Images can leave lasting impressions sometimes longer than words
From: tandpam@shawneelink.net
Greetings to all,
I have been following y’all’s posts regarding that idiot cartoonist geek that was besmirching the memory of our ancestors and poking fun at Southrons as a whole I suspect. I fwd the cartoon as well as my thoughts regarding it, to some friends out on the left coast just to see what their reaction would be.
Well, they didn’t really surprise me any……….the skinny of their reply was something like" aaaaw T, you take things like that too seriously, it’s just a cartoon, it’s not like the guy wrote some three page rant about your flag."
My first inclination was just to let it slide seein’ how we been friends since probably the 2nd grade and I pretty much knew how they’d react. (I think I was just hoping they’d surprise me pleasantly lol , I shoulda known better).
So, I thought for a few minutes as to what my comeback was gonna be……..and it wasn’t long in coming. It was as follows…
"Hey Sue, hey Bobby, thanks for takin’ the time to write me back about the cartoon……….even though I think your opinion of the matter was "lame as hell" you certainly have the right to y’all’s opinion, and we all know what they say about opinions.
Remember when we was growing up in Olney and how sometimes folks made fun of my grandpa and his whiskey drinkin’ but always behind his back cause they didn’t have the guts to say it to his face?
I ask ya because when I first saw that cartoon I immediately thought of grandpa and an old newspaper from Oklahoma that he had kept.
In that paper was a cartoon of a model T touring car with a handful of Indians in it. The car was in a ditch with a flat tire and broken spoke wheel. One of the Indians was wearing a white mans suit with hundred dollar bills poking out of all the pockets but he was wrapped in a blanket too. He was standing at the front of the car with a pistol and of course he was aiming at the engine. Now, I suppose a lot of people would see that as funny. I mean here is this rich Indian laden down with oil money, fine new car, and he’s fixin to shoot it because (supposedly) to him it’s got a broke leg. Ya know what? I never did see any damn humour in that cartoon. I remember the jist of caption very well……." Uncivilized Osage become wealthiest tribe in entire nation" That’s it I think, in verbatim.
It didn’t have to go truly ugly nasty words the damage was done in the cartoon image itself. It wasn’t three years later my people had been cheated out of most all they had acquired, simply because they trusted the wrong people and wanted to fit in………. and they didn’t understand how to take a stand in the battle of words and images. Bad call on my people’s part. Huh?
Maybe the two of you are right. Perhaps I do take things relating to my heritage (‘s) too seriously. However, somehow deep inside I keep thinkin’ I don’t take them seriously enough because at the rate it’s goin , it won’t be long and I won’t have any heritage left at all.
Be safe, be well,
Blessin’s
T………….
(I never share personal mails but here is just a tad bit of the lengthy reply my friends sent me later that evening.)
"T please forgive our stupidity as well as our lack of compassion. You are most definitely right in your line of thinking. We just looked at it as a cartoon and nothing more. Please don’t ever change; the world could use more like you just to keep the likes of us in tow.
Much Love,
Bobby and Sue
I would not agree with my friends that the world needs anymore T’s in it but it sure did warm my heart for them to admit they were wrong after they thought about it. The trouble is (at least as I see it) 1.) How many people looked at the cartoon about the SCV plates and took it for God’s truth, 2.) And even more scary to me how many did as my friends and just laughed at it, not even considering for the slightest instant how hate filled it’s message was.
It is my contention that visual images even cartoons hold a place far longer in the memory than do words. If that were not the case why would I have flashed on that cartoon from that Oklahoma newspaper? I haven’t even seen it in near 50 years……yet it is there fresh as can be in my mind.
Blessin’s
T
