue sitting in front of a bulldozer for ANYTHING is stupid.

Optimist: nto to change the subject of the thread but neither side in this conflict has acted proper all the time. They both have their moments. The Israelis have at times been over brutal in how they "defend" themselves, yet at the same time the Palestinians have claimed to want peace and yet not do a damn thing to stop terrorism against Israel. Peace is a two way street and neither group is going in the proper direction.

While i think she was wrong in what she did, i've got to agree that the cartoon was pretty tasteless. Especially this soon after the accident.

After our Bonfire tragedy in 1999, the following cartoon appeared 2 days later in an Arizona newspaper:

http://conserve.tamu.edu/benson1.gif

Now, i don't need to tell y'all the uproar this caused not only in College Station but in Arizona, where thousands of emails and letters caused companies to remove advertising and even prompted the editor to offer a donation to Texas A&M (which was promptly refused :D )

So, that being said, yes, the artist is completely within his rights to say that, but i would never support the artist or the paper again.

Kitso
KS 361

Now, if I had seen the cartoon BEFORE reading the background of it, I'd be cracking up about it.

After reading the background however, it is in bad taste for the time I guess. Even though I personally believe what she did was very ill-thought, it was her own deal. Plus, you can't change the past, what done is done.

The most controversial cartoon in my stint here was a cartoon portraying Arafat and Sharon as Camels, I forgot what they said but the mere fact that they were presented like that caused a huge uproar.

The majority of people just said "relax, it's just a cartoon". I'm not sure where you're supposed to draw the line though.............

So if all your life your are kicked around and you finally do something about it, its okay for the people who oppressed to go after your family?
Saudis are linked to al Queda. I have not been presented with any evidence linking them to the PLO.