The editorial cartoonist for the local daily newspaper was off the mark on the strip for June 15, 2011.
This strip is wrong in many ways by what it conveys, including:
- Indicating that extensive flooding was the result of water management for endangered and threatened species
- Conveying a perspective that people were suffering due to birds and fish
- Is a lame commentary attacking fish and birds which have few advocates for their interests
- Shows a disregard of the need for conservation of important natural resources within the Missouri valley
- Does not convey that the bird species have also lost their seasonal homes
For these reasons, the artist was nominated as a "butthead of the week" on the Tom Becka show, on Friday evening, June 17. The talk-show host also tried to make the discussion one of birds versus people.
This erroneous perspective shows a lack of awareness and is an easy stance to take rather rather than to understand the issues. There are compromises involved and finding common ground is preferable to antagonizing the situation.
This cartoon is included through the fair-use provision of the copyright law.