New Cartoon!: "The Roving Reporter Asks..." + an election change of heart (maybe)

A new cartoon that expresses more of my feelings on Bush and his stupid war. Of course, rather than drawing a cartoon I wish I could have gone to the big Boston anti-war rally, but such is the life of a cartoonist. (By the way, the Globe really undercounted the number of protesters... they say 15,000, but other papers say 25,000).

Now, don't get confused--this is my cartoon for Monday's Crimson--the cartoon for Thursday's Phoenix is still going to be about the Haitian refugees. (And there will also be a cartoon soon about the really cool new ordinance protecting gender identity and expression in Boston). I just wanted to make one last statement about the war before the elections.

And speaking of elections... Some of you might recall that I had been planning to vote the lesser of two evils in the Massachusetts governor's race, Democrat Shannon O'Brien. Well, while I was working on today's cartoon my boyfriend was out for the anti-war rally, and he called me on his cell phone so I could hear an assortment of religious leaders and the Green Party candidate for governor Jill Stein making really moving speeches against the war... and explaining why Stein is not a spoiler candidate... and I had a change of heart in a big way. Sort of.

Basically, this isn't just any old election--this election is taking place right after the majority of Congress got down on their knees and said "Yessir Mr. Bush" about the war. And this is an election in which neither Romney nor O'Brien has made any real attempt to reach out to communities of color... and... well, I could go on but I'm a bit overcome after listening to all those speeches today so pardon me for the moment while I get a handkerchief.

Postscript, or Mikhaela's Family Reminds Her How Nasty Romney Is

So within a few hours of posting that I was thinking about voting for Jill Stein, I received the following letters, one from my grandmother and one from my dad. My grandmother writes:

Hi, Mikhaela,
Read your blog. Am I reading it correctly? You're voting for Stein? I think both major party candidates are purposely keeping out of the war issue, because it's a national matter. The State has enough problems of its own, so they're purposely concentrating on local matters.
Love, Bobie

My dad is a little more forceful in his criticism:

Mikhaela,
Are you voting for Stein? What about the homeless, the public schools, workers' rights, gay rights and etc? With people like you voting for her we'll get Romney. He is a *!%#$*@! hatemongering #*$(@*&! If Stein had a chance of winning I would be the first to vote for her!
Love, Dad

So now I'm feeling all conflicted again, and I'm wondering how I'm going to decide by Tuesday night. As my grandmother points out, the governor's race doesn't technically have anything to do with Congress's support of Bush's nasty little war... the real important race in that sense is the Senate race. Democratic Senator John Kerry voted for the war, weak-kneed presidential hopeful that he is, and he's running with no Republican opposition. Thankfully anti-war write-in candidate Randall Forsberg has stepped in to let people voice their discontent with Kerry.

That's an easy vote, of course, since there's no way to argue that voting for Forsberg would help a Republican win. But the governor's race is a dead heat between O'Brien and Romney, and boy do I ever hate Romney. I mean, I have nightmares about him. Seriously. So... I'm back to pounding my head against the wall on this. Thanks Dad!