Tuesday’s Monitor featured a front-page article by Ray Duckler about the return of Special Olympics after a four-year hiatus due to COVID-19. The story focused on Karen Steele, once a competitor, but now a coach because of her physical disabilities. Duckler reports, “She took special education courses, instantly setting her further apart from other students. She got bullied in middle school. She says a kid once bounced a basketball off her head and received laughs, not punishment.” If you winced to read that about the treatment of a “special” kid, as I did, I ask you to contemplate the Beetle Bailey strip that ran the same day.
In it, Private Zero says to Sarge, “I have some ideas for the camp. Should I show them to the captain?” Sarge replies, “Run it up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes.” The next panel shows Zero perched atop the post flagpole with Beetle looking up and wondering, “What’s Zero doing up there?” If you haven’t already guessed, as his name implies, Zero is a soldier on the spectrum, and his disposition to take things literally is used as a way to make fun of him, to make him the brunt of jokes. My question is, why do the publishers of the Monitor continue to run a “comic” strip that makes fun of the handicapped? If Scott Adams’ “Dilbert” can be dropped because of Adams’ offensive comments, shouldn’t this strip also disappear? I await an answer.
Tom Chase
Northwood