Doonesbury by Garry Trudeau for November 11, 2012
Transcript:
Toggle: G-g-good work-out, lieutenant... miss... phys... physical part of... being soldier. B.D.: So how's marriage working out for you, Toggle? Toggle: M-m-my marriage to... total mystery, lieu... lieutenant! B.D.: Why's that? Toggle: Because it... it feels so normal! I... I... still w-walking around with head f-f-full of war, and Alex just... r-r-rolls with it! I'd be... t-totally screwed without her, so... so... I g-g-gotta stay worthy! B.D.: You know, I never used to think much about worthiness. Toggle: And... now? Boopsie: Baby? Don't forget to plug in your leg before our walk tonight! B.D.: Now I do. Toggle: You... worthy, lieutenant.
thirdguy over 11 years ago
You are worthy, and so are all the guys and girls who gave so much for our country.
38lowell over 11 years ago
Some folks keep forgetting it!!!
bjs327 over 11 years ago
Made me cry. GT imbues these vets with character, ethics, and dignity. Not all wars are just, but honor the warriors and their support system.
Ravenswing over 11 years ago
Yeah. I just moved out of the Big City to the hilltowns to the west of my state, where they actually appreciate veterans. It really burned me to see veterans events on Memorial Day where the vets and their families outnumbered civilians by a lot.
DylanThomas3.14159 over 11 years ago
His war survival plus his marriage to good-girl Boopsie and their gifted child Sam have changed BD from an unworthy smartoff who thinks he’s worthy, to a worthy dude who worries about being worthy. And Toggle has the keen psychological insight to see it. Trudeau’s genius put those two together. But between the two, Toggle’s smarter than BD, who’s a good man, but it takes him awhile to catch on to things that Toggle can see immediately.
MiepR over 11 years ago
Too perfect for a comment. Thanks for this, Garry.
Dtroutma over 11 years ago
To Toggle and Alex! My own spouse has “put up” with much in 43 years of my being in the same situation as he and BD. May ALL veterans find the love, devotion, and patience of such loving women, to keep us sane, and alive.
vwdualnomand over 11 years ago
veteran’s day. if you know a vet, buy them a drink. they are true 1%. and, congress should do more to help them out.
billydub over 11 years ago
Its amazing how obvious leftie Trudeau has made BD, who started out as a caricatured right-wing lughead, his most favorable character.
pjknb over 11 years ago
My legs ache in winter, I can’t run as much, or as far as I used to. I hate loud noises or being cooped up at night. Don’t like shopping with the wife in crowded city lanes any more. But at least I;m here to complain ’bout it. Know too many houses with empty chairs at Christmas……….
Doughfoot over 11 years ago
Times have changed from the day when veterans marched in their thousands to Washington asking for a little help in hard times, and were met with teargas and shotguns, and songs like this were written: I fought in the war for my country, I went out to bleed and to die, I thought that my country would help me, And this was my country’s reply: Soup, soup, Soup, soup, they gave me a bowl of soup! Sung to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.” Of course that was 80 years ago, when Herbert Hoover was in the White House.
Kittydew over 11 years ago
Touching, and a fitting strip for Veterans Day.
pschearer Premium Member over 11 years ago
Talk to any old vets you meet. Even the most ordinary of them will have extraordinary stories, and we are richer for hearing them.
(Say, sonny, you wanna hear about the Berlin Wall Crisis?)
Kingoswald Premium Member over 11 years ago
Nice one for Remembrance Day
saevhg over 11 years ago
Wish we were allcapable of being worthy!
Carol69 over 11 years ago
You may want to check with Japan and 9/10ths of Europe before you get on thathorse.
pocoskip over 11 years ago
@ Night-Gaunt49:May your drivelTurn to dribbleAs it leaks into your kibble.
roctor over 11 years ago
The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.Thanks past,present and future Vets.
Buzza Wuzza over 11 years ago
The Great American Comic Strip.
Seed_drill over 11 years ago
I noticed a young man bicycling with a prosthetic leg yesterday. I guess it could have been due to an accident, but more likely it was from the wars. Just another sacrifice to reflect on this Veterans’ Day.
Gokie5 over 11 years ago
Garry often hits just the right note. Heartfelt thanks to all our veterans and their families.
corzak over 11 years ago
Nobody’s trying to take your guns.
Justice22 over 11 years ago
HAPPY VETERAN’S DAY TO ALL VETERANS OF ALL WARS AND MAY THE DAY COME WHEN THERE ARE NO VETERANS OF ANY WARS.
chefcass over 11 years ago
all gave some, and some gave all. Here’s to my 2 brothers who both fought in ’Nam and my father who served during the Korean War. Thanks to everyone, including the parents who raised wonderful strong people. God bless you.
FriscoLou over 11 years ago
The 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month, George Patton’s 33rd birthday and the end of WW I, might have been one of the saddest days of his life. I wonder how he would have adjusted to the end of WW II if fate hadn’t intervened so quickly after his 60th birthday?
MikeJanus Premium Member over 11 years ago
This Doonesbury made me tear up. Thanks to all veterans everywhere.
Durak Premium Member over 11 years ago
Thank you to all who have served and sacrificed.
vwdualnomand over 11 years ago
son: dad, are you a hero?dad: no, i was in the company of heroes.
Justice22 over 11 years ago
Thanks!
krisjackson01 over 11 years ago
Yeah, happy Veterans Day, brothers and sisters.
Ink blot Premium Member over 11 years ago
Couldn’t you stow it for another day?
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
@ Sharuniboy, hours ago
Roger that – all of that. Even when certain groups are belatedly recognized, such as the Navajo Code Talkers and the Tuskegee Airmen, the planners don’t always get ti quite right. My next-door neighbor is a Tuskeegee Airman, but he served as a mechanic and not as a pilot. As a mechanic, he had the power to ground a plane if it wasn’t fit to fly, so that in a sense he outranked the pilots. And yet, only the pilots get press. A recent tv news commentator averred that “only four [Airmen] are left,” meaning four pilots. Won’t somebody count the mechanics?! We owe them ALL our deepest thanks.
Dtroutma over 11 years ago
In many respects, today’s veterans are facing the same thing we did, and many ARE ‘Nam vets, still seeking help because of the “experience”. Here’s my own thought, and perspective:
WITHIN
War is the death of innocence, spawn of reality.Survival of the act, a matter of luck. Surviving the consequences, a matter of faith.
Courage is the capacity for silence.The crash and roar are bearable,Empty silence – the imminence of death.
Roar of a heartbeat, mask of rain,Where comes the ability to cope?Within.
When war is gone, it is missed.The danger . . . Action . . .The something!
This was a war others would win.Losers must draw,Within.
Silence became the roar of crowds,Parades and welcome,Absent.
A touch would comfort,A kiss drive away the pain,Love confront the silence,
Within.
ART Thompson Premium Member over 11 years ago
This almost made me cry. Vet or not, worthiness is undervalued in this country. In the context of this strip – reliable, honest, and faithful. Maybe the best Doonesbury ever.
annieb1012 over 11 years ago
@dtroutma
Beautiful, thank you. At least today’s returning vets don’t face quite as much open scorn and revilement as those coming home from Nam did. As a college student with radical pacifist friends and a sweetheart in Saigon with the Marines, I saw that cloud from both sides. (Nod to Joni Mitchell…)
DylanThomas3.14159 over 11 years ago
Of course we citizens need to recognize our vets, especially our wounded warriors, thank them for their service, and attend to their medical, stateside employment, financial and other needs.
But we need to go beyond that to try to PREVENT unnecessary wars of empire — wars of the neocon New American Century — in the name of freedom. Freedom to do what? Oppress other people? For example, George W. Bush’s war in Iraq.
If we don’t commit such wars, then we don’t get wounded vets back — vets with wounds to their bodies (BD’s lost lower leg) and wounds to their minds (Leo’s dysphasia).
Not to mention the hideous costs that explodes both the yearly deficit and the cumulative national debt.
corzak over 11 years ago
“…You smug-faced crowds with kindling eyeWho cheer when soldier lads march by,Sneak home and pray you’ll never knowThe hell where youth and laughter go.”-Siegfried SassoonSuicide in the Trenches
Nelly55 over 11 years ago
thank you to all our vets………all who served deserve respect.
my mom (WWII)my uncle (Korea)my cousin (AF VN)my sister (AF VN)my hubby (AF VN)and me (USN VN)
and EVERYONE who served:
THANK YOU!
lindz.coop Premium Member over 11 years ago
Support the troops and bring them home — alive and soon!!!
kipeticolas over 11 years ago
If you are in D.C. go see the Joe Bonham project at the Pepco Gallery. It is BD’s story at Bethesda. The conversation between the artists (it is all drawing and painting and graphic novel) and the vets is moving and precious. Like Trudeau, they are making a voice and vivid personality for the heroes and warriors who came marching home again.
pocoskip over 11 years ago
@Night-GauntI seem to remember a country that sheltered those who attacked us and killed over 3,000 civilians. Just how does one respond to that after asking the host country to deliver the perpetrators and being told to stuff it?And I just might know a little something about the process. Family has served since WW2. Warriors do not like war, and are the last to call for it. But they also know that sometimes it is necessary.Now, if we could get the politicians to do what is necessary to prevent future war… But that does not mean rolling over when someone else attacks us.
gm2usnr over 11 years ago
Happy Veterans Day