Easy way to avoid tickets
Pope meets with top Shiite cleric in call for tolerance
Why all the moaning and crying about speed cameras? A simple solution: Go the speed limit!
— Ralph Bellendir, Chicago
Dr. Seuss and Potato Head may not seem the same.
But don’t load “cancel culture” with all of the blame.
Forgive me. That moment of mangled poetry is inspired by the overblown uproar from right-wing politicians and media to the news that, as Fox News’ Martha MacCallum put it on Tuesday morning’s show, bestselling children’s book author Dr. Seuss was “quite literally being canceled.”
Well, no, not quite. The Thought Police have not come marching their jackboots into bookstores and libraries to snatch the beloved works of Theodor Seuss Geisel, known as Dr. Seuss, off the shelves like the Grinch who stole Christmas.
In fact, it was Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the actual caretaker of the late author’s legacy, not its detractors, who decided to discontinue six of his more than 60 books because of caricatures that “portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong.”
This is by no means the first time that some of Dr. Seuss’ art has caused consternation. But seldom has there been a time when social and political conservatives have turned more quickly and passionately into snowflakes about any liberal move they can call “cancel culture,” appropriately or not.
Days earlier, toy giant Hasbro announced a marketing decision to rebrand its iconic Mr. Potato Head to simply Potato Head, which brought backlash from conservatives fearing some sort of societywide assault on gender norms.
“First it was Mr. Potato Head,” said House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. “Now it’s Dr. Seuss. Who do you think they’re coming after next?”
I don’t know, but with hard-core free-market conservatives also raising false charges that Disney was “canceling” its streaming of “The Muppet Show,” when it was only including warnings of “negative depictions or mistreatment of people or cultures” on 17 episodes, anything is possible.
Nevertheless, I have to say that I was among those who were disappointed by the Dr. Seuss announcement. To my chagrin I noticed that the six discontinued books include “And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,” first published in 1937 and, to my vivid recollection, my first favorite book.
Ah, say it ain’t so, I thought. I was a mere first grader when I spotted the book in the “second grade” shelves of our school library. I was immediately smitten by its amusing artwork, the allure of the mysterious “It” in its title and the way the book’s narrative captures the sense of mystery, curiosity and imagination that later evolved into an attraction to journalism.
The story follows Marco, a young boy on a walk home who, page after page, dreams up an increasingly elaborate account of the people and vehicles that he supposedly sees on his way home.
He wants an impressive story to tell his father when he gets home. However — spoiler alert! — when he gets home he decides instead to tell his father what he actually saw: a simple everyday horse and wagon.
Why did the kid change his mind? That little mystery haunted me throughout grade school. I made an annual ritual out of returning to “Mulberry Street,” where I kept noticing something new in its colorful pages and hearing my own father’s voice when Marco’s dad admonishes him like one of my journalism professors to “Stop telling such outlandish tales./ Stop turning minnows into whales.”
But now, I wonder, has “Mulberry Street” reached the end of the road? I now know that Geisel, who died in 1991 at age 87, heard numerous complaints about one of the book’s many characters, described as “a Chinaman who eats with sticks.” Seuss responded. He changed the text to “Chinese man,” edited out the man’s long pigtail and whitened his yellow skin color.
Elsewhere — and closer to home to me as an African American — are objections to another discontinued book, “If I Ran the Zoo,” which was published in 1950 and includes caricatures of big-lipped “Africans” who are drawn shirtless and shoeless and wearing grass skirts. I won’t miss it.
But as one who grew up in an America emerging from Jim Crow segregation and now collects racist memorabilia in recognition of how far we have come as a society, I try to judge Geisel not only by the standards of his times but also by how much he tried to improve our standards.
Inside “The Sneetches,” “The Zax,” “Too Many Daves” and “What Was I Scared Of ?,” among other stories, you can find messages of tolerance, acceptance, respect and other virtues that have won international praise from educators.
So I don’t only fault Seuss for reflecting the racist standards of his times. I also give him credit for trying to improve them.
PLAINS OF UR, Iraq — Pope Francis walked through a narrow alley in Iraq’s holy city of Najaf for a historic meeting with the country’s top Shiite cleric Saturday, and together they delivered a powerful message of peaceful coexistence in a country still reeling from back-toback conflicts over the past decade.
In a gesture both simple and profound, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani welcomed Francis into his spartan home. The 90-year-old cleric, one of the most eminent among Shiites worldwide, afterward said Christians should live in peace in Iraq and enjoy the same rights as other Iraqis. The Vatican said Francis thanked al-Sistani for having “raised his voice in defense of the weakest and most persecuted” during some of the most violent times in Iraq’s recent history,
Later, the pope attended a gathering of Iraqi religious leaders in the deserts near a symbol of the country’s ancient past — the 6,000-year-old ziggurat in the Plains of Ur, also the traditional birthplace of Abraham, the biblical patriarch revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The joint appearance by figures from across Iraq’s sectarian spectrum was almost unheard of, given their communities’ often bitter divisions.
Together, the day’s events gave symbolic and practical punch to the central message of Francis’ visit, calling for Iraq to embrace its diversity. It is a message he hopes can preserve the place of the thinning Christian population in the tapestry. At a Mass the pope celebrated later in Baghdad, emotional worshippers sang hymns, ululated and shouted “Viva la Papa!,” or “Long live the pope.”
Still, his message faces a tough sell in a country where every community has been traumatized by sectarian bloodshed and discrimination and where politicians have tied their power to sectarian interests.
In al-Sistani, Francis sought the help of an ascetic, respected figure immersed in those sectarian identities but is also a powerful voice standing above them.
Al-Sistani is one of the most senior clerics in Shiite Islam, deeply revered among Shiites in Iraq and worldwide. His rare but powerful political interventions have helped shape present-day Iraq. Their meeting in al-Sistani’s humble home, the first between a pope and a grand ayatollah, was months in the making.
Early Saturday, the 84-year-old pontiff, traveling in a bulletproof MercedesBenz, pulled up along Najaf ’s narrow Rasool Street, which culminates at the goldendomed Imam Ali Shrine, one of the most revered sites in Shiite Islam.
As a masked Francis entered the doorway of al-Sistani’s home, a few white doves were released in a sign of peace.
A religious official in Najaf called the meeting “very positive.” He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief media.
The official said al-Sistani, who normally remains seated for visitors, stood to greet Francis at the door of his room — a rare honor. The pope removed his shoes before entering al-Sistani’s room and was served tea and a plastic bottle of water.
At one point in their 40-minute meeting, the pope gingerly cradled the ayatollah’s hands in his own as al-Sistani leaned in speaking, according to footage aired on Lebanon’s LBC. They sat close to one another, without masks. Al-Sistani spoke for most of the meeting, the official said.
The official said there was some concern about the fact that the pope had met with so many people the day before. Francis has received the coronavirus vaccine but al-Sistani has not.
In a statement issued by his office afterward, al-Sistani affirmed that Christians should “live like all Iraqis, in security and peace and with full constitutional rights.” He pointed out the “role that the religious authority plays in protecting them, and others who have also suffered injustice and harm in the events of past years.”
Iraqis cheered the meeting, and the prime minister responded by declaring March 6 a National Day of Tolerance and Coexistence in Iraq.
“We welcome the pope’s visit to Iraq and especially to the holy city of Najaf and his meeting with Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani,” said Najaf resident Haidar Al-Ilyawi. “It is a historic visit and hope it will be good for Iraq and the Iraqi people.”
Later, Pope Francis evoked the common reverence for Abraham to speak against religious violence at the interfaith gathering at the Plains of Ur.
“From this place, where faith was born, from the land of our father Abraham, let us affirm that God is merciful and that the greatest blasphemy is to profane his name by hating our brothers and sisters,” Francis said. “Hostility, extremism and violence are not born of a religious heart: they are betrayals of religion.”
Interfaith forums are a staple of Francis’ international trips. But its sectarian breadth was startling in Iraq: From Shiite and Sunni Muslims to Christians, Yazidis and Zoroastrians and tiny, ancient and esoteric faiths like the Kakai.
The Vatican said Iraqi Jews were invited to the event but did not attend, without providing further details. Iraq’s ancient Jewish community was decimated in the 20th century by violence and mass emigration fueled by the Arab-Israeli conflict.