By: E&P Staff The Military Order of the Purple Heart is furious about an editorial cartoon done by Randy Bish of the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.
Bish responded with a joking comment on his blog.
In the
Nov. 2 drawing, Bish showed a Purple Heart medal labeled "stupid" and said it was designed by John Kerry (who won Purple Heart medals during his Vietnam War service). Kerry, of course, was in the news last week for his "botched joke" relating to the Iraq War.
The Military Order of the Purple Heart's public relations director, Mississippi-based Ray Funderburk, sent a letter to the Tribune-Review that the paper published yesterday. It read, in part: "We understand political cartoons and we understand that Sen. Kerry probably made a major mistake with his utterances. However, we find it very difficult to understand why your newspaper would use a precious medal like ours to portray stupidity.
"To besmirch or disfigure the Purple Heart is to dishonor all those proud Americans who either gave their lives so your cartoonist could dishonor them, or shed their blood on the world's battlefields so he could draw his cartoons in peace. ...
"Our order has 41,000 combat wounded in its ranks and every one of them, even those hardly able to walk, would love to march into your office and confront your cartoonist and ask him to draw another funny cartoon about the Purple Heart.
"No sir, your cartoon was not humorous at all. It was disgusting. ..."
Bish responded in his blog: "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got 41,000 wounded soldiers coming over to the office and I've got to get the coffee and donuts ready. Wonder if Dunkin' Donuts could handle this order at their drive-thru window?"
The controversy was mentioned today on DailyCartoonist.com.
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