Last Word on The Passion

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I think it's safe to say that a cultural thread is utterly frayed when it comes down to protesting a Mallard Fillmore comic strip. From the Boston Globe, in response to an April 26 strip that you, I, and all of America except for Mr.--excuse me, Dr.--Morgentaler somehow overlooked:

'Fillmore' offends
April 27, 2004

I AM OUTRAGED by Bruce Tinsley's comic strip "Mallard Fillmore" (April 26) in which he triumphantly suggests that "The Passion of the Christ" has failed to produce predicted reports of violence (April 26). As a child of Holocaust survivors and as someone who was accused of being a Christ-killer as a child because I was Jewish, I am appalled at Tinsley's gloating. The violence of racism of any stripe happens in so many ways, even in the absence of dramatic events (so far) such as the burning of a temple.

Is there any reason why readers of the Globe are subjected to Tinsley's ignorance and insensitivity?

ABRAHAM MORGENTALER
Associate clinical professor of surgery
Harvard Medical School

In a related story, The New Yorker asks, "Why do editors keep throwing ?The Boondocks? off the funnies page?" Better questions would include: Why don't editors keep it off the funnies page? And why don't they strangle Mallard Fillmore while they're at?