Category: Cartoons and the stories behind them…

How I got the idea for a cartoon. The story behind the story.

TAXPAYERS WANTED… DEAD OR ALIVE!

I’m beginning to realize a lot of my cartoons could be re-cycled by simply changing the topic.  Average Americans are all facing the same issue.  Everything is going up… except our income and quality of life.

I drew this cartoon after a large increase in auto insurance rates.  As I look at the cartoon, it would be very simple to replace “Insurance Rates” with “Gasoline prices”, “Food costs”, “Bank Fees”,”Deductibles” , ” co-pay amounts”, “taxes”  or any number of other rising charges we face.

I decided to add a second cartoon to this blog entry because it also is interchangeable.  The cartoon was drawn during a period when State Farm was attempting to force agents into  a contract that wasn’t in the agent’s best interest.  They claimed agents with the old contract were wanted but put incredible pressure on them to accept the bad contract. To update the cartoon, “Agents with old contracts” could be replaced by “Taxpayer” because the basic issue is the same.


All the politicians are stressing the need for “Shared Sacrifice”.  The part they don’t bother to mention is how the “shares” are being distributed.  When the top 1% make most of the income in our country, why is it that we, at the other end of the food chain, are being asked to take the brunt of the sacrifice?  When I see the people at the top willing to accept what the people at the bottom have to deal with on  a daily basis, I’ll feel we’re “in this together”.  The last I knew, human sacrifice was illegal in the U.S…  It appears our leaders feel otherwise.

THE SENIOR “MASH UNIT”… YOU’VE GOT TO BE TOUGH TO GROW OLD!

Its not easy…  getting old is not for sissies!

I eat breakfast with a group of Seniors most mornings at the local Big Boy Restaurant.  As often happens with Seniors, today’s conversation centered around the ailments, aches and pains of growing old.  We had it all…. hip replacement, carpal tunnel, arthritis, open heart surgery, hearing loss, walking cast, oxygen tank…  You name it, someone has had it or is going to get it soon.

These are tough people!  With soft hearts.  The best kind of people.  I didn’t have the courage to bring up my latest physical woes… How, after listening to their stories, do you mention that your body hurts everywhere and you’re so stiff you can hardly move?  Injuries sustained playing golf on a Wii Gamebox with a three year old! These are people who laugh at adversity and remain active no matter what.  My “injuries” wouldn’t gain  a lot of sympathy…   So, I listened, kept a low profile and didn’t complain.  You know, toughed it out so-to-speak.

But, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I was eating breakfast in a MASH UNIT!  In the spirit of companionship and support, I drew this cartoon.  Tomorrow, when I take it to Big Boy and show it to them, I’ll face the heat…  Like I said, “Growing Old is not for Sissies!”


GETTING OLD MAKES YOU MORE EFFICIENT

I had a moment of insight last night.

I was bending down to tie my shoes and noticed an item nearby that I knew didn’t belong there.  I caught myself thinking “I should pick that up while I’m already bent over.”

It made me think about how my thought processes have changed by getting older.  I remember telling a friend a few years ago that “the best part of growing old is that I’m no longer expected to run through brick walls… I can look for a door”… Or, better yet, let a young person do it!

When you think about it, it’s really about being more efficient.  “Look before you leap” not only keeps you out of potential trouble, it saves a lot of time.  Time spent correcting the result of not thinking ahead to the consequences of your action.

Over the course of a lifetime, most of us gain experience by doing things the hard way.  The wisdom of aging (or more realistically, the reluctance to experience unnecessary pain), has taught us to get the most out of our actions.  Chronic Pain has a way of encouraging older people to reduce the effort needed for any given result.  Let’s face it… We are getting older.  But, on the bright side, we’re also getting MORE EFFICIENT!


TRAFFIC CALMING? WHY NOT CALM THE DRIVERS INSTEAD?

I live in a fast-growing area that hasn’t addressed increased traffic congestion caused by rapid growth.  In the Summer, our population explodes with the infusion of  additional tourist traffic.  The buzzword for politicians has become “Traffic Calming“.  So far, efforts to “calm” traffic have slowed it but at the expense of increased congestion.

To avoid the bottlenecks, locals (because the tourists don’t know the shortcuts) have resorted to cutting through neighborhoods to get to where they are going.  The politicians answer to that is to put up stop signs at every neighborhood corner… making it even slower to get anywhere by “calming” the traffic.

“Traffic Calming” is an oxymoron.  Traffic going slower but increasing congestion does not create a calming effect.  Slow does not necessarily equate to calm.  Cars aren’t the problem…it’s the drivers!  Cars don’t get Road Rage, drivers do…

Add cyclists and pedestrians to the mix and it becomes a real battle.  Since the local political mindset seems to favor slow under the guise of traffic calming, I tried to imagine what their ultimate solution would be…

Bingo!  An EXPRESS LANE FOR PEDESTRIANS!  It might not calm down any drivers but it would guarantee they drive slower…  Isn’t that the goal?

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CAN ALL LIFEGUARDS SWIM?

In my early days as a STATE FARM AGENT, I often attended the annual “Professional Sales Institute” held by State Farm at Albion College, in Albion, Michigan. After a day of classes, one of the great things available to participants was the Olympic-size pool we got to use in the evenings .

As you might imagine, some insurance agents aren’t in the best physical shape.  On one particular evening, several of us “larger-than-life” agents were in the pool at the same time.  In addition to discussions about the rise in the water level, we all noted that the lifeguard was a tiny college coed.  Soaking wet, she might have weighed 90 lbs.  The thought occurred to us we might be in trouble if she had to jump in and save us.  In my mind, it was like sending a minnow to save a whale.

The “Save the whales” talk sparked the idea for the cartoon.  You might have noted from the cartoon that the section we were in was only 4 feet deep.  Maybe we weren’t in as much peril as we thought… if, for some reason we weren’t able  to stand up, she could have dragged us to shore!